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Children and elders should work together to promote love of nature---Dr Radhakrishnan’s exhortation on the Earth Day,2018

( at  Sabarmati Yoga,Naturopathy Centre,Mitrapuram)

        Thanks to the various initiatives introduced recently to focus on  the all-round environmental degradation, there is a welcome change atleast in some quarters now. The Earth Charter, Earth Day,Environmental Education Campaigns and similar efforts are gradually influencing the global community on the need to restructure their attitude towards nature.    

  It is time that the elders demonstrated to the children the truth that Man always lived in harmony with Nature and what sustained him in all the crisis he faced in his profound, courageous and determined march towards unraveling  the mysteries of various kinds is his respect for all forms of life around him.

The symbiotic relationship between man and nature can be fostered only by adopting a sincere and holistic approach to prevent the ecological devastation. From theoretical formulations and assertions we should learn to develop a new approach to foster  What has guided him in this long, very often distressing and disappointing and at the same time lively search for identify, is the realization of how everything in nature is

dependent on one another. This is the core of the ancient wisdom.

          The oriental traditions have been credited with established norms of determining Man’s behavior towards Nature and its resources. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism and Confucianism have all treated nature with respect and considered it as the source of Man’s happiness. The Vedas which were considered to be the bedrock of Hindu religion and philosophy provide a world view with regard to what is now generally called the ecological situation.

The Hindu religion’s concern for peace and harmony in the environment is well reflected in the famous hymn to the Earth in the Yajurved:

            May there be peace in the celestial region

            May there be peace in the atmosphere

            May peace reign on earth

            May the waters be soothing

            May the herbs be soothing

            May the plants be source of peace to all.

         

In Rigveda, the sky is called father and the earth mother. The emphasis has been laid in many hymns in the other Vedas and epics which for part of the Hindu literary tradition. When the sky and earth are treated like the father and mother it is meant to establish a symbolic relationship with the other objects of Nature thereby constituting what can be called the Universal family of animals and plants. From this, a theory of not only interdependence but respect for each other and the need to protect everything in nature has been developed over the years thought this emphasis got diluted later leading to not only

exploitation but even utter neglect of nature. Mahabharata advocated the protection of trees with utmost priority. Bhishma’s advice to the Pandava brothers is:

“Although trees are solid, they have the properties of the sky. They have life, they flower and bear fruit. They feel warmth and get dry when the sun is too hot and water is scarce. It shows that they have a sense of touch. Fruits and flowers of the tree fall down under the effect of thunder, air and fire…. The bad smell of pollution makes them suffer as it changes their colour and flavor. It shows that they can smell. They have sensory nerves. They take water from the roots. If they have any disease the sprinkling of medicine cures them. On cutting them they feel sorrow and when new branches appear they feel happy. This shows that they have sense to feel happiness and sorrow and have sensory nerves”.

          Worshipping of trees became a tradition and most of the villages in India had Vriksha Devta (Goddes of tree) and Sacred Groves. Tradition has it that in tribal belts there were instances of women marrying trees.                                                                                                                           

Where did the drift begin?

          The votaries of modernism, while they scoff at the ancient way of living describing it barbaric or jungle life, seem to have forgotten the fact that it is this very system that gave them all the tools that they are using now to decry the worth of the foundation on which they stand. The problem with modern man is that he now thinks that he is the conqueror of the universe and that he has the proprietary rights over whatever he has conquered and this attitude appears to be guiding him in most of his endeavours.

          This self-centered philosophy, and the systems he has developed on the basis of this outlook- the hallmark of which is the belief that nature has unlimited resources for all time to come-govern modern man’s style of functioning. All of us who were lulled into the newly acquired instruments of liberation which science and technology put in our hands are rudely awakened by the alarm bells ringing all around now. From the Himalayan heights of materialistic comforts and beliefs we are being led to the abyss of all round environmental pollution, ecological devastation, ozone depletion, green house effect and so on, creating waves of shock in all thinking men and women.

The need for developing a nonviolent ecology

          The importance of the ecosystem which was uppermost in the minds of our forefathers, in maintaining the quiet rhythm and symphony of life ( not in the musical sense) has become a thing of past. We had a sustainable ecosystem which was rooted in a nonviolent ecology. Thus nonviolent ecology refers to a society which is economically and socially just, ecologically sustainable, non-killing and compassionate in relating to its environment.

          Many people argue that since violence is part of life, we need not worry about it. They find it to be inherent and pervasive in nature and in human nature. One major point is that violence and nonviolence are relative rather than absolute conditions. Some regions are prone to violent forces in nature such as hurricanes or earthquakes, however, there are other regions in which such violent forces are negligible or even absent. Competitions and predation between animal species can be violent, however, there are also nonviolent relations between species such as mutualism.

Ecocentric rather than anthropocentric

          Buddhism is ecocentric rather than anthropocentric since it views humans as an integral part of nature. Buddhism focuses on the interaction of mind and nature through the three practices of direct knowing, discriminating awareness and deep compassion:

          By cultivating these three practices, one’s actions in relation to the environment come to be based in relationship and interconnectedness, rather than in dualistic subject-object modes of separation. Through this approach, one’s orientation to the world is fundamentally altered from dominant species to member of a community, from part to process.

           While environmentalism emphasizes that natural resources are limited, Buddhism is more direct in encouraging individuals to limit their resources consumption to the optimal satisfaction of the four basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and medicine.

This vantage point renders ecology a very concrete and personal matter.                                                                                                         We should deal with nature the way we should deal with ourselves! We should not harm ourselves, we should not harm nature. Harming nature is harming ourselves, and vice-versa. If we knew how to deal with our self and with our fellow human beings, we should know how to deal with nature. Human beings and nature are inseparable. Therefore, by not caring properly for any one of these, we harm them all.