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Hinduism has always been an environmentally sensitive philosophy. No religion, perhaps, lays as much emphasis on environmental ethics as
Hinduism. The Mahabharata, Ramayana, Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Puranas
and Smriti contain the earliest messages for preservation of environment and
ecological balance. Nature, or Earth, has never been considered a hostile
element to be conquered or dominated. In fact, man is forbidden from exploiting
nature. He is taught to live in harmony with nature and recognize that divinity
prevails in all elements, including plants and animals. The rishis of the
past have always had a great respect for nature. Theirs was not a superstitious
primitive theology. They perceived that all material manifestations are a shadow
of the spiritual. The Bhagavad Gita advises us not to try to change the
environment, improve it, or wrestle with it. If it seems hostile at times
tolerate it. Ecology is an inherent part of a spiritual world view in Hinduism.
According to Swami B. V.
Tripurari, in his book,
Ancient
Wisdom for Modern Ignorance, " Our present environmental crisis is in essence a
spiritual crisis. We need only to look back to medieval Europe and the psychic
revolution that vaulted Christianity to victory over paganism to find the spirit
of the environmental crisis. Inhibitions to the exploitation of nature vanished
as the Church took the "spirits" out of the trees, mountains, and
seas. Christianity's ghost-busting theology made it possible for man to exploit
nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects. It made
nature man's monopoly. This materialist paradigm has dominated the modern world for
last few centuries.
The current deplorable
environmental crisis demands a spiritual
response. A fundamental reorientation of human consciousness, accompanied by
action that is born out of inner commitment, is very much needed. One of the
measures that could help a great deal to fulfill this need is to regenerate and
rejuvenate basic values of Hindu culture and propagate them."
Introduction
Dharma: ecological balance
Mountains - The Abode of the Gods
Rivers/Oceans/Lakes
Mother Earth/Sun & Planets
Plants/Animals
Conclusion
Articles
Introduction
Mahatma Gandhi
(1869-1948) was among India's most fervent
nationalists, fighting for Indian independence from British rule. He observed:
"I bow my head in reverence to our ancestors
for
their sense of the beautiful in nature and for their
foresight in investing beautiful manifestations of Nature with a religious significance."
(source:
Glimpses
of Indian Culture - By Dr. Giriraj Shah p. 106). For more refer
to chapter on Hindu
Scriptures.
 Hinduism
has often been coined as a "environmental friendly" religion.
Hindus regard everything around them as
pervaded by a subtle divine presence, may it
be rivers, mountains, lakes, animals, flora, the mineral world, as well as the
stars and planets. It is so because the Divine reality is present as Prana/Shakti
energy, power, in every electron, particle, atom, cell and in every
manifestation of matter. It is its very fabric. Just like the sparks of a fire
are of the same essence as the fire they were issued forth from, so is the
entire creation, of the same essence as the Divine. Just as Hindus greet each
other saying "Namaste", which means: I recognize and salute the Divine
within you, so do they recognize the same Divine essence, in all around them.
(image
source: Mount Rainier: webmaster's own collection
of photos taken during a recent visit).
Ayurveda, the science
of life, which is a complete health and medicine system based on
nature and its regenerating forces. Then we have Vastu
Shastra, upon which the now well-known Feng Shui is based. Vastu,
teaches us how to place and build dwellings, according to the environment it is
situated in. It is done in such a way that the surroundings are not damaged by
the building's presence, and so that all the natural energies are flowing
uninterrupted and freely, providing comfort, peace and prosperity for the
dwellers.
Another facet of Hinduism's environmental concern is to do with food is a very
physical example: vegetarianism. Typically,
Hindu social thought has always included an ecological dimension. Socialism and
liberalism do not have this dimension, they can at best annex it. But it is an
organic part of Hindu dharma.
(source:
Hinduism
and Environment - hinduchatzone.com).
Throughout
the long history of India, Hindus have shared a fascination with, and respect
for, Nature and animals.
This attitude went beyond the usefulness. It had to do
with reverence for all of God's creation. Our ancestors worshipped trees, rivers,
birds and stones and connected to the universal principle through Shiva. As we
are growing more materialistic, we are losing this connection. Our ancestors saw
Nature as being a manifestation of God. There was, therefore, a gratitude
towards nature.
Lake Louise, Canada, with receding glaciers.
Hindu philosophy has
always had a humane and dignified view of the sacredness of all life, and that
humans are but one link in the symbiotic chain of life and consciousness.
Western
philosophy, on the other hand, treats man and nature as separate entities
believing that the former has the prerogative to exploit the latter. Thomas
Carlyle in Signs of the Times says, "We war with rude nature; and by our
restless engines, come off victorious and loaded with spoils."
Western
world finds itself at the crossroads and is desperately looking for a new
philosophy “to get rid of the ecological crisis which threatens man’s
existence on earth.”
Refer
to Global
Warming Is an Immediate Crisis - By Al Gore
and Fight
Global Warming by Going Vegetarian
- govegan.com.
Also refer to Meat
and the Planet
- New
York Times.
Refer
to The
Global Meat Industry - Depths Of Depravity - by Radha Rajan and
British origin of Cow Slaughter in India
and Paying
a Price for Loving Red Meat -
nytimes.com and Boss
Hog - rolingstone.com and How
“The NAFTA Flu” Exploded - By Al
Giordano.
Watch
Miniature
earth movie. Also
refer to Nature:
China from Inside - pbs.org, The
Earth today stands in imminent peril, Bellying
up to environmentalism - By James E. McWilliams, The
negative impact of meat production and Killing
Calderon Dolphins in Denmark
(image
source:
webmaster's own collection
of photos taken during a recent visit).
***
The tradition of maintaining sacred
groves and sacred trees vanished from most countries, due mainly to the rise of dogmatic religions like
Christianity and Islam, which advocated faith in one god and were explicitly for
the eradication of ‘pagan’ practices. The underlying theme in Semitic
religions is that of a chosen people who have been divinely granted ownership of
the earth and all living things, and permission to exploit them. The Semitic
perception that humans have more "dignity" than animals has gone a
long way into the enormous decimation and extinction of non-human life on our
planet not to mention the massacre of non-believing human beings. Hindu philosophy has
always had a humane and dignified view of the sacredness of all life, and that
humans are but one link in the symbiotic chain of life and consciousness.
According to
Guy Sorman,
visiting scholar at Hoover Institution at Stanford and the
leader of new liberalism in France, author
of
The
Genius of India (Macmillan
India Ltd. 2001. ISBN 0333 93600 0) says:
"The Indian tradition, on the other hand, is that men submit to nature and form
part of it, there nature preserves its sacredness, lost in the West since the
Industrial Revolution." He
further states that the
idea of feminism
and ecology came from the 1968 movement, from the meeting between India and the
West. He says: "There is hardly
anything in European thought to predispose the West to reject virility, the
respect for authority, the mastery over nature. India too has a
warrior (khastriya) tradition of virility as exemplified in the Mahabharata,
only it is secondary. First, comes the veneration of thousands of goddesses -
for the Indians, India is above all Mother India.
India's femininity and sexual ambiguity, is the very antithesis of Western
virility. For example, when the British scaled earth's highest peak,
the exploit was widely hailed as the "conquest of the Everest."
It was not realized and is often not realized still, that the word
"conquest" was totally out of place in the context of the peak which
is considered an object of reverence by many. One does not "conquer"
nature. Nature humors at times, man's curiosity. Conquest is, therefore, an
irreverent word."
Helen Ellerbe
has written: "In the West, Christianity has
distanced humanity from Nature. As people came to perceive God as a
singular supremacy detached from the physical world, they lost their reverence
for nature. In Christian eyes, the physical world became the realm of the devil.
A society that had once celebrated nature through seasonal pagan
festivals began to commemorate biblical events bearing no connection
to the earth. Holidays lost much of the celebratory spirit and took on a tone of
penance and sorrow. Time once thought to be cyclical
like the seasons, was now perceived to be linear. In their rejection of the
cyclical nature of life, orthodox Christians came to focus more upon death than
upon life.
Francis Bacon,
(1561-1626) said: "Nature was to be bound into service and made a 'slave
and 'put in constraint.' In short, nature was to be conquered, not enjoyed and
certainly not revered. Nature
is to be revered and befriended. 'Paganism' was a term of contempt invented by
Christianity for people in the countryside who lived close to and in harmony
with Nature, and whose ways of worship were spontaneous as opposed to the
contrived though-categories constructed by Christianity's city-based
manipulators of human minds.
(source: The
Dark Side of Christian History - By Helen Ellerbe p.139 -
155).
The ‘Saint’ Who Chopped Down Thor’s Sacred Tree
Jove’s Oak (Donar’s
Oak
and therefore sometimes referred to as Thor’s Oak) was a sacred tree of the
Germanic pagans located in the region of Hesse, Germany.
The Oak tree that
once stood at the town of Geismar in central Germany was sacred to the pagan god
Thor. We know this because the somewhat fanciful account of its destruction was
gleefully preserved by the Christian chroniclers of the cultural genocide of
Europe’s indigenous culture.
The criminal responsible
was
St. Boniface,
an Anglo-Saxon churchman who spread the new totalitarian doctrine of
Christianity throughout Germany. As so often was the case, the Christians then
occupied the unique sacred site by building one of their standard-issue church
buildings.
Veneration of sacred groves and sacred trees is found throughout the history of
the Germanic peoples and were targeted for destruction by Christian missionaries
during the Christianization of the Germanic peoples. Ken Dowden notes that
behind this great oak dedicated to Donar, the Irminsul (also felled by Christian
missionaries in the 8th century), and the Sacred tree at Uppsala (described by
Adam of Bremen in the 11th century), stands a mythic prototype of an immense
world tree, described in the Norse religion as Yggdrasil.’
(source:
Christian
The
‘Saint’ Who Chopped Down Thor’s Sacred Tree
- hinduhumanrights.info).
"To
see the World in a grain of sand,
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour ..."
William Blake (1757 - 1827) English
poet. For more on William Blake refer to chapter on Quotes.
(image
source:
Webmaster's own homegrown wildflower photo collection).
***
Arthur
Schopenhauer
(1788-1860), German philosopher and writer. No other major
Western philosopher so signalizes the turn towards India, combined with a
disenchantment with the European-Christian tradition. He
proclaimed the concordance of his philosophy with the teachings of Vedanta.
His contribution to the propagation and popularization of Indian concepts has
been considerable. He has said:
"Christian
morality contains the great and essential imperfection of taking into
consideration only man, and leaving the entire animal world without
rights."
"I may
mention here another fundamental error of Christianity, an error which cannot be
explained away, and the mischievous consequences of which are obvious every day:
I mean the unnatural distinction Christianity makes between man and the animal
world to which he really belongs. It sets up man as all-important, and looks
upon animals as merely things. Brahmanism
and Buddhism, on the other hand, true to the facts, recognize in a positive way
that man is related generally to the whole of nature, and specially and
principally to animal nature;
and in their systems man is always represented by the theory of metempsychosis
and otherwise, as closely connected with the animal world. The important part played by
animals all through Buddhism and Brahmanism, compared with the total disregard
of them in Judaism and Christianity, puts an end to any question as to which
system is nearer perfection, however much we in
Europe
may have become accustomed to the absurdity of the claim. Christianity
contains, in fact, a great and essential imperfection in limiting its precepts
to man, and in refusing rights to the entire animal world…"
(source:
Historical
Outline of Modern Religious Criticism in Western Civilization - By R G Price
and crusadewatch.org).
John N Gray, (1948 - ) professor of
European Thought at the London school of Economics has stated in his book,
Heresies that:
Among the world’s religions Christianity has always been one of
the most radically anthropocentric. Christians believe humanity is separated
from the natural world by an impassable gulf; other animals exist to serve us.
This Christian idea that humans are separated from other animals by an
unbridgeable gulf is not found in all or even most religions. It is absent from
Hinduism and Buddhism, Taoism and Shinto. It is explicitly rejected in
the primordial religion of mankind – animism – in which other animals figure on
terms of equality with humans, if not superiority to them.
(source:
Heresies - By John Gray p. 1 - 27).
Ann Coulter
(1961 - ) American lawyer and Conservative political commentator has remarked:
"God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the
trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.'"
(source:
Ann Coulter
quotes).
Dr.
Koenraad
Elst
(1959 - )
Dutch historian, born in Leuven, Belgium, on 7 August 1959,
into a Flemish (i.e. Dutch-speaking Belgian) Catholic family. He graduated in
Philosophy, Chinese Studies and Indo-Iranian Studies at the Catholic University
of Leuven. He is the author of several books including The
Saffron Swastika, Decolonising
The Hindu Mind - Ideological Development of Hindu Revivalism and Negationism
in India: Concealilng the Record of Islam
"Bloodthirsty
fanaticism which characterizes the Biblical creeds was unknown to the Pagans who
had lived for long and in peace with their environment and every variety of
worship in the vast stretch which is now known as the United States."
(source: History
of Hindu-Christian encounters - By Koenraad Elst - voi.org).
Refer
to Global
Meat Industry - Depths of Depravity - By Radha Rajan
(Note: The
Rapture and the Environment - Many
Christian fundamentalists feel that concern for the future
of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future. They believe
we are living in the End Time, when the son of God will return, the righteous
will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire. They may
also believe, along with millions of other Christian fundamentalists, that environmental
destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed -- even hastened
-- as a sign of the coming Apocalypse. American
environmental policy in the Bush administration is being driven by
Dominion
Theologists-far-right Christian ideologues
who believe that by exhausting our
natural resources they will hasten the Second Coming of Jesus
Christ.
For
most Americans Judgement Day is imminent and are making sure they are on side
with Jesus before that terrifying but glorious apocalypse. National
Christianism's reassuring
message is that its own devotees, whilst they may for ever remain
"sinners", are most certainly saved
by their allegiance to the one true god. If they err in this temporary earthly
life, and, for example, obliterate the life and liberty of a distant people,
Jesus will understand and forgive them.
Not accepting Jesus
is by far a greater sin than merely squandering the resources of the earth.
(source:
Jesus
Jihad: The Christianizing of America - The End Time).
Refer to Divine
Destruction: Dominion Theology and American Environmental Policy
- By Stephenie Hendricks.
Bill Moyers
received an environmental award from Harvard University.
He said: "James Watt told the U.S.
Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the
imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, 'After the last
tree is felled, Christ will come back.' - sources: Battlefield
Earth - By Bill Moyers and Regarding
Global warming, Dinesh D'souza has
said: “bring it on! I ‘m usually a bit chilly anyway.” and The
Godly Must Be Crazy - By Glen Scherer
and Rapture
or Rupture? - By Bryan
Zepp Jamieson.
Ann Coulter, American right wing columnists,
has written: "The
ethic of conservation is the explicit abnegation of man's dominion over the
Earth. The lower species are here for our use. God said so: Go forth, be
fruitful, multiply, and rape the planet--it's yours. That's our job:
drilling, mining and stripping. Sweaters are the anti-Biblical view. Big
gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars -- that's the Biblical
view."
Oil
Good; Democrats bad; October 12, 2000.
Also refer to the movie An
Inconvenient Truth - by Al Gore and The
Earth today stands in imminent peril - By Steve Connor.
Reverend
Jerry
Falwell
recently told his Lynchburg, Va., Baptist
congregation
that global
warming is
Satan’s
attempt to redirect the church’s
primary
focus” from evangelism to environmentalism.
(source:
Merry
Christmas! Jesus Wants You to Kill the Earth - By
Frank Schaeffer
- Huffington Post).
Forrrest
G Wood
(
? ) an author has written: "Christianity believed that God gave
man dominion over all the earth. The popularity in the 19th
century of pre- and post-millennial sects – which held that Christ will return
one day, believers will ascend to heaven in the “rapture,”
and the world will end – easily led to a diminished regard for the
physical environment. All this is very different in most of the polytheistic
world, where man is considered to be merely one of many beings who survived and,
indeed, prospered not because he subdued the forces of his natural environment
but because he harmonized with them. To the Hindu, whose veneration of living
things are the foundation of his faith.”
(source: Arrogance
of Faith - By Forrrest
G Wood
p.
116 - 117 and 231).
Betty
Heimann ( ? ) late professor of Sanskrit and Indian philosophy
at Ceylon University, has said: “While the West has proclaimed man’s
uniqueness as a thinking and planning creature, propagating and promoting his
domination over the natural world and his unique capacity for cultural
development and historical progress, Indians, have never tried to separate him
from the natural world and the unity of life: “No human hybris, self-elevation
and self-deceit, can here develop, where man is but another expression of
Nature’s all-embracing forces.”
(source:
Tradition
and Reflection: Explorations in Indian Thought - By Wilhelm Halbfass
p. 265 - 267).
Animism
(used by the colonial British in India) was another disparaging term, used to
denote the worship of spirits and forces of nature as opposed to a ‘true’
(Monotheistic) god. This bias persists in
Western thought to this day, and rather than being debunked as a phony concept,
it is still widely used to describe non-Abrahamic faiths.
The mighty serpent Sesha, on
whom Lord Vishnu rests during the intervals of creation, is reputedly a form of
the god himself (Sesha-Narayana), though he is also identified as Balarama (Baladeva),
elder brother of Lord Krishna. Animism was another disparaging term,
coined by the Colonial British in India, used to denote
the worship of spirits and forces of nature as opposed to a ‘true’
(monotheistic) God.
(Refer to
Adi Deo Arya Devata. A Panoramic View of Tribal-Hindu Cultural Interface -
By Sandhya Jain).
***
Mahatma
Gandhi bemoaned: “We were strangers to
this sort of classification – animists, aborigines, etc., but we have learnt
from the English rulers.” When the missionary Dr. Chesterman
queried if this objection applied to the ‘animist’ aboriginal races of the
Kond hills, Gandhi insisted, “Yes, it does apply,
because I know that in spite of being described as animists these tribes have
from time immemorial been absorbed in Hinduism. They are, like the indigenous
medicine, of the soil, and their roots lie deep there.”
(source: Adi
Deo Arya Devata – By Sandhya Jain
p. 2 - 235).
“Man, when he is strong, conquers nature,” declared
William Lawrence, a Massachusetts Episcopal bishop. Anything that gets in the
way will be brushed aside. “Dominion over the earth is the condition of
man’s residence upon the globe,” William Pope Harrison, an editor for the
Methodist Church, South, reflected in 1893.
In
1967, a brief but influential article by UCLA History Professor Lynn
White, Jr. appeared in the magazine, Science.
Entitled, "The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis. His astounding
thesis that Western religion is one of the roots of the ecological crisis. In
this article, he said that the Western world's attitudes towards nature were
shaped by the Judeo-Christian tradition (he also included Islam and Marxism
within this overall tradition). He
asserts that Western Christianity is, "the most anthropocentric
religion the world has seen. Man shares, in great measure, God's transcendence
of nature. Christianity not only established a dualism of man and nature, but
also insisted that it is God's will that man exploit nature for his proper
ends." This overemphasis on anthropocentrism gives humans permission to
exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the integrity of natural objects.
White argued that within Christian theology, "nature has no reason for
existence save to serve [humans]." Thus, for White, Christian arrogance
towards nature "bears a huge burden of guilt" for the contemporary
environmental crisis. By
destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a
mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects. In older religious traditions, humans were seen as part of
nature, rather than the ruler of nature. And in animistic religions, there
was believed to be a spirit in every tree, mountain or spring, and all had to be
respected. In contrast with paganism and Eastern religions, Christianity
"not only established a dualism of man and nature but also insisted that it
is God's will that man exploit nature for his proper ends."
(source:
Religion
and Environment).
Kewal
Motwani (1899 - ) author
of several books including Science and
Society in India has observed:
"Unity between nature
and man - The civilization of India had its birth in
the bosom of Mother Nature. At the
time when her history began, India was a land of vast forests. Those forests not
only administered to the daily needs of the people, giving them shelter from
heat of the sun and ravages to storms, green pastures for cattle and abundant
fuel for sacrificial and architectural purposes, but they also made a permanent
impression on the minds of the people. Their
religion had no aggressive frontiers;
no walls of brick and mortar set people apart from one another. The people lived
in one vast embrace of nature, as one family. There
was no “divide and rule” mentality, no aggressive, ruthless exploitation of
nature, no assertive individualism
which has been the characteristic of civilizations nurtured within the city
walls. There was harmony within and without, and inward realization of the
Eternal became dominant aspiration of people’s lives. There
was an attitude of identification, not conflict, a search of the One, not of the
many."
(source:
India:
A synthesis of cultures – by Kewal Motwani p.
47).
Prudence Jones spoke person for the UK Pagan Federation and author of
the book,
History of Pagan Europe has observed that all the world's
indigenous religions have three features in common: they are nature-venerating,
seeing nature as a manifestation of Divinity; they are polytheistic and
recognize many Gods, many Manifestations; they recognize the Goddess, the female
aspect of Divinity as well as the male. Show showed how European Paganism was
similar to Hinduism,
Shintoism and the North American tradition.
According
Dr. David Frawley
eminent teacher and
practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine:
"No religion, perhaps, lays as much emphasis on environmental ethics as
does Hinduism. It
believes in ecological responsibility and says like Native Americans that the
Earth is our mother. It
champions protection of animals, which it considers also
have souls, and promotes vegetarianism. It has a strong tradition of
non-violence or ahimsa. It believes that God is present in all nature, in
all creatures, and in every human being regardless of their faith or lack of it."
In the ancient spiritual traditions, man was looked
upon as part of nature, linked by the indissoluble spiritual and psychological
bonds to the elements around him. This is very much marked in the Hindu
tradition, the oldest living religious tradition in the world. The Vedas, the
oldest hymns composed by great spiritual seers and thinkers which are the
repository of Hindu wisdom, reflect the vibrancy of an encompassing world-view
which looks upon all objects in the universe, living or non-living, as being
pervaded by the same spiritual power.
Hinduism believes in the all-encompassing sovereignty of the divine, manifesting
itself in a graded scale of evolution. The human race, though at the top of the
evolutionary pyramid at present, is not seen as something apart from the earth
and its multitudinous life forms.
A Hindu
woman performing a religious ceremony around the tulsi plant
Painting by D.V. Dhurandhar,
Bombay, C.1890
(image
source: V&A Museum,
London).
***
In
The Bhagavad Gita, sloka 20, Chapter 10, Lord
Krishna says,
"I
am the Self seated in the heart of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle
and the very end of all beings". All beings have, therefore to be
treated alike."
***
Our natural environment – comprising mountains and
hills, rivers and dales, trees and plants – is considered auspicious
enough to provide space for meditation. There are thousands of spots
whose special sanctity is enhanced by the performance of daily rituals. Retreats
in the Himalayas or on the river banks shelter sages who are credited with
universal knowledge. Especially hallowed are the sources and confluence of
rivers. Harmony with the natural world receives strong emphasis as a pervasive
element in Indian spiritual beliefs and rituals. Evergreen
trees were regarded as symbols of eternal life and to cut them down was to
invite the wrath of the gods. Groves in forests were looked upon as habitations
of the gods. It was under a banyan tree that the Hindu sages sat in a
trance seeking enlightenment and it was here that they held discourses and
conducted holy rituals.
The ancient sacred literature
of the Vedas enshrines a holistic and poetic cosmic vision. They represent the
oldest, the most carefully nurtured, the most elaborately systematized and the
most lovingly preserved oral tradition in the annals of the world.
Unique in their perspective of time and space, their evocative poetry is a
joyous and spontaneous affirmation of life and nature.
The Vedic Hymn to the
Earth, the Prithvi Sukta in Atharva Veda, is unquestionably the
oldest and the most evocative environmental invocation. In it, the Vedic seer
solemnly declares the enduring filial allegiance of humankind to Mother Earth:
'Mata Bhumih Putroham Prithivyah: Earth is my mother, I am her son.'
Mother Earth is celebrated for all her natural bounties and particularly for
her gifts of herbs and vegetation. Her blessings are sought for prosperity in
all endeavours and fulfilment of all righteous aspirations. A covenant is made
that humankind shall secure the Earth against all environmental trespass and
shall never let her be oppressed. A soul-stirring prayer is sung in one of the
hymns for the preservation and conservation of hills, snow-clad mountains, and
all brown, black and red earth, unhurt, unsmitten, unwounded, unbroken and well
defended by Indra.
(source:
The
East is green - ourplanet.com).
Dr. Pankaj Jain
( )
is an Assistant
Professor of South Asian Religions and Ecology at the University of North Texas. In his scholarship he connects the
ancient Indic traditions of Hinduism and Jainism with contemporary issues -
particularly the environment. He has noted that:
"Hinduism
contains numerous references to the worship of the divine in nature in its
Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Sutras, and its other sacred texts. Millions of
Hindus recite Sanskrit mantras daily to revere their rivers, mountains, trees,
animals, and the earth.
Although the
Chipko (tree-hugging) Movement is the most
widely known example of Hindu environmental leadership, there are examples of
Hindu action for the environment that are centuries old."
"Hinduism is a remarkably diverse religious and cultural phenomenon, with many
local and regional manifestations. Within this universe of beliefs, several
important themes emerge. The diverse theologies of Hinduism suggest that:
The earth can be seen as a manifestation of the goddess, and must be treated
with respect. The five elements - space, air, fire, water, and earth - are the
foundation of an interconnected web of life. Dharma - often translated as “duty”
- can be reinterpreted to include our responsibility to care for the earth.
Simple living is a model for the development of sustainable economies. Our
treatment of nature directly affects our karma. "
Pancha Mahabhutas
(The five great elements) create a web of life that is shown forth in the
structure and interconnectedness of the cosmos and the human body. Hinduism
teaches that the five great elements (space, air, fire, water, and earth) that
constitute the environment are all derived from prakriti, the primal
energy.
"Hinduism recognizes that the human body is composed of and related to these five
elements, and connects each of the elements to one of the five senses. The
human nose is related to earth, tongue to water, eyes to fire, skin to air, and
ears to space. This bond between our senses and the elements is the foundation
of our human relationship with the natural world. For Hinduism, nature and the
environment are not outside us, not alien or hostile to us. They are an
inseparable part of our existence, and they constitute our very bodies."
(source:
Ten key Hindu Environmental teachings - By Dr. Pankaj
Jain).
Vande Mataram, like the less poetical Bharat Mata Ki Jai, is a Hindu expression
of patriotism. It is the Hindu who idealises India as divine mother. Its roots
perhaps lie in the hoary antiquity of Atharva Veda where the
Prithvi Sukta
says, “Earth is my mother, I am her son”. He sees Mother India as part of Mother
Earth. India is the land of sacred geography — but to Hindus alone. To the
Central Asian invaders, India has been a real estate. The Muslims have possessed
India, the Hindus have belonged to it. Thus Vande Mataram or Bharat Mata Ki Jai
come naturally to any Hindu of whatever persuasion.
(source:
Vande Mataram controversy reveals mental chasm - By Priyadarshi
Dutta).
 The
Artha-Veda
has
the magnificent
Hymn to the Earth
(Bhumi-Sukta)
which is redolent with ecological and environmental values.
 “Earth,
in which lie the sea, the river and other waters,
in which food and cornfields have come to be,
in which lives all that breathes and that moves,
may she confer on us the finest of her yield.
Earth, in which the waters, common to all,
moving on all sides, flow unfailingly, day and night,
may she pour on us milk in many streams,
and endow us with luster,
May those born of thee, O Earth,
be of our welfare, free from sickness and waste,
wakeful through a long life, we shall become bearers of
tribute to thee.
Earth, my mother, set me securely with bliss
in full accord with heaven,
O wise one,
uphold me in grace and splendor.”
Not only in the Vedas, but in later
scriptures, such as the Upanishads, the Puranas and subsequent texts, the Hindu
viewpoint on nature has been clearly enunciated. It
is permeated by a reverence for all life, and
an awareness that the great forces of nature – the earth, the sky, the air,
the water and fire – as well as various orders of life including plants,
trees, forests and animals, are all bound to each other within the great rhythms
of nature. The divine is not exterior to creation, but expresses itself through
natural phenomena.
Thus, in the
Mudaka Upanishad
the divine
is
described as follows:
“Fire
is head, his eyes are the moon and the sun;
The regions of space are his ears, his voice the revealed Veda,
The wind is his breadth, his heart is the entire universe,
The earth is his footstool,
Truly he is the inner soul of all.”
India is a vast network of
sacred places. There are seven sacred rivers, seven sacred mountains, sacred
trees and plants, sacred cities. The sacrality of the land of India, gives a sense of unity to this
country of so many religions, cultures, races and languages.
The Indian
tradition is strongly cosmocentric, where man lives as part of a system in which
everything is related to everything else.
Creation and destruction take place
simultaneously. Materials and energy move from organism to organism. Matter is
arranged in precise order in every organism, but in death this order is followed
by disorder: cycling of materials through organisms brings order once again. But
today, rapidly drifting from our traditions of sustainable use and coexistence,
we seem to be entering a man-centered world that implies the decimation of
nature.
The
Mahabharata, Ramayana, Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Puranas
and Smriti
contain the earliest messages for preservation of environment and
ecological balance. Nature, or Earth, has never been considered a hostile
element to be conquered or dominated.
In fact, man is forbidden from exploiting
nature. He is taught to live in harmony with nature and recognize that divinity
prevails in all elements, including plants and animals.
Atman, the world-soul, is the whole world.
God is in all things, and all things are in God.
The Mahabharata
hints
that the basic elements of nature constitute the Cosmic Being -- the mountains
His bones, the earth His flesh, the sea His blood, the sky His abdomen, the air
His breath and agni (fire) His energy. The whole emphasis of the ancient Hindu
scriptures is that human beings cannot separate themselves from natural
surroundings and Earth has the same relationship with man as the mother with her
child. Planting and preservation of trees are made sacred in religious
functions.
Ancient
India sanctified plants, animals as a recognition of biodiversity.
The
Rig Veda is a celebration
of nature, its hero the God of Rain. Dawn was beautiful Ushas,
dressed in a veil of light crimson, whose dancing appearance is heralded with
the fragrance of the flowers. The lotus, said Kalidasa,
welcomes the touch of the sun. The beautiful Chola temple at
Gangaikondacholapuram in Tamilnadu contains a rare and exquisite representation
of Surya in a navagraha stone - a lotus encircled by the planets. But
the greatest tribute to the sun was at Konarak, the giant chariot reflecting the
Sun God in all his glory.
In
a sculpture in the rock-cut cave temple of Bhaja (2nd century B.C.) Surya,
in his chariot, destroys the demon of darkness. Surya is invariably depicted in
a chariot driven by seven horses representing the seven days, encircled by a
halo, and wearing boots, for his feet could scorch the earth!
 Animals
were revered too. Kamadhenu was the wish-fulfilling cow, whose offspring are all
the cattle on earth. The word "go" or cow was very important: gopura
was the entrance to the village, gotra was the clan to which a person belonged,
goshti was an assembly of good men, gosarga and godhuli represented dawn and
dusk, while gopa and govalla were officials. Krishna even lifts Mount Govardhana
to save cattle from Indra's wrath, a recurring theme in Indian art. But
the greatest honour given to animals was their elevation as the vehicles of the
gods, and as the incarnations of Vishnu,
roles that are repeated in sculpture and painting. Shiva rode the bull, Vishnu
the eagle, Brahma the swan, and so on.
By
recognizing the five elements that were essential for life and elevating every
species of plant and animal to sanctity, Ancient Indians recognized and
respected the importance of biodiversity. By
secularizing rivers and lands, plants and animals, they were scientifically
correct. But today people
pollute and destroy with impunity. The earth and its bounties are sacred
creations. Unless we revere them and revive a respect for their sanctity, we
have little chance of saving them.
(source:
Grounded
in wisdom - by Nanditha Krishna - newindpress.com).
Our scriptures warn, "Oh wicked persons! If you roast a bird, then
your bathing in sacred rivers, pilgrimage, worship and yagnas are useless."
In our ancient stories, birds and animals have always been identified with
gods and goddesses.
The Padmapurana warns:
"A person who is engaged in killing creatures,
polluting wells, and ponds and tanks, and destroying gardens, certainly goes to
hell." Padmapurana, Bhoomikhanda 96.7-8
"The
purchaser of flesh performs himsa (violence) by his wealth; he who eats flesh
does so by enjoying its taste; the killer does himsa by actually tying and
killing the animal. Thus, there are three forms of killing: he who brings flesh
or sends for it, he who cuts off the limbs of an animal, and he who purchases,
sells or cooks flesh and eats it - all of these are to be considered
meat-eaters."
-
The Mahabharata
Welfare of all creatures: The Vedantic concept is
that of the welfare of all creation, not only of human beings but also of what
we call the lower creatures.
Dr. Karan Singh
states:
"In our arrogance and ignorance we have destroyed the environment
of this planet. We have polluted the oceans, we have made the air unbreathable,
we have desecrated nature and decimated wildlife. But the Vedantic seers knew
that man was not something apart from nature, and, therefore, they constantly
exhort us that, while we work for own salvation, we must also work for the
welfare of all beings."
(source: Essays in Hinduism - By Dr. Karan Singh
p.
47).
Global Warming?
"Terrible
wars and demonic diseases will decimate the human race, and savage cold and
scathing heat, scorching droughts and sweeping floods will terrorise the
people...."
- Rishi
Markandeya
- The Mahabharata. (Ramesh Menon, The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering, Vol
II, Rupa, 2004, pp 665-69).
David Frawley,
American eminent teacher and practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine and Vedic
astrology and author of several books considers Hinduism
to be a religion of the Earth, because, as he describes beautifully:
"…it honors the Earth as the Divine Mother
and encourages us to honor her and help her develop her
creative potentials. The deities of Hinduism permeate the world of nature…they
don't belong to a single country or book only. It is not necessary to live in
India to be a Hindu. In fact, one must live in harmony with the land where one
is located to be a true Hindu.
"I see Hinduism as a religion eminently
suited for all lands and for all people because it requires that we connect with
the land and its creatures - that we align our individual self with the soul of
all beings around us. Hinduism finds holy places
everywhere, wherever there is a river, a mountain, a large rock, or big tree,
wherever some unusual natural phenomenon be it a spring, a cave, or a
geyser."
(source: The
need for a new Indic school of thought). Refer to the movie
An
Inconvenient Truth - by Al Gore and The
Global Warming Debate - By James Hansen - Goddard Institute for Space
Studies).
Manu the Hindu law giver was vehemently
pro-environment. Denuding, polluting, or other wise damaging the environment was
considered such a serious offense in Hinduism a person could be excommunicated
for killing trees!.
(source:
The
Complete Idiot's Guide to Hinduism - By Linda Johnsen
p. 229).
Hindus have worshipped trees, we have tied sacred
threads around them, we have taken shelter under them, have held social
ceremonies around these, offered these water, milk and sometimes even cowdung.
Development destroys trees, these are often chopped mercilessly, and the eternal
search for firewood threatens their limbs.
We have
worshipped the trees long before ecology became fashionable in the West.
A quote
from Vishnu Purana states::
 "As
the wide-spreading nargodha (Sanskrit for banyan) tree is compressed in a small
seed,
So at the time of dissolution, the whole universe is comprehended in Thee as its
germ;
as the nargodha germinates from the seed, and becomes just a shoot and then
rises into loftiness,
so the created world proceeds from Thee and expands into magnitude."
The Varah Purana
says,
"One who plants one peepal, one neem, one
bar, ten flowering plants or creepers, two pomegranates, two oranges and five
mangos, does not go to hell."
In the Charak Sanhita, destruction of forests
is taken as destruction of the state, and reforestation an act of rebuilding the
state and advancing its welfare. Protection of animals is considered a sacred
duty.
An Indian's relation with nature
differs from that of a Western man. In the West, man has separated himself from
nature, mastered it, he believes, and used it to serve his own purpose. Love of
animals and of nature in the West is a personal attitude, not a natural
law. As the vine
embraces, the tree, and could not live without it, so the Hindu unites himself
with nature. From nature he came; to nature he returns, as ashes. The
relationship between a Hindu and nature is one of adaptation and coexistence
rather than of mastery and subjection.
"As the curtain of the new millennium rises, the
drama of life and humans seems tragic. More than six billion people are on a
march of materialism, which means that acquisition, accumulation, possessions
and consumption of material goods is the ultimate "good" of life. The
philosophy assumes that the material resources are unlimited. Human beings are
proliferating at the rate of 80 million a year and 90% of the growth is in the
developing world. There, almost four out of ten people live at the edge of
survival. In India alone, 320 million out of one billion are living marginally.
It is not until 2100, according to the United Nations Fund for Population
Activities (UNFPA), that the Earth's population may stabilize at 10.5 to 11
billion people.
 The Earth is endangered, according to a
warning from the Union of Concerned Scientists in December 1992. A declared
report states that: "Most biological systems, which have sustained life on
the planet for millions of years, will collapse some time during the early part
of the next century." Everywhere, the human spirit is in revolt. Extinction
cannot be the future of this beautiful Earth. The perversion of technological
systems must be challenged--a society on the march towards doom must accept the
wisdom of the ancients that all life is sacred and its existence rests on the
harmony established by evolution in the total scheme of life."
(source:
Hinduism Today
- July/August 2000 p 20-23).
The current deplorable condition demands a spiritual
response. A fundamental reorientation of human consciousness, accompanied by
action that is born out of inner commitment, is very much needed. One of the
measures that could help a great deal to fulfill this need is to regenerate and
rejuvenate basic values of Hindu culture and propagate them.
(source: http://www.hindunet.org/alt_hindu/1994/msg00953.html).
Whatever I dig up of you, O earth,
May you of that have quick replenishment!
O purifying one,
May my thrust never reach
unto your vital points, your heart.
May your dwellings, O earth,
free from sickness and wasting,
flourish for us!
Through a long life watchful,
May we always offer to you our tribute.
-
Atharva
Veda
 The
ancient Tamil scripture, Tirukural,
advises in verse 324, "What is the good way? It is the path that reflects
on how it may avoid killing any living creature;" and in verse 327,
"Refrain from taking precious life from any living being, even to save your
own life."
Although Indian philosophers believed that the world
goes through a cycle of evolution and decline, it always admonished reverence
for life--respect for all forms of life and preservation of biodiversity--a
continuation of evolution.
The new philosophy
of life challenges the arrogance of humans. The Earth is not for humans only. It
is for all life--life in its various forms and structures. While individuals
have a short and transient existence, evolution continues inexorably. The
consciousness and spirits are beyond material existence, beyond time and space.
They are eternal, an integral part of Brahman.
The Rig
Veda 1.6.3 states:
"Nature's beauty is an art of
God. Let us feel the touch of God's invisible hands in everything beautiful.
By the first touch of His hand rivers throb and ripple. When He smiles the sun
shines, the moon glimmers, the stars twinkle, the flowers bloom.
By the first rays of the rising sun, the universe is stirred; the shining gold
is sprinkled on the smiling buds of rose; the fragrant air is filled with sweet
melodies of singing birds, the dawn is the dream of God's creative fancy."
***
Mother Earth - Bhudevi - is
the consort of Lord Vishnu. She personifies the earth and holds a blue lotus.
Bhudevi,
bronze - The consort of Lord Vishnu. She personifies the Earth.
In the Vedic literatures mother Earth is personified as the
Goddess Bhumi, or Prithvi. She is the abundant mother who showers her mercy
oh her children.
For
more refer to chapters on Symbolism
in Hinduism and Women
in Hinduism.
***
A prayer that offers respect to mother Earth and asks for her
protection:
“O Mother Earth, the worlds are maintained by you. Oh
goddess, you are upheld by Lord Vishnu. Kindly purify this seat and daily
maintain me.”
The earth and the sun span the world of human experience. The
sun, the ‘eye of God’, gives forth energy and life, fertilizing the earth,
who is the mother from whose womb all life-forms are born.
In the Vedic literatures mother Earth is personified as the
Goddess
Bhumi, or Prithvi.
She is the abundant mother who showers her mercy
oh her children.
Her beauty and profusion are vividly portrayed in the beautiful
Hymn to the Earth in the Arthava Veda from which the following verses are taken:
“Your castles and fortresses are built by divine engineers.
In every province of yours people are working hard. You bear all precious things
in your womb. May God, the Lord of life, make you pleasing, on all sides."
(43)
"O mother, with your oceans, rivers and other bodies of water,
you give us land to grow grains, on which our survival depends. Please give us
as much milk, fruits, water and cereals as we need to eat and drink.'" (3)
"O mother, bearing folk who speak different languages and
follow different religions, treating them all as residents of the same house,
please pour, like a cow who never fails, a thousand streams of treasure to
enrich me. "44)
"May you, our motherland, on whom grow wheat, rice and barley,
on whom are born five races of mankind, be nourished by the cloud, and loved by
the rain." (42).
(source: Hinduism
and Ecology: Seeds of Truth - By Ranchor Prime p. 30 - 31).
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