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HHR March 14, 2016 Archives, Dharmic Ecology
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Many Hindus recite a short Sanskrit prayer before stepping onto the floor after they wake up
in the morning:

Samudra vasane Devi,

Parvata stana mandale
Vishnupatni namastubhyam,
Paada sparsham kshamasva me.

O! Mother Earth, who has the ocean as clothes

and mountains and forests on her body,
who is the wife of Lord Vishnu, I bow to you.
Please forgive me for touching you with my feet.
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The whole earth is sacred. Earth, which is a well-endowed, beautiful Goddess, the wife of My Tweets
Vishnu, the Lord who sustains the universe. Such a Goddess, who deserves our reverence,
must forgive us for we step on her so carelessly. The poet thinks of the earth in such lofty
terms. The earth, so patient, so passionate, so forgiving, is our mother. You throw your
garbage on her, you mine her depths, you pollute her with radioactive waste, but she does not LATEST REVIEWS
react or retaliate. So patient and gentle is she, is our mother earth. Hindus consider every
river, every mountain to be sacred. They bathe in rivers, build temples upon tall mountains. Book Review : Jihadist
Threat to India by Tufail
Yet, unfortunately, no river is clean in India today, no river is fit to bathe in. The Yamuna, the
Ahmad Reviewed by Dr
scene of the legendry frolics of Krishna, is scarcely more than a sewage drain. The Narmada, David Frawley
one of our most sacred rivers, is little more than a trickle. The river is dying. Many millions of
April 30, 2016
rupees were spent cleaning the Ganga, Indias holiest river, but she too is incredibly filthy.

Let me quote a few excerpts from an eloquent document called Hindu Declaration on Climate Meenakshi Jains book
Change, presented at the Parliament of the Worlds Religions, Melbourne, Australia, Sati : Reviewed By Dr
December 8, 2009. Koenraad Elst
March 27, 2016
The Hindu tradition understands that man is not separate from nature, that we are linked by
spiritual, psychological and physical bonds with the elements around us. Knowing that the
Divine is present everywhere and in all things, Hindus strive to do no harm. We hold a deep
Film Review : Baahubali
A Very Good Beginning,
reverence for life and an awareness that the great forces of naturethe earth, the water, the
Indeed
fire, the air and spaceas well as all the various orders of life, including plants and trees,
forests and animals, are bound to each other within lifes cosmic web. August 6, 2015

We cannot continue to destroy nature without also destroying ourselves. The dire problems
besetting our worldwar, disease, poverty and hungerwill all be magnified many fold by
the predicted impacts of climate change.
INDIGENOUS/PAGAN VOICE
Humanitys very survival depends upon our capacity to make a major transition of
consciousness, equal in significance to earlier transitions from nomadic to agricultural,
agricultural to industrial and industrial to technological. We must transit to complementarity
in place of competition, convergence in place of conflict, holism in place of hedonism,
optimization in place of maximization. We must, in short, move rapidly towards a global
consciousness that replaces the present fractured and fragmented consciousness of the
human race.

Mahatma Gandhi urged, You must be the change you wish to see in the world. If alive today,
he would call upon Hindus to set the example, to change our lifestyle, to simplify our needs
How the Patriarchy Stole Friday
and restrain our desires.
the 13th from Women and Made
Reverence for all life, preserving the earth, sharing and compassion these are some of the It Evil
obvious values in the Declaration. But there is another aspect: what you cant save you have
Posted On January 13, 2017 | Comments Off
to mend. If we cannot save ourselves from climate change, then we must have the on How the Patriarchy Stole Friday the 13th
compassion to share what we have with those who are going to be far more seriously from Women and Made It Evil
affected than ourselves.
Before patriarchal times, Friday the 13th
was considered the day of the Goddess.
Climate refugees are going to be at our door step, knocking at our doors for the resources we
It was considered a day to worship the
have. And the rich people are going to say: These poor people, look how they multiply! What
Divine Feminine that lives in us all and to
a nuisance. But will this work? We will have to learn to share what we have with them. I
honor the cycles of creation [...]
mean I am going to give up my air conditioners!each one will have to pay a price for helping
others. I know many people will resent this, especially those who chill their rooms so cold in
summer that they use two blankets.
Why Hindus SHOULD
Finally, in the declaration they say that beyond a point, you cant save the world. It exists in support Native Americans
an endless cycle of creation and destruction, every dissolution being the preamble for the
October 31, 2016 | Comments Off on
next creative impulse. Hindus still know we must do all that is humanly possible to protect the
Why Hindus SHOULD support Native
earth and the resources for the present as well as future generations, but we must also
Americans
remember that we are placed on earth to find out the nature of ultimate reality. The world is a
bridge we cant build our homes on it. We have to think beyond the mere materiality of our
lives to a higher dimension of consciousness. Native Americans Face
For Hindus creation is in cycles, there are yugas or eons in which creation occurs, followed
More Persecution
by destruction. So the destruction of this world of ours is also inevitable. Science also August 15, 2016 | Comments Off on
confirms this, not only in the theory of entropy, but in telling us that the sun itself has a Native Americans Face More

limited life span. When it runs out of fuel, itll become a black hole. The earth is much younger Persecution

than the sun. It has not been here forever. No one can predict how long life, as we know it,
will continue. How it came about is itself a puzzle it is not clear what it is for or how long it
will continue. But we do know that nothing is forever.

Buddhists talk about anitya or anichatransience everything is transient, mutable and HINDU WISDOM
temporary. Our bodies are transient we are not going to be here forever. We must therefore
accept that this earth and the life it supports will also not go on forever. That does not mean
that we should destroy the earth! But then the question is: why are we on this earth? The
answer given is the very transience of all earthly joys makes you ask what is real, what is
the nature of reality? That is why the Buddha says the world is on fire. Find out the reality.
The reality for him is sunyata, the void, the nirvana or release into what is beyond the
appearance. The implication is that when you inquire into the nature of earthly existence it
points you towards a true understanding of reality. Everything on earth is so arranged that
you begin to find your true self.
Upholding Dharma
Instead, I think life on the earth challenges us to transform ourselves personally, socially and
Posted On June 14, 2016 | 0 Comments
ecologically. We are not saviours, we are ourselves complicit subjects. Lets not get into the
The Kurukshetra war was on in full
ecological sin doctrine, the ecological saviour doctrine, and thus buy into ecological
swing, and as it progressed, the losses
salvationism, ecological redemption, and ecological heaven. I dont think this is going to be
for the Kauravas increased. Duryodhana
helpful. Rather we have to go for transformation of some sort during our limited span on
began to suspect that Bhishmas loyalty
earth. Reducing our own violence and destructive potential and actually finding our own fate
to the Pandavas had resulted in his
in this process.
fighting half heartedly. [...]

To conclude, I just want to say that the earth is facing an unprecedented challenge. And there
are two paths ahead: one is that we commit suicide, we do it quickly or slowly. We destroy all The Symbolism of the
our resources and our habitat and then we die. Have you seen The Matrix? Mr. Smith, the Churning of the Ocean
computer programme who hates humans, tells Neo, the protagonist, something amazing. He
September 2, 2015 | Comments Off
says that human beings are like a virus they are the only species which takes over a habitat,
on The Symbolism of the Churning of
which multiplies so much, which kills all the other species, which eats up everything else
the Ocean
there, which destroys the habitat and then moves on into another habitat to do the same
thing. It takes it over, destroys everything else in it, and finishes off that habitat too. Mr.
Smith says, I hate human beings, I dont like their smell, I want to rid the earth of human Emptying the Sea to fulfill
beings. Do we want to behave as Mr. Smith claims we do? Or do we want to change?
Ones Divine Task
Hinduism, similarly, is in a crisis. I am not just saying that there is a climate crisis but that March 30, 2015 | Comments Off on
Hinduism is in crisis! Unless we find a way to be Hindu all over again in a way that is Emptying the Sea to fulfill Ones

ecologically responsible, which is socially compassionate, we are going to be very bad Divine Task

Hindus. And I see really bad Hindus all around me: They talk one thing and do something else.
This is what we have become: competitive, uncaring, loud, vulgar, un-aesthetic, out of touch
Divinity lies within us all
with the earth
April 24, 2014 | Comments Off on
We live in very interesting times. A crisis, after all, is also a time of change. In the world of Divinity lies within us all
medical sciences the word crisis also means a turning point after which the disease can either
worsen or go towards a cure. That is where we are, in the eye of the storm, in a crisis of
unprecedented dimensions. A crisis of ecology, economics, and evolution. A crisis from which Shape Shifting World of
a new combination of technology and spirituality will need to kick in to save us. And such a Maya
crisis also needs an integral and unified response. If we rise up to the challenge we may
December 14, 2013 | Comments Off
transform ourselves. Otherwise the writing is on the wall. Our planet will be destroyed by our on Shape Shifting World of Maya
own wantonness and we will all perish. We need a new Advaita, one that emphasizes the
interconnectedness of everything, which will be one way to move forward from this crisis.

by Makarand Paranjape

DHARMIC ECOLOGY
*Makarand Paranjape is professor of English Literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
He is the author of many books on religious and cultural themes. What is presented above are
excerpts from a talk he gave at Fireflies Ashram, Bangalore, in November 2012.

From Meeting Rivers The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale

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One of the most renowned

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Cleaning The Mighty

Ganga Will Be a Mammoth
Task For Modi
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How India is building

Asias largest secure forest
Jallikattu Ban: Send Hinduism Under How the Patriarchy Video : Russell Brand
Them to the Assault: Stole Friday the Core Hindu
network
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Only Option New Model for and Made It Evil How India is building Asias largest
Conversion. secure forest network

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