About Sumiran

Sumiran is an open space with an invitation. For more than a decade now, friends of Sumiran have been working to bring to what it is now. From a barren land to one of the most vibrant eco-system in the area today, Sumiran has evolved as an canvas of endless possibilities.

While the world faces unprecedented challenges in domains like ecology, farming, livelihood, health, person wellbeing and happiness and education; a silent tiny step towards solution is being taken here. On one hand Sumiran is part of solution, yet it is not the reason for it’s existence. Solutions that emerge, if any, are a by-product of how individuals work & grow together in this space. Living together, working together, creating together, learning together - individuals grows, community evolves and nature heals.

Five dimensions of Sumiran :

1. Love
2. Learning
3. Living
4. Laughter
5. Livelihood

Living with nature in harmony, our livelihoods emerge as a by-product. When all of us come in a common space, we will support each other in our individual and collective journeys as we learn together. As we evolve as a whole, the bud of laughter in our lives grows to finally culminate in the flower of love. Because whole is more than the sum of the parts.

Vision

“To allow emergence of a federation of individuals who intend to pursue their individual journeys, bound by a common thread of wanting to live, learn and work together being guided by the infallible laws of nature to ultimately achieve ‘sakoon’ for all”.

 

Where :

● ‘To allow’ means not using force, not demanding, not orchestrating, not rejecting, ‘sahajta se’, ‘saralta se’, ‘utsah se’

● ‘Emergence’ means happening by itself, ‘unguided’, ‘unintentional’, ‘effortless’, without drudgery, just like a flower emerging out of a bud

● 'Federation’ means loosely held collective, held together by two forces-one a unique individual purpose (stated as well as unstated) of each member and two a conviction that this unique purpose needs a collective federation and a conducive space to unfold. A space where independence and interdependence are equally important for every member. A space where personal freedom and enriching and nourishing interdependent relationships are a hall mark.

● 'Individual Journeys’ means whatever an individual believes is going to make him happy and fulfilled without trespassing into the others journey

● 'Common Thread’ means an evolved common understanding of what those infallible laws of nature mean for the individual as well as for the collective. It also means enough time and energy is devoted to evolving this common thread. All our actions (individual as well as collective) need to be always guided by this common thread.

● ‘Infallible Laws of Nature’ means those natural laws which are omnipresent and cannot be broken e.g., law of gravity. Our assumption is that we can only get as much close to achieving our vision as we develop our collective capacity to understand and abide by those infallible laws. In that sense our collective success is as much dependent on doing as it is on understanding those laws.

● ‘Sakoon’ means bliss, peace, fulfilled, feeling of coming home, feeling of being in love.

From Vision to Operation - what guides us in action

Core Beliefs

These are the deepest beliefs we hold today. These are the beliefs that we individually trust as being deeply aligned with who each of us is at the core. These beliefs are the primary aligning force that has brought us together at ‘Sreejan’ and they are the glue that keeps the community alive and connected despite our outward differences in our thoughts and actions. These beliefs have shaped all our values and principles. These beliefs shape our Governing Principles as well as operating guidelines. Whenever we find ourselves becoming incoherent we go back to our core beliefs and thru wonder and reflection revise our beliefs if need be. Over time as we evolve, we do expect our beliefs to get refined and therefore we expect our governing principles and our operating guidelines to be refined as well thereby reflecting our current understanding of the infallible laws of nature.

1. Belief regarding Our Core Purpose: Our purpose at the most fundamental level is to engage in and with this community at ‘Sreejan’ to ‘come home’.
All our thoughts and actions are the millions of ways of seeking. We believe we are all seeking the same truth. Everyone’s approach, method and speed may be different. Even those who seemingly do wrong things, at the deepest level of their intention are seeking truth in their own way. No one is wrong in that sense. Allowing ourselves to be in touch with the truth is our inner purpose and we may call it the ‘Coming home Process’. This ‘coming home’ is a continuous process happening all the time inside us. However, we believe It helps if we belong to a community and a space conducive to such evolution.

Our purpose therefore is to engage in this interdependent community to ‘be’ and to ‘do’ to come home. We are not here to change the world or propagate one right way or correct anyone or anything. Each one of us may do very different things outwardly but the core purpose for each of us is to ‘come home’. Paradoxically, as we begin to reach home, we might observe that our actions, thoughts and words do the magical correction needed effortlessly and gently to the outside world.

2. Belief regarding Our Way of Living :Our living is defined as joyful, self-directed, interdependent co-creation with an energy of celebration, wonder, silence and non-violence.
We believe each individual is born fully equipped to ‘come home’ or discover the truth for himself. He is complete and needs no uninvited input externally. No one needs to teach anyone. While wanting to grow and learn we consider the infallible laws of nature as a powerful source of knowledge, wisdom and inspiration. We encourage everyone to manifest his/her diverse choices through awareness and action with a strong bias for receiving all kinds of feedback. We rely on seeking (and not teaching) through wonder, silence, authentic conversations and some deep introspective processes. The community is ever ready to embrace all true learners and teachers though no one intends to teach anyone anything.

3. Belief regarding Our Community/Work Space: Our work space is an open, inviting, non-directive space to Co-live, Co-create and Co-evolve where mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual care are visible in its culture and is noticeable as its hallmark”
We believe ‘Sreejan’ is a space to facilitate and maybe expedite individual’s discovery of the truth in an interdependent community where others are consciously seeking the same in their own unique way. Here we have the freedom and luxury of a private space (not necessarily privately owned) within an open inviting interdependent community. Sreejan is open to all who share the same beliefs and is completely neutral, nonreligious and nondirective.

4. Belief regarding Our means of Livelihood/Work: In our own unique way each of us wants to create something (does not matter what) with energy, festivity and enthusiasm and a sense of abundance without any fear or scarcity mind set.
We believe that creative action(both individual and collective) guided by the infallible laws of nature is the least harmful and least violent way to learn, live, earn and celebrate. As we grow we hope to see more of celebration, jubilation and ecstasy everywhere and less of drudgery, struggle, fear and sadness.

We believe that each of us would create with varying depths and impact. Some will start with creating for the self and slowly graduate to co-creating for the larger whole while others may work on a larger canvas.

5. Belief about our beliefs :
All beliefs are only beliefs and not law (including these 5) and may be necessary but not sufficient to achieve our purpose.

Governing Principles

1. Inclusion - Open & Diverse

● We will not reject or exclude anything or anyone that do not fit our expectations as long as we have agreement around Sreejan’s core beliefs.

● We will say yes to everything that is modern as well as that which is ancient-in terms of ideology, technology, philosophy and people but would scrutinize them thru the lens of the laws of nature

● We will respect and encourage diversity-of thought, approach, aspirations, personal spaces

● We will use dialogue and prolonged and deep conversations extensively to build diversity.

2. Venturism - Experimentative, Creative

● We will all be learners, experimenters, visionaries and creators of what we deeply desire. We will strive to create abundance in all 5 capitals-(Social, built, natural, human and monetary)

● We will aim for a balance between complete self sufficiency from within and interdependence from without thru surplus exchange mechanisms

● ‘Samrudhhi’ which goes beyond fulfillment and abundance would be the hall mark of Sreejan

3. Culture - Deep relationships born out of Freedom, Respect, Trust and Care

● We will follow the principle of “Say what you do and do what you say”

● Freedom, Respect, Trust and Care will be the foundation of that mutuality called Sreejan community.

● We will institutionalize robust processes for DDE-Discovering Disharmony Early and engage in healing ourselves and the environment

● We will be guided by the core principles of non violence and non exploitation as observed thru laws of nature

4. Systems Design - Mimic Nature

● Our community will be inspired and organized in the way natural eco systems organize and sustain themselves.

● We will strive to balance Independence and interdependence thru intentional processes to raise awareness of self while living in community

● We will build a learning community which knows how to unlearn, adapt, adopt and self organize-one person at a time

● We would strive to mimic natural systems in building our systems-for all the 5 capitals

● What is wanting to emerge would be observed with silence and fed back to the design process to align our systems and processes for remaining relevant, robust and flexible

5. Acknowledging Incoherence - Incoherence is the gateway to Infallible laws

● We consider incoherence to be a sign that our stories are camouflaging what is.

● We would set up protocols and processes to surface all incoherence’s before they become toxic

● We would give equal importance to improving our collective ability to ‘see’ incoherence as much as we would to pursue our vision.

● Authentic, trusting and healthy relationships form the bedrock of dealing with incoherence