Hinduism and the Environment
The Pagan element in Hinduism advocated Sustainable Development as evidenced in The Riga Veda and The Bhagavata Purana
The pagan element in Hinduism advocated Sustainable Development by deification of nature as seen in the hymns of the Riga Veda dedicated to Surya, Indra, Agni and others.
Sustainable development is an issue that we are being forced to address. Sustainable development involves leading quality life and assuring that succeeding generations will be able to do the same. This implies conservation of natural resources and prevention of environment degradation, the same issues that pagans are today concerned with. These pagans have drawn inspiration from the ancient religions like Hinduism and ancient Greek.
Though ancient paganism originated from the fear of natural forces, it soon evolved to a celebration and even a reverence of nature. People do not abuse the entities they worship. The sages of the early Vedic times deified the forces of nature thus ensuring the protection of nature. The Riga Veda, the earliest scriptural text of Hinduism, contains hymns lauding the pagan deities like Agni, Indra, Surya, Soma (Moon) and Usha (Dawn).
Hymn IX of Book 10 of the Riga Veda is dedicated to the Waters. The hymn recognizes the life giving ability of water, not only physically but also spiritually. It is a prayer that plentiful supply of pure water is always available.]
One has to credit the far sightedness of these sages because then the natural resources were not scarce and the capacity of nature to heal her self was much more than the harm inflicted on her by human activity. However they realized that for sustainable development preservation of nature was essential.
Even when Hinduism had evolved into a monotheistic religion the revering of nature was not forgotten. God often descended to the earth to subjugate evil and restore righteousness. The incarnation as Krishna is one of the most popular ones. In between the slaying of demons, Krishna spread the message that nature needs to be preserved. A thousand-headed serpent named Kaliya resided in a pool formed by the Yamuna River. The pool was so poisoned that any creature that came near it died. In the Srimad Bhagavata Purana (Canto 10, Chapter 16) Krishna “seeing the black waters contaminated by the black snake wanted the purification of the river”. After subduing the snake he tells the serpent to leave so that “the wealth of the river” could be availed by the people and the cows. This event can be interpreted as cleansing the river of its pollution so that it could service the present and future generations.
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