Giving More, Taking Less

FRANCOIS BOUDERLIQUE learnt about the basic principle of Nature – to give more than you take – when he left a high-powered banking job in Paris to live and farm in Kutch, India. He realized that his understanding of eco farming was colored by his past and he needed to open his eyes to a new reality.

- FRANCOIS BOUDERLIQUE

For the last ten years I have been fascinated by Permaculture, a new way of considering farming processes starting from organic farming to integrated eco-housing, water systems, etc. My grandfather was a farmer, and I spent most of my childhood with him witnessing his extraordinary capacities to do things by himself, whether it was constructing an entire house to repairing a simple electrical device, maintaining his car, etc.

When I stepped out of a city lifestyle in Paris to live in rural India in 2014, I was hoping to create a more conducive lifestyle suited to my spiritual quest, practicing Heartfulness Meditation, which I have done for the last three decades. I believed at that time that the natural environment would do the trick, and being in tune with Mother Earth would facilitate my soul-searching experience.

Looking back at those six years, I realize that the real shift has been in my own perception of what eco-farming is. I believed in organic products, and many techniques which would enable me to thrive in the field of producing, taking advantage of the “trendy” ecological movement in a more sustainable manner.