Eco-Spirituality


ECO – SPIRITUALITY

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

            James Lovelock, a British atmospheric chemist published a book in 1979 called, Gaia: A new look at life on earth. The basic idea about this book is that our earth functions as a single unit and this is supported by various living life-forms and organisms, especially plants and trees. This is also known as the Gaia Hypothesis since it is not a proven fact but it is just that our earth is not something to be fragmented but rather it should be looked at as a whole. This would therefore entail that we need to respect and take care of every life-form living on our planet be it a plant, an animal, the sea, the air and so on.
            This hypothesis resonates along similar lines with the ancient cosmological theories of the earth. The cultural cosmologies recognized and affirmed the earth as a “Mother” preserving a soul.
            Raimondo Pannikar in his book, A Dwelling Place for Wisdom, uses a term called ‘Ecosophy’. This word comes from the Greek word ‘oiksophia’ where ‘oik’ means ‘house’ and ‘sophia’ means ‘wisdom’, which therefore means “House of wisdom”. A house is not just a mere structure of four walls and a roof but it is a home where we are all called to live happily. Applying this in a broad sense in the context of our lives on earth, the earth becomes our home and we are all called to take care of it. Sadly, the situation today is not very good.      
            The amount of pollution and damage caused to the environment has only resulted in what everybody calls today, ‘global-warming’. Kuruvilla Pandikattu, in his article, Tamas, laments that the world was made for man and man was made to ‘conquer’ it. It means that today many industrialists have been exploiting our mother earth not just for the satisfaction of their needs but to satisfy their unquenching greed. This would definitely be a sin for we are all called to respect God’s creation. Thus, the Jesus of the Gospels must also become for us an ecological prophet.
            We are therefore called to heighten our awareness of ecological and environmental necessities and responsibilities and to think of the spirituality of the earth and to explore eco-theology.
            The word ‘ecology’ is derived from the Greek world ‘oikos’ which means ‘home’. Hence, ecology is basically the science of housekeeping. In this sense, it would mean taking care of our Mother Earth.
            For a long time, it was thought that ecology as a science was just a recent phenomenon. However, quite the contrary, it goes back to as far as ancient Greece and India. Let us see how it came up,

a)      Indian tradition

Hinduism has long revered the tree. India has a long history of forest protection, from the edicts of Asoka, to the individual works of various Rajas, to the modern Chipko movement where women have staved off forest destruction by surrounding them with their own bodies. Rivers have also been held in great veneration. Ex: the Ganges. All in all, human society depended on the forest for survival and prosperity and therefore they had to protect it; furthermore the forest was a place of peace and harmony with God where the spiritual goals of life could be pursued by the forest sages.
Besides this, we also have the Vedic heritage where many of the Hindu gods are basically forces of nature like atmosphere (bhuvah), sky (sva), earth (Prthivi), water (Ap), fire (Agni) and wind (Vayu). Scholars of the Vedas have found various texts and rituals that extol these forces of nature. This shows a deep underlying ecological sensitivity within the Hindu tradition. The Vedic heritage could therefore be said to be like some kind of exhortation to all human beings to protect, preserve and care for the environment.
The epic and the Puranic heritage states that the whole world is a forest and we as human beings have the responsibility of keeping the forest intact. It also speaks about the fact that God’s grace can be received by not killing his creatures or harming His creation.

b)     Classical Greek tradition

Although we do not find anything strictly written about ecology, from the writings of Pre-Socratic philosophy, we come to know what they thought about the universe. Thales believed that the first primordial (archaic) was water; Anaximander thought that the first principle was air or a person like Democritus thought that it was atoms. Each one thought of the origin of the universe differently. Yet, more than just doing some kind of intellectual gymnastics, they really believed that these sources were a miracle or if I may say a ‘god’. Thus, the Pre-Socratic philosophers too revered the forces of nature.

c)      Modern tradition

Scot John Muir (1838-1914) in his personal experience with nature has said that all around he saw the beauties of God’s creation spoilt by the intrusions of humankind. Just as there is a saying, ‘Let nature be your teacher’, for Muir, he says that wild nature had features of beauty and a way of experiencing the Divine.
Martin Heidegger rejected the Cartesian conception of the world which regarded the world as a lifeless machinery, a conception that left nature open to abuse, exploitation and destruction. A person like Martin Buber would say that unless we look upon nature as a ‘Thou’ only then will we be able to take care of it, that is  to say, we will be able to get into an “I-Thou” relationship. That will be the time when we will be able to appreciate the manifestation of God’s creative work.
Teilhard de Chardin, the French Jesuit priest, is another noteworthy example. He states that we come to know about God by appreciating His creation and in this regard he gives the example of St. Francis of Assisi, who is considered to be the nature-saint.

To conclude, as mentioned before, the amount of pollution caused today has affected our environment to large extent and today, we are all suffering from ‘global warming’. There is a saying which goes thus, “God forgives, man sometimes forgives, nature never forgives.” I think what we are facing today is just that, because nature may not react immediately but it is taking its ‘revenge’ slowly and subtly.
For a long time, humanity has prided itself by the fact that it is the crown of God’s creation. However, while this may be true, we cannot forget that we are still part of the cosmos. Hence, we have to make a shift from being ‘Anthropocentric’ to ‘Cosmo-centric’. We are called to be stewards of God’s creation and that is why God said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and take care of it.” (Genesis 1:28) Thus, in as much as we are all part of the cosmos, we should never think that nature should be at our beck and call.
Everything has its place in nature and so does the human person. He is not the absolute master over everything. This can be achieved only by cultivating a sense of responsibility and sensitivity to the needs of Mother Earth.     

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