Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 6 Article 6

1993 Ecology and : Christian and Hindu Paradigms Klaus Klostermaier

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Recommended Citation Klostermaier, Klaus (1993) "Ecology and Religion: Christian and Hindu Paradigms," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 6, Article 6. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1075

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Klostermaier: Ecology and Religion: Christian and Hindu Paradigms

Ecology and Religion:

Christian and Hindu Paradigms

KJaus Klostermaier

University of Manitoba

NEITHER IllNDUISM NOR Christianity I. Eco-Religious Paradigms from the had or have 'ecology' as their central focus. A Hindu Traditions: contemporary Hindu or Christian ecology can be developed by rethinking and restruc­ A. The Vedic Paradigm: The Earth as turing traditional teachings, amplifying semi­ Dwelling Place for Gods and Humans nal statements and linking these up with the dominating concern of the late 20th century, The people who composed the must to 'save the earth'. In the context of a 'science have known a great deal about the nature in and religion' seminar some years back one of which they lived and from whom they drew my colleagues from the life sciences re­ their sustenance. They worshipped a great marked: 'What we need today is an ecological many gods, who were initially considered by messiah'. The task before us is that of the one Western scholars 'personifications of natural preparing the way for such an ecological phenomena,' such as Agni = Fire, Vaya = messiah, pulling together strands· of Hindu Wind,.Indra = Storm, Surya = Sun, Usaa = and Christian traditional symbolism and Dawn and so on. The devas were not so doctrine conducive to a religious ecology. much personifications of natural phenomena, Both and Christianity have to do a as we kn.ow today, but the medium through good deal of repenting and making good for which Vedic people approached the powers neglecting and even violating nature. This is of nature, which remained mysterious, both not the place to repeat what Arnold Toynbee full of blessings and full of danger. The basic or Lynn White Ir said about the 'religious assumption underlying Vedic religion that led roots of the ecological crisis' but we have to . to the development of the elaborate sacrificial keep it in mind. We are treading on shifting cult was the mutual dependence of-men and grounds and even now we should not take it gods (and ancestors). Vedic society was for granted that the majority of either leaders convinced that it needed the favours of the or followers of Christianity and Hinduism gods for survival and prosperity: but it was endorse a concern for nature as a religious equally convinced that the devas needed the cause. In the following I am exclusively con­ sacrificial offerings made by men for their centrating on paradigms that have been or 'power'. Vedic people imagined to live in a are supportive of a religious ecology, leaving power-circuit, in which the crucial switch out Advaitic unconcern for nature as well as was constituted by the 'karma' of the sacrifice Christian hostility towards 'corrupt nature' and the '' formula of the Veda. . and other unhelpful positions. There was a deep-rooted conviction that one had to pay a price for everything - that

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'nature' was not giving something for (conscious and 'moral') observation of a law nothing; that humans had to return something by which everything is governed. The articu­ to the 'powers' for the goods {'energies') lated , as found in the law books, has which they received. It was apparently a further ecological dimensions insofar as it fairly marginal existence which was possible determines lawful ways of gaining a liveli­ under the given circumstances: survival was hood as against unlawful ones. The lawful precarious and threatened by famine, disease, occupations are those that conform to the enemies and wild animals. Every catastrophe general dharma - a dharma which protects was necessarily attributed to a break in the the existence not only of humans but also of power-circuit that connected the devas with nature in the widest sense. Dharma itself has the world of men: Vedic Indians did not as­ moral, social, political, as well as cosmic sume that the gods were capricious (like features. those of the Greeks) but they considered Viewing dharma as the eternal, immu­ them to be almost mechanically-acting ele­ table law governing the universe, ments in a power-circuit (deva - mantra - dharmasatra is essentially conservative: it dravya - vajamana) which was kept charged endeavours to provide a foundation for a by the sacrifices performed by the competent society which follows unchanging laws and members of the community (the Brahmins). thereby remains in permanent symbiotic If the power-circuit failed, the point where it harmony with its environment. Dharma had to be mended was the sacrificial karma. would not be dharma if it did not ensure the mutual co-existence of all partners in the B. The Paradigm of the Smrtis: Hu­ universe: it could not be the eternal law upon man Nature as Archetype which man's own nature is founded ifit led to a deterioration of living conditions. Indian Whereas ancient Vedic consciousness was tradition associates the visible deterioration shaped by the constant and inevitable inter­ of man's condition and of the quality of the vention by humans in natural processes - an environment to a truncating and mutilating of intervention which was fraught with danger dharma: dharma which had been four-footed and could only safely be mastered by appli­ during the first age of mankind loses foot cation of the ritualistically fixed vajna - the after foot - till it becomes almost totally developing societies of the Smrti period ex­ crippled during the Kaliyuga. It is not the perienced interpersonal relationships as the following of the law which brings about eco­ most crucial contact with reality. The logical (and other) calamities but the not fol­ governing paradigm through which 'nature' lowing of it. was perceived was no longer the power cir­ cuit deva - mantra - dravya - yajamana C. The Puranic Paradigm: The Tem­ operated through the vajna, but the vertical ple as Microcosmos hierarchical order of society patterned on the archetype of the hierarchically created human 'Classical' Hinduism as codified in the Pu­ nature. ranas was temple-centered. No village and The pivotal 'religious' activity was no no town was to be without its temple, and longer the offering of sacrifices for immedi­ divine presence and protection were thought ate material benefits but the conforming to to depend on possessmg images of God dharma - an all-comprehending 'law' with a housed in temples. The temple itself was social emphasis. Dharma has a variety of thought of as a microcosm. In numerous an­ 'ecological' implications. The well known cient Indian writings' we read that llie gods and often applied adage dharma raksato always play where groves are near, rivers raksati expresses the conviction that 'loop­ and mountains and springs, and in towns reinforcement' depends on human's with pleasure gardens'. Where such facilities

http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol6/iss1/6 2 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1075 Klostermaier: Ecology and Religion: Christian and Hindu Paradigms Ecology and Religion 9

did not exist naturally, they could be created D. A Vaisnava Paradigm: The Earth by human ingenuity so as to attract the gods. as the Body of God The presence of water is essential above everything else: a temple could only be built Central to the theology of Ramanuja, the near water. If no natural water-course or lake great Sri Vaisnava acarya, is the so-called was available, an artificial pond had to be sariri-sarira bhava, the view that the rela­ created. The pursusa-mandala according to tionship between deity and earth is that of which the plan had to be drawn up again soul and body. While resting on Vedic per­ gives a cosmic dimension to the building to ceptions of the creation of the universe be erected on a specific spot. Similarly the through the sacrifice of the· primaeval pu­ foundation-laying and the consecration ritu­ rusa, it goes far beyond it in identifying the als contained numerous cosmic implicattons: physical universe as the body of Visnu and the actual structure had to be embedded in distinctive geographical features with the cosmic time and space. divine reality. Philosophically it expresses The harmony of nature represented by the total dependence of the creature on its the temple is not a purely external harmony creator. Practically it could lead to a rever­ as that created by the power-cycle of the . ential attitude towards the whole creation. Vedic vajna, nor a moral-social harmony The world becomes God's temple and de­ created by a dharma centered in the human serves to be honoured as one honours God's constitution, but a metaphysical one, realised presence in the image. Since Vaisnavism is a in a yogic interiorisation of the whole uni­ living tradition even today, its paradigm verse, coming from the centre of being itself, could be used to develop a comprehensive into which meditation has brought the archi­ religious .ecology, without compromising tect - the creator of the world in miniature. either tradition or modem scientific notions. . There is an even higher dimension of 'ecology' in temple building: by creating II. Eco-Religious Paradigms from Chris­ abodes for the gods, fashioning (cultural!) tian Traditions: environments one is satisfying the higher human needs. - needs above the animal com­ 1. The Sacramental Paradigm: forts of food and shelter. In many ancient texts we find the opinion expressed that a Beginning with the New Testament, Christi­ village or a town was not inhabitable until anity correlated physical and spiritual reali­ and unless a. temple was built in its centre ties in the sacramental use of bread and wine and worship was offered. We also find the for the Eucharist and of oil for supernatural injunction that only by following the highest healing. The New Testament emphasises the and most aesthetic standards of architecture physical nature of the saviour's presence and a temple could be expected to house the de­ attributes ultimate significance to his sacri­ ity. No doubt we can appreciate the wisdom ficing a real human body for gaining the of this today. The total environment in which world's salvation. The early Church extended a truly human life can be lived must also this sacramental paradigm by calling the contain dimensions of the 'transcendent'. An Christian community 'Christ's Body' and 'ecology' which leaves this out is less than paralleling the realities of the physical complete, however well it may provide for Church building and the body of Christ. A adequate physical amenities and a good, further extension of this notion took place in working sewer system. connection with the respect paid to the mar­ tyrs: the physical remnants of those who died in testimony to their faith were credited with quasi-sacramental powers. Miracles were attributed to their presence and the Church

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, " made it a regulation that a fragment of the the larger communities learned. Benedictine II bones of a saint had to be enshrined in every agriculture was not only 'organic' but also I , 'I place of worship in order to make it 'holy'. 'holistic' and improved rather than destroyed The use of natural elements in rituals like the natural fertility of the soils and the aes­ baptism and the celebration of Easter - thetic appeal of landscapes. With immense water, fire, wind, rock - gave a sacramental industriousness and great sensitivity the dimension to all these natural materials in the largely untamed forests and swamps of Cen­ context of worship. tral Europe were transformed into cultural environments which were - for the time - 2. The Mytho-Mystical Paradigm: quite ideal combinations of nature and civili­ sation. The emotional engagement of these Christian worship, which originally must monks with the nature surrounding them is have been completely Jewish, assumed, under, evident also in the religious names given to the impact of Graeco-Roman culture, fea­ many species of plants and animals and by tures of mystery-religion. In its effort to aligning the 'Christian year of salvation' with make 'Christ the only Lord' Christians the seasons of nature. The later parish priests adopted rituals as well as language from would normally be working farms of their Mithraism and other such cults in which a own; often they kept bees. There are many great deal of nature-mysticism and nature­ popular stories which show Christianity mythology was celebrated. The most promi­ firmly integrated with the natural and cul­ nent feature was the worship of the Sun tural environment. The establishment of sa­ which became the Christian worship of cred buildings (churches, monasteries) would Christus Sol. It became the inspiration for often reveal great environmental sensitivity. Francis of Assisi's Canto del Sol. The 'mythico-mystical' paradigm was 4. The 'Theosopic' Paradigm: not totally obliterated by the Reformation (which otherwise demythologised and de­ Hildegard von Bingen is an early exponent of mystified the Christian tradition): Johannes a Christian understanding of rnacrocosm­ Kepler, a Lutheran, was guided by it to ar­ microcosm correlations and of a visionary ticulate his theory of the planetary system. understanding of physical reality as a revela­ Kepler was learned enough in classical litera­ tion of God's own being. The world revealed ture to associate his guiding paradigm not itself to her as the structured presence of God only with the Trinitarian Godhead of Christi­ and from her knowledge of plants and organ­ anity but also with the Pythagorean-Platonic isms she gained an understanding of the na­ notion of the harmony of the spheres and ture of God that went far beyond the scrip­ helios-theos piety of neoplatonic sages. This tural and traditional teaching. It was the kind mythico-mystical paradigm disappeared of integration of physical and theological when a purely pragmatic and utilitarian type knowledge that found expression in Dun of science took over which not only dissolved Scotus' De divisione naturae and Giordano the paradigm but a great deal of traditional Bruno's Della causa, principio et uno - both life itself and which lead eventually to a split condemned by the Church authorities at the between the 'two cultures.' time! It was also the paradigm which Galileo Galilei used when giving equal importance to 3. The 'Cultivation' Paradigm: the 'book of nature' in coming to know God as the 'book of Scripture'. He too, was con­ Early mediaeval Benedictine monasteries in demned. The Lutheran mystic cobbler Jacob transalpine Europe became oases of ad­ B6hme, praised as the 'philosophus teutoni­ vanced agriculture, horticulture and hus­ cus' by contemporary scholars and poets met bandry, and model institutions from which a similar fate with the publication of his

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Theosophia in Protestant Saxonia. One could been far too busy with political and other continue the series through Paley's Physico­ matters to pay much attention to the devel­ theology and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's opment of a sound ecological theory from Phenomene Humain - and perhaps even within the tradition. Matthew Fox's Original Blessing, which did That does not diminish the importance not find a better hearing among defenders of of the issue. Old traditions tend to show a Christian orthodoxy, totally estranged from great amount of inertia when it comes to any real contact with or understanding of recognising current needs or to undertaking nature. appropriate action. I remember a Vatican Monsignor once telling me in reply to my Concluding Remarks: question why a certain matter had not yet been taken up: 'Noi pensiamo in secoli' - we Hindu and Christian traditions have devel­ think in centuljes, not in decades or years. In oped paradigms that have been and can be all probability we will not have any more used in developing a viable religiously centuries if we do not act soon in matters of founded ecology. However, in the life and ecology. If we do not wish to surrender this thought of most Hindus and Christians today serious issue to the quick-fixers, to those who there is little awareness of such paradigms want to patch up the wounds of the earth in and even less action along the lines suggested order to continue exploiting her, we have to by them. With great regularity Christian contribute from· the wisdom of the great authorities condemn and reject attempts to religious traditions, who have much thought develop religiously relevant perceptions .of and motivation to offer to those. who really nature that go beyond the folkloristic or want to save the earth. metaphorical. Hindu authorities too have

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