INDIAN SPIRITUAL SCIENCE: TO COMBAT ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

On 7^th April we celebrate ‘World Health Day’and WHO (World Health Organisation) was established to guide us globally to lead a healthy life. We in India are guided by the sayings and philosophy of our rishis and munis and their spiritual science. The popular Indian saying ‘swastha man me hi swastha tan ka vikas hota hai’ and ‘jaisa khao ann waisa hoga man’, carry a very deep meaning. In Hindu philosophy there is a system of different stages or ashramas to live a life of discipline and to follow the natural laws. It is required to conquer the self and not to exploit natural resources as well as the living creatures. Thus there is a spiritual science behind different stages of life. Similarly our rishis and munis gave emphasis on ‘Vegetarianism’. There was two spiritual science behind them First, not to harm any living creatures and second, the more we eat animals our behaviour also become more violent and intolerable. This has been proved scientifically also. 

Sanatan dharm emphasises on comprehensive view of life which aims for realization of both material prosperity as well as spiritual prosperity. It always exhorted men to realize four purusharthas or values of life, namely Dharm (righteousness),  Artha (wealth),  kama (desire) and moksha(liberation). If we follow four purusharthas of life we can conquer overself and if we conquer overself we can achieve inner peace and inner purity which gives us good inner health. If we succeed in achieving inner health our health automatically will become healthier and that is our spiritual science to combat environmental pollution. Every sanatan philosophy has got science behind them and it symbolises some deep moral lessons behind them. For example when we worship Lord shiv parivar it gives us the lesson to live in harmony with nature, there is no concept of ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘might is right’ in shiv parivar. There is snake in shiva’s neck , rat is the vehicle of Ganesh, peocock is the vechile of Kartikya and lion is the vehicle of ma parvati and there is nandi (cow), all lives in harmony. This asks us not to overexploit nature on the basis of ‘survival of the fittest’ but to create harmony among the nature.

The five elements make man’s life possible- Water, air, earth, fire, and space. It is given in Tattriya Upanishad that from space comes wind; from wind- fire; from fire- water; from water-earth ; from earth-herbs; from herbs –food; from food –blood ;from blood-humans. This is the process of evolution. Hence balance should be maintained between all the five elements. If the balance is disturbed, the life of the people would be in danger. So in Vedic mantra peace on all (gods, earth, vegetation, water, air, fire, and space) has been invoked. Sanatan dharm has prescribed worship of nature as Sun, Moon, wind, fire, etc. and of the natural objects also as mountains, rivers, trees, plants, animals, birds etc. Behind this spiritual science, the idea is that the man should respect natural resources for the sake of their existence.

In western countries, natural resources are for their material prosperity so they use to exploit nature in the name of development. But for we Indians, our cultural heritage and scriptures teach us that natural resources are not only for consumption but it has divinity within it. So it should be worshipped. In Padma Purana, it is said that Ganga can wash away the sins of several births. It makes one virtuous, and enables one to find a place in heaven. Sanatan dharm and its scriptures realises us that divinity pervades every pore of a human being and natural resources. It is equally so in case of animals. In the Rig-Veda, it is said, Do not be like a devlish buzzard that troubles other birds by catching their necks and killing them. Do not trouble the trees. Do not uproot or cut them. They provide protection to animals, birds and other living beings. In the Manusmriti it is said that trees are like human beings and experience sorrow and happiness. God has created them for the welfare of living beings. Peepal ,Tulsi ,Bargad ,Ashok tree,etc; all have scientific as well as spiritual assets for Hindus. 

Different vehicles of animals for Gods and goddesses symbolise some art of living for human beings. Lakshmi used an owl as a vehicle. An Owl is a day blind. It can see only at night, those are obsessed with wealth and prosperity operate in darkness. They are unaware of the light of the Sun ,which is symbolic of self –knowledge or self-realisation. Shiva and parvati use the bull Nandi, who perceives religious knowledge well. Its white colour is symbolic of its capabilities. Its four legs are symbolic of the four pillars of religion- compassion, charity, austerity and purity. Through these four qualities, one can attain salvation. Durga uses lion as a vehicle. The lion is a ferocious, fearless animal, symbolic of strength and virility. The devotees of Durga gradually develop the qualities of lion. They develop strength through devotion. The love for their masters makes animals resemble human friends in many ways. Sages and saints could live safely in deep forests because of the company of animals like cows, goats, horses, sheep ,deer and even smaller animals like dogs, cats and squirrels. The cow is known not only for the milk that it provides, but it acknowledge as a ‘mother’. So there should be stringent law for protection of cows.

Gandhi taught us that man should consume only minimum quantity of material things which are necessary to keep him physically fit .Additional consumption would mean grabbing the rightful share of others. He rightly observed: Earth has enough resources to satisfy everybody’s need but not their greed. Gandhi never wanted India to emulate the ways of the western civilization. He held that the western civilization sought to promote consumerism which would lead us to moral decline. Moral regeneration calls for self-control and the spirit of renunciation.  Moral strength could not be gained through fulfilment of material needs. He was opposed to any notion of development that seeks to multiply material wants and to find the means of their fulfilment. He argued that in the west people talk of improvement of quality of life in the sense of raising the standard of living. But the key of real improvement in life of man lies in the conscience. This is the real spiritual Indian science that the world need today to combat environmental pollution.

Environmental balance must be maintained and India has tremendous solutions for this. Awareness in this direction grew after 1970 when scientists discovered traces of snow melting at Antarctica. Such a serious issue was discussed at the Stockholm conference. It was resolved that environment be protected and purified for the safety of present and future generations. The motto ‘Only One Earth’ was adopted. On 28^th October, 1982 ,The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted World Charter for Nature . The Brundtland commission submitted its report in 1987 with the title of ‘Our Common Future’ .The report says Development should be such that it meets the requirements of the present ,but it should not be fatal to the capacity of the coming generations. A.Leroy Bennett said, The motto of  ‘Only One Earth’ lays stress on essential unity and interdependence of life supporting system on a world level. In the Stockholm Declaration of 1972 it is mentioned that the man is the creator moulder of his environment, it makes his physical existence possible and it alone can make his intellectual, moral,social and spiritual development possible. A conference was held at Rio de Jeneiro in Brazil in june,1992 to consider the recommendations of this commission. It was called Earth summit. On this occasion, a detailed programme was adopted for the next century that is known as Agenda-21 . It was insisted that all states should maintain balance of nature, prevent pollution of environment, and adopt the course of Sustainable Development.  

In 1968, Garrett Hardin presented his paper titled ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’. Garrett Hardin said if the people of the world overexploit the common resources of environment, although they know that their such actions would be harmful to their long –range interests, the result would be tragedy of the commons. In 1972, a group of scholars (club of Rome) brought out a book with the title of ‘Limits of Growth’, in which they highlighted the bad effects of increasing population on environment. There are some assets on which no state may have its exclusive hold on atmosphere, space, open seas or seabed, or Antarctica. It is called common property.  The case of Outer space has its own place in this regard. American president Reagan made the ambitious programme of strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) also known as star war programme. Its aim was to create stations in the space so as to launch atomic weapons from there. But this programme could not be successful. The powerful states have increased their strategic power by making nuclear experiments in the atmosphere and in the open seas and thereby polluted the purity of environment.

Oil is a natural resource that is called black gold. For this reason some countries of west Asia attract the attention of other countries. Advanced Industrial societies, with higher rates of production and consumption, are more responsible for environmental degradation and pollution than the developing societies. As Ted Trainer (Abandon Affluence ; 1985) observes : each America uses 617 times as much energy per year as the Ethiopians. It is pointed out that America comprise 6% of world population, but they are responsible for consumption of about 50%of manufactured and 33% of energy of the world .This leaves a very little room for poor countries with vast populations.

Early hints of environmentalism may be found in E.F. Schumacher’s famous work, ‘Small is Beautiful’ (1973), which contained a critique of modern industrial society . He observed, “ the modern industrial system, with all its intellectual sophistication, consumes the very basis on which it has been erected.” The man is nothing but a bundle of thoughts. The day we spiritualise our thought process and our developmental model we become the healthiest and happiest world.  Spiritualism can cleanse our inner health which automatically has impact on our outer health. Today, the environmental pollution has direct impact on our health. Adulteration in food has become a matter of great concern. Self consciousness can only combat this global crisis. The self-consciousness, purity and honesty in our thoughts can only come through spiritual awakening. Small little changes can make this earth a beautiful place to live in. The Indian model of ‘art of living’ can again make this earth prosperous of not only material wealth but divine wealth also and whole world can become a healthiest in respect of the inner as well as the outer health.

References:

1.      Gauba , O.P., An Introduction to political theory ;

2.       Bhatta, prem p. , Hindu Gods and Goddesses;

3.       Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi;