GUEST COLUMN
Vir Singh & Puja Awasthi
Ecology in our times embraces solutions to all global problems. Not only extrinsic, ecology seeks solutions even to intrinsic human problems. All worldly problems eventually precipitate into what we can call unsustainability—a dismal scenario that emerges due to unceasing deterioration of our environment. Ecology offers promising solutions to this gloomy state of life by reversing unsustainability to a state of sustainability. Sustainability has many dimensions- for example, social sustainability, economic sustainability, agricultural sustainability, global sustainability and the likes. However, all sorts of sustainability in our plans are rooted into ecological sustainability. Ecology – in essence – is the mother of sustainability.
Ever since Ernst Haeckel coined this term in 1867, ecology has evolved itself in a big way. Almost all disciplines and individual subjects – ranging from physical sciences to sociology – ingrained the elements of ecology. Social ecology, urban ecology, forest ecology, agroecology, mountain ecology, ecological anthropology, ecological philosophy, etc. are different functional avatars of ecology.
Spirituality, ecology, and the natural world are integrated and tied into oneness. One cannot be separated from others. This natural relationship imbibes in a deeper dimension of ecology we call spiritual ecology. What underlies ecological phenomenon is the conversion of inorganics into organics with sunlight as an energy input, known as photosynthesis. Through photosynthesis carried out by green plants, algae and blue-green algae, the energy of sunlight is converted into biochemical energy, that is, the living energy we generally call “spirit”. From the natural world, this spirit is instilled in all organisms through their nourishment in ecosystems and, thus, this works within all organisms driving, regulating, and balancing their internal environments.
While general ecology works from outside to inside, spiritual ecology works from inside to outside. Such a relationship creates a reciprocal connect between organisms (the organic entities) and their physical (inorganic) environment. It is thanks to this inevitable relationship that an ecological balance is struck and prevails. But that happens under natural conditions. While all numerous species thriving in the biosphere inherently contribute to maintaining this vital ecological balance, an overwhelming anthropogenic intervention based on overexploitation of natural resources and creating environmental pollution leads to gradual breakdown of ecological balance. Unstoppably going on and sustainably intensifying anthropogenic activities have now driven the whole world into a climate mess. Spiritual ecology, therefore, is principally in human context. Non-human species are generally not covered.
Everything in this cosmos and cosmos itself and everything in nature and nature itself are all within the domain of human understanding. Natural evolution has inculcated an unappeasable quest among human beings to understand everything and every phenomenon, be it extrinsic or intrinsic. Spiritual ecology calls for cultivating a deeper understanding about the interconnectedness of all living beings. It cultivates a deeper sense of sacredness and a reverential attitude for nature and Mother Earth. Sacred nature, sacred cow, sacred groves, sacred lakes, sacred rivers, sacred trees, sacred seeds etc. are different notions that emanate from spiritual ecology. Upholding sacredness inculcates in us a deep feeling of care for planet’s life, embark on conservation activities, and preserve what is most important for the planet as well as humanity.
Spiritual ecology awakens all the senses of your body directing us to do the right karma by evolving the environmental ethics that instills in us the moral values worth safeguarding the nature and planet Earth. Our first and the foremost responsibility is ecological enhancement. The karma of ecological enhancement involves conserving nature’s biodiversity, preserving quality of natural resources, maintaining environmental sanity, upholding sanctity of whole life, and ensuring ecological integrity of our biosphere. The essence is that human wellbeing is indispensably linked with ecological wellbeing.
Economic development, which is the exclusive focus of the capitalist economic framework dominating our contemporary world, is also rooted into ecological wellbeing of the planet. A state of ecological collapse is sure to lead to an economy doom. Ecological affluence and economic boom go hand in hand. Sunderlal Bahuguna, a great environmental activist of our times, used to say that ecology is permanent economy. “Earth has enough to satisfy every man’s needs but not every man’s greed,” is Mahatama Gandhi’s saying often given the example of by numerous writers concerned with the state of the Earth. Spiritual ecology helps us adopt frugal socioeconomic lifestyles constantly nurturing ecological roots of life and thus maintaining a healthy and vibrant ecological base for sustainable economy.
Spiritual ecology invites us to follow holistic and inclusive approach to environmentalism and novel tactics for a sane and sustainable world. The current decade (2021 to 2030) is UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Ecosystems of Earth are jeopardised because of insensitive and erroneous anthropogenic activities. Ecological restoration of deteriorated ecosystems is imperative for the healing and revival of our planet robbed of its ecological wealth. Spiritual ecology offers a mindful, spirited, and ecologically sensitive and sustainable strategy for ecosystem restoration and regaining the “lost paradise”—our beautiful Living Planet.
Our happy, promising, and sustainable future is to evolve through the ecological status of our biosphere in our present times. The future is not to arrive on its own terms. We have to bear the responsibility to be the architects of our future. “What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday,” say Buddha’s teachings in Dhammapada. “And on present thoughts build our life of tomorrow. Our life is the creation of our mind.” What would be the type of future we shall usher in depends on our karma of the present. Spiritual ecology teaches us to carve out ecologically vibrant pathways to a happy, promising, and sustainable future.
(Singh is professor emeritus, environmental science, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Awasthi is a freelance journalist; views are personal)
