- water in the river Ganges Arsenic in Mayapur

[Guest guest]

Haribol guys

When I was in Mayapur I saw a great deal of evidence of low grade

Arsenic poisoning in many of the residents. Very pale skin, huge dark rings

under the eyes kids who easily tired and did not seem to have as much energy

as they should have had. Their hair was dull and brittle. There was problems

with short attention spans more than just board children, and very busy

forgetful adults. There were many vague stomach complaints. Memory problems

and apathy. For as many healthy young men that were there, they showed very

little of the high spirits I would have expected. From as many young men.

Also a sign of poisoning. I also saw a staggering amount of signs of

malnutrition in the resident devotees. The same symptoms showed up in the

familles that lived there also. The wells that are the deepest were usually

the least contaminated. Wells that were six to seven hundred feet (three

hundred or so meters) were generally the safest.

I met a medical doctor from south Africa who had made the same

observations as I had. I also was a surgical nurse for fourteen years. So I

am not making this up, I was very worried about this and talked to many

people from the resident Swamis to the Mayapur development Architects. Most

of the people I visited never let the drinking water set at all. Some people

filtered it, others The Bramicheries never let it set at all just drank it

straight. Another observation I made about Mayapur is that I thought a great

many of the women I visited were my age. Most looked my age or a little

older. The fact was that I was one of the oldest women there. Women that

looked my age were ten to fifteen years younger than me. In the forty-five

days I was in Mayapur just about every adult married couple became sick at

least once. Their immune systems are not as stout and so they become ill

much more easily. I drank bottled water and was not sick. I offered a simple

very cheap way to produce safe drinking water that was almost fool proof and

would cost hardly nothing ... but again nothing was done. It was a simple

tent distilling unit you could put on the roof of any building. They could

have used plastic and sand or broken bricks and in one day have a system that

would have distilled hundreds of gallons of water a day for drinking. We also

had a contingency plan where every body would get those clay pots with

filters in them for drinking and use water from the Gunga to drink. But

nothing was done. Arsenic is a cumulative poison one can build up a

tolerance to it then all you need is a big dose to kill you or you get so

beat up that almost any thing can kill you, dysentery phumonia flu malaria

you name it.

If you were smart enough to filter and wait till the water settled you

were very smart. The apathy in Mayapur is so thick you could cut it with a

knife. Most people didn't seem to care. I'm glad you took precautions to

safe guard your health. I really was dismayed that so few people took the

effort to do so. Keep up the good work.

Carol

[Guest guest]

>Most of the people I visited never let the drinking water set at all. Some

>people filtered it, others The Bramicheries never let it set at all just

>drank it

 

Well you must have met different people to me. The householders I met all

stood the water in jars for four days.

 

Very interesting to know you were a qualified nurse.. Yes it is a strange

situation in Mayapur regarding health consciousness.

 

One devotee in a high up position I suggested about bringing in Ganga Jal

said originally he would do it. When I get there the next year I asked him

again why nothing had happened. He said "I don't want to lose my job"

 

When I arrived in Sri Mayapur to begin our six month project there I gave a

lecture in the main temple. It was about agriculture and the benefits it

could give to the community.

There was good after responce both from Indians and westeners.

However a couple of days later one of the head persons at the time came up

to me and said you're banned from giving lectures. I asked was it because it

was about a specific subject matter? I explained that the Centennial

Committee which I was part of for the English Yatra had agreed that Srimad

Bhagavatam Lectures could be given on specific subject matters. (Lokanatha

Swami was the main organiser of the Centennial Committees.) So why couldn't

I talk about agriculture?

The answer was "Not in this temple".

 

Naturally I was completely shocked - I had been giving a seminar on

Agriculture there for three or four years running during the Mayapur

Festival.

 

A few days later the same person came up to me and said - Oh, it's OK to

give lectures again.

 

I felt this responce was the fear of possibly having this senario put on the

internet.

 

>The apathy in Mayapur is so thick you could cut it with a

>knife. Most people didn't seem to care.

 

One resident Swami whom I approached with our new programme, looking for

support said to me when I suggested that growing food without chemicals

would improve the health of the devotees. "We're all going to die of

poisoning anyway - so just chant Hare Krsna"

 

 

>Their immune systems are not as stout and so they become ill

>much more easily.

 

This is what good agriculture and water treatment is all about - preventing

this happening. I have kept in our book 'Lost Science of Organic

Cultivation' sections on health, drinking water and medical care which

Howard originally wrote. These points, especially about flies breeding, are

extremely relevant to the public there. There were also cases of Malaria

while I was there, but some said it was contracted off the property.

The practise of wet rice farming is a major contribution to Malaria.

Howard wrote about Dry rice farming which Rohita prabhu knows about. Many

people look at you in disbeleif when you mention this and other topics from

his writings they suggest that you might be exaggerating. I gave Jayapataka

Maharaja a page on this while I was there. (included below)

Howard wrote about the state of health the West Bengalis have bred their

new generations into. It is really quite grafic and heavey, but he wrote

this 70 years ago! And as the agricultural situation hasn't improved since

then - how can this be exaggeration?

 

As you have been a qualified nurse for so long you may find the next text

interesting - Malaria, and in this article flippinjg through it there is

this from Plato:

 

'A Sense of the whole is the sign of a sound mind, and there is nothing more

to be desired at the present moment.' PLATO.