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Construction of the Talab

The Talāb reservoir combines traditional and modern techniques for water conservation. Construction began with a plastic sheet and stone slabs, reaching an advanced state before final completion. A severe drought necessitated costly water deliveries by tanker to supply villages and all living creatures. The reservoir now sits nearly dry, with only a small pond remaining, revealing collected sediments. This large basin has transformed the local wildlife, attracting fish, turtles, and birds. An effort was made to rescue the remaining fish with improvised nets. Another lake in the area has been completely dry for years, with a very low water level. The hope remains for good rain to fill the reservoir.

"Swāmījī Māraśe wished that no living creature be without drinking water in this area."

"At last we can just hope for a good rain this year."

Filming location: Jadan, Rajasthan, India

You can see it is not only tradition, but also a modern technique that is used here. It is a good combination of old and new. Here you can see the black plastic sheet in detail. After this plastic sheet comes this stone again, this copper stone. After this plastic planning, these stone slabs are added. This photo shows a state where the building of the Talāb was very advanced. During 2004, it was finished; the main Talāb was finished. But after that, some more plastic work was also done. And so in 2011, if I am right—I hope I am right—it was finished. So, this is our construction of the Talāb. Here you can see the hole without water. I think with water it looks much nicer. Another part of the project is also the water supply during the drought. As you can see here, it started in 2009, in the springtime, and continued into 2010. There were many tractor tankers which delivered water daily. You can see that it also costs a lot of money to provide water, especially to these villages which are needy for water. So, everyone who would like to donate a little bit of money is welcome to support this project. We also delivered much water to the animals, not only domestic animals but also wildlife. As you can see here, Swāmījī Māraśe wished that no living creature be without drinking water in this area. It is, of course, also a concern for us, and especially for Swāmījī, that all animals, house animals as well as wild animals, have the opportunity to have access to drinking water. I just, at the end, want to shortly show you how it is now in these days with the rainwater situation here in the ashram. I tried with my camera to catch the whole Talāb, but it was not possible because it is so big. You can see that it is almost completely dry, only on this left edge. On the back, you can see one small pond which is left with water. The situation as it is today is that we have left very, very little water on the bottom of the Talāb, or this water tank. In the left corner, you can see something else, and otherwise, you can see mainly these collected sediments from the rainwater, the dehydration of the ground. What I forgot to say until now is that there is also very much wildlife that came through the Talāb. Many fish are inside this Talāb, turtles also, and the birds living from this. So, through this Talāb, the wildlife also changed here in Jadan, through this large water basin, through this Talāb, especially also in nature. I have never fished in my life before, and I would not have thought I would have the possibilities here. But some weeks ago, we started to try to rescue the fish. We fished them with improvised nets and tried to bring them into some other tanks with clean and fresh water. This was not an easy task for us amateurs, but it was also very much fun to do this in the room. If you want to see some pictures about this and some more details, you can also go on the website www.omashram.com and see there is a section about this with photos. Okay, then we also have a lake which has been completely dry since 2010. This is the Mansaroma Lake, and it’s pretty much close to the small mountain Kailash. We also have a small lake here, which we call the Lanzaroba lake, which has been completely dry since 2010. It is about almost 40 meters deep down, and you can see some reflection of water deep down. So here is one picture of the inside. There you can maybe—I don’t see it now on the screen—but maybe you can see some reflection of the water deep down. So here the water level is also very low. I think it’s about 13 meters. 43, sorry. It was completely wrong information. Here in this fountain, the water level is about 34 meters deep. Okay, at last we can just hope for a good rain this year, and I hope that I can see with my own eyes that the tank gets completely filled or half filled. It’s also good, very good. So, I hope rain will come. And in the end, the hope dies, and we hope to have a good rain this year, and that I can see for the first time, when I’m here, how slowly the Talāb is filling, or half full, or whatever it will be, so good rain is. And you can see how dry this water is for the children also. And you can also see here that every rain that falls here is very welcome and something very special for the children.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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