As we enter 2024, the world is on an edge. We are experiencing multiple crises converge simultaneously including environmental, social, political, economic and personal. Media is full with news of climate emergency, wildfires, droughts, wars, political oppression, and mental health crisis. While these crises might look separate and distinct on the outside, they share many common roots.

How do we respond to such crises? It's clear that just dealing with the symptoms is not enough. The governments and corporations of the world are tricking us towards technological solutions that will supposedly take us out of the crises without realizing that the challenges run deeper. There is a need of more fundamental questioning and understanding of the systems from where these crises are born. But there are hardly any spaces for youth where such introspection can happen.

Earth-Shastra is a 9-day immersive journey in the lap of nature, that will bring together 30 young changemakers from across India - to do precisely that. To slow down with a community of like-hearted people and make sense of the climate emergency and converging crises of our times. Its a leadership experience to orient one’s life path as a response towards greater harmony with oneself, others and nature. The focus is to develop the capacity to understand the big picture and the humility to start with small actions. It inadvertently involves focus on personal transformation and nurturing deep community over the 9-days and beyond. The immersive journey will involve nature connects, reflective circles, hands-on activities, content sessions and mentoring. After seven remarkable editions in Palampur, Palghar, Udaipur, Uttarakhand and online, we are launching the 8th edition that shall happen in Auroville, Tamil Nadu from 21st - 29th September, 2024.

Auroville is a universal township in the making which is devoted to an experiment in human unity. It aspires to be a space where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.

This edition is being co-created with Flourish (Flourish is a service unit of Auroville which conducts research and offers services that supports the integral growth of Auroville's economy) and Youth Link (YouthLink Auroville focuses specifically on engaging young people in the Auroville community and beyond).

Details

Dates

• 9-day immersion program
• Begins at 11 a.m. on 21st September 2024 in Auroville, Tamil Nadu and ends at 7 p.m. on 29th September 2024.

Location & Weather

• We will be in Auroville,Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.
• Temperatures shall vary predictably between 24°C to 33°C.

Travel & Accommodation

• Food, stay and all other mandatory requirements during the program will be taken care of.
• Stay will be basic with shared accomodation and baths.
• Participants will have to reach the venue by Day 0 night or early morning on Day 1 on their own.
• Accomodation available from Day 0 night to Day 10 morning.

Financial Contribution

Putting together all the different parts of this whole program incurs significant financial cost, which includes costs of **Facilitation, Program Design, Food, Accommodation, Transport, Material & Logistics, Mentoring etc**.

The actual total cost for hosting 30 participants for 9 days is 42,000 INR per participant. Due to generous contributions of our donors and previous participants, we are able to subsidize the cost to Rs. 30,000 per participant. We hope that you are able to cover the full cost of the program. However, we understand that for some participants, this amount might be difficult, so we have a few options of partial financial assistance available to those who truly need it. The details of the same are available in the application form. While we have limted capacity to support all financial assiatance requests, we will try our best. So do not hesitate to apply if you align with the program.

For Aurovilians, we invite you to contribute on gift economy. Some part of your expense will be supported by two Auroville organizations: Flourish and YouthLink.

Application Process

We work with the principle of mutual selection to invite participants to our programs. The hope is for the program and community to be in the service of the participants' journey and viceversa. The Application process is a three step process:

• Step 1: Filling the application form
• Step 2: A short call (around 10-15 min)
• Step 3: A longer conversation to understand each other better (around 30-40 mins)
• Note: We will confirm your selection on a rolling basis, so apply early!

To cultivate the collective field of the team, we have been hosting annual Earth-Shastra Learning Process, know more about it here.