Captain Craggen And Giving Back

Today I shipped several boxes of Here You Are to the UK to go to Captain Craggen's School in Nepal. After serving in Iraq, he decided he wanted to give back and make a difference, so he started Shamrock School. The school has 41 children between 10 and 14, who are placed into this school because of high IQ and other test scores. Nepal has been ravaged by Civil War for the last decade and these children are given a unique chance to rise from the ashes by this wonderful Captain and his friends.

Here You Are will be used as a first English book, and I am hoping the children and I will start a conversation about art, writing, publishing, and even about their experiences as they take Here You Are to other children in their community to help with difficult times with a little Here You Are magic.

As far as "giving back" goes - it first struck me as amazing that a soldier would feel that way. I guess it is because to him the military is his profession, the way he feeds his family and the way he grows as a human being facing the challenges of his work. To me, though, these jobs, where one puts one's life on the line for other people, are already making a gigantic difference. It must be hard to feel like one is making a contribution when one has to go to a country and raise hell before that country can put itself back together again in a better version of itself - but a contribution it is.

The British Army and its allies did this for Germany. At my son's wedding two years ago a former US fighter pilot who had bombed Cologne during World War II, sat next to my mother who had been a little girl then. Every time, and mostly in the middle of the night, when his airplane and the whining of his bombs set off the warning sirens in Cologne, she had to rush into hiding down into the bomb shelter in her basement trembling for her life. Cologne was bombed to the ground. He hated his assignment, but he knew who he was fighting.

65 years later, my mother hugged him and thanked him with all her heart, for what he had done for Germany and the world. You should have seen the serene happiness on both of their faces. No use to all the ones who perished - true - but my mother's uncles and grandfathers who died during that war, would have rejoiced in this little dinner scene.

Information Ramana's Garden

Start your exploration of Ramana’s Garden and Dwabha’s work by watching these videos.



Interview
http://ambassadorsforchildren.org/www2/?action=invite, An interview with Dwabha in India at Ramana’s Garden produced by Ambassadors for Children. Dwabha presently has 60 children living with her – her children – and 189 children arriving every morning to attend school where they receive an excellent education, learn to speak fluent English and are not abandoned during their teenage years, but further educated to be teachers, electricians, plumbers, doctors, nurses, bakers etc, depending on funds and children’s abilities.

Documantary
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2866372, A wonderful documentary produced recently about Ramana’s Garden and Dwabha, also known as Dr. Prabavati. It starts with a yahoo commercial – just wait it out – it is the right video. Our friend Dwabha has been in the news a lot lately. If you google Dwabha, Dr. Prabhavati, or Ramana’s Garden you will have your work cut out for you. Many volunteers and souls in need of finding new meaning in life venture out to India to visit her, and work with her in her project. The children always benefit, and the volunteers and visitors always benefit more. There are many travel blogs from these volunteers and supporting organizations that make surfing the net is a bit confusing. Therefore I am compiling this list of the most important links and explanations to ease the search.

How to donate
Dwabha’s website: http://www.sayyesnow.org/ – the US foundation at http://www.friendsramanasgarden.org/about/about.html for tax-deductible donations. For more information call or write to Dwabha at:
e-mail: choosingyesnow@yahoo.com
phone: (91-135)-243-5558

There are other foundations in other countries - India, Spain, Holland, England - you can find on her website above.

For even more information visit the following sites throughout this text and the additional links at the bottom of the page.

We live in such affluence in the West, yet our hearts feel drained when we see the need of others around us here and in the world. In Ramana’s Garden, where the children who live there have seen the absolute worst in their short lives, there is a different kind of abundance - the kind money can’t buy – and they dish it out daily in large quantity to anyone who comes to visit. Smiles, hugs, singing, dancing, celebrating life as it is and cultivating gratitude and hope in the face of incredible odds. In return friends and volunteers leave money with Dwabha for food, shelter, schooling, clothing etc. It disappears quickly even in India, when you have 244 children to take care of and have to travel around the globe once a year to remind your sponsors and friends that you are still fighting the good fight. In spite of the recent press coverage and success stories - life for Dwabha and her supporters is still very much hand to mouth every year. We hope to change that in the very near future as much seems to be happening at the moment that gives us hope for future financial independence – if everyone keeps their promises.

Ramana’s Garden is linked to the West in two extremely important ways. Harvard and many other Universities send their medical students for their internships, and for full academic credit every year. Not only do the children in Dwabha’s school, but also the surrounding population benefited by this regular, free medical care.

Another organization, LeapNow of America, through a lawyer in Marin County, sends troubled teenagers in groups or 30 annually to spend two weeks in a work and meditation retreat with Dwabha at the summer mountain camp, and then a week with the children in Ramana’s Garden. In five years, not one! of these youngsters has returned to crime or drugs - an unprecedented success and valuable model for rehabilitation. For letters from all kinds of different volunteers go to http://www.sayyesnow.org/volunteer.html

We have known Dwabha for over a decade and have helped her along the way, whether we needed to buy land, leases, tents, or airline tickets. Through many of the difficulties over the years we have come to know her, her courage, her faith, her trustworthiness and her integrity, and can vouch for her to our friends. We have been to Ramana’s Garden with our children, know many of her children personally, and have with great joy watched their progress over the years.

We have also learned much about the business of charity. Most foundations take 5-10% of all donations – no matter how small or large the amount of the donation. Thousands of dollars end up in the pockets of these foundations – legally – but in our humble opinion immorally. Foundations are nice because the donors get to deduct their donations from their taxes, but not all their money reaches the children. We have opted to donate directly but have also worked on setting up foundations run by individuals who think like us – that every penny should go to the kids.


Other Informative Links
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/insight/409881,031INS4.articleprint, an article by Associated Press that was published around the world recently.

http://www.leapnow.org/about/staff.htm, the organization through which a US lawyer is sending troubled young people to India

http://www.sayyesnow.org/volunteer.html, letters from various kinds of volunteers.

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/mcclusky/mcclusky5.html, a young woman volunteer’s travel report who visited Ramana’s Garden.

http://www.willowstreetyoga.com/workshops/danaAndSeva.html, Travel report from a volunteer at Willow Street Yoga center in Washington DC, who started the US foundation through which tax-deductible donations can be made

http://www.pegasuschildren.org/works_newhome.html, a fantastic new way to build solid and cheap housing using dirt as the main building ingredient. Several of these houses are being built at the Mountain Summer Camp right now.

http://www.pacificdomes.com/index.html the origianl domes that started Ramana's Garden ten years ago.
http://www.goldenbridgeyoga.com/uploads/images/ramana.html, another video – not as good as the other two – posted by the Yoga Studio to the Stars in Hollywood called Golden Bridge and run by Gurmukh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi, Who is Ramana Maharshi?
Dwabha studied with his oldest and most important disciple, Papaji, who told her that her time with masters was finished and that the River Ganga was to be her master from now on. She went there and lived in a cave until a spring flood washed away all her meager possessions which included her passport, ticket home, money etc. In the videos she briefly talks about how the poorest of the poor took care of her, offering her everything they had, only to worry about it being enough. It is when she decided that that was all she wanted from now on – to learn from them this ability to give with such abandon.

Through supporting Ramana’s Garden anyone can make a big difference in not just these Indian children’s lives but also to keep it all going for the many volunteers that work and learn at Ramana’s Garden every year, who come from all over the world and from all kinds of backgrounds. Making a donation is great and rewarding - much needed help that is deeply appreciated. Also consider visiting, to personally see your generosity at work in this magical place called Ramana’s Garden where the most beautiful flowers grow.

Ramana's Garden

The quote at the top of the small print page, opposite the title page in Here You Are, by Ramana Maharshi, which is also in Here You Are - on the small print page opposite title page: "No one doubts that he exists, though you may doubt the existence of God. If you find out the truth about yourself and discover your own source, that is all that is required" - is equivalent to Jesus' saying: "The kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:21Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.Luke 17:20-22 (in Context) Luke 17 )

Here You Are is my way of saying the same thing, and to remind adults that children are closer to this kingdom within than any of us.
Mark 10:14 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.Mark 10:13-15 (in Context) Mark 10 (Whole Chapter)

If this is a religious message you could say that Here You Are is a religious book. But - is the truth religious? - or just the truth?

Religions only differ in their interpretations of their teacher's teachings. Their teacher's teachings all teach the same thing. The truth. The truth of All-One-ness. The same truth Physics teaches. The truth of interconnectedness. The logical conclusion of this truth is the practice of kindness, compassion, respect - which all religions teach. But, it does not take religion to understand this or to practise it. It takes a heart.

Heartlessness is what millions of children are subjected to in our world. Someone who is trying to counter-balance this is my friend Dwabha in India who runs an orphanage for destitute children there, called Ramana's Garden. Having been brutally tortured by a cruel stepfather herself, her compassion for the plight of these children is powerful and uncompromising. She is making a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of children.

I recently had to put together information about her (see next post) for a British woman who had just traveled to India and was moved to do something about children in that country, but didn't know where to start. Unfortunately many non-profit organizations are frauds and one needs personal friends who are intimately familiar with the ones that do make a difference, the ones that use the money for the children instead of their own employees and fancy headquarters.