Christopher Key Chapple

Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water

This fourth volume in the series exploring religions and the environment investigates the role of the multifaceted Hindu tradition in the development of greater ecological awareness in India. The 22 contributors ask how traditional concepts of nature in the classical texts might inspire or impede an eco-friendly attitude among modern Hindus, and they describe some grass-roots approaches to environmental protection. They look to Gandhian principles of minimal consumption, self-reliance, simplicity and sustainability. And they explore forests and sacred groves in text and tradition and review the political and religious controversies surrounding Indias sacred river systems.

Hinduism and Ecology

Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water (Religions of the World and Ecology) [Hardcover] Christopher Key Chapple (Editor), Mary Evelyn Tucker (Editor), Anil Agarwal (Contributor), Kelly D. Alley (Contributor), Frederique Apffel-Marglin (Contributor), Pratyusha Basu (Contributor), Harry W. Blair (Contributor), Chris Deegan (Contributor), O. P. Dwivedi (Contributor), William F. Fisher (Contributor), Ann Grodzins Gold (Contributor), David L. Haberman (Contributor), George A. James (Contributor), Ms. Madhu Khanna Ph.D. (Contributor), Mr. Vinay Lal Ph.D. (Contributor), David Lee (Contributor), Philip Lutgendorf (Contributor)

Dharma and ecology of Hindu communities: sustenance and sustainability. By Pankaj Jain. Farnham, Surrey, U.K.: Ashgate, 2011. 213 pages

Book detailsJain, P Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and Sustainability. Ashgate Farnham, Surrey, U.K.; 2011.213 pages, ISBN 978-1-4094-0591-7

Ethics of Synthetic Life: A Jaina Perspective *

Many Western philosophers, from Aristotle through Descartes and even Collingwood and Whitehead, have regarded the material world to be largely inert and subject to human intervention. The modern period has yielded more nuanced definitions of nature, seeing the process of life as self-generating and self-sustaining. The Jaina worldview, dating from the first several centuries before the common era, has developed an elaborate biological schematic that attributes sentience and hence soul to even the elements of earth, water, fire, and air. They also developed a sophisticated ethical response to the “livingness” of things. The Jaina attitudes toward synthetic life are explored at the end of the paper, suggesting that even engineered cells would nonetheless possess the qualities of life that must be valued and protected.

Sacrifice and Sustainability

Sacrifice in the Jewish, Hellenistic, and Christian traditions involves a giving up, a surrendering of something for the sake of a greater good. Sacrifice in times past took the form of a bloody offering. In Christianity this has been replaced with the Eucharist, which promotes human conscience and adherence to a moral code. Sacrifice in the ancient Vedic traditions of India entailed the offering of an animal or the symbolic offering of a human being that correlated bodily parts to functions of society and the cosmos. Sacrifice in India in rare instances still includes the killing of animals. Ritual throughout India, known as Puja, celebrates the body, the senses, and their connection with the physical world through offerings of fruits, flowers, incense, and other ritual objects. The contemporary challenge presented by the need to develop sustainable lifestyles can draw from both traditions of sacrifice. The Mediterranean model urges people to do with less for the sake of a greater good. The Indic model encourages people to recognize the web of relations among humans, nature, and animals and develop sensitivity to the need for the protection of the earth. Both models of sacrifice can serve as inspiration for the development of reasonable patterns for resource management.

Thomas Berry, Buddhism, and the New Cosmology

Our contemporary awareness of an environmental ethic is understood to be based on representing a cosmology of the inter- connection of all beings. This construct is coincident with the emerg- ing sense of our present view of the phenomenal world and resonant with the insights of Theravada Buddhism.

Ecological Nonviolence and the Hindu Tradition

Nonviolence has long been central to the religious traditions of India, especially Jainism, Buddhism, and certain schools of Hinduism. From the early pronoucement that “all things want to live” (Acaranga Sutra, I:I) to Vyasa’s definition of nonviolence as the “absence of oppression toward all living beings in all respects and for all times” (Bhasya on Yoga Sutra, 11:31) to the Dalai Lama’s recent assertion that “all beings primarily seek peace, comfort, and security; life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to a man” (1980, p.78) religion in India has consistently upheld the sanctity of life, whether human, animal, or, in the cases of the Jainas, elemental. The message has provided an unparalleled concern for harmony amongst life forms, leading to a common ethos based on minimal consumption of natural resources, particularly for members of religious orders. In the discussion that follows, we will begin with some anecdotes that show the ongoing concern for not hurting living beings in India. We will then trace the history of nonviolence in India specifically in the Hindu tradition (See Chapple, 1986 for Jainism and Buddhism). The village economy proposed by Gandhi will be discussed briefly as a modern application of nonviolent principles. This all will be juxtaposed with some harsh realities from industrialized, twentieth-century Indian landscape, followed by possible solutions that traditional religious wisdom may hold for the current and growing ecological dilemma both in India and in the world.