Pinki Purkayastha

Silchar,Assam,India

In the ancient spiritual traditions, man was looked upon as part of nature, linked by

the indissoluble spiritual and psychological bonds to the elements around him. This is very much marked in the Hindu tradition, the oldest living religious tradition in the world. Throughout the long history of India, Hindus have shared a fascination with, and respect for, Nature and animals.This attitude went beyond the usefulness. It had to do with reverence for all of God's creation. Our ancestors worshipped trees, rivers, birds and stones and connected to the universal principle through Shiva. As we are growing more materialistic, we are losing this connection. Our ancestors saw Nature as being a manifestation of God. There was, therefore, a gratitude towards nature.

According Dr. David Frawley, " No religion, perhaps, lays as much emphasis on environmental ethics as does Hinduism. It believes in ecological responsibility and says like Native Americans that the Earth is our mother. It champions protection of animals, which it considers also have souls, and promotes vegetarianism. It has a strong tradition of non-violence or ahimsa. It believes that God is present in all nature, in all creatures, and in every human being regardless of their faith or lack of it."( http://atributetohinduism.com/Nature_Worship.htm (2 of 18) [5/5/2001 11:20:18 AM])

Hindu philosophy has always had a humane and dignified view of the sacredness of all life, and that humans are but one link in the symbiotic chain of life and consciousness.

Western philosophy, on the other hand, treats man and nature as separate entities believing that the former has the prerogative to exploit the latter. Thomas Carlyle in Signs of the Times says, "We war with rude nature; and by our restless engines, come off victorious and loaded with spoils."

Helen Ellerbe has written: "In the West, Christianity has distanced humanity from Nature. As people came to perceive God as a singular supremacy detached from the physical world, they lost their reverence for nature. In Christian eyes, the physical world became the realm of the devil. A society that had once celebrated nature through seasonal pagan festivals began to commemorate biblical events bearing no connection to the earth. Holidays lost much of the celebratory spirit and took on a tone of penance and sorrow. Time once thought to be cyclical like the seasons, was now perceived to be linear. In their rejection of the cyclical nature of life, orthodox Christians came to focus more upon death than upon life.( source: Dark Side of Christian History - By Helen Ellerbe p.139 - 155).Hinduism has often been coined as a "environmental friendly" religion. The Vedas, the oldest hymns composed by great spiritual seers and thinkers which are the repository of Hindu wisdom, reflect the vibrancy of an encompassing world-view which looks upon all objects in the universe, living or non-living, as being pervaded by the same spiritual power. Hinduism believes in the all-encompassing sovereignty of the divine, manifesting itself in a graded scale of evolution. The human race, though at the top of the evolutionary pyramid at present, is not seen as something apart from the earth and its multitudinous life forms.

The Artha-Veda has the magnificent Hymn to the Earth (Bhumi-Sukta) which is redolent with ecological and environmental values. The Vedic Hymn to the Earth, the Prithvi Sukta in Atharva Veda, is unquestionably the oldest and the most evocative environmental invocation. In it, the Vedic seer solemnly declares the enduring filial allegiance of humankind to Mother Earth: 'Mata Bhumih Putroham Prithivyah: Earth is my mother, I am her son.' Mother Earth is celebrated for all her natural bounties and particularly for her gifts of herbs and vegetation. Her blessings are sought for prosperity in all endeavours and fulfilment of all righteous aspirations. (source: The East is green - ourplanet.com).

In the Mudaka Upanishad the divine is described as follows:

“Fire is head, his eyes are the moon and the sun;

The regions of space are his ears, his voice the revealed Veda,

The wind is his breadth, his heart is the entire universe,

The earth is his footstool,

Truly he is the inner soul of all.” (http://atributetohinduism.com/Nature_Worship.htm (3 of 18) [5/5/2001 11:20:18 AM]

In The Bhagavad Gita, sloka 20, Chapter 10, Lord Krishna says, "I am the Self seated in the heart of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the very end of all beings". All beings have, therefore to be treated alike." India is a vast network of sacred places. There are seven sacred rivers, seven sacred mountains, sacred trees and plants, sacred cities. The sacrality of the land of India, gives a sense of unity to this country of so many religions, cultures, races and languages. The Mahabharata, Ramayana, Vedas, Upanishads,

Bhagavad Gita, Puranas and Smriti contain the earliest messages for preservation of environment and ecological balance. Nature, or Earth, has never been considered a hostile element to be conquered

or dominated. In fact, man is forbidden from exploiting nature. He is taught to live in harmony with nature and recognize that divinity prevails in all elements, including plants and animals.

Again the Varah Purana says, "One who plants one peepal, one neem, one bar, ten flowering plants or creepers, two pomegranates, two oranges and five mangos, does not go to hell."

The ancient Tamil scripture, Tirukural, advises in verse 324, "What is the good way? It is the path that reflects on how it may avoid killing any living creature;" and in verse 327, "Refrain from taking precious life from any living being, even to save your own life."

Dr. Karan Singh states: "In our arrogance and ignorance we have destroyed the environment of this planet. We have polluted the oceans, we have made the air unbreathable, we have desecrated nature and decimated wildlife. But the Vedantic seers knew that man was not something apart from nature, and, therefore, they constantly exhort us that, while we work for own salvation, we must also work for the welfare of all beings." (source: Essays in Hinduism - By Dr. Karan Singh p. 47)

The Rig Veda 1.6.3 states:

"Nature's beauty is an art of God. Let us feel the touch of God's invisible hands in everything beautiful. By the first touch of His hand rivers throb and ripple. When He smiles the sun shines, the moon glimmers, the stars twinkle, the flowers bloom.

By the first rays of the rising sun, the universe is stirred; the shining gold is sprinkled on the smiling buds of rose; the fragrant air is filled with sweet melodies of singing birds, the dawn is the dream of God's creative fancy."

Even the mention of mountains in India brings the word Himalaya immediately to the mind.

From the Himalayas has originated so many life-giving perennial rivers that have

sustained such a rich civilization. Of these the Ganges is the most respected one.

Shankaracharya (788-820), who propounded the Mayavad doctrine,

referred to the holy river as the goddess of divine essence, and established one of the four cardinal hermitages in the Garhwal Himalayas. Scientist J C Bose(1858-1937), also ventured into the Himalayas, as expounded in his sagely philosophical

essay Bhagirathir Utsha Sandhane, to explore how the Ganges flows down from

the "matted locks of Shiva".

Puranas, ancient works of Hindu stories, says

:"In the space of a hundred ages of the Gods, I could not describe to you the glories of Himachal; that Himachal where Siva dwells and where the Ganges falls like the tendril of a lotus from the foot of Vishnu. There are no other mountains like Himachal, for there are found Mount Kailas and Lake Manasarovar. As the dew is dried up by the morning sun, so are the sins of mankind by the sight of Himachal."

Goddess Saraswati is the embodiment of the mighty Saraswati River of the Vedas. Saraswati means "the essence of one's own self." The Sanskrit word 'sara' means essence and 'swa' means 'self'. She is the earliest goddess who is associated with a river in the Indian tradition. Nearly each and every river of the country is associated with some feelings of sacredness.Besides that India shows the tradition of Sun/Dawn/Fire/ Worship .

Vegetarianism in Hinduism

There is evidence of vegetarianism in the Vedas, Upanishads, Dharma Shastras, Yoga Sutras and most sacred texts of Hindus. These scriptures unambiguously support the meatless diet. This was observed by the ancient travelers like Megasthenes and Fa-Hsien, a Chinese Buddhist monk who, in the fifth century, traveled to India in order to obtain authentic copies of the scriptures.
"The purchaser of flesh performs himsa (violence) by his wealth; he who eats flesh does so by enjoying its taste; the killer does himsa by actually tying and killing the animal. Thus, there are three forms of killing: he who brings flesh or sends for it, he who cuts off the limbs of an animal, and he who purchases, sells or cooks flesh and eats it - all of these are to be considered meat-eaters”- Mahabharata
In the Tirukural, a Tamil scripture written over 2,000 years ago, abstaining from a diet consisting of flesh is clearly stated as a virtue.
"Greater than a thousand ghee offerings consumed in sacrificial fires is to not sacrifice and consume any living creature..." - Tirukural
Today India has the highest population of vegetarians in the world. According to reports 20% of India’s population is vegetarian.So finally we can say that, India is the country where The men submit to nature and form part of it , consider the Earth as the beautiful and sacred Goddess and also try to conserve her resources....as says the Hymn............

"O Goddess Earth, the consort of Visnu,
you whose garments are the oceans and

whose ornaments are the hills and

mountain ranges;

please forgive me as I walk on you

this day."