ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS CENTRAL TO HINDUISM
12/ 01/ 2008
By Chandrakant Kothari
In my last column I wrote about my participation in a world religions conference in October at the University of Waterloo, where speakers from various faiths talked about how their faiths might help protect the environment. I was invited to share my views with a Hindu perspective.
I began by stating that if Hinduism is about anything, it is about leaving as small a footprint as possible on Mother Nature and then elaborated on that theme with the following:
The environment is not a new concern to the ancient Hindu civilization. Well before David Suzuki and Al Gore and his film “An Inconvenient Truth,” Hindus have been aware of the adverse effect of human activities on the ecosystem. Care and respect for creation is woven throughout the fabric of our culture and society. From times immemorial to present day, Hindus generally hold a profound sense of reverence for Mother Nature and all her denizens.
Going back to my childhood, I remember my duty every morning was to fetch a couple pounds of seeds from the kitchen and scatter them to the birds to feed on. Before family lunch or dinner, the first five chapatis were offered by my mother to the five lower species. At all our traditional spiritual sites, tea is served in disposable cups made of unglazed clay. When these cups are disposed of they return to the earth without polluting the soil. Go to any traditional Hindu eatery and they will serve you simple vegetarian food on banana leaves. Once you are done eating, the banana leaf is fed to the cattle. No energy is wasted in manufacturing synthetic plastic plates and no garbage is created.
Ever since coming to Canada, I have refused to contaminate our backyard with fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. My neighbours may not be happy with an occasional weed in my yard, but the birds are certainly very happy to feed on our lawn. As you will agree, this is truly environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Such traditions of care and respect for nature and environment come from our spiritual heritage. “Isa Upanishad,” composed thousands of years ago, states, “Isavasyam idam sarvam yatkinchat jagatyaam jagat,” meaning this ever-changing cosmos is pervaded by one never-changing absolute reality. This concept of interconnectedness of the whole universe and everything within it is sacred to us and to all of the Indian spiritual traditions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. In fact, I am quite convinced that there is no Dualism — a creator separate from his creation — within pre-monotheistic spiritual traditions whether of Asian, Native American, European or African origin.
“Srimad Bhagvat Mahapuran” composed more than 5,000 years ago considers all components of the universe as organs of God’s body and thus enjoins humanity to respect each and every manifestation of this absolute reality.
Similarly, the Vedas pay very sublime homage to Mother Nature as follows: “O Mother Earth! Sacred are your hills and snowy mountains, dense forests and deep oceans. May you remain fertile and arable! May you nourish us all and bestow upon us full satisfaction! May you continue to support all species, races and nations and may no one exploit you or subjugate any of your creatures!”
It is a spiritual requirement for every Hindu to plant trees as a form of worship of the Divine. Go any evening to the banks of Indian rivers and you will see huge crowds paying homage to these holy arteries of Mother Earth. How many of us will desecrate our forests and rivers if we hold them sacred like our ancestors taught us to do?
Thus, Hindus do not consider Earth as simply a planet to be exploited for fulfilling our endless desires, but rather as our living breathing mother. How many of us are willing to exploit our own mothers? Therefore, we should not exploit Mother Nature either.
As we begin the New Year, it is my fervent hope that all of you made an ecological New Year’s resolution to leave as small a footprint on Mother Earth as our ancestors had taught us to do.
Have a happy and joyous New Year.
Chandrakant Kothari is president of the Brahmarishi Mission of Canada and a member of the Spiritual Heritage Education Network. He can be reached at gr8mrk@hotmail.com.
Source : news.guelphmercury.com
