Maksimova E.V.
Crossways of religious and ecological consciousness in India
When it comes to religious space, it’s not enough to describe its phenomenon on the model of other social fields. The meaning of such familiar concepts as freedom, advantage, human rights, equality, etc., cannot be clarified without including into concrete religious and cultural situation. According to Ivan Strenski and “lived religion” approach, we have a possibility to understand the motives of religious actors if we thoroughly observe the phenomenological picture of real religious community life, for a while abstracting ourselves from our premises. One of such premises is the notion “freedom” which is supposed to be the tool of analyzing the social expression of a human being. But how this notion works in understanding religious experience?
Let me do a comparative example of the same religion, but different worships, of South Indian Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy. In goa state of india the branch of Faustina Kowalska is very popular. What impresses a lot, compared with the Russian Orthodox tradition, is the unsuspected trust to variety of mystic visions of contemporary profits and even ordinary persons for any occasions.
Indian Christians believe that, as Jesus life, from its inception to the end, was a continuous search for sinners, God can utilize any symbol, any person or prophet, any direct call, any created object, any sickness or shock or failure, or anything he chooses to induce in the heart of the sinner a sense of conversion. God may speak to a person about any time, so it needs to be always alert[1]. The Indian nun received a special message from Virgin Mary, referring to American culture: “When I think of the United States, I think of this: one of the things Our Lady especially asked was for modesty in dress”[2]. “In all her many apparitions throughout the world, Our Lady always appears modestly dressed. Never, has she even made a concessions to the changing fashions”[3], – this argument is used in church periodicals as appeal to young women to dress modestly.
Mystical experience of visions, even expressed in words of Christ and Mary, is explained as a touch of the Holy Spirit and promptly merges with the sensual reality, while in Russian Orthodoxy it would be considered as hallucination or as “fascination” of the devil.
Mary may be considered a “goddess figure” even for some Hindus simply because she "acts" like a goddess for Christians to whom she gives blessings and miracles. “If she is a good for her Christian devotees, there is no reason she would not be powerful for Hindu devotees as well,” – people say.
The historians say that initially in XVI century Indians willingly accepted the baptizing from St. Francis Xavier and then returned to their old worships, combining them with Christian beliefs[4].
Among Indian Christians it is impolite to confidently say to Hindu people that Jesus is the only God, because “Ganesha is there Jesus”. Social and religious ethics coincide in this case, while in Russian modern culture, having had 70 years history of atheism, we got used to divide religion from society, and secular ethics from religious position. Although Orthodox Church elaborates Christian ethics, it works only for Christians and even they are hardly familiar with it. Christian ethics states that to proclaim your faith is to be a lighter in the dark, to express your belief in God in your life is the only way to follow Jesus, but secular ethics supposes that “religious feelings” are usually not to be asked about and are considered as a private zone. In the meantime, in India it is quite all right to ask a person about his religious belief at the first meeting.
Here it’s hard to say, which culture gives more freedom. To characterize any religious phenomenon from outside, we inevitably use social symbols and concepts, but they can be applied only to a certain cultural context, where the motives of religious actors derive from the wholeness of geopolitical unity and religious doctrine, which both lead to “lived religion” in concrete culture. To speak about freedom in religion today means not to give a degree of more or less, but to criticize the habitual meaning of such constructs as “freedom” and to use it as a tool for analyzing social problems.
One of them is worldwide ecological crisis, which effects have been felt within South Asia more recently and hence demand a peculiar attention. As India and other countries cope with decreasing air quality in its cities and degraded water, religious thinkers have begun to reflect on how the values of traditional religion might contribute to inspiring better care for the earth[5]. One of the greatest features of Hindu tradition that’s supposed to help with the crisis is freedom. Freedom to worship what you want to worship, to combine contradictory factors like scientific and technical development with religious rituals.
Hindu tolerant worldview is still the basis of coexistence of states, culturally quite different from each other, in language, in law, in religion[6]. It is suggested that freedom can still help to neutralize the European spirit of consumerism by the old Indian idea of ahimsa and that “nonviolent ethics might easily be extended to embrace an earth ethics.” [7].
The contemporary analogy of ahimsa in western science is “environmental ethics”. Both having non-anthropocentric logics, they seem to have something in common. Both of them suggest something more than human existence as a highest aim of life. Environmental ethics offers to widen the field of human moral responsibility on the ground of «painism» and «sentientism»[8] as abilities of living creatures to feel pain and to suffer. Such religions as Hinduism and Buddhism, in their turn, have long ago developed similar idea of ahimsa. Trying to apply religious tools to environmental problems, we clearly see two parallels: freedom of expression in Indian religions looks very much like tolerance, and ahimsa is similar to environmental ethics. It needs to verify these analogies.
It is true that the systems of big spiritual practices already contain certain paradigms of ecological consciousness.[9]. And even without a thorough research the very idea of sansara that overwhelms all the creatures obviously looks like the evidence of ancient connection between religious and environmental ethics.
Meanwhile, “Hinduism offers a variety of cosmological views that may or may not situate the human in the natural world in an ecologically friendly manner”[10]if we remind the episode in Mahabharata, where Krishna and Arjuna cruelly burned the forest and were throwing its fleeing creatures to the fire, according to the demand of god Agni[11].
Not only religious but all cultural life of India presents the organic neighborhood of separate fragments. City dwellers of Varanasi are puzzled when asked why the newest technologies and institutions join the districts of medieval destitute level of life.They don’t understand why they should destroy the old style if they can build the new one near.
It is noticeable that freedom of coexistence of contradictive phenomena has nothing to do with tolerance as the latest Western concept. In South-East Asia there is no tolerance for the sake of non-conflicting whole, because contradictions have ontological status and they need no tolerance. Alike with the general freedom concept, religious understanding of ecology demonstrates the primordial cultural acceptance of contradictions and prepares the critical analysis of religious ecological ideas.
Probably the most important ecological motive for India is birth control topic. Indian religious scholars and ecologists testify to natural resources shortage together with the severe poverty and the escalation of environmental problems, such as environmental impact of large populations[12]. They even remark that, if sexual restraint as a Jaina religious rule takes root to secular consciousness it might help minimize population growth[13].
The issue of population growth was handled by the United Nations report on environment “Our Common Future” in 1987. The report acknowledges the potential role of the world’s major religions in addressing social and environmental issues: “The world’s religions could help provide direction and motivation in forming new values that would stress individual and joint responsibility towards the environment and towards nurturing harmony between humanity and environment.”[14]
So how applicable were religious values since 1987? Alas, rates of population growth in India are only increasing. How does it coincide with the Mangala Hindu principle which proclaims that your prosperity is not going to be at the cost of somebody else?
The answers of Indian researchers may be surprising. They point out that «every child born in an industrial nation consumes eight times as much of the earth’s natural resources as a child born in a developing country»[15], and «if the entire population of the world were transported to the USA and spread evenly across the states, the overall population density there would be no greater than it is now in Netherlands!»[16].
Many articles in scientific journals and in press discuss the problem of reduction ecological resources in southern states, popular among tourists, like Goa and Kerala. Decrease of fish species and its quantity is presented as a consequence of tourism developing and fish export to European countries. Meanwhile the factor of population growth doesn’t appear on the surface as a possible reason of the resources problem. Some researchers bind the commercial spirit with the backwardness of ecological ideas in western religions: “I am a Roman Catholic but for many years, I have been a devotee of Lord Ganesha. Ganesha is much superior to St. Francis of Assissi, the patron saint for ecology in the Christian tradition”[17].
In this remarkable speech Jesus is presented as one of gods, among which the supremacy in ecological respect belongs to Ganesha. It means that spiritual power of god is more evident in the serious trials, and belonging to the national history helps god to solve the problem better. Evidently there is a possibility in mind to choose the best god, according to the functional need.
I’ve made a research on the topic of attention to the problem of overpopulation among Hindu, Christian and new religious movements communities in India. Hindu traditionalism is associated with the natural circle of harmonization human with the world. It doesn’t mean that people should make any effort to harmonize the existence, the way it is in environmental ethics. The cycles of cosmic dynamics change the situation anyway. Ganesha, symbolizing patience, sustainability and taking care, is responsible for ruling two energies – human, suppressing the environment, and animal, that needs to survive. Ganesha is closer to the earth because once he was a piece of clay.
The general interpretation of life circles doesn’t necessarily refer to Hindu beliefs. Indian Catholic priests argue that there’s no need for a special policy on the subject of depopulation, because “people are better educated now, they know what they need”. Besides the evident Catholic position about birth control, they realize the specificity of procreation topic for Indian culture. Asia News reported that at least 80 percent of pilgrims who formally honor Mother Mary at shrines come from non-Catholic backgrounds, including burqa-clad Muslim women[18]. This can be explained by India's long history of "mother goddess" figures. The ordinary clergy mostly pay attention to Mary as a saint mother. As a consequence, Mary often has supremacy over baby Jesus for many Indians. It emphasizes the fundamental role of motherhood constituting Indian women’s identity. For average Indian woman it is much harder to hypothetically sacrifice this function on behalf of prosperity of nature and decrease of population, than it would be for European woman.
As for some popular new religious movements, like Society of Krishna Consciousness, their members are very tolerant to those Hindu traditions which don’t make any immediate and physical harm to the environment. Evidently, the postponed effect of some rituals is not taken into consideration. In this way it is not condemned that for Indians it is important for parents to have a boy, because only a boy can fulfill the funeral ritual over father. They continue to have children until they have a boy, then they stop it. And it is not out of place to mention that pregnancy ultrasound was prohibited in some states because after a woman learns she’ll have a girl, she makes an abortion. And of course, many cases of infanticide of girls, especially in northern states, are well-known. The followers of Krishna disapprove abortions and killings, but not the ritual that leads to it. Again, religious practice is above the care for the living. The leaders of Krishna society are convinced that there aren’t too many people on the planet, but there is disproportional distribution of resources. In the end of Kali Yuga the consciousness will change anyway, and the awareness will increase. So, no special action is needed to remedy the distortion, whether it’s social or natural.
If western ecological consciousness presumes that you do something to restore the natural balance, a-himsa as a greatest feature of Hindu cultures means that you don’t do anything to break this balance. To care about the nature is not to harm the nature.
Ahimsa, as well as Mangala principle, are intended on fulfilling individual karma. When you keep to this principle in your life, and in general it comes to worldwide crisis (for example, overpopulation in India, or enormous usage of plastic bags in Thailand), this is not your responsibility or infringement of the principle.
One important expression of environmentalism is tree planting. Jaina monks and even many laypeople in India and Thailand most likely would not plant trees because of the harm caused to the earth in the digging process. Also many yoga ashram rules prescribe for participants not to eat eggs, though it is well known that most of incubator eggs don’t have embryo. In April 2015 Government of Maharashtra state prohibited to sell and consume beef, on the ground of Hindu norms. At the same time, India provides about 20% of world beef export.
The apparent contradictions are not the consequence of religious communities’ ignorance. The reason is secular misinterpretation of the phenomenon of spiritual practice. From the religious point of view care for the earth is not the aim but the means of achieving the needful moral standard as a condition for spiritual development. Ahimsa, sansara and karma have relation to ecology as an order, but they are about social and spiritual order, while environmental ethics is about order of nature.
Environmental ethics is based on the value of world’s unity in sense of nature. But when it comes to religious consciousness, the nature as itself doesn’t exist. Nature is a prolongation of higher powers, the variety of which implies the values, which have a peculiarity to be concrete, conditional and fragmentary.
For example, traditionally, the rivers of India have always been considered pure. Industrial contaminants and human wastes have polluted the rivers, but Ganga is still quite important in India’s ritual life. Contamination may reach the highest level, but to be pure ritually and ecologically has never been the same. Local people in Varanasi believe that ritual ablution in Ganga is safe for Indians, but dangerous for foreigners, so the natural pollution invasion in organism is prevented by supernatural power, which protects people from the results of their activity and hence from responsibility. Yamuna river at masterpiece of Taj Mahal is already quite dead and unrecoverable because of industrial and sewage waste, it smells so much that you can hardly breathe in the mausoleum and in city Agra in general. But you should not show any displeasure because it will be interpreted as insult and intolerance.
Of course, the protection of nature is vastly spread idea in India, but it is perceived through the concrete religious plot. In Indian northern state Himachal Pradesh one can see many government posters “Stop animal sacrifice!” Sacrificing buffalos is a necessary part of annual ritual worshipping goddess Hadimba. This goddess is believed to be a real historical person, one of Pandavas family, originally from Manali, the capital of Himachal. As she is from the “bad” family, she presents the type of God that needs blood. Local people of Vashishta village say, that the years when there’re no sacrifices (because of the government educational policy), many people in the village get injured, a lot of accidents happen. If the person, who is responsible for fulfilling sacrifice, agrees to stop it, he gets completely mad. The inhabitants believe that it is impossible to abolish the important practice, because the inside sacred life, especially when the village is separated from the world by snow in winter time, cannot be seen and understood from the outside. Rama’s wife, Sita, helped to open the famous hot holy serum springs in Vashishta. Every year, thanks to animal sacrifice, Rama chooses the person for revelation, and this man starts to prophesy, even if he was completely stupid before. You can recognize the chosen by special signs like trembling, warmth radiance, great energy that you feel from him.
This position is not the superstition of uneducated village people lost in Kulu valley of Himalaya. Citizens of Himachal who travel a lot all over the world and even work in different countries for a part time of the year, expressed in interview similar ideas. It wouldn’t be correct though to think that it is Hinduism that causes the character of the story. Muslim minority in Himachal is not inclined to evaluate Hadimba’s bloody rituals as idolatry. Ordinary Muslims are very tolerant to animal sacrifice for feeding god Hadimba and making people happy. If you ask them about the contradiction between the only God Allah and Hadimba, they would often say that separated elements of sacred valuable life may not coincide, but they are still significant, even if we don’t see them in wholeness.
The usual Hindu explanation runs that this way of thinking has nothing to do with what we call paganism. Hadimba demands blood not because she has a special character, weird whim and she is separated from the good and creating source of the Universe. On the contrary, she is one of the displays of the unite Absolute God, which are always beyond human logic and systematic thinking. The human wisdom is to see, how the pretersensual embodies in reality in this very place of earth in unique way. Hadimba is not the goddess of evil. Her temples are very dark, because she came from under the earth. Her shrines are like a cave, and you cannot even come in there, but only bend and look inside. The devotees of Hadimba believe that it is good not to kill anyone, but this God needs blood. What is bad in general, can be good in particular.
For religious purpose there’s no natural or logical unity, on which ground the non-conflicting system of knowledge would be built. Besides in South-East Asia natural science has never been an object of beliefs and hopes. Contradictions do not break the religious worldview, because they are important part of it, and they may be interpreted as freedom, which we initially mentioned as a constitution of Indian belief.
Freedom of expression in religion may include different worships and unite all life forms as equally valuable into the whole universe, but it is not similar to physical universe, and it is above it, as well as it is beyond human understanding. Religious understanding of ecology is theocentric, while environmental ethics is biocentric. The actions of supporting earth life may be the same, but motives and axiological foundations are different. For classical philosophical example, Kant actively spoke in defense of animals, against causing them unnecessary and the more cruel suffering. He firmly believed the torture of animals is immoral, but not because animals are suffering, but because their torture leads to the moral roughness of a human being[19].
Still some resources may be actualized by referring to the environmental attitudes of some ascetic traditions, like ahimsa, but it should be taken into account, that they are active only in traditional society with small population. Care about the nature often has a character of secondary action of spiritual training. Traditional means of care about living beings are contradictory, not self-valuable inside the religious system and unpredictable in case of giving them a mass character. In this regard the dissemination of some eastern religious principles, such as vegetarianism, nonviolence, etc., regarding them to be universal ethics, is not correct, because religious and ecological consciousnesses are two different spheres of being. Using religious statements for solving ecological problems is similar to using ecological consciousness for spiritual growth.
Non-universality of ecological motives must not be a hindrance but the basis for research of their possible adaptability to universal needs of environment. It is hard to count on religious attitudes in global situations, but they can help us to understand the national character and certain anthrop type.
For instance, the ascetic Orthodox tradition of hesychasm (from the greek word “hesychia” meaning quietness) includes integral statement of human relationships with outer world as a principle of measureless love and sympathy, embracing with prayer the whole circle of creation, up to demons and reptiles[20]. The center of Orthodox theology – “deification of man” (theosis) which is “the method of anthropological transformation directed to the union with God”[21] – is plainly connected with love to all the living. Such a reference point fully may serve an illustration in ecological education.
Literature:
1. Alvares C. Ecological Traditions Of Goa. URL: http://creative.sulekha.com/ecological-traditions-of-goa-a-lovely-lecture-by-claude-alvares-on-local-knowledge-and-development-mishaps_408496_blog (date of reference: 21.03.2015).
2. Antonisamy Fr.F. The art of inner conversion. Mumbai: The Bombay Saint Paul Society, 2004. 150 p.
3. Apresyan R.G. Dilemma of anthropocentrism and non-anthropocentrism in environmental ethics // Ethics and ecology. Ed. by R.G. Apresyan. Veliky Novgorod, 2010, pp. 13-26.
4. Bermejo L.M. Unto the Indies. Life of St. Francis Xavier. –Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, India, 2000. 328 p.
5. Chapple C. K. Hinduism, Jainism, and Ecology. Loyola Marymount University. URL: http://fore.research.yale.edu/religion/hinduism (date of reference: 21.03.2015).
6. Christians in Goa vanishing. URL: http://www.goanobserver.com/archive/18-9-2004/IN_NEWS.htm (date of reference: 18.09.2004).
7. Ghosh P. Mary Matha: Why Hindus In India Venerate Mother Mary, The Blessed Virgin Of Roman Catholicism // November 07 2013 6:19 AM. International Business Times, Monday, February, 17, 2014.
8. Gosling D. L. Religion and Ecology in India and Southeast Asia. Routledge, 2002. 224 p.
9. Horujy S.S. Ecological problem in the light of hesychastic spirituality. Report at the International conference “Afon – unique spiritual and cultural property of the modern world”, Belgrad, 23-26 June, 2013. URL: http:// synergia.ru (date of reference: 23.05.2015).
10. Horujy S.S. What is synergia? The paradigm of synergy in its principal subject fields and discursive links. The talk at the Congress “Synergie: Konzepte, Techniken, Perspectiven”. Berlin, June, 2011. Moscow, 2011. P. 5.
11. Linzey A. Moral Education and Reverence for Life // Humane Education: A Symposium / Ed. D.A.Paterson. London: Humane Education Council, 1981. P. 117–125.
12. Lipner J. Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, London, Routledge,1994.
13. Mampra A.Fr., Puthenkalam Fr.J. Sanctity in India. - Tamil Nadu: The Retreat Yercaud 636 601, 2000. 424 p.
14. Nagvenkar M. There were no Hindus in Goa before Portuguese landed: Church thinker. URL: http://www.firstpost.com/india/there-were-no-hindus-in-goa-before-portuguese-landed-church-thinker-953727.html?utm_source=ref_article (date of reference: 18.09.2004).
15. Narayan R. Brutalization of Goa. URL: http:// goanobserver.com (date of reference: 12.04.2014).
16. Nelson L.E. Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and ecology in Hindu India. – University of New York Press, 2010.
17. Newman R. S. Konkani Mai Ascends the Throne: The Cultural Basis of Goan Statehood. - La Trobe University, 1988.
18. Ryder R.D. Painism: Ethics, Animal Rights, and Environmentalism. Cardiff: University of Wales, 1991.
19. Stop offending my son. Our Lady worker’s. – Mumbai, 2013.
20. This Sacred Earth: religion, nature, environment/ Ed. by Gottlieb R.S. – NY, 2004.
21. United Nations. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 - Development and International Cooperation: Environment.
22. When history troubles // Western Times Ahmedabad. Friday, July 19, 2014.
[1] Antonisamy Fr.F. The art of inner conversion. Mumbai: The Bombay Saint Paul Society, 2004. 150 p. P. 19.
[2] Antonisamy Fr.F. The art of inner conversion. Mumbai: The Bombay Saint Paul Society, 2004. 150 p. P. 6.
[3] Stop offending my son. Our Lady worker’s. – Mumbai, 2013. P. 2.
[4]See: Bermejo L.M. Unto the Indies. Life of St. Francis Xavier. –Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, India, 2000.
[5] See: Lipner J. Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, London, Routledge,
1994; Nelson L.E. Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and ecology in Hindu India. – University of New York Press, 2010; This Sacred Earth: religion, nature, environment/ Ed. by Gottlieb R.S. – NY, 2004, etc.
[6] Of course, it doesn’t exclude the inter-religion conflicts, even in “peaceful states of India. See: Christians in Goa vanishing. URL: http://www.goanobserver.com/archive/18-9-2004/IN_NEWS.htm (date of reference: 18.09.2004); “Christians living in Goa, had forgotten their origins (that they were part of independent cults and religions) and “are wounded and continue to be victims of the aggression of their Hindu counterparts”// Nagvenkar M. There were no Hindus in Goa before Portuguese landed: Church thinker. URL: http://www.firstpost.com/india/there-were-no-hindus-in-goa-before-portuguese-landed-church-thinker-953727.html?utm_source=ref_article (date of reference: 18.09.2004).
[7] Chapple C. K. Hinduism, Jainism, and Ecology. Loyola Marymount University. URL: http://fore.research.yale.edu/religion/hinduism (date of reference: 21.03.2015).
[8] See: Ryder R.D. Painism: Ethics, Animal Rights, and Environmentalism. Cardiff: University of Wales, 1991; Linzey A. Moral Education and Reverence for Life // Humane Education: A Symposium / Ed. D.A.Paterson. London: Humane Education Council, 1981. P. 117–125.
[9] Chapple C. K. Hinduism, Jainism, and Ecology.
[10] Chapple C. K. Hinduism, Jainism, and Ecology.
[11] Gosling D. L. Religion and Ecology in India and Southeast Asia. Routledge, 2002. P. 16.
[12] Gosling D. L. Religion and Ecology in India and Southeast Asia. Routledge, 2002. P. 1.
[13] See: Chapple C. K. Hinduism, Jainism, and Ecology.
[14] United Nations. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 - Development and International Cooperation: Environment.
[15] Gosling D. L. Religion and Ecology in India and Southeast Asia. P. 3.
[16] Gosling D. L. Religion and Ecology in India and Southeast Asia. P. 3.
[17] Alvares C. Ecological Traditions Of Goa. URL: http://creative.sulekha.com/ecological-traditions-of-goa-a-lovely-lecture-by-claude-alvares-on-local-knowledge-and-development-mishaps_408496_blog (date of reference: 21.03.2015).
[18] Ghosh P. Mary Matha: Why Hindus In India Venerate Mother Mary, The Blessed Virgin Of Roman Catholicism // November 07 2013 6:19 AM. International Business Times, Monday, February 17, 2014.
[19] See: Apresyan R.G. Dilemma of anthropocentrism and non-anthropocentrism in environmental ethics // Ethics and ecology. Ed. by R.G. Apresyan. Veliky Novgorod, 2010, pp. 13-26.
[20] See: Horujy S.S. Ecological problem in the light of hesychastic spirituality. Report at the International conference “Afon – unique spiritual and cultural property of the modern world”, Belgrad, 23-26 June, 2013. URL: http:// synergia.ru (date of reference: 23.05.2015).
[21] Horujy S.S. What is synergia? The paradigm of synergy in its principal subject fields and discursive links. The talk at the Congress “Synergie: Konzepte, Techniken, Perspectiven”. Berlin, June, 2011. Moscow, 2011. P. 5.
Для цитирования: Krapchunov D., Maksimova E. Freedom of belief and ecological consciousness in India // PERAET 2021. International Scientific Conference «PERISHABLE AND ETERNAL: Mythologies and Social Technologies of Digital Civilization-2021» . European Proceedings of Social and Behavioral Sciences. P. 681-687.