B.

Ed 2019- 2021
Semester-3
Your name:-
Roll no:-
SUBJECT:- Environmental Education
Assignment:- Generating awareness about
environmental values through story telling
Date of submission:-
Professor In charge:-
S.Y.B.Ed.
2021-2022
 Acknowledgement
I have taken efforts in this assignment. However, it would not have been possible without
the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend
my sincere thanks to all of them.

I am highly indebted to Prof. Megha Gokhe and Prof. Rashmi Mishra for their guidance
and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the
assignment & also for their support in completing the assignment.

I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents for their kind co-operation and
encouragement which helped me in completion of this assignment.

I would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to Thakur College of Education
and Research for giving me the opportunity.

My thanks and appreciations also go to my colleague in developing the project and

people who have willingly helped me out with their abilities.
 INDEX
SR. No. Content Page No.

1. Introduction 4
2. Religion and Environment 8
3. Questionnaires 18
4. Student’s reflection 21
5. Conclusion 27
6. Self-Introspection 28
 Introduction
We are currently facing an environmental crisis in which the works of what J. Baird Callicott calls
homo petroleumus threaten the Earth’s ecosystem in a biocide that is seen as the defining challenge of our
age.1 The necessary response involves more than economic or technological adjustments and extends to
moral, social, and spiritual issues. This puts in question a particular cultural view of the world: the modern
secular worldview, described as the Enlightenment mentality that has arisen in the last five
centuries.
Proponents of this worldview initially saw it as a way to liberate individuals from dependence on the natural
environment, seen as bound up with superstition and the Christian church, by placing priority on reason,
objectivity, and progress. There thereby developed a self-centred desire to dominate and transcend the
natural environment, manipulating it to humanity’s needs, with little thought of the consequences or of the
moral issues involved. In this scheme, humanity and environment are separated; the previous animistic ways
of perceiving the environment, which saw nature as a living sacred cosmos, were replaced with a secular
mechanical one, with nature reduced to material resources without life or spirit. The resultant worldview has
thus become the dominant social form, defining truth and reality, leading to what has been described as a
disenchantment or desacralisation of the world. 2 Tu Weiming sees this as the crisis of modernity,
an
inability to experience nature as the embodiment of spirit, seeing it merely for economic or technological
needs, resulting in an ecological illiteracy and bio-phobic destructiveness where humans, for Mary Evelyn
Tucker and John Grim, make macro-phase (environmental) changes with micro-phase wisdom. 3
Such a disenchanted or desacralised way of looking at the world is of course socially constructed (as
was what it replaced) for what is known as environment or nature is a complex, diverse, and malleable
concept always a social practice.4 Counter-stories and critiques (a politicization of nature) are thus seen as
able to create wider awareness of and diverse access to the construction of reality, possibly enabling a
change away from a dominant anthropocentric view of nature to more bio-centric ones that see it and
humanity as interdependent and mutually beneficial (while being aware of modern successes and
the
dangers of a simplistic romanticising of nature). Such views, it is hoped might then also lead to ecologically
responsible lifestyles based on changing human beliefs and practices from alienating, de-valuing,
and
manipulating the environment to thoughts of inter-connectedness, re-evaluation, and care. 5 Because this may
demand a radical change in lifestyle religion has been invoked as a means of achieving this, via a re-
enchantment or re-sacralisation of the world, involving wisdom and reverence for life. 6
Religion has been seen as disempowered and in decline in the modern world, its meanings no longer
relevant within the dominant secular worldview and institutional churches losing control of social life to
secular bodies (i.e., secularisation, privatisation). However religion (or secularisation) may not be so static
or unified a phenomenon as previously thought (this may be a consequence of modern Western bias, as, for
example, Talal Asad argues;7 of the (liberal) differentiation of society, separating the religious and the
secular, defining the former as unified traditions concerned with spiritual, private beliefs, not practical,
public issues). Rather it may be more dynamic and volatile, a complex process of individual and social,
official and unofficial, private and public, actions in particular contexts. It may, therefore, still have a role in
the world and be a valid way of inspiring, mediating, ordering, or recreating personal and social
(environmental) beliefs and identities (or, in Grace Davie’s terms, “memories”), albeit in more diverse and
dynamic forms than previously thought (with, for Peter Berger and Jose Casanova for example, de-
secularisation and de-privatisation possibly occurring). This may particularly be so as the deleterious effects
on the environment of modern technology evoke an ethical response from individuals whom modernity has
isolated from the moral resources needed to address those effects. New avenues of explicit and implicit
awareness, belief, and action may thus result, within traditional religious traditions, diverse spiritualities, or
new religious movements (hence “spirituality” is often evoked as a usable (diverse, fluid,
malleable,
practical) concept alongside or replacing “religion”). 8 Linda Woodhead and Paul Heelas, for
example,
suggest several coexisting or conflicting religious responses to the modern world: “religions of difference”,
which distinguish between God and humans and nature (e.g., charismatic, fundamentalist views); “religions
of humanity”, which balance the divine, humans, and nature (e.g., liberal religion, denominationalism); and
“spiritualities of life”, which adopt a holistic perspective and assert an identity between the divine, humans,
and nature (e.g., New Age, Neo-Pagan views).9
2
We are currently facing an environmental crisis in which the works of what J. Baird Callicott calls
homo petroleumus threaten the Earth’s ecosystem in a biocide that is seen as the defining challenge of our
age.1 The necessary response involves more than economic or technological adjustments and extends to
moral, social, and spiritual issues. This puts in question a particular cultural view of the world: the modern
secular worldview, described as the Enlightenment mentality that has arisen in the last five
centuries.
Proponents of this worldview initially saw it as a way to liberate individuals from dependence on the natural
environment, seen as bound up with superstition and the Christian church, by placing priority on reason,
objectivity, and progress. There thereby developed a self-centred desire to dominate and transcend the
natural environment, manipulating it to humanity’s needs, with little thought of the consequences or of the
moral issues involved. In this scheme, humanity and environment are separated; the previous animistic ways
of perceiving the environment, which saw nature as a living sacred cosmos, were replaced with a secular
mechanical one, with nature reduced to material resources without life or spirit. The resultant worldview has
thus become the dominant social form, defining truth and reality, leading to what has been described as a
disenchantment or desacralisation of the world. 2 Tu Weiming sees this as the crisis of modernity,
an
inability to experience nature as the embodiment of spirit, seeing it merely for economic or technological
needs, resulting in an ecological illiteracy and bio-phobic destructiveness where humans, for Mary Evelyn
Tucker and John Grim, make macro-phase (environmental) changes with micro-phase wisdom. 3
Such a disenchanted or desacralised way of looking at the world is of course socially constructed (as
was what it replaced) for what is known as environment or nature is a complex, diverse, and malleable
concept always a social practice.4 Counter-stories and critiques (a politicization of nature) are thus seen as
able to create wider awareness of and diverse access to the construction of reality, possibly enabling a
change away from a dominant anthropocentric view of nature to more bio-centric ones that see it and
 humanity as interdependent and mutually beneficial (while being aware of modern successes and
the
dangers of a simplistic romanticising of nature). Such views, it is hoped might then also lead to ecologically
responsible lifestyles based on changing human beliefs and practices from alienating, de-valuing,
and
manipulating the environment to thoughts of inter-connectedness, re-evaluation, and care. 5 Because this may
demand a radical change in lifestyle religion has been invoked as a means of achieving this, via a re-
enchantment or re-sacralisation of the world, involving wisdom and reverence for life. 6
Religion has been seen as disempowered and in decline in the modern world, its meanings no longer
relevant within the dominant secular worldview and institutional churches losing control of social life to
secular bodies (i.e., secularisation, privatisation). However religion (or secularisation) may not be so static
or unified a phenomenon as previously thought (this may be a consequence of modern Western bias, as, for
example, Talal Asad argues;7 of the (liberal) differentiation of society, separating the religious and the
secular, defining the former as unified traditions concerned with spiritual, private beliefs, not practical,
public issues). Rather it may be more dynamic and volatile, a complex process of individual and social,
official and unofficial, private and public, actions in particular contexts. It may, therefore, still have a role in
the world and be a valid way of inspiring, mediating, ordering, or recreating personal and social
(environmental) beliefs and identities (or, in Grace Davie’s terms, “memories”), albeit in more diverse and
dynamic forms than previously thought (with, for Peter Berger and Jose Casanova for example, de-
secularisation and de-privatisation possibly occurring). This may particularly be so as the deleterious effects
on the environment of modern technology evoke an ethical response from individuals whom modernity has
isolated from the moral resources needed to address those effects. New avenues of explicit and implicit
awareness, belief, and action may thus result, within traditional religious traditions, diverse spiritualities, or
new religious movements (hence “spirituality” is often evoked as a usable (diverse, fluid,
malleable,
practical) concept alongside or replacing “religion”). 8 Linda Woodhead and Paul Heelas, for
example,
suggest several coexisting or conflicting religious responses to the modern world: “religions of difference”,
which distinguish between God and humans and nature (e.g., charismatic, fundamentalist views); “religions
of humanity”, which balance the divine, humans, and nature (e.g., liberal religion, denominationalism); and
“spiritualities of life”, which adopt a holistic perspective and assert an identity between the divine, humans,
and nature (e.g., New Age, Neo-Pagan views).9
Value crisis is when the practice of members of the society starts deviating from the values we hold dear. When
there is a general acceptance of corrupt practices and unethical activities, then the society as a whole is in value
crisis. It creates a new normal of acceptance of dishonesty, lies and immoral behavior. In the contemporary world,
there has been gradual deterioration of moral and ethical moors. Things are being justified in terms of ends and
opportunities. In India, we have started accepting retail corruption as normal and in fact justifying it. 
Strategies to control value crisis in the contemporary world are as follows:
1. Parents should be made aware of the importance of raising children with right values and that they should
themselves become role models for their children.
2. Schools should have value lessons embedded in syllabus.
3. Code of ethics for organizations. Right ethical conduct should be rewarded.
4. The cost of unethical behavior should be made high by increasing punishment. Just increasing the punishment
will not do. Implementation should also be proper.
5. People who are generally the victims in the society should be made aware of their rights. Dalits and women
should made aware of their rights and ways to register complaints and get justice.
6. Popular leaders should use their appeal to inculcate good values in the society.
The downward spiraling ethical stock of the society need to be stopped and ethical standards should be raised. A
prosperous society with no ethics is no good for anybody.

We are currently facing an environmental crisis in which the works of what J. Baird
Calicut calls homo petroleum’s threaten the Earth’s ecosystem in a biocide that is seen as the defining challenge
of our age.1 The necessary response involves more than economic or technological adjustments and extends to
moral, social, and spiritual issues. This puts in question a particular cultural view of the worl d: the modern
secular worldview, described as the Enlightenment mentality that has arisen in
the last five centuries. Proponents of this worldview initially saw it as a way to
liberate individuals from dependence on the natural environment, seen as bound up with
superstition and the Christian church, by placing priority on reason, objectivity, and
progress. Thereby they developed a self-centered desire to dominate and transcend
the natural environment, manipulating it to humanity’s needs, with little thought of the
consequences or of the moral issues involved. In this scheme, humanity and environment
are separated; the previous animistic ways of perceiving the environment, which saw
nature as a living sacred cosmos, were replaced with a secular mechanical one, with
nature reduced to material resources without life or spirit. The resultant worldview has
thus become the dominant social form, defining truth and reality, leading to what has
been described as a disenchantment or desacralisation of the world.2 Tu
Weiming sees this as the crisis of modernity, an inability to experience nature
as the embodiment of spirit, seeing it merely for economic or technological needs,
resulting in an ecological illiteracy and bio-phobic destructiveness where humans, for
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, make macro-phase (environmental) changes with
micro-phase wisdom.3 Such a disenchanted or desacralised way of looking at the world is
of course socially constructed (as was what it replaced) for what is known as
environment or nature is a complex, diverse, and malleable concept always a social
practice.4 Counter-stories and critiques (a politicization of nature) are thus seen as able
to create wider awareness of and diverse access to the construction of reality,
possibly enabling a change away from a dominant anthropocentric view of nature
to more bio-centric ones that see it and humanity as interdependent and
mutually beneficial (while being aware of modern successes and the dangers
of a simplistic romanticising of nature). Such views, it is hoped might then also lead to
ecologically responsible lifestyles based on changing human beliefs and
practices from alienating, de-valuing, and manipulating the environment to thoughts
of inter-connectedness, re-evaluation, and care.5 Because this may demand a radical
change in lifestyle religion has been invoked as a means of achieving this, via
a re-enchantment or re-sacralisation of the world, involving wisdom and reverence for
life.6 Religion has been seen as disempowered and in decline in the modern world, its
meanings no longer relevant within the dominant secular worldview and institutional
churches losing control of social life to secular bodies (i.e., secularisation, privatisation).
However religion (or secularisation) may not be so static or unified a phenomenon as
previously thought (this may be a consequence of modern Western bias, as, for example,
Talal Asad argues;7 of the (liberal) differentiation of society, separating the
religious and the secular, defining the former as unified traditions concerned with
spiritual, private beliefs, not practical, public issues). Rather it may be more
dynamic and volatile, a complex process of individual and social, official and
unofficial, private and public, actions in particular contexts. It may, therefore, still have a
role in the world and be a valid way of inspiring, mediating, ordering, or
recreating personal and social (environmental) beliefs and identities (or, in Grace
Davie’s terms, “memories”), albeit in more diverse and dynamic forms than
previously thought (with, for Peter Berger and Jose Casanova for example,
de-secularisation and de-privatisation possibly occurring). This may particularly be so as
the deleterious effects on the environment of modern technology evoke an ethical
response from individuals whom modernity has isolated from the moral resources
needed to address those effects. New avenues of explicit and implicit awareness,
belief, and action may thus result, within traditional religious traditions, diverse
spiritualities, or new religious movements (hence “spirituality” is often evoked
as a usable (diverse, fluid, malleable, practical) concept alongside or replacing
“religion”).8 Linda Woodhead and Paul Heelas, for example, suggest several
coexisting or conflicting religious responses to the modern world: “religions of
difference”, which distinguish between God and humans and nature (e.g., charismatic,
fundamentalist views); “religions of humanity”, which balance the divine, humans, and
nature (e.g., liberal religion, denominationalism); and “spiritualities of life”, which adopt
a holistic perspective and assert an identity between the divine, humans, and nature (e.g.,
New Age, Neo-Pagan views).9 2
There may be a lot of ferment here then, then, this providing a context where new
religious forms can arise (with possibly both secularisation and sacralisation, old faiths
and new movements, occurring). An “ethical religion” or “world theology”, for
example, might coalesce around global ethical issues, such as the environmental crisis. It
may allow religions to regain moral, political, and social capital as well as to inspire new
attitudes and actions. In this sense, religions, for Peter Beyer, Jose Casanova,
John Esposito and Michael Watson, and Jeff Haynes, for example, may engage the
problems created by modern society and create innovative responses, undertaking a
universal trans-social role defining and maintaining the global common good, becoming
resources for recreating private beliefs (for example existentially reconnecting
individuals to nature) as well as publicly addressing issues (such as the environmental
crisis). They may thus gain significance, legitimation, and influence via a discursive
space of public interaction, questioning modern society and forcing it to reflect on its
beliefs, structures, and actions. In this way religion may enable the discontents of
the modern world, the crucial global issues, to be addressed and overcome,
providing alternatives that ethically unite humanity (although still in a western
liberal democratic and dialogic format (initially, it is possible religions can challenge
and change this)).10 Peter Beyer, in particular, sees environmentalism as one possible
way to revitalize religion and influence the global system, in an eco-theology that would
have eschatological implications for all of humanity. In this scheme, religion would
address residual matters of the dominant system (i.e., its ethical, environmental, or social
consequences), bridging the gap between private and public, linking religious
function (belief) and performance (application, public influence). Here environmental
issues provide an arena for religious expression, not only as critical matters of public
concern but also as indicators of root causes of the problems, which are seen as moral
and spiritual values, with religion being necessary for their resolution.
Religious environmentalism may thus become a social movement based on religious
resources, giving meaning to and promising the power to overcome the consequences of
modern secular values and structures. Assuming a priestly and prophetic role religion
would then present the environmental crisis as a problem of disordered or unjust human
relations and provide the ideological and organisational resources to conceptualise these
and deal with them.11 To do this however, religions may need greater private and public
environmental consciousness. The Judeo-Christian tradition, for example, most
famously for Lynn White, has been seen as anti-environmentalist through
anthropocentric views and this and other (Eastern) religious traditions, seen as
more bio-centric and environmentally friendly, have been seen as world-denying,
concentrating on personal salvation (or as being part of political regimes that are
ecologically destructive, for example the Marxist Chinese system).12 These may be
somewhat limited interpretations, nevertheless, an explicit and overt ecological
awareness on the part of religious traditions, a non-anthropocentric re-interpretation of
humanity, nature, and the sacred that extends beliefs, ethics, identity, and sacredness
beyond humanity to nature as a whole, has been encouraged and growing during a
period that Roderick Nash terms the “greening” of religion. In its modern form
this stems from the1980’s within developments in the American National Council
of Churches and the World Council of Churches and in the work of, for example, Thomas
Berry, Wendell Berry, Fritjof Capra, John Hart, Jurgen Moltmann, Theodore Roszak, and
Paul Santmire, but it can be traced back further through, for example: John Cobb and the
influence of Alfred North Whitehead and Teilhard de Chardin’s “process philosophy” in
the 1970’s; the recognition of religious viewpoints outside the Judeo-Christian (Asian
faiths, indigenous traditions) and Richard Baer and the “Faith-Man-Nature” group
of American eco-theologians, influenced by St Francis of Assisi and Aldo Leopold’s
“Land Ethic” in the 1960’s; Joseph Sittler’s “Theology for the Earth” in the 1950’s; and
earlier to David Henry Thoreau and John Muir in the nineteenth-century and John Ray
and Alexander Pope in seventeenth-century.13 In particular, to consolidate and
further this religious greening there has arisen what has been described by two of
its leading exponents, Bron Taylor and Mary Evelyn Tucker, as a “field” of religion and
ecology; an academic, religious, and social arena that seeks to enable the exploration and
promotion of eco-religious ideas to be located and carried out, spiritual awareness of
nature deepened, and religious ecological activism encouraged.14 Religion in this scheme
(in diverse ways within multiple traditions) is seen as having the means to engage
the modern secular worldview and environmental issues, addressing private 3
preferences and public consequences. It is seen as being orientated to something
other than egoism and materialism, highlighting the order, interdependence, and
spirituality of the world, with humanity as one part within it not as dominant. It is also
seen as offering the means to experience creative force (of a deity or of nature), defining
humanity’s place in the cosmos, as well as people’s obligations to each other and to
other life-forms, reinforcing personal and communal connections to wider truth.
Religious traditions are seen as having the moral authority, collective vision, and
legitimating narratives to provide existential and social guidance, as well as the
critical and prophetic potential (and numbers of adherents) to challenge destructive
lifestyles and stimulate change, tempering human environmental action with humility,
respect, and reverence.

Religion and Environment

Another benefit of practice to the environment is the compassion that drives all
thinking

From the cradle that is a baby’s first bed to the cremation pyre that is the last resting
place for the body in many Hindu traditions, wood is an integral part of Hindu lives.
From home hearths to religious sacraments, wood and fire are conspicuously present.
Hindu weddings take place in front of a sacred fire that is considered to be an eternal
witness; at death, the bodies are consigned to the fire.

The ashes of the cremated body are immersed in holy waters—the same rivers that feed
and irrigate paddy fields; the same water that cooks the rice and bathes the dead before
cremation. From cradle to cremation, Hindus have long had a palpable, organic
connection with nature. But today they must also face the reality of environmental
disaster. With the population hovering around a billion in India (with eight hundred
million Hindus), the use, abuse, and misuse of resources is placing India on the fast track
to disaster. What, if anything, can Hindu tradition say about this looming environmental
crisis? Are there any resources in the Hindu religious and cultural traditions that can
inspire and motivate Hindus to take action?1

While in the Western world one has to argue for the significance and relevance of
religion in everyday life, in India the interest and involvement in religion is tangible;
religious symbols are ubiquitous. The traditional mantra heard among Hindus, “Hinduism
is more than a religion; it is a way of life,” is more than a trite saying. There is a deep
relationship between religion and ingrained social structures and behavioral patterns. The
characters featured in the various Puranas, or ancient texts about the Hindu deities, are
known and loved by the masses. People never seem to tire of these stories. Only
vernacular cinema seems to rival the epic and Puranic narratives in popular influence.

But do the many Hindu philosophies and communities value nature and privilege the
existence of plants, trees, and water? Although the short answer is “yes,” Hindus have
answered this question in many different ways that have been documented in excellent
texts.2 Plants and trees are valued so highly in Hindu sacred texts that their destruction is
connected with doomsday scenarios. The Puranas and epics such as the Ramayana and
the Mahabharata give detailed narratives of the periodic and cyclic destruction of the
world. There are four aeons in each cycle, and by the beginning of the third aeon, things
are perceptibly going awry. As the Kurma Purana puts it, “then greed and passion arose
again everywhere, inevitably, due to the predestined purpose of the Treta [Third] Age.
And people seized the rivers, fields, mountains, clumps of trees and herbs, overcoming
them by strength.”3 The epic Mahabharata (c. 500–200 b.c.e.) graphically depicts the
events at the end of the fourth—and worst—aeon, and what happens after a thousand
such aeons:

At the end of the Eon the population increases . . . and odor becomes stench, and flavors
putrid. . . . When the close of the thousand Aeons has come and life has been spent, there
befalls a drought of many years that drives most of the creatures, of dwindling reserves
and starving to their death. . . . The Fire of Annihilation then invades . . . [and] burns
down all that is found on earth. . . . Wondrous looking huge clouds rise up in the sky. . . .
At the end of time all men—there is no doubt—will be omnivorous barbarians. . . . All
people will be naturally cruel. . . . Without concern they will destroy parks and trees and
the lives of living will be ruined in the world. Slaves of greed they will roam this earth. . .
. All countries will equally suffer from drought. . . . [It] will not rain in season, and the
crops will not grow, when the end of the Eon is at hand.4

What we note almost immediately is that these destructions are portrayed as cyclical and
periodic. The first quotation about the third aeon evokes the inevitable, predestined nature
of such events. One wonders if human beings are powerless against such cosmic
configurations. But even if we were to take these epics seriously, we have quite a while to
wait. According to very conservative Hindu almanacs and reckoning, the end of this aeon
—the fourth—is not expected before 428,898 c.e.

Despite this unequivocal ratification of the pursuit of happiness, Hindus of every stripe
have participated in polluting the environment. In this essay, we will look at the resources
and limitations within the many Hindu traditions to see how the problem of ecology has
been addressed. Before we look at these resources, a few caveats and qualifications are in
order.

The first important issue to be aware of is that there are many Hindu traditions, and there
is no single book that all Hindus would agree on as authoritative. In this essay, I will cite
many texts from a spectrum of sources. The second point to note is that the many texts
within Hindu traditions have played a limited role in the history of the religion. Although
works like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the many Puranas have been generally
influential, philosophical works like the Upanishads are not well known by the masses.
The texts on right behavior (dharma shastras) have been only selectively followed, and
popular practice or custom has had as much weight as religious law. All these texts, along
with Puranic and epic narratives, have been the carriers and transmitters of dharma and
devotion (bhakti).

Dharma is all-important in Hindu communities, but the texts that define and
discuss dharma were known only by a handful of Brahman men. Instead, notions
of dharma were communicated through stories from the epics and Puranas, and such
moral tales were routinely retold by family or village elders. Like Aesop’s fables—or
MTV today—these narratives shaped notions of morality and acceptable behavior. The
exaggerated reliance on texts of law is a later development and can be traced to the period
of colonization by the British.5 With the intellectual colonization by the West and the
advent of mass media, Hindus today, especially in the diaspora, think of texts alone—
rather than oral tradition or community customs—as authoritative. Many Hindu temples
in India now hold classes and study circles on the Bhagavadgita (“the Song of the Lord;”
a text composed circa second century B.C.E. that is part of the epic Mahabharata). The
Ramakrishna and Chinmaya missions publish theological books and tapes with
translations and commentaries to explain their canonic texts to an educated middle-class
public.

Finally, I do not speak about these resources for anyone except those who in some
manner belong to one of the Hindu traditions. Gerald Larson has alerted us to the dangers
of indiscriminate use of philosophical texts as a generic resource for environmental
philosophy, and one has to be mindful of these warnings.6 Still, given the increasing
popularity of sacred texts among many sectors of Hindu society in the late twentieth
century, I feel comfortable in using many Hindu texts as resources in this essay. We will
see shortly that some Hindu institutions are citing esoteric passages on dharma from
sacred texts in order to raise the consciousness of people about contemporary social
issues. The regulation of dharma with a dual emphasis on text and practice has given it a
flexibility that we can use to our advantage today.

The resources from which the Hindu traditions can draw in approaching environmental
problems are several and diverse: there are texts, of course, but also temples and teachers.
Hindu sacred texts starting with the Vedas (c. 1750–600 B.C.E.) speak extensively about
the sanctity of the earth, the rivers, and the mountains. The texts on dharma earnestly
exhort people to practice nonviolence toward all beings; other texts speak of the joys of a
harmonious relationship with nature. Temples are large economic centers with
endowments of millions. Many have had clout for over a millennium; devotees, pilgrims,
and politicians (especially after an election) donate liberally to these centers. Finally,
there are gurus. Teachers like Sathya Sai Baba can influence millions of devotees around
the world and divert enormous resources to various projects.

These vast and varied religious resources can undoubtedly be used to raise people’s
consciousness about environmental problems. In this essay, I will explore some of the
resources in the Hindu traditions that may be relevant to the environmental crisis, discuss
a few cases of environmental mobilization that have sprung from religious sensibilities,
and finally assess some of the other strands in the Hindu traditions that often impede the
translation of philosophies into action.

Spreading environmental awareness

Gandhi exemplified many of these teachings, and his example continues to inspire
contemporary social, religious and environmental leaders in their efforts to protect the
planet.

The following are 10 important Hindu teachings on the environment:

1. Pancha Mahabhutas (The five great elements) create a web of life that is shown
forth in the structure and interconnectedness of the cosmos and the human body.
Hinduism teaches that the five great elements (space, air, fire, water and earth) that
constitute the environment are all derived from prakriti, the primal energy. Each of these
elements has its own life and form; together the elements are interconnected and
interdependent. The Upanishads explains the interdependence of these elements in
relation to Brahman, the supreme reality, from which they arise: “From Brahman arises
space, from space arises air, from air arises fire, from fire arises water, and from water
arises earth.”

Hinduism recognizes that the human body is composed of and related to these five
elements,
and connects each of the elements to one of the five senses. The human nose is related to
earth, tongue to water, eyes to fire, skin to air and ears to space. This bond between our
senses and the elements is the foundation of our human relationship with the natural
world. For Hinduism, nature and the environment are not outside us, not alien or hostile
to us. They are an inseparable part of our existence, and they constitute our very bodies.

2. Ishavasyam — Divinity is omnipresent and takes infinite forms. Hindu texts, such
as the Bhagavad Gita (7.19, 13.13) and the Bhagavad Purana (2.2.41, 2.2.45), contain
many references to the omnipresence of the Supreme divinity, including its presence
throughout and within nature. Hindus worship and accept the presence of God in nature.
For example, many Hindus think of India’s mighty rivers — such as the Ganges — as
goddesses. In the Mahabharata, it is noted that the universe and every object in it has
been created as an abode of the Supreme God meant for the benefit of all, implying that
individual species should enjoy their role within a larger system, in relationship with
other species.

3. Protecting the environment is part of Dharma. Dharma, one of the most important
Hindu concepts, has been translated into English as duty, virtue, cosmic order and
religion. In Hinduism, protecting the environment is an important expression of dharma.
In past centuries, Indian communities — like other traditional communities — did not
have an
understanding of “the environment” as separate from the other spheres of activity in their
lives.

A number of rural Hindu communities such as the Bishnois, Bhils and Swadhyaya have
maintained strong communal practices to protect local ecosystems such as forests and
water
sources. These communities carry out these conservation-oriented practices not as
“environmental” acts but rather as expressions of dharma. When Bishnois are protecting
animals and trees, when Swadhyayis are building Vrikshamandiras (tree temples) and
Nirmal Nirs (water harvesting sites) and when Bhils are practicing their rituals in sacred
groves, they are simply expressing their reverence for creation according to Hindu
teachings, not “restoring the environment.” These traditional Indian groups do not see
religion, ecology and ethics as separate arenas of life. Instead, they understand it to be
part of their dharma to treat creation with respect.
4. Our environmental actions affect our karma. Karma, a central Hindu teaching,
holds that each of our actions creates consequences — good and bad — which constitute
our karma and determine our future fate, including the place we will assume when we are
reincarnated in our next life. Moral behavior creates good karma, and our behavior
toward the environment has karmic consequences. Because we have free choice, even
though we may have harmed the environment in the past, we can choose to protect the
environment in the future, replacing environmentally destructive karmic patterns with
good ones.

5. The earth — Devi — is a goddess and our mother and deserves our devotion and
protection. Many Hindu rituals recognize that human beings benefit from the earth, and
offer gratitude and protection in response. Many Hindus touch the floor before getting out
of bed every morning and ask Devi to forgive them for trampling on her body. Millions
of Hindus create kolams daily — artwork consisting of bits of rice or other food placed at
their doorways in the morning. These kolams express Hindu’s desire to offer sustenance
to the earth, just as the earth sustains themselves. The Chipko movement — made famous
by Chipko women’s commitment to “hugging” trees in their community to protect them
from clear-cutting by outside interests — represents a similar devotion to the earth.

6. Hinduism’s tantric and yogic traditions affirm the sacredness of material reality
and contain teachings and practices to unite people with divine energy. Hinduism’s
Tantric tradition teaches that the entire universe is the manifestation of divine energy.
Yoga, derived from the Sanskrit word meaning “to yoke” or “to unite,” refers to a series
of mental and physical practices designed to connect the individual with this divine
energy. Both these traditions affirm that all phenomena, objects and individuals are
expressions of the divine. And because these traditions both envision the earth as a
goddess, contemporary Hindu teachers have used these teachings to demonstrate the
wrongness of the exploitation of the environment, women and indigenous peoples.

7. Belief in reincarnation supports a sense of interconnectedness of all creation.

Hindus believe in the cycle of rebirth, wherein every being travels through millions of
cycles of birth and rebirth in different forms, depending on their karma from previous
lives. So a person may be reincarnated as a person, animal, bird or another part of the
wider community of life. Because of this, and because all people are understood to pass
through many lives on their pathway to ultimate liberation, reincarnation creates a sense
of solidarity between people and all living things.

Through belief in reincarnation, Hinduism teaches that all species and all parts of the
earth are part of an extended network of relationships connected over the millennia, with
each part of this network deserving respect and reverence.

8. Non-violence — ahimsa — is the greatest dharma. Ahimsa to the earth improves

one’s karma. For observant Hindus, hurting or harming another being damages one’s
karma and obstructs advancement toward moksha — liberation. To prevent the further
accrual of bad karma, Hindus are instructed to avoid activities associated with violence
and to follow a vegetarian diet.

Based on this doctrine of ahimsa, many observant Hindus oppose the institutionalized
breeding and killing of animals, birds and fish for human consumption.

9. Sanyasa (asceticism) represents a path to liberation and is good for the earth.
Hinduism teaches that asceticism — restraint in consumption and simplicity in living —
represents a pathway
toward moksha (liberation), which treats the earth with respect. A well-known Hindu
teaching — Tain tyakten bhunjitha — has been translated, “Take what you need for your
sustenance without a sense of entitlement or ownership.”

One of the most prominent Hindu environmental leaders, Sunderlal Bahuguna, inspired
many Hindus by his ascetic lifestyle. His repeated fasts and strenuous foot marches,
undertaken to support and spread the message of the Chipko, distinguished him as a
notable ascetic in our own time. In his capacity for suffering and his spirit of self-
sacrifice, Hindus saw a living example of the renunciation of worldly ambition exhorted
by Hindu scriptures.

10. Gandhi is a role model for simple living. Gandhi’s entire life can be seen as an
ecological treatise. This is one life in which every minute act, emotion or thought
functioned much like an ecosystem: his small meals of nuts and fruits, his morning
ablutions and everyday bodily practices, his periodic observances of silence, his morning
walks, his cultivation of the small as much as of the big, his spinning wheel, his
abhorrence of waste, his resorting to basic Hindu and Jain values of truth, nonviolence,
celibacy and fasting. The moralists, nonviolent activists, feminists, journalists, social
reformers, trade union leaders, peasants, prohibitionists, nature-cure lovers, renouncers
and environmentalists all take their inspirations from Gandhi’s life and writings.

Ecological concerns are reflected in different religions regarding protection

Buddhism: The notion of karma alone, being an important part of Buddha's lessons,

conveys the values of conservation and responsibility for the future. It is said that the
morality of our actions in the present will shape our character for the future, an idea close
of sustainable development.

Buddhist Connections and Reflection on Environment: “As a bee – without harming

the blossom, its color, its fragrance – takes its nectar and flies away: so should the sage
go through a village.”  “Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man,
gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.” 

Christianity: There are approximately hundred verses in the bible that talk about
protection of the environment. Christians therefore have environmental responsibility and
encourage behavioral change for the good of the future.

Christian Connections and Reflection on Environment: “Do not pollute the land

where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land
on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.”

“When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, ‘Gather the pieces that are
left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 

“We must treat nature with the same awe and wonder that we reserve for human beings.
And we do not need this insight in order to believe in God or to prove his existence. We
need it to breathe; we need it for us simply to be.”  “The urgent challenge to protect our
common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a
sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. The Creator
does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us.
Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home.” 

Confucianism: For more than 2500 years, Confucianism influenced culture, society,

economy and politics of China mainly, but also Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Some
sociologists called Confucianism as a civil religion or diffused religion. Also,
Confucianism was part of the Chinese social fabric and way of life. To Confucians,
everyday life was the arena of religion. In the Analects of Confucius there is a very little
about relation of and nature, but some principles followed in Confucianism humanism are
related in nature protection and ecology.

Confucian Connections and Reflection on Environment:  “… sustainable harmonious

relationship between the human species and nature is not merely an abstract ideal, but a
concrete guide for practical living.”

Hinduism: Hinduism is a religion deeply rooted in nature. The sacred text (Vedas,

Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Epics) has many references of divinity related to nature,
such as rivers, mountains, trees, animals, and the earth. To protect them, Hinduism
encourages environmental protection and there are organizations who promote
sustainable development and support the protection of the environment through
awareness campaigns and actions.

Hinduism Connections and Reflection on Environment: “I shall now explain the

knowable, knowing which you will taste the eternal. Brahman, the spirit, beginningless
and subordinate to Me, lies beyond the cause and effect of this material world.”

“According to the different modes of material nature — the mode of goodness, the mode
of passion and the mode of darkness — there are different living creatures, who are
known as demigods, human beings and hellish living entities. O King, even a particular
mode of nature, being mixed with the other two, is divided into three, and thus each kind
of living creature is influenced by the other modes and acquires its habits also.”

“There is an inseparable bond between man and nature. For man, there cannot be an
existence removed from nature.”

Islam: Hundreds of Qur’an verses support the protection of the environment. Many some
Islamic organizations promote the relation between Islam and sustainability. Islam also
approaches environment from a stewardship perspective. The earth is God’s creation, and
as humans, we have been entrusted to preserve it as we found. The responsibility of
humanity is to protect and ensure the unity of the God’s creation. Moreover, Islam
prohibits the excessive consumption of resources the planet provides to the humanity. In
fact, Qur’an mentions wasteful consumption as the thirty-second greatest sin.  In 2015,
the Islamic Climate Change Symposium adopted the Islamic Declaration on Global
Climate Change.

Muslim Connections and Reflection on Environment: “Devote thyself single-

mindedly to the Faith, and thus follow the nature designed by Allah, the nature according
to which He has fashioned mankind. There is no altering the creation of Allah.”

“Do not strut arrogantly on the earth. You will never split the earth apart nor will you
ever rival the mountains’ stature”.

“It is Allah who made for you the earth a place of settlement and the sky a ceiling and
formed you and perfected your forms and provided you with good things. That is Allah,
your Lord; then blessed is Allah , Lord of the worlds.”

Jainism: Originated from India, the main teaching from Jainism is Ahimsa, the non-
violence, in all parts of life. Verbally, physically and mentally, Jainism doctrines focus on
a peaceful and disciplined life. Kindness to animals, vegetarianism and self-restraint with
the avoidance of waste are parts of Jains life. In addition, in 1990, The Jain Declaration
on Nature was written to mark the entry of the Jain faith into the WWF Network on
Conservation and Religion.

Jainism Connections and Reflection on Environment: "Do not injure, abuse, oppress,

enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being."

 “As a highly evolved form of life, human beings have a great moral responsibility in
their mutual dealings and in their relationship with the rest of the universe. It is this
conception of life and its eternal coherence, in which human beings have an inescapable
ethical responsibility, that made the Jain tradition a cradle for the creed of environmental
protection and harmony.”

Judaism: In tradition, the land and environment are properties of God, and it is the duty
of humankind to take care of it. The book of genesis, as an example, proposes that the
garden in Eden was initially the chosen territory chosen by God for human to live.

Jewish Connections and Reflection on Environment: “And God said: 'Behold, I have

given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree,
in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed--to you it shall be for food.”

“The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof” 

“The Earth is Mine, you are My tenants” 

Sikhism: Sikhism is a native Indian religion appeared in the late 15th century founded by

the first guru, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. The sacred text is written by the foundational scripture
Guru Granth Sahib where there are several teachings on environment. The Sikh holy site
is managed by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (S.G.P.C.), and this
organization makes decisions for the global Sikh community, especially on environment.

Sikh Connections and Reflection on Environment: “You, Yourself created the

Universe, and You are pleased…You, Yourself the bumblebee, flower, fruit and the
tree.”

“You, Yourself the water, desert, ocean and the pond. You, Yourself are the big fish,
tortoise and the Cause of causes.” 
Questionnaire
 Student’s Reflection

Question wise Student’s Reflection

1) Question No.1 Who was incarnation of Lord Vishnu?

2) Question No.2 Who had spoilt water of Yanuna river?

3) Question No.3 What was the effect of Kaliya's poison on aquatic creatures?
4) Question No.4 Who was accountable for contamination of Yuman river
water?

5) Question No.5 What happened when Kaliya's family started staying in

Yamuna river?

6) Question No.6 Who played a pivot role in cleansing Yamuna's river?

7) Question No.7 What were Krishna and his Sakhas were doing at the bank
of Yamuna river?

8) Question No.8 What was the motto of The Lord Krishna to bring his Sakhas
in proximity of Yamuna river?
9) Question No.9 What would have happened If The Lord Krishna could not
have victoried against The Kaliya?

10) Question No.10 Who begged before The Krishna for The Kaliya's life?

11) Question No.11 Who is The Krishna of today's world?

12) Question No.12 Who is The Kaliya of today's world?

13) Question No.13 What are we supposed to do to dispense with The current
Kaliya "POLLUTION OF WATER"?

14) Question No.14 What would happen If we will not take pre-emptions at
right time or now?
 CONCLUSION
From the student’s reflection it can be interpreted that they have successfully instilled the
value appertained to Water Pollution. They have grasped the value of water conservation
and this has been reflected from their perspectives. They had fathomed the meaning of
story very aptly and appeared for the quizzes. From their answers followings can be
inferred that
I. The Krishna was the incarnation of Lord Vishnu in past while in today’s era we
ourselves are the form of The Krishna. We just have to discern the form of today’s
Kaliya that is nothing but Pollution.
II. In the past The Kaliya had toxified the water of River Yamuna. In the present
biggest crux is POLLUTION which is the modern Kaliya before us. How to get rid
of such troublesome fiend is a hugest problem before us. We have to become The
Krishna to dispense with this problem. Water is assumed to be pivotal for our life
and hence it is our responsibility to conserve it for future generation.
III. Also how The Kaliya toxified water of Yamuna river is explicated in our Hinduism
culture and how The Krishna victoried over The Kaliya to liberate all Vridavan
residents from hazardous effects radiated by The Kaliya through his poison in
Yamuna river. Flora and flora of Yamuna river were also commenced dwindling
because of Kaliya’s poison and started enriching when The Kaliya left the
ambiance of Yamuna river. Through that they understood how significant is to
conserve water from being contaminated and to save it for prospective application.
IV. They discerned that when Kaliya mixed his poison in Yamuna River, its water
turned black and got contaminated. They perceived that when any incompatible
substance is mixed in water, it gets contaminated. So they confessed that we should
not throw any non-degradable materials in water which can pollute it.
V. They persuaded themselves that if The Krishna would not have been there, The
Vrindavan Residents would have agonized to death by drinking toxic water. So in
similar way if we want this problem to confront in a brave manner then we
ourselves have to wear that fearless cap which will drive us towards our goals or
mottos which are supposed to be accomplished.
VI. Utmost is to fight against our own dissuasive thoughts which are hampering us to
achieve what we have decided. Students convinced to fact that without endeavours
it would not be possible to mitigate our shenanigans.

SELF-REFLECTION
This assignment was very pleasurable and worthwhile to accomplish. I have thoroughly
enjoyed doing this assignment. To rummage for story was equally enterprising work for
me. The most fascinating part of this assignment is narration of story before students.
Also preparing questionnaires for inculcating values was worthy and new experience.
Students responded to questions aptly and inculcated value of conservation of water for
prospective uses. I myself inculcated value first and then asked my students to abide by
the same. After reading different perspectives of students I concluded my assignment. I
had knowledge of making graphs and geometric figures on word but for the very first
time I applied that knowledge. I enjoyed making pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs,
distribution graphs and dot method of plotting. Also different responses I got in the form
of excel sheet. While narrating story the students shared their knowledge of Indian
mythology that was literally spellbound. They had detailed knowledge of our mythology
and shared different aspects of story like victory over evil, conservation of water,
resuscitation of Vrindavan residents from evil clutch, etc. I am so happy to be a student of
environmental education course and more ecstatic after doing this assignment. I would
like to express my special regards to Rashmi ma’am who kept trust on us and prompted
us right from selection of topic to completion of this assignment and also considered us
meritorious for this assignment. I would try to instill each and every environmental value
related to my topic in student’s mind so as to make them environment friendly and
accountable citizens.