154 Three Dimensions of Hindu Ecology: Soil, Soul and Society by Satish Kumar

Introduction in Sanskrit is yagna, tapas and Great movements and perennial dana. Yagna relates to human/nature philosophies have often summarised relationships, tapas relates to human/ their essential messages in . divine relationships and dana relates One of the Hindu trinities is Brah- to human/human relationships. I have man, Vishnu and Shiva – the prin- translated this trinity into English as ciples of creation, continuity and decay. ‘Soil’, ‘Soul’ and ‘Society’. Christians have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Greeks focussed Ecology of the soil on truth, goodness and beauty. The ‘Soil’ comes first. It represents nature American Constitution came up with and sustains the entire world. Everything life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness comes from the soil and returns to the and the French Revolution with liberty, soil. Food which sustains life comes equality and fraternity. In our own from the soil. Water which nourishes time, the new age movement gathered life is held by the soil, as is fire. The sun, around the concepts of mind, body the moon and the stars are all related and spirit. These trinities have their to the soil. For me the soil is a metaphor point and are relevant in their own for the entire natural system. If we take context but none of them represents a care of the soil, the soil will take care of holistic and ecological world view. They us all. Through the soil we are all related may be spiritual or social, but they are and interconnected. We depend on the anthropocentric and fail to highlight soil. All living beings depend on the soil. the human/nature connection. Unfortunately the sciences, techno- However an ancient Hindu text, the logy, economics and philosophy in the Bhagavad Gita, contains a trinity which past few centuries have developed in my view is holistic and inclusive of in such a way that we have elevated ecology, spirituality and humanity. That humankind to the ruling position and

155 given humans higher status. We have and destroys the natural balance of developed a world view which dictates the oceans and rivers, and exemplifies that the human species is superior to another act of war against nature. Little all other species. Animals, forests, do we realise that even if we were to rivers and oceans must serve and fulfil win this war we would find ourselves not only the needs of humankind, but on the losing side. also its greed and desires. This way This war against nature is driven of thinking has been called ‘species- by our conviction that the function of ism’ which means that one species, nature is to drive the engine of our the human species, is considered the economy. This must change. The truth superior species above all others. of the matter is that the economy is a This arrogant worldview has led wholly owned subsidiary of ecology. to the demise of reciprocal, mutual, If the natural capital is depleted, the respectful, reverential and spiritual environment is destroyed and the relationships between humans and economy comes to an end! the rest of nature. In fact humans have Thus the challenge for humankind, come to believe that they are separate in the twenty-first century, is to find from nature and above nature. Nature humility to overcome the duality is out there; the forests, the rivers, the inherent in our disconnection from birds and other wildlife and we humans nature. Nature is not just out there, we are here enclosed in our homes, palaces, are nature too. Nature shares its root castles, apartments, offices, cars, trains meaning with the words; natal, nativity and airplanes. and native. Whatever is born and will In the recent past there have been die is nature. Since we, humans, are philosophers and scientists who have also born and will die we are nature considered it right for humanity to too. Thus nature and humans are one. go on a mission to conquer nature Therefore we need to understand through technology, science, industry that what we do to nature we do to and trade. Humanity has been at war ourselves. We are all related; we live in against nature during this industrial and an interdependent world. technological age: poisoning the land With this sense of the unity of with chemicals and pesticides in the humans and nature we come to a new name of increasing food production. way of appreciating and valuing all We have put birds and animals in coops life. The Norwegian philosopher, Arne and cages and treated them cruelly so Naess, called it ‘deep ecology’. When that greater and greater profit can be we value nature only in terms of her made through the increased sale of usefulness to humans, that is if we animal protein. Relentless destruction conserve her and protect her for our of rainforest, as well as deciduous benefit alone, it is shallow ecology but forest, has been justified to increase when we recognise the intrinsic value areas of arable land for agribusiness. of all life, small or large, then it is deep The industrial scale of fishing depletes ecology. A blade of grass, an earth

156 157 worm, an insect, even a mosquito has still stars – He is pervading the whole the right to life, so have trees, rivers, creation in different forms. We should birds and fish, irrespective of their train our eyes to see Him everywhere”.2 usefulness to humans. Nature is divine, sacred and holy as As we have recognised human rights, well as abundant. And all the species deep ecology requires us to recognise are fed and nourished through the the rights of nature. Deep ecology sacrificial act of ‘life sustaining life’. naturally leads to reverential ecology We humans are blessed with the gifts and spiritual ecology, and as such of nature as long as we take from our relationship with nature must be nature what we need to meet only embedded in an increasing awareness our vital requirements for our living of the principles of nonviolence and and survival. We are offered the gifts reverence for life. of food, water and shelter as long as Nature is not a dead object. Nature we receive them with humility and is alive. According to the scientist James gratitude and without abuse, waste, Lovelock, who formulated the ‘Gaia depletion or pollution. The great Indian theory’, the earth is a living organism. leader Mahatma Gandhi said, “Nature Similarly in Hindu philosophy nature is provides enough for everybody’s need intelligent and conscious; the elements but not enough for even one person’s earth, air, fire and water have divinity greed.” According to him waste is intrinsic to them. Hindus talk about the violence, pollution is violence and rain Indra, the wind god Vayu, the accumulating possessions which are fire goddessAgni and the earth goddess not essential to living is violence. Bhumi. They also talk about the sun Nature is kind, compassionate god, the moon goddess, the god of the and generous; she is filled with un- Himalayas Shiva, the goddess of water conditional love: for example – from Ganga. In essence god or are not a tiny seed grows a great apple tree separate from nature. which produces thousands upon Commenting on The Gita, the Hindu thousands of apples, year after year, scholar Vinoba Bhave writes, “All that after year. The tree never consumes is around us is nothing but god. He is its own apples. It offers fruit without standing before all of us all the time... asking anyone for anything in return, It is the , and the Lord alone, who it delights all comers with fragrant, appears in everything animate and sweet, nourishing fruit unconditionally. inanimate”.1 Bhave continues, “God Whether a saint or a sinner, a peasant is everywhere in the Universe. As holy or a philosopher, a human or an animal, rivers, high mountains, serene oceans, a bird or a wasp: all are invited to enjoy tender hearted cows, noble horses, fruit indiscriminately. majestic lions, sweet voiced cuckoos, According to the principle of yagna beautiful peacocks, clean and solitude we should celebrate the beauty, loving snakes, crows flapping their abundance and grandeur of nature wings, the upward rising flames, the by replenishing what we have taken.

158 If we take five trees to build our home When we practice humility and we must replenish them by planting gratitude we are able to learn much fifty trees. If we have taken goodness from nature. But in our anthropocentric out of the soil through crops of wheat, modern civilisation we learn about rice and vegetables, we must replenish nature. There is a great deal of difference the soil with manure and compost as between learning ‘from’ nature and well as leave the land fallow after seven learning ‘about’ nature. When we learn years of cultivation, thus offering the about nature she becomes an object of land a sabbatical. This is what we refer study, leading to her exploitation. This is to as yagna: replenishment, restoration why some scientists have spoken about and renewal. Vinoba Bhave writes, “If the human mission “to steal the secrets a hundred of us crowd together in one of nature”. But when we learn ‘from’ spot for a day that will spoil the place, nature we establish a close relationship pollute the atmosphere, thus harm the with her. Then there is implicit humility nature. We should do something to and reverence towards the mystery of recoup nature, to restore its balance. It her natural processes. is for this purpose that the institution of The great Indian poet Rabindranath yagna was created. Yagna is intended Tagore established a school near the to reimburse, to put back what we have city of Kolkata called Shantiniketan, taken from nature ... to make good the meaning ‘house of peace’. There he loss is one of the purposes of yagna.”3 held classes under mango trees and said Nature seen as an inanimate to his pupils, “You have two teachers; machine becomes an object of exploi- one myself, your human teacher, and tation, whereas nature seen as sacred the other, the tree, under which we becomes a source of inspiration for sit.” Tagore went on “I can give you the arts, culture, architecture and of intellectual knowledge but you can course . We admire and pay gain much experience by observing the tribute to great artists like Van Gogh trees, when knowledge and experience for painting sunflowers, all the while meet wisdom is born.” forgetting that sunflowers themselves When we observe trees we realise are great works of divine art that how everything is interconnected stimulate the imagination of the artist. and interrelated. From the energy of If there were no sunflowers there the sun the leaves of the tree create would be no Van Gogh, there would photosynthesis, by the rain trees are be no Monet without lilies in the pond, nourished and the soil holds the roots. and no Cézanne without Mont Sainte- The Buddha was enlightened while Victoire. Artists have always recognised sitting under a tree. the sacred quality of nature. Now it is When we experience nature we imperative that scientists, industrialists develop a deep sense of empathy and and politicians do the same and cease love for nature. When we love something to think of nature as a mere resource we care for it, we conserve it and we for profit. protect it. The current environmental

159 movement is driven by fear of doom the arts and religious practices into and disaster. That cannot be the right different compartments. If we wish to motivation for a truly sustainable create a sustainable future and mitigate future. Love and reverence for the earth problems of resource depletion, popu- will automatically result in sustainability, lation explosion and the demise of harmony and coherence. biodiversity then we need to create a We need to realise that harmony coherence between the sciences, the is the most fundamental principal of arts and . This can be achieved ecology. Wherever there is a break- through a deep sense of respect for down in harmony there is discord and soil, for the earth: to be human is to be conflict. Our human responsibility is humble and practice humility! to restore and maintain harmony. The Iranian Sufi scholar, Hossein Ghomshei, says that the knowledge of universal Ecology of the Soul harmony is science, the expression and As we are urged by the Gita to live in communication of that harmony is the harmony with the natural world, ‘soil’, arts and the practice of that harmony in we are also guided to live in harmony our daily life is religion. Thus there is no with ourselves, ‘soul’. As we are at war conflict between science, the arts and with nature we are also at war with religion, they complement each other. ourselves. Making peace with ourselves Many of our environmental problems is a prerequisite for making peace with arise because we have put the sciences, the earth. And making peace with

160 ourselves means realising our true love we are able to break out of this nature and being who we are. ‘ego’ and become part of the ‘eco’ - Each and every one of us is a unique making a quantum leap by changing and special being. As the Sri Lankan the letter ‘g’ to ‘c’. The Greek word art historian, Ananda Coomaraswami, eco is very beautiful. From it we get said, “An artist is not a special kind ecology and economy. Eco, or rather its of person but every person is a special Greek derivation oikos, means ‘home’. kind of artist. He was talking about In the wisdom of Greek philosophers the immense potential of every human home is not only where we physically being. Hindu philosophers have spoken live – our house – with a kitchen, of “aham Brahmasmi, I am – bedroom, bathroom, dining room and pure consciousness.” living room. The entire planet is our In Sanskrit the word for the home where 8.7 million species live as individual soul is atman, the intimate members of one household, one family, being, and the word for the universal where all species are kith and kin. So soul is , the ultimate home or ‘eco’ is a place of relationships being or god. Similarly the Sanskrit whereas ‘I’ as a separate self or ego word for the human individual is nar is a state of separation, disconnection and for the universal being (or god) is and isolation. Our soul gets starved in narayan. In Persian we find a similar isolation. linguistic formulation – the individual When we realise, “I am a microcosm person is called khud and the divine of the macrocosm,” then we touch being, god, is Khuda – just by adding the mind of god; freed from narrow an ‘a’ the individual is released from identities we become liberated from his or her narrow identity or ego and is sorrow and separation, and free from transformed into divine consciousness fear and fragmentation. and united with god. Sometimes we become convinced The way to such an enlightened that the world needs saving so urgently state is through self knowledge, selfless that we force ourselves to work day in service, and the surrender of the ego in and day out to save the planet. As a favour of the understanding that “I am consequence of this view we neglect part of the whole”. I am an organ of our own wellbeing and suffer from the earth body, I am a member of the burnout, depression, breakdown of earth community. marriage and disillusionment. Often we are weighed down by Therefore Gita teaches us that there the burden of our narrow identities of is no need to separate caring for the nationality, race, religion, class, gender soil from caring for the soul. We need and similar other divisive concepts to do both. The practice of the latter is and mental constructs. We become called tapas, which means taking time imprisoned in the idea of ‘I’ separate for inner purity, meditation, spirituality from the other and ‘mine’ separate and living a life of elegant simplicity. from the other’s. Through universal Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change

161 you want to see in the world”. He After the Second World War the believed that there should be integrity president of the USA, speaking at between theory and practice, between the UN declared that, there are two word and action. Words gain power worlds, the developed world and the only when they are backed by a undeveloped world. The developed living example. This is why Mahatma world is the world of industry, Gandhi integrated into his day time technology, free trade and consumerism for , meditation, solitude, study, which lifts the living standards of all gardening, cooking and spinning; he people and the undeveloped world is considered these activities as essential the world of agriculture, rural life, local as negotiating with the British rulers economy and low consumption which of India, organising the campaign keeps people in poverty. The mission of for independence and working for mainstream economists and politicians the removal of untouchability. Thus is to industrialise the world, create Mahatma Gandhi was a perfect economic globalisation and allow the example of uniting the care of the free market to solve the problem of external world with the care of the underdevelopment. internal world. The inner landscape In spite of nearly seventy years of spirituality and the outer landscape of relentless efforts towards indus- of sustainability are intricately linked. trialisation, the suffering of people in We need to cultivate compassion, the so called undeveloped countries has seek truth, appreciate beauty and continued to increase. Even in China, work towards self realisation. Thus we India and Brazil where governments, can connect outer ecology with inner industrialists and business leaders ecology. sacrifice their cultures and traditions, The contemporary environmental and destroy their natural capital in movement, in the main, follows the order to follow the path of modern path of empirical science, rational materialism, the majority of their thinking, data collection and external citizens are still living below the poverty action. This is good as far as it goes but line. Even where living standards have it doesn’t go far enough. We need to risen- such as where cars, computers include care of the soul as a part of care and highways have proliferated- of the planet. general wellbeing, human happiness, social cohesion and job satisfaction Ecology of Society remain a distant dream. Care for the ‘soil’ and the ‘soul’ needs This new religion of materialism has to be extended to include care for grown side by side with the growth ‘society’. In spite of the unprecedented of militarism. Total expenditure on growth in the economy, science, nuclear and conventional weapons has technology and world trade almost quadrupled in recent years without any half of humanity is hungry, homeless sign of an increase in security or peace. and ignored. Violence in one form or another, albeit

162 legal wars waged by governments freedom; a movement that leads to or illegal wars waged by so called the wellbeing of all. This cannot be “terrorists,” continue to occupy done merely by social engineering or many parts of the world without any political manoeuvring. It can only be resolution of national or international done by a spiritual awakening and conflicts. a new awareness about mutual care Humanity is not only at war against and selfless service. The Gita calls it nature it is at war against itself: the values dana which means sharing, generosity, of profit, power, control and greed rule giving before taking and rising above the minds of mainstream politicians self interest. and industrialists, whilst advertising In a culture where self interest is and misinformation seduces the minds promoted as a paramount value, one of the majority of people, who dream would naturally ask why should we of a lifestyle based on consumerism, give up our self interest? The Gita’s comfort, and extravagance. answer is, as Vinoba says, “Because we This state of affairs is hardly are already highly obliged to society. conducive to a vision of harmony, We were totally defenceless and weak coherence and wellbeing. Therefore a when we were born. It is the society strong social movement is needed to that looked after us and brought us up, establish justice, equality, liberty and we should therefore serve it.”4

163 We have inherited great architecture; battle against colonisation and the sake the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the great of freedom. mosques and cathedrals. We are blessed Activists such as Martin Luther King, with so much literature, poetry, music Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, Mother and paintings. We are enriched by the Theresa and Wangari Maathai are great teachings of enlightened masters examples of people who acted in the such as the Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus spirit of The Gita, offering their lives as Christ, Lao Tsu and others. We have dana for the wellbeing of society as a been endowed with philosophy, science whole. From these outstanding activists and technology. we can learn the lessons of social The list of gifts we have received ecology and strive to establish a new and inherited from our ancestors and moral order of human dignity. our fellow human beings is endless. We So the way of the Gita is the way of a are indebted to them. And now it is our spiritual warrior, a peace warrior and an own turn to contribute to that culture eco-warrior – what Gita calls a Karma and civilisation and ensure that no yogi: one who is engaged constantly child in our human family goes without for the upliftment and wellbeing of food, no sick person is left unattended, the deprived and dispossessed but who and that no country or community is acts without desiring the fruit of his or afflicted by war, exploitation or torture. her own actions. The Gita says that as We may not achieve this goal tomorrow the tree does not eat its own fruit and but efforts towards the wellbeing of all the river does not drink its own water, must start today by rising above the the Karma yogi should not seek any narrow confines of self interest and benefit of his or her own action. Rather working towards mutual interest. he or she should offer their action for But that vision of working for mutual the benefit of others. That is dana. interest is never easy. There are vested The trinity of the Bhagavad Gita is interests in society which prevent us like the three legs of a stool: through from acting in mutual interest and push yagna we replenish the soil, through us towards self interest. The strong ex- tapas we replenish the soul and though ploit the weak, the rich keep the poor dana we replenish society. But they down, seekers of power subjugate the are not mutually exclusive. All of us powerless. In such a situation The Gita need to engage in all three types of advocates struggle and action. action simultaneously. In a nutshell Mahatma Gandhi was one of the we need to live a spiritual way of life most ardent followers of Gita prin- that engages in the protection of the ciples. He happily went to prison “like earth, enlightenment of the self and a bridegroom goes to the wedding restoration of social justice. This ancient chamber”. He practised non violence, trinity of Gita is as relevant today as it truth and compassion yet fought a ever was.

164 Notes 1 Bhave, Vinobe, Talks on the Gita, Paramdham Parakashan, Pavnar, India, ch.9, p.124. http://www.mkgandhi.org/talksongita/talk_gita.htm 2 ibid. Ch.10 p.153. 3 ibid. Ch.17 p.241. 4 ibid. Ch.17 p.242.

165