Religion and environmentalism

Religion and environmentalism is an emerging interdisciplinary subfield in the academic disciplines of religious studies, religious ethics, the sociology of religion, and theology amongst others, with environmentalism and ecological principles as a primary focus.

A

I am a son of Earth, the soil is my mother. ... O Earth, may your snowy peaks and your forests be kind to us!... May we speak your beauty, O Earth, that is in your villages and forests and assemblies and war and battles. ... Upon the immutable, vast earth supported by the law, the universal mother of the plants, peaceful and kind, may we walk for ever!
- Atharva Veda, Bhúmi súkta

B

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
- Bible. Genesis 1:26-28 KJV

"The world of any tribal group is stamped with sacredness, religiosity and reverence for nature. (...) This is the view of the Sarna tribal people as well. They are totally involved in the world, they communicate with the spirituality that surrounds them. They love nature, they communicate with it and are attached to it. Nature is their way to the supernatural."
- Chotanagpur by Y. Philip Barjo: "The religious life of the Sarna tribes", Indian Missiological Review, June 1997. quoted from Elst, K. The Sarna: a case study in natural religion [1]

C

The creator is angry. Everyone is going to be sorry for what they have done. A day of reckoning is coming. And it's going to be for everyone on the planet. It will make no distinction for religion or creed. Something is going to happen.
- Chief Al Lameman, Alberta Cree. He is commenting here on the effects of oil extraction from the opencast tar-sand mines of the forests of Alberta, Canada. From, 'Armageddon', an article in the Mail on Sunday magazine, June 10 2012. Report by Jonathan Green.

The creator is angry. Everyone is going to be sorry for what they have done. A day of reckoning is coming. And it's going to be for everyone on the planet. It will make no distinction for religion or creed. Something is going to happen.
- Chief Al Lameman, Alberta Cree. He is commenting here on the effects of oil extraction from the opencast tar-sand mines of the forests of Alberta, Canada. From, 'Armageddon', an article in the Mail on Sunday magazine, June 10 2012. Report by Jonathan Green.

What is it that the White Man wants to buy, my people will ask. It is difficult for us to understand.
How can one buy or sell the air, the warmth of the land? That is difficult for us to imagine. If we don’t own the sweet air and the bubbling water, how can you buy it from us? Each pine tree shining in the sun, each sandy beach, the mist hanging in the dark woods, every space, each humming bee is holy in the thoughts and memory of our people. ... Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. ...
We are part of the earth, and the earth is part of us. The fragrant flowers are our sisters, the reindeer, the horse, the great eagle our brothers. ...
We know that the White Man does not understand our way of life. To him, one piece of land is much like the other. He is a stranger coming in the night taking from the land what he needs. The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. ... He treats his mother the Earth and his Brother the sky like merchandise. His hunger will eat the earth bare and leave only a desert. ...
Your God is not our God! ... Our people are ebbing away like a rapidly receding tide that will never return. The White Man’s God cannot love our people, or he would protect them. ...
But why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people? Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of Nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will certainly come, for even the White Man ... cannot be exempt from the common destiny.
We may be brothers after all. We will see.
- Chief Seattle’s 1855 speech,quoted in Nature in Indian and Western Traditions by Michel Danino, in : Indian Culture and India’s Future (DK Printworld, New Delhi, 2011)

D

Looking back as far as we can see, in the Rig Veda we find Earth and Heaven often addressed in union as a single being (dyáváprithiví) and honoured together; they are ‘parents of the gods’ (7.53), ‘father and mother’ but also the ‘twins’ (1.159); together they ‘keep all creatures safe’ (1.160). ... In fact, the Rig Veda sees the cosmos as a thousand-branched tree (3.8.11, 9.5.10). Building on this symbol, the Gítá uses the striking image of the cosmic ashvattha (the pipal or holy fig tree, Ficus religiosa) with its roots above and branches below, to remind us of the real source of this manifestation. Elsewhere in the Mahábhárata, it is said that he who worships the ashvattha worships the universe: such is the often forgotten concept behind the worship of sacred trees in India, particularly in temples—once again, the universal at the centre of daily life.
- For the Love of Nature by Michel Danino, in : Indian Culture and India’s Future (DK Printworld, New Delhi, 2011)

G

The Bible makes man the centre of the universe, since it assigns to him the role of ‘subduing’ the Earth. ... The religions of the Book went astray the moment they allowed a bipolar relationship to be established between God and men, then between men and Nature. ... I believe we should go back to forms of cosmic religiosity as they existed before the advent of the great monotheistic religions.
- Edward Goldsmith in Krisis, Paris, no. 20–21, November 1997, p. 29. quoted in Nature in Indian and Western Traditions by Michel Danino, in : Indian Culture and India’s Future (DK Printworld, New Delhi, 2011)

N

"Indian government funded in part the work of ISKCON (Hare Krishna) in re-forestation of Vrindavan. Department of environment is supporting temples to maintain sacred groves. Ecological aspects of Sanatana dharma have been included in the school text books of at least one state, UP." ... Ms. Nanda has described how environmentalism in India is often clothed in Hindu language and symbolism. Thus, in trying to protect trees, women tie rakhis, the auspicious red threads which sisters tie around their brothers' wrists on the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan, around these trees.
- Meera Nanda, quoted from Elst, Koenraad. Return of the Swastika: Hate and Hysteria versus Hindu Sanity (2007)

R

O Agni, that splendour of yours which is in heaven and in the earth and its growths and its waters.
- Rigveda (3.22.2)

He is the child of the waters, the child of the forests, the child of things stable and the child of things that move. Even in the stone he is there.
- Rigveda (1.70.2)

S

Modern materialist thinking which is linear and which holds that everything is for man's use and manipulation is losing credit. Man is being forced to define his attitude towards elements like the earth, the waters, the air, the sky, the rivers. Are they dead? Or, living? Are they strangers? Or, close relatives - father, mother, brothers, sisters, and friends? Are the oceans, the atmosphere merely great sinks, huge waste-dumps? Are the minerals, the plants, the great animal sister-creation there just for human exploitation? Have they no life and rights of their own. Sanatana dharma takes the view that they have their own rights and we have duties towards them. It says that we should cherish them and live in togetherness. If we violate this law and continue to injure them, we create karmas that will strike back in ways we can hardly imagine.
- Ram Swarup (2000). On Hinduism: Reviews and reflections. Ch. 1.

A person is honored in Vaikuntha for as many thousand years as the days he resides in a house where tulasi is grown.
And if one properly grows bilva, which pleases Lord Siva, in his family, the goddess of riches resides permanently passes on to the sons and grandsons
He who plants even a single asvattha, wherever it may be, as per the prescribed mode, goes to the abode of Hari.
He who has planted dhatri has performed several sacrifices. He has donated the earth. He would be considered a celebate forever.
He who plant a couple of banyan trees as per the prescribed mode would go to the abode of Siva and many heavenly nymphs will attend upon him.
After planting neem trees a person well-versed in dharma attains the abode of Sun. Indeed! He resides there for a long period.
By planting four plaksa trees a person doubtlessly obtains the fruits of Rajasuya sacrifice.
He who plants five or six mango trees attains the abode of Garuda and lives happily forever like gods.
One should plant seven palasa trees or even one. One attains the abode of Brahma and enjoys the company of gods by doing so.
He who himself plants eight udumbara trees or even prompts someone to plant them, rejoices in the lunar world
He who has planted madhuka has propitiated Parvati, has become free from diseases, and has worshipped all deities.
If one plants ksirini, dadimi, rambha, priyala, and panasa, one experiences no affliction for seven births.
He who has knowingly or unknowingly planted ambu is respected as a recluse even while staying in the house.
By planting all kinds of other trees, useful for fruits and flowers, a person gets a reward of thousand cows adorned with jewels.
By planting one asvattha, one picumanda, one nyagrodha, ten tamarind trees, the group of three, viz., kapittha, bilva, and amalaka, and five mango trees, one never visits hell.
- Vrukshayurveda, authored by Surapala, translated by Nalini Sadhale, Agri-History Bulletin No.1, Asian Agri-History Foundation, Secunderabad

T

Christian theology defined a conception of nature perfectly adapted to technicist ambitions. As a matter of fact, in Paganism, natural realities were perceived to be living, inhabited by ‘souls’. ... A spring (or a tree) was not reduced to a physical reality, a material reality. It was something more, an entity with a life of its own. It was therefore perfectly natural for a spring to be respected and even revered. It was seen as a marvellous manifestation of Nature, herself regarded as living. The Earth, let us recall, was also perceived as one great organism; the Greeks called her ‘Mother Earth’. Even minerals appeared endowed with a certain life, and all individual existences mysteriously associated with one another amidst the Whole, of which humanity itself was but one fragment.
With Christianity, a supposedly ‘superior’ religion, that attitude towards nature was totally disqualified. Henceforth, it was forbidden to revere springs as if they had a dignity of their own. People’s whole adoration had to be turned to the Christian God and to him alone. ... It is true that nature, created by God, retained a certain spiritual value. But a radical transformation had taken place: earth, air, water and fire, now theologically stripped of all ‘soul’, were no more than objects which Homo technicus was free to manipulate as he wished. ... Through its doctrine, the Judeo-Christian tradition somehow legitimized officially the most daring technical enterprises.
- Pierre Thuillier, La Grande Implosion: Rapport sur l’effondrement de l’Occident 1999–2002, Fayard, Paris, 1995, p. 251. quoted in Nature in Indian and Western Traditions by Michel Danino, in : Indian Culture and India’s Future (DK Printworld, New Delhi, 2011)

External links

Encyclopedic article on Religion and environmentalism on Wikipedia