Our guests this week were Prakash and Shruti - who have left no stone unturned to make sure that Hayward lives up to its name and becomes the "Heart of the Bay". They live in a sustainable manner honoring the gifts of mother nature and have opened their home and heart to host gift economy Yoga and Ayurvedic cooking classes for the local community. They have grounded themselves in service through humble acts like cleaning graffiti, organizing a book club featuring social change agents, inspiring community members to be the change, volunteering in a local community farm and connecting with local farmers. By walking their talk, they have now inspired a local Karma kitchen in Hayward at a coffee shop.
I was looking forward to this call especially because I have a personal connection with Prakash and Shruti. When I lived in the Bay area, their home was one of the places I could call home - where I would always feel welcome and was offered food that nourished by body and my soul. 
Bela was the moderator for the call and the conversation just flowed with her thoughtful questions and their honest, insightful answers that reflect their humility and love. 

Early experiences that planted the seeds of grassroots activism:
 
Living with simple and good hearted people in rural India taught them a lot. For Prakash a major influence in his life has been his mom's sister aka "Dodamma," a maternal figure in his village who was a healer. Though she experienced a lot of challenges in her personal life, she transformed herself through a life of 
giving and service. She cooked with love for several community and family events. Prakash vividly remembers her feeding a big family of 60 odd people making "dosas" (a savory pancake) in abundance, making sure everyone had eaten. A specific occasion is still fresh in his memory when he was in the field with a cousin and got held up due to a sudden downpour of rain. She waited for them without eating, so she could make fresh dosas and feed them. Such was her love - she could not think of feeding herself till she had fed every family member.
 
She used to walk from village to village delivering kids and Shruti recalls an occasion where the mother-to-be would not deliver till Dodamma  arrived! Role models like these sowed seeds to live a life of giving with love and serving the community.

Live well foundation for Grassroots change : a key response to challenges in the Hayward neighborhood. 

Seeing practical spirituality in the ServiceSpace ecosystem made their inner beauty manifest. Prakash humbly deflected all the credit to ServiceSpace community and the spirit of volunteers.  Shruti feels that living in a community
is the natural way of life. When everyone comes together wonderful ideas come to fruition. They strongly believe that community is everything and abundance is right here. Seeing all the ripples and priceless experiences in “the heart of the Bay”, they had a strong desire to share what they have in life and helped start the Livewell foundation to support their inner journey – for being well, doing well, smiling and sharing.
 
Changes in the community through various projects
 
Actions speak louder than words. Though Prakash and Shruti have poured their love into several meaningful projects in the Hayward community, they are humble enough to think that they have done nothing. Here are some ripples-- 

Shruti believes that “We are what we eat”and therefore makes sure to cook and educate people on nutritious food. Some teenagers had been working in the local community garden who could only appreciate the taste of McDonalnd’s food. When Shruti introduced them to fenugreek leaves parathas, not only did they enjoy them but now they also want to learn how to make it.! 

Prakash and Shruti have been growing their own food in the community garden and connecting with the farmers in the weekly farmers market right across from their home. Farmers used to go to Mcdonalds because they did not have time to cook or did not know how to put this wonderful produce together. It pained Shruti to see that people growing the food were not able to enjoy the fruit of their labor. Therefore while Shruti was studying about seasonal and nutritional food, she shared what she cooked with the farmers. This inspired some of them to want to learn to cook too. So she opened up the kitchen for everyone and hosts Ayurvedic cooking classes.
 
Prakash gifts the community with Yoga classes and I heard that his style is unique and couple of people on the call mentioned that his classes were the best they have attended so far. After the Yoga class, they all share breakfast together and people cook and bring something to share after Sunrise Yoga. People are growing their own food and they are excited about holistic living to supplement a disciplined yoga practice. 
 
Prakash feels deep gratitude for farmers who are up at 1 am and start driving from the farms to reach the market in time to set up eveything for people like us. He enjoys deep conversations with them. The relationship has blossomed into something so beautiful that it is has grown beyond the idea of transaction. Now there is reverse negotiation because the farmers want to gift him the produce and he wants to pay for it! :) A real example of "From transaction to trust"...
 
When they invited Pavi to talk about Infinite vision, a elderly lady was very inspired by hearing about Dr. Vs life. She had been having some health issues but was so overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude and abundance after hearing what Dr. V gave to the community inspite of his arthritis, she has stopped complaining and started living fully.
 
They work with the illiterate population through “Literacy plus” program and to see the change and freedom people feel when they are independent is overwhelming. 

Prakash had a brilliant idea to use the leaves that the city workers were sweeping to make compost at home and found a wonderful way to utilise the leaves locally, save resources needed to transport the leaves and reduce the workload of the workers.

What's next?

Prakash has an idea to bring the community together in discusion around inspiring works like of Infinite Vision, Carbon Dharma, Inner Pilgrimage, Paradise Rising From Hell & several more. The uniqueness lies in the idea that they want to make these book-to-action events -sort of like BeTheChange for DailyGood/KarmaTube. They want to tap into the infinite inspirational energy to channel it into creative, constructive projects such as Urban Garden, Neighborhood safety, clean & green task force, Yoga@Sunrise events, Healthy local food based offerings, Karma Kitchen, Performing arts through SoulCiety, Nourish & Flourish community campaigns & diligently work to positively influence at the policy level working bottom-up, subtle-to-gross, from inner-to-outer transformation.
 
What is the secret of their relationship? How do they support each other in selflessness and universal love.
 
Prakash believes that this relationship is a gift which is to be built on by looking at the goodness of each other. He looks at challenges as an opportunity to grow and keep practicing. Shruti respects Prakash for his strong will and discipline. She knows he is a very happy person and therefore wants to learn from him and he happy like him. It is also important not to assume anything but to be open to discussion to strengthen the bond between them.

Ayurvedic tips
- Be up before sunrise be there to welcome the sun. 
- Drink coconut water in summer to balance the imbalance.
Tips for recycling
Getting out of the “convenience trap” is important. If we look at our life and the interactions we have with the gifts we receive - air, water, thoughts we invite and becoming mindful. They believe that every drop counts and water is life!
Some things they do are:
 - saving the cold water wasted before turning on the hot shower  and using it for indoor plants.
-Water after washing fruits and veggies - for outdoor plants.
-Not wasting food. They believe that each grain of food is important since so much love has gone into producing it. 
-Using limited resources and  taking your own container to bulk stores. By doing this, we can become intimately involved with the ingredients and make a connection with our food.

On confronting disappointment
 
Accepting that disappointment is a part of life and remembering  to look at the lesson learnt. We need these challenges to grow. Life is an experiment and everything is part of the game. The key is to stay balanced and grow in equanimity and gratitude.

As a gift to the community, Prakash wanted to share this beautiful poem by Sant Dnyaneshwar:

Awaken the light within
Let love flow like the river Ganga
If you encounter anyone troubled or sad embrace them all and let love flow like the river Ganga  
Who's high? Who's low?
He's present in everyone
With the burden of false sentiments humans are caught in the web of deceit 
Hoist the flag of Dharma and let love flow like the river Ganga  
He's ever present even in the smallest particle in the Universe
His light burns eternal in each being
There's only one Creator and only one Truth
There's only one Supreme Being
While we have this gift of Life, let love flow like the river Ganga  

The call ended in the most beautiful manner!! Everyone on the call sang "Happy Birthday " to Bela since it was her birthday! Audrey had alerted Prakash and Shruti in advance so they were part of the plan. 

Such wonderful things happen only on Forest calls!

What a blessing!