CULTURA 2016_267935_VOL_13_No1_GR_A5Br.indd 1 CULTURA www.peterlang.com ding thevalues andculturalphenomenainthecontempo judged tomake anovelandimportantcontributiontounderstan- the submissionofmanuscriptsbasedonoriginalresearchthatare regional andinternationalcontexts. The editorialboardencourages mote theexplorationofdifferentvalues andculturalphenomenain ted tophilosophyofcultureandthestudyvalue. Itaimstopro Axiology and Culture Founded in2004, ISBN 978-3-631-67935-7 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Philosophy of Journal International Cultura. isasemiannualpeer-reviewed journaldevo- rary world. - 2016
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF 1 CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY CULTURA CULTURA 2016 AND AXIOLOGY OF PHILOSOPHYCULTURE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL Vol XIII 13.06.16 KW 2417:43 No 1 No CULTURA 2016_267935_VOL_13_No1_GR_A5Br.indd 1 CULTURA www.peterlang.com ding thevalues andculturalphenomenainthecontempo judged tomake anovelandimportantcontributiontounderstan- the submissionofmanuscriptsbasedonoriginalresearchthatare regional andinternationalcontexts. The editorialboardencourages mote theexplorationofdifferentvalues andculturalphenomenain ted tophilosophyofcultureandthestudyvalue. Itaimstopro Axiology and Culture Founded in2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Philosophy of Journal International Cultura. isasemiannualpeer-reviewed journaldevo- rary world. - 2016
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF 1 CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY CULTURA CULTURA 2016 AND AXIOLOGY OF PHILOSOPHYCULTURE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL Vol XIII 13.06.16 KW 2417:43 No 1 No CULTURA
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology E-ISSN (Online): 2065-5002 ISSN (Print): 1584-1057
Advisory Board Prof. Dr. David Altman, Instituto de Ciencia Política, Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile Prof. Emeritus Dr. Horst Baier, University of Konstanz, Germany Prof. Dr. David Cornberg, University Ming Chuan, Taiwan Prof. Dr. Paul Cruysberghs, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Prof. Dr. Nic Gianan, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines Prof. Dr. Marco Ivaldo, Department of Philosophy “A. Aliotta”, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy Prof. Dr. Michael Jennings, Princeton University, USA Prof. Dr. Maximiliano E. Korstanje, University of Palermo, Argentina Prof. Dr. Richard L. Lanigan, Southern Illinois University, USA Prof. Dr. Christian Lazzeri, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France Prof. Dr. Massimo Leone, University of Torino, Italy Prof. Dr. Asunción López-Varela Azcárate, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain Prof. Dr. Christian Möckel, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Prof. Dr. Devendra Nath Tiwari, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India Prof. Dr. José María Paz Gago, University of Coruña, Spain Prof. Dr. Mario Perniola, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy Prof. Dr. Traian D. Stănciulescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iassy, Romania Prof. Dr. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Purdue University & Ghent University
Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief: Co-Editors: Prof. dr. Nicolae Râmbu Prof. dr. Aldo Marroni Faculty of Philosophy and Social- Dipartimento di Lettere, Arti e Scienze Sociali Political Sciences Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti Scalo, Italy B-dul Carol I, nr. 11, 700506 Iasi, Romania [email protected] [email protected] PD Dr. Till Kinzel Englisches Seminar Technische Universität Braunschweig, Bienroder Weg 80, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany [email protected]
Editorial Assistant: Dr. Marius Sidoriuc Designer: Aritia Poenaru Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology Vol. 13, No. 1 (2016)
Editor-in-Chief Nicolae Râmbu Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Cover Image: © Aritia Poenaru
ISSN 2065-5002 ISBN 978-3-631-67935-7 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-07223-5 (E-Book) DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-07223-5 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2016 All rights reserved. Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH. Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com
CONTENTS
Ove Skarpenes, Rune Sakslind & Roger Hestholm 7 National Repertoires of Moral Values
Vuk Uskoković 29 Punk Philosophy as a Path to the Summits of Ethos
Devendra Nath Tiwari 49 Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics
Mădălin Onu 69 The Barbarian as Agent of History
Dale Jacquette 89 Marx and Industrial Age Aesthetics of Alienation
Jinghua Guo 107 Marginocentric Hong Kong: Archaeology of Dung Kai-cheung’s Atlas
Agnieška Juzefovič 125 The Visual Turn in Academic Research and University Study Programs in Lithuania
Mahdi Dahmardeh, Abbas Parsazadeh & SamanRezaie 137 Culture Matters: the Question of Metaphor and Taarof in Translation
Janina Sombetzki 161 How “Post” Do We Want to Be – Really? The Boon and Bane of Enlightenment Humanism
10.3726/267935_49 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 13(1)/2016: 49–68
Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics
Devendra Nath Tiwari Visiting Professor on ICCR Chair, School of Indological Studies, MGI, Mauritius. [email protected]
Abstract. This article is about a spiritual response to environmental crisis, an emerging field of ethics that joins ecology and environmentalism1 with the awareness of sacred within the creation2. It investigates into the Vedic texts for finding out the philosophical attitude about the earth and our spiritual obligations and responsibilities to the planet in resolving environmental issues. In the vedic- tradition3, it is the course of experiencing nature as spiritual presence and the awareness to it about our conduct as the moral and rational being. It is a world view that values all that in totality is called “nature” that is, generally, taken as “other” in contrast to human, as existence or spirit. The ethics of respect to “others”, against the effects of imperialistic, ideological conflicts, religious terrorism, industrial, atomic and corporate pollutions, must be worked out as a remedy. The basic argument of spiritual ecology lies in the view that we can find no God more than the spirit abiding in all units of the globe. One must have the view of spirit as ubiquitous principle in treating with and enjoying our needs with the things that the nature permeates as gifts of his care to it. Thus, spiritual ecology of the Vedic tradition has a therapeutic importance; it helps in cultivating our conduct and overcoming the fear of a risk against living on the earth. I am of the view that the rationality of a man and that of a nation is to be determined in proportion to the cultivation and progress of attitude and treatment with “other” but not the vice versa. Keywords: Dharma, three debts, Pancakośas, dark green religion, the other, Cultic Milieu
THE ARGUMENT
The same law working inside, the mind and outside, the nature is the reality of this universe and that corrupting one corrupts the other. The basic argument of our concern with environment is not confined to our conduct or morality only but extends also to change our attitude about the other as having existence that counts for valuation of progress of our rationality and that is why an environmental issue becomes a spiritual one.
49 Devendra Nath Tiwari / Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics
TWO WAYS OF LIVING
There are two basic ways of living. The first out of the two is to live with other’s experiences laid down in the great books as we find in some of Religious sects, followers of prophetic religions and sayings of the great persons as well. The second way of living is to live by one’s own experiences for which the experiences of the great minds are required only for enriching by experiencing and not as operating force that is spirit only. Dharma Tradition as such has no religious, theological, language, rational and racial dogma; it is always a way to experience the spirit in you, in me and in all and to conduct with the other venerably. This outlook has provided the Hindus perceiving the whole cosmos inside one’s being and conducting with it as the closest to spirit.
EMERGING ATTITUDE TOWARDS CLASSICAL INDIAN VIEW OF ENVIRONMENT
The way of philosophizing on environmental perspective, in recent West is getting inspiration from the responses of classical Hindu texts to environmental issues. In brief, it is a move for spiritual treatment with the “Other”. Spiritual ecology is a response to all those sick ideologies that are greatly responsible for the ideological, religious, social and political environment crisis. It is getting high importance as a worldview and is attracting the people of the world to cultivate the ways of thinking and conducting with environment at local and global level. It is given high importance recently by Western thinkers as a philosophy of applied ethics, which believes that men by his actions have an effect positive or negative on environment. Men’s attitude towards world, his surroundings, his own position in the nature and his relation with environment direct his actions towards environment. It is a vision that we are here on earth to cultivate ourselves to the extent of realization that “we are nature inside and outside”. Very recently ecologists, philosophers and scientists are feeling high need for explaining Indian Spiritual Ecology as a view of life that gives a vital meaning in forbearing against different imperialistic and anthropocentric ideologies because it considers earth worth of reverent care. Some of the environmental ethicists accept the fact that for Asian and indigenous religions who provide more fertile ground for
50 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 13(1)/2016: 49–68 environmental ethics than “Abrahamaic religions” (Callicott and Ames, 1989) Taylor Bron (2004) deliberates about an emergence of “dark Green Religion”, “a religion that considers nature to be sacred, imbued with intrinsic value, and worth of reverent care”. Cynthia Erb writes “it is a common Holistic belief in the interconnectedness of spirit and matter, the mind and the body, the individual and the community, and the sacred and the profane” (Erb, 2004). Cynthia observes “this new spiritual ecology, with roots in ancient Indian tradition is essentially Holistic and anti-imperialistic since it contemplates a panorama of global harmony” (Erb, 2004: 3-7).
SPIRIT AS CONCEIVED IN VEDIC-TRADITION
Spirit is the creativity and we know it by inference and implication as the substratum of the activities performed on its basis. The greatest ignorance and hindrance in the way of experiencing yourselves with spirit is to be captive of one or more forms of emotion, reason or intuition we attach to it. Spirit is in all forms of dualities to an ignorant and is all and more than that to a realizer. All Religions are ways of life but all ways of life are not religion. A man of no- faith may be a better man than a man of religious faith and a man free from any Religious sect may think of a better way to liquidate the conflicts of Religions. Spirituality is open to all faiths, and has the power to recommend the modifications of faiths as per changing needs of globe and choice of man because it is a way to free the ideological captives. Since our birth we are addicted to “this is how it is” and we believed. Prophets, powerful and influential people in our lives, parents, teachers, hearsay, peer pressures and present media have caused us to adopt certain beliefs and mental convictions that have formed our persona. We have exactly become the form of our beliefs of what we think we are. We are not that and to realize our spirit we need unravel all that had made our minds slave. We do not accept them all as our only authority but to search the authority within our own experiences that are our guide. Indoctrination by the authority of the others experiences locks in the false beliefs which authority gives us and creates phobia for those ideologies that talk about a living of the spirit.
51 Devendra Nath Tiwari / Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics
Great texts beginning from Vedas to the contemporary thinking in India have a great discussion on the essential unity and diversity question pertaining to the reality of the universe. The Vedic teaching culminates in what the seer of the puruṣasåkta perceives in the verse4, meaning thereby all we perceive in the universe is spirit, all different forms are as real as our own, all that has born and that has to be born are the spirit (puruṣa) and only spirit. Not only that but also the spirit is the reality of that which is immortal and is the abode of all that grow on earth as well. Iśopaniṣad firmly states “whatever exists, existed and will exist are all Isa, the spirit”5, similar is the teaching of Gãtà “the spirit is ubiquitous”6. Two fold interpretation of spirit in Vedanta approach have been the attractive point for the latter philosophies. Here, spirituality, in precise, is the philosophy for which spirit is the infinite which can be realized negatively by transcending the sense of duality of external and internal world of things and forms, the majesties of ego and intellect and thereafter a spiritual aspirant is freed from all opposites of life7. The Upaniṣadic statement “not this, not this” according to which spirit is not all that we know through our senses, logical reasoning, language and intellect, which are duality-oriented. After negation of the sense of duality, the sense of “all is spirit” is realized that is, positively, by perceiving all essentially as the same spirit8. The difference is only of approaching with which the non-difference is unaffected. Some later philosophers in India took the negative approach (not this, not this) as a model and some other the positive (spirit is all) as the basic model of their philosophizing. Spirit according to Upaniṣads is the true nature of all conscious and unconscious things and of the universe itself and it is why it has to be learnt, meditated upon and realized.
UNDERSTANDING THE EARTH AND THE ECO-WORLD IN VEDIC SPIRITUALITY
Some people of a sects or sub sects work with a book like perceiving through a tube that limits our freedom of perceiving. Vedas, in fact, have spiritual ecological orientation. All the forces constituting planetary sphere, celestial forces and the Earth are perceived as Deity and deserve divine respect. In regard to the “earth” and the “world” also it has a spiritualistic vision. I make a difference between earth and world because the world belongs to human or extendedly the ecosphere while the earth
52 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 13(1)/2016: 49–68 is not confined to the eco or bio world only; the earth can extend the worlds9. There are two retentions about the earth – one in ègveda and the other in Atharvaveda. It perceives “Earth as our mother, the cloud- pervaded sky as our father and we as her offspring”10. All beings in the world are her own11 and the utmost duty of any on the earth is to ensure that all directions east, west, north and south be destined pleasant: we should not lower ourselves to collapse12. A very excellent and unparalleled picture of spiritual behavior based on the Vedic vision of perceiving that to which we perceive “other” is presented in by Kalidasa. The lion catching hold of the Nandinã, the cow of the sage Vaśiṣñha, speaks to the King Dilãpa’ who was in the service of the cow by the order of the sage do you see the Devadàru tree (pine tree) ahead? The lord Shiva considers that tree as his very son. The tree is the knower of the taste of the water (rasajna) of the golden pots of the Goddess Pàrvatã as Skanda, her own son is the knower of the taste of her milk coming out from her breast.13
The story goes on that
Once while rubbing his ear, a wild elephant injured the part of that tree. By that hurt, Pàrvatã, the consort of the lord, got as much pained as if some demon might have wounded her own son by a dreadful weapon in the war.14
One can line these verses only if he has a spiritual vision and respect for the life whether it is in an animal or in a tree or in you. Some ideologies are so disoriented that they do not care all others who do not fall in the compass of human existence, which for them is supreme to others. They have a divided outlook based on their faith and territorial proximity about the humans also. These ideologies are imperialistic in nature and always have a divided view about his surroundings and relegate justice while theorizing environment and environmental ecology. They leave so many essential questions about their relation to others aside and interpret the relation for which others are given only like slaves. They cannot think that they are “nature inside and the outside”, which is the foundation of spiritual ecology. Spiritual ecology of the Vedic tradition is of the view that unless the baby comes out of the womb of the mother, it is unable to see the mother, it’s creator. Likewise, if one is captive of religious, theological and the book
53 Devendra Nath Tiwari / Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics dogma of the faith, one cannot see the nature, the mother earth, the creator. In changing scenario, as I think, outdated ideologies will be put in danger of extinction, if they do not incorporate the respect for the changing attitudes towards nature.
AESTHETICAL AWARENESS OF VEDIC-TRADITION
The Earth is beautiful in its entirety. Humans divide it into different territories for the purpose of making it more beautiful, its great care and concern as the “other” that comprises the major part. The “other” is defined for the purpose of this presentation as all those except “I” or more extendly human races. This other is the nature, the same energy inside and outside with different names, forms and functions and, therefore, it should be observed as venerable as the nature in man. The negligence of the other as usable only has caused an alarming situation and now, a risk against human living. Spirit, in Vedic Tradition, is consciousness – in you and me and in all. Herein, I shall not discuss the issues regarding eternity, creation and nature of it as ontic – being because that is not proposed to discussed herein this paper. I am concerned, herewith, it as it is given as openness and its functions as one experiences it. It is ubiquitous; this does in no way mean that I am talking about one or many of spirits. My simple concern here is that taken in totality, one and many are its forms. It manifests, flashes freely and variously to cultivate its beauty in each of existences. Each of its flashes is new; it never ends or confines to any or many of its forms. This is the beauty of spirit. Its freedom to flash independently and differently in each event, its freshness; the possibility of being expressed in infinite moments without any exterior determination – ontic, religious and others, is its freedom. It is because of its freedom that its cultivation through its endless manifestations is possible. It is condemned to express afresh in each moment and that makes the individuals realize the beauty of spirit. One’s perception of the diversities makes him experience and realize the perfection of Beauty. Beauty of life is deconstructed if the respect for diversities is not taken in view; all individuals are organic whole. Beauty lies in the diversity of its manifestations through which it gets its potentials actualized and not in an artificial synthetic or amalgamation of the selected parts or in taking a single part as the integral whole. Beauty, separated from diversity
54 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 13(1)/2016: 49–68 that is its manifestations or creativity is only a discolored abstraction that is of little attraction. Its freedom is its creativity and the creativity in all of its events is novel and that is why it is never static. Beauty lays in its manifesting more and more in a way that each of the manifestations, separately or collectively makes us feel charismatic. Novelty and vivaciousness of beauty make us feel our deep relation and freshness. The same food constantly served to one even on the same days can cause distaste. Viewing even a part as a complete unit of beauty adds the charm. The nature like spirit is always a process of creativity because of which it is always emerging as new with its diverse manifestations. There is no repetition, no sameness of events in nature; it is always new and unique and that is what we call the magnetism of the beauty. Prophets are those who try to cultivate unity to maintain the diversity so that inhabitants should not conflict each other for dominance and exploitation and work in and for harmony. It can never be a prophecy to destroy the diversity only because one does follow a different prophecy or because one does not accept any or because perceives beauty opposed to forcefully drawn uniformity. From the perspective of nature and even of God, thinking about uniformity by killing the diversity is just thinking the divine pauper and as such is suicidal of a faith on one hand and social and political crime on the other.
VIEWS REGARDING EVALUATION OF THE OTHER
Thinkers all over the world down the decades have responded differently on the issues of human obligation to forces in the biotic domain and the natural environment as well. Human behavior to environment is evaluated mostly on the basis of three basic ethical beliefs regarding it. They are: 1. Utility value: environment is naturally given for men’s enjoyment; it has only utility value, for the humans. 2. Existence Value: Everything in the nature constitutes its perfection; has existence or a place in the universe. Not only earthly but also the solar system, planets, stars, other material elements on one hand and animal, forest, aquatics and other communities including human beings complete the creation. For creation and maintenance of life, a collective living, the existence-value of them is meaningfully inevitable. Their mutual gravitational force affecting on each other matters for their
55 Devendra Nath Tiwari / Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics dependency, proportionate balance, disproportionate imbalance and accordingly acts on for their existence, health, alteration, decomposition, etc. 3. A blend of the two-Existence and Utility: Some recent Thinkers including those who plead for the ethics of dark green religion on Environment consider that the non-human species have utility and existence regardless of their usefulness to human beings.
DIFFERENT WORLD-VIEWS REGARDING HUMAN RELATION TO ENVIRONMENT
The global receptivity towards spiritual perspectives is a great hope for the future living in harmony with the planet. The awareness of welfare of others, other communities and welfare of environment in case of the imperialistic attitude still stands close there from where it was started. In the whole scheme, the rest of major human and non-human communities are treated as the other, which, is taken as the object of the sadistic sport for them. Texts of the Vedic tradition, deal with cultivation of a wonderful capacity that accommodates conflicting situations for the greater purpose of living a life in harmony, peace and progress with nature. Spirit is the reality and that is ubiquitously given in all animate and inanimate beings; the given can positively be realized only by the practices of virtues gradually leading to the actualization of one’s existence through creativity of his spirit. Since the time immemorial Dharma perceives life not only as confined to individual life but the life on the earth, its continuity from past to present and maintenance in future. Living in past is irrational and negative and as wild to others who are fitting to incorporate the changes as per local and global needs. Life has the utmost value, whether it is in me or in you or in trees or in ocean is supreme, it has the existence value. One can observe that some of the Religious sects of Indian origin and some of the systems of Indian philosophy as well are anthropocentric but for giving highest care to what I call “others” they not only introduce but also give utmost primacy to some virtues in their philosophy after which they are identified globally as great nature caring spiritual system. According to the perspective of Vedic tradition, the measure of our cultivation and progress lies in our conception that individuals,
56 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 13(1)/2016: 49–68 communities, territories are different but our conduct to all of them must be equal.
ANTHROPOCENTRIC WORLD -VIEW ABOUT ECO-SYSTEM
Some religions believe in an ideology for which man is the center in the gamut of evolution. God has created everything for men who are ends. It is for their enjoyment that God has created environment, which they can enjoy not only as per their requirement but also competitively to the extent it is being exploited by those having imperialistically developed arrogance and passion for their advancement. Everything is for men and they have no obligation to non-humans, which lack sense of obligation and reason. This ideology is called Anthropocentricism, a theory that gives only utility value to environment. Man is the highest end and we, the humans are “members of the kingdom of ends” this maxim of Immanuel Kant overlooks the fact that human species are integral part of the whole organism and it is by living for the whole that he can live for himself. An imperialistic and corporate understanding of this ideology has caused great damage to all the spheres of environment. Anthropocentric world views and the monistic religious views of a ruler God with human ends are responsible for exploitation and causing destruction of environment for industrial progress and are affecting even now the social-political structure of recent century with their track away from awareness of spirituality about earth and its constituents. Spiritual ecology examines reasons underlying our beliefs and attitude about nature and deepens the spiritual responsibility to nature. It concerns with recognition of earth as spiritual laws of our behavior and in consonance with the laws inside us. Buddhism is nihilistic about the external world, which for them is a hypostatization of the ideas as external things that are association of fleeting qualities and hence have no existence value. Despite of their nihilistic metaphysical position they accept the importance of environment for life on earth in general and human life in particular. They give importance to the logic of compassion because of which they realize their moral duty towards the other. Compassion has no boundary of space, time, individual and community. It is for the welfare of all. Thus by introducing the logic of compassion the anthropocentric ideology of Buddhism makes rooms not only for preserving the environment but
57 Devendra Nath Tiwari / Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics also for making and keeping it sound. The inclusion of the logic of “compassion” ranks Buddhism popularly a spiritual philosophy. Jainism with its ideology of liberation as separation of material elements from the conscious Individual provides subordinate status to the things constituting nature; the association of elements serves as bonds that attach the consciousness with their limitations. However, their view that everywhere and in everything there is presence of conscious atoms is of utmost value; it gives importance to the theory of non-violence, which translates their anthropocentric ideology eco- friendly. Now awareness is growing among the people with their realizations that if men are to live on earth they have to live the nature. Even if we accept the world as the creation of God, being creator he cannot create the things with a fixed and divided value- loving to one and usable to others; if he does this, he is a sadist and incomplete who like us makes the distinction between things he creates. It is we who put ourselves as superior creation and nature as at our disposal to be used. The demarcation and distinction of love and use may demand further division in people to whom you love and the others to whom you use and like wise. If you love you understand the love. Is it not love to yourself, your creations and surroundings as well? Even within the religious traditions one can find deep developing spiritual vision of a collective world/humans. The concept of Prophet “as steward of earth” and as “trustee of God on earth” need to be interpreted in view of spiritual narratives for coming over the present religious tension and environmental crisis. It is an argument from the spiritual ecology and is very often supported by vegetarianism, perhaps, against the risks of flesh eating by some religious prescription. The risk of eating human flesh in time to come is most alarming if the flesh eating is not translated as occasional. The excessive consumption of flash amounts the extinction of the animal races.
BIO-CENTRICISM
Bio-centric ideology insists that man has to protect and promote the interest of flora and fauna, which have not only utility value for humans but have their existence value as well. Life cannot survive without the life-sustaining elements. In cosmos they share equal importance. It is not
58 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 13(1)/2016: 49–68 only human being that is on earth but the biosphere comprises of all non-human living beings have value in organism also. In Vedic tradition, every life is respectful. Planting trees which in modern idiom is the natural air conditioners of the universe, the construction of large tanks which captures the monsoon’s rain and the ground water replenish to ensure constant source of sweet water, the digging of wells for drinking water and irrigation are considered as the duties by performing which one earns merit (puṇya) and because of which enjoys heaven even in this life. Worshiping of trees is indigenous ritual having vedic significance in Hinduism. I remember a story of Bhāgvatpurāṇa15 according to which the two sons of Kubera got release from their cursed life of trees when Bāla Kŗṣṇa uprooted them. However, this politico-ethical viewpoint ranks high a level of awareness superior to egocentric, ethnocentric and other forms of anthropocentric theories but it does not concern directly with the awareness against the crisis of pollution, contamination, destruction, etc, of cosmic elements like air, water, fire, soil, clouds or sky on the soundness of which the life is sustained.
THE VIEW OF BLUE DARK GREEN RELIGION
My exposition of the DGR is confined to Bron Taylor’s paper entitled From the Ground Up: Green Dark Green Religion (Bron, 2009: 1)16 – wherein he has tried to present his view without basing his idea on any of religious dogmas. It considers nonhuman species to have worth regardless of their influences to human beings. His attempt to which he designates religion is centered to express and promote an ethics of kinship between human beings and the other life forms. According to Taylor, the title of his paper “from ground up” is aiming to focus on intellectual roots of such spirituality by examining dark green religion with in what he calls “the environmentalists milieu” namely the context where in environmentally concerned officials, movements and individuals connect with reciprocally influence on one another (Bron, 2009: 1). He refers to Colin Campbell’s notion of Cultic Milieu. Campbell by the term cultic milieu meant the western countercultures in which socially deviant counter cultural knowledge, both spiritual and scientific/quasi-scientific are brought together by their carriers and proponents to incubate and cross fertilize. The “milieu” is remarkably receptive to the ideas of the other in
59 Devendra Nath Tiwari / Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics resistance to the cultural mainstream (Campbell, 2002: 12-25). The term religion is used by the Bron Taylor in the sense of practice with nature as sacred.
COSMO-CENTRISM
This ideology rests on the belief that not only living beings but also the planets, material elements like sky, air, water, fire and other earthly elements also have existence value. The whole cosmos has the same essential substance from which they have been evolved and therefore should be preserved without any alteration. Philosophy of Sāükhya school in its dualistic scheme accepts nature as eternal. It is matter and is the cause of things in the universe including subtle inner sense that comprises of ego, intellect and mind. Spirit is also eternal in the dualistic ontology of Sāükhya. Many commentators have tried to give ultimate position to spirit and have accepted its separation from primordial matter as the final goal. Giving subordinate position to nature, these commentaries seem contradicting to a dualistic philosophy that accepts nature like spirit is also eternal. Sāükhya always philosophizes liberation as the wisdom of distinctive knowledge of nature, the realization of which does not subordinate to spirit but merits both of the eternal substances as having existence value- spirit has existence as spirit and Nature as nature. Neither of the two is subordinate. The whole cosmos, mind, ego, five primordial elements, five sensory, five motor organs are creations of the original seed that is nature17. Creativity is a joint process and the process in no way effects the eternity and the independence of any of them. By getting discriminate knowledge, the aim of phenomenal human life, is absorbed in the transcendental without a need of destroying the independence of the nature.. Some other forms of the theory believe that much before the origin of life forms, there was the atmosphere, water and salutary conditions. Human species was a latter phenomenon. But on account of being self-conscious, man has the ability to tamper with the state of nature. Non-humans live in consonance with the ways of nature and man; the rational animal is under the obligation to subscribe to a Cosmo-centric conduct with love and concern with forces in inanimate nature. The idea of pan-consciousness is the metaphysical justification to cosmo-centrism.
60 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 13(1)/2016: 49–68
There is no conflict or antithesis between matter and man. Their difference is only of degree and not of kind. The inanimate is conscious at the core and thus matter and life form continuity. The theory is very often grabbed by the monists in whose hands the creation of nature is placed to depend on God who creates the cosmos with man as it’s protector on the earth. And then, there will be a very little difference of this and the anthropocentric conduct of man to nature. The crisis of nature is ignored to be a God’s miracle and left unresponded with the translation of cosmocentric ethics of environment into monistic where there is an option to men for being a dishonest trustee of the nature.
HOLOGRAPHIC UNIVERSE
The idea of holographic or synchronic theory of universe presents a three-dimensional image of the things in which every part sundered from the whole, retains the structure of the whole. The universe is ultimately interconnected. Any defect in the morphic field adversely affects the whole. For Vedic tradition, nothing is useless, redundant and dispensable; everything has its important place in the cosmic web. Every part is related to every other part. If a part is endangered, it has its necessary repercussion on the whole. If an ant is trod upon causing its premature end, it causes disharmony in the cosmos. Even synchronizing one’s breathing with that of the whole universe can cause great suffocation. The Vedic tradition cares this constitution in such a way that it perceives all events of life through this outlook that forms the backbone of Indian Culture.
VEDIC VIEW OF INBORN DEBTS TO ENVIRONMENT
Vedic philosophy perceives life is an obligation. Had there been no occasion to pay off the debts one owes by birth, no life could be human. There is birth because there are debts it borrows from the earlier life to payoff. It believes in grossly three kinds of debts to pay out – a) to seers, sages and teachers, b) to fellow beings and deities and c) to manes. Tattirīya samhitā 18 says that by practicing celibacy, by performing sacrifices, and by begetting a offspring respectively, one pays off those debts. Some of the texts views, the debts are not three but five but
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according to Brāhmaṇa texts they are three only because the debt to the fellow beings is included in the debts to the deities and the debts to the guests is included in debts to the manes. In brief, paying off those debts forms moral, social, socio-ethical and environmental practices of life of man reasonable, lively, and interesting. According to Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 19, by learning wisdom, by performing sacrifices, giving alms to ancestors, hosting the guests and by begetting a son, one pays off the debts of seers, ancestors and deities and human beings respectively. One has obligation to all elements constituting nature, fellow beings, animals, plants, river, mountains etc. The philosophy lying behind it is that if all of them are healthy and balanced, the life will be peaceful and peace will be blissful. Thus, our utmost effort is to insure their health and to protect the balance. For paying off these debts the scheme of sacrifices to five fires pertaing to beings in surrounding are properly worked out in the scriptures. Out of these the sacrifice to fellow-beings is of central importance because it concerns with our conduct to nature as sacred. It comprises negatively of refraining one from misusing or polluting the mind, natural elements, destroying spheres of environment that causes demerit because of which one has to suffer hell and positively, our obligation to the physical sphere, bio- sphere and to all the elements of the cosmos. We have obligation to all that in tangible or intangible way help us in sound living. Hindus even at present time worship these elements of nature as a part of their rituals.
ECO-SPIRITUAL VIEW OF UPANIṢADS ABOUT PRODUCTION OF SOUND MIND AND BODY
Life, according to Vedic tradition, is a constant process; it emerges out of an environment, exists, grows, and upsurges, reduces and destroys in proportion to its failure in keeping its inner environment intact with the outer. And the circle continues to rebirth which is just the changing of the earlier body. The environment produces and sustains it. It is, perhaps, for the first time in the history of thought that the vision of human creation by healthy environment under the Vedic teaching of five fire-sacrifice20 comes forward in the older Upaniṣads like Bŗhadāraṇyaka and Chāndogya, and a version of it is to be found in Gītā and Manusmŗti as well. This skill envisages the science of creation of man through the consecutive offering in five fires namely – The Lustrous fire (dyulokâgni)
62 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 13(1)/2016: 49–68 to which the “trust” is offered, The Cloud fire (parjanyâgni) to which the subtle water (produced from the oblation of trust, the life-force, in the first of the sorts of the fires) is offered and that then produces rain. Rain produced from the Cloud-fire is offered in the Earth fire (Ihalokâgni) and that oblation produces grain including fruits, medicinal plants and all the edibles which are offered in the Man fire (puruṣâgni) the forth sort of the fires and out of that offering semen is produced which when offered in the young woman (yoṣâgni), the fifth of the fires, a baby is produced. This science points to the fact that if the environment is not pure and healthy, there will be no possibility of the birth of babies with divinely excellent, positively brilliant and healthy qualities. The rain is the cause of grains and as per the qualities of rain – water there will be the quality of the grains produced and the purity and impurity of rain – water depend on the formation of clouds which are formed out of smokes, air etc. If we offer ghee, honey and other materials that are known for brilliance and purifiers of the environment in the fire, we will get the rain, the grains, the semen and lastly the baby having excellently sound qualities.
THEORY OF FIVE LAYERED ENVIRONMENT (PANCAKOŚAS) OF HUMANS AS SPIRITUAL BEING
Spirit is encircled by five layered chambers21 environment namely: 1. Food (annamaya), 2. vital (prāṇamaya), 3. Intellect (manomaya), 4. Knowledge (vijnānamaya) and 5. bliss (Ānandamaya). First of the layer is the outer or external that consists of material bodies and the elements of them. Layer second covers the bio-sphare. Layer third includes the part of bio-sphere endowed with life forces, desires, passions and the competence of thinking, imagination and taking decision. Layer forth comprises of knowledge, illumination, reflecting on for the wisdom. Layer fifth is the subtlest and goal to which all others are interconnected. Had these layers not the bliss as their goal in their constitution they might have no meaning and relevance of being interconnected. The bliss concept is the heart that makes circulation in all the layers possible. The Upanişad says that the “food” gets destroyed without Life and life is dried out without “food”. In human body all the layers are enliven because of the circulation of bliss and that is possible only when all the layers are healthy and balanced. If any of the layers are polluted or contaminated their mutual circulation system is disturbed and that
63 Devendra Nath Tiwari / Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics disturbs not only the life on earth but the life of the earth also. They all are mutually related and the bliss acts on for their existence and life-value. This philosophy of five – layered environment and their mutual harmony is the foundation insight not only of Vedic but of Indian philosophical systems also.
DIFFERENCE OF SPIRITUAL AND ANTHROPOCENTRIC ATTITUDE TOWARDS ENVIRONMENT
There is radical difference between spiritual ecology of Vedic tradition and other world views about environment. Some ideologies believe that there is no life before one’s birth and after his death. It is the only life that is to live with all conquer and getting pleasure by exploiting surrounding. Sanātana – Dharma and the Indian Philosophical systems (excluding Cārvāka) – believe that death is not the extinction of life but death of present body which is an outcome of the fruits of the actions accumulated in the past life and the future life is in order that has to be shaped by the actions in the present life. It believes that the man exists with his identity in the present life and his borrowed genetic identity remains constant in the form of his children and the children of children. He aspires for a future living that he can live only in the form of his children. Life is a continuous and everlasting process and that is of utmost importance. Life is possible only in an environment and that I cannot put my future at risk by polluting or destroying it. Let me illustrate the difference spiritual perspective from that of others. A man found an ornate antique birdcage. He carefully restored it, cleaning and polishing it upside down and down side up all the day without caring the bird inside the cage. When he displayed the birdcage, the people got shocked to find that the bird inside is dead. Opposed to it, the vedic care is to find the bird chanting and singing inside the cage despite of the brightness of cage comparatively less. The West has realized that despite of differences of the approaches of science and religion, they have to come to an agreement on the point that life is caused out of an environment, resides in an environment and finally creates an environment of its own and doing great researches at different levels and measures of its conservation and protection. The basic difference between the approaches is that science can suggest only
64 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 13(1)/2016: 49–68 some prohibitive measures, can warn us about the abuses by showing the effects of doing harm to environment. For Hindus who are not a member of any of the sects believing in righteousness. Dharma is righteousness, the wisdom of obligations with the ideas and practices for creating the healthy environment, curing the ills of environment, suggesting the natural measures useful for purifying and protecting the environment. The Vedic tradition believes the divinity of and respect to all forms of life. There is no theological dogma in Hinduism. Deities, demons, animals, trees even stones and any element of nature including all forms and constituents of life on earth are the objects respectable for living a heaven on this earth. Heaven, beyond the earth, is not a concept formed for living the life that is possible only on earth. Living is always a living on earth. A faith about life in the heaven separate from the earth is just figuration intending message to live the life of merits. Against different popular world views on the relation and interaction between humans and environment, the spiritual ecology is importantly covetous. According to it as below so is above. If a tiny element of the environment or an atom is defected the whole is affected. And, therefore, the soundness of the part is inevitable for the same of the whole. This holistic approach takes the idea of mutual influence of all the layers of man and his environment and the vice versa as laws of mutual living to which environmental awareness must be linked with our duties and actions for the progress that can define our rationality.
CONCLUSION
Two powerfully built points common to all Religions of non-Indian Origin, first of which is that they impose all the gifts we get from nature on pity of God’s greatness on human being and second that every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for humans22, are the two disgraceful points that are used for destroying the other. The existential difference of me and my environment or other in Vedic-tradition is just ignorance, a sense of duality for which “I” stands as subject and the “other” as object, ego against which the sense of non-difference or “all is spirit” is the light, the remedy. This device has caused great influence on different ideologies of the world and has inspired them for healthy practices regarding the “other”. A perfect harmony between scientific
65 Devendra Nath Tiwari / Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics and technological development and spiritual ecology is feasible only if we perceive everything in nature has existence value like parts of human’s own body and hence humans can be called so only when their conduct shows equal respect to lives in nature as well. For each “I” the other is you or he/it and vice versa; substantially the subject and the object are the same for each other and, therefore, our conduct must be based on nature as sacred. Accordingly, I can conclude that the progress of rationality and culture of an individual and a nation be measured in proportion to the development of the respect to the other.
References Bron, Taylor. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and Planetary Future. University of California Press, 2009. Callicott, J. Baird and Roger T. Ames. Eds. Nature in Asian Tradition of Thought, Essays in Environmental Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989. Campbell, Colin. “The Cult, the Cultic Milieu, and Secularization.” The cultic Milieu: Oppositional subcultures in an age of globalization. Eds. Kaplan, Jeffrey and Heléne Lööw. Walnut Creek, Calif: Altamira Press/Rowman and Littlefield, 2002. Erb, Cynthia. “A Spiritual Blockbuster: Avatar, Environmentalism, and the New Religions.” Journal of Film and Video 66.3, Fall 2004, (5).
Notes
1 The term ecology stands for our relationship between organism and their environment. We use the term “environment” in different context but generally it is taken for our surroundings and circumstances affecting the life organism, the interdependence of human being and their environment. The term “environmental ethics” stands for our conduct, our relation to the “others” which in totality is called “nature” and this is why an environmental approach becomes the spiritual and the progress of our spiritual conduct becomes the measure of our rational progress. 2 “Spiritual Ecology,” Wikipedia. 3 Vedic tradition is Dharma tradition mostly concerned with wisdom of obligations and cultivation to perfection. It is the foundation to almost all sects of Hinduism and is the tradition of those who are not even the members/followers of any of the sects and even of those who belong to Vedic tradition but are atheists. Hinduism is not a religion as the modernists popularly take the term; it is used equally for its different sects and sub sects like Vaiṣṇavism, Śàktism, Śaivism, Kŗṣṇavism, etc., but it is not identical to any or all of its sects and sub-sects. “Religion” is well defined in terms of tripartite dogma of faith in a God, a Prophet and a Book revealed to the prophets. In Dharma tradition there is no theological dogma; one can worship a tree, a mountain, a snake and can be an atheist as well. No prophet and no book- dogmas. Religious sects formed on its basis may not have a God or may have Gods with different names, hierarchy of saints, teachers and different books in different
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languages belonging to the communities of different territories. Dharma tradition is the asylum of all of them and many more because it comprises of all possible ways of life of the several seers who perceived values and duties of the life and imparted to make the life heaven on the earth. Here, one is free for opting any of the ways or none of the sects for purifying, controlling his desires, making his life the kingdom of heaven and move forward to spiritual realization. There is nothing like reservation of tickets for heaven “first come first get” otherwise your case will be below the bottom if you are late in joining the sect. Dharma Tradition talks of making this life, this world the heaven and for which one can qualify by cultivating wisdom, freedom from all the limitations even of the God, the prophet and the book. From this point of view Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Islam, etc., are the sects of respect. 4 Puruṣasåkta, Sage Naràyaṇa, ègveda, Mandal X, Mantra 2, Quoted from Chandasvati Vàka (select Vedic Mantras) by Vasudeva S. Agrawal, Published by Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-5, India, 1964. 5 Iśopaniṣad, verse 1. Ed. in Iśàdinau Upaniṣad, Gãtà Press Gorakhpur, India, samvat 2066. 6 The spirit (Iśvara) is equally there in all beings… Gãtà, Chapter 18 verse 61, the spirit is the seed of all, it is the intelligence of the intelligent, the glory of the glorious. See also, Gãtà, chapter 7, verse 10, Edited with Eng. Tr. Gita Press Gorakhpur, 2013. 7 Kaṭhopaniṣad 1.2.12. Ed. in Iśàdinau Upaniṣad, Gītā Press, Gorakhpur, Sambat 2066. 8 Chāndogyopaniṣad, 3/14/1,Gītā press, Gorakhpur, Sambat 2066. 9 “O Earth! You sustain several medicines having different powers, let you be expanded for us and enriched for us.” (Sà no bhåtasya bhavyasya patnyurum loke prithãvi na kŗṇotu. Asambadham – nnvãrya ausadhãrya vibharti prithãvi naþ prathat ràdhyata naþ). Prithãvisåkta, Atharvaveda, chapter-12, Mantra 12. 10 The Earth is Mother, we are her children and the sky laden with water and wind is our father. Let she nourish and keep us safe Ibidem, chapter 12, Mantra-12. 11 We all are her own, Ibidem, Mantra-14. 12 Ibidem, Mantra 18. 13 Kalidas, Raghubansam, with sanjivini commentary of Mallinatha and Chandrakala (Hindi commentary), Canto II, Verse 36, Chaukhamba Surbharati prakashan, Varanasi, 1998. 14 Ibidem, Canto II, Verse 37. 15 Srimadbhagvatam. Edited by M. Ramkrisna Sastry, Skandha 10, Chapter 10. Titumula Tirupati Devasthanam, Tirupati, 1984. 16 Also edited in Donald K. Swearer, Ecology and Environment: Perspective from the Humanities. Harvard University Press, 2008: 89-107. The paper in pdf form is available on net. 17 Iśvarakŗṣṇa, Sàükhya kàrikà, verse 61-62, with Gauṇapda Commentary and translate in Eng. by T. G. Mankar, Chaukhamba Sanskrit series, II edition, 1972. 18 Tattirīya samhitā, 6/3/10/5, edited by Vijayaraghavan Bhasyam, Hyderabad, 2005.
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19 Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, 1/7/2/11, edited in Sacred Books of the East, vol. XII, part I, Tr. by Julius Eggeling, 1882, Motilal Banarasi Dass, Delhi, 1903. 20 Bŗhadāraṇyakopaniṣad, Pancàgnividyà, 6/2/14-16 & a version of it is found there in Chandogyopaniṣad 5/3/6-10. 21 Taittirãyopaniṣad, 2/1/5, Gītā press, Gorakhpur, Samvat 2066. 22 Genesis, 9: 3.
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