Environmental Responsibility and Ethics in Hindu and Native American Traditions

Creative Launcher 9 (2):1-14 (2024)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Human activities harm the environment, deplete resources, and reduce biodiversity, leading to species loss, deforestation, and climate change. This unsustainable development is self-destructive. The Hindu perspective of the cosmos is 'organic' and 'holistic,' preaching a rejection of materialism and the purpose of life being emancipation from cravings and bonds. Consumption was managed in Hindu Sanskriti through Samskaras and mind training through Sadhana and Yoga, and nature is preserved through Tyaga and a controlled manner of life. The principle of reciprocal sustenance and sharing is also mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita. In a similar vein, Native Americans have a collectivist tendency to perceive the world in an integrated and holistic manner, putting group well-being over individual well-being. They do not see themselves as separate from nature, and their perspective embodies the concept of sustainability, with key characteristics such as respect for all life forms, equilibrium, proportionality, and integrated contemplation. Ancient Indian and Ancient Native American civilizations were a picture of prosperity as the technologies in all fields at that time were most appropriate, non-polluting, decentralised, simple, and non-enslaving. They were technologies with a human face. However, over time perversions crept into this ancient way of life. The hurricane of materialism and consumerism invaded and brought individual, social and environmental problems. The present paper illustrates tremendous similarity of both the worldviews and consequently compels to implore their links. The ancient traditions have the strength and capacity to put forward solutions and set everything right, including the prevention of global environmental catastrophes.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

    This entry is not archived by us. If you are the author and have permission from the publisher, we recommend that you archive it. Many publishers automatically grant permission to authors to archive pre-prints. By uploading a copy of your work, you will enable us to better index it, making it easier to find.

    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 106,168

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Conceptions of Personal Responsibility in Present and Future Bioethics.Johanna Ahola-Launonen - 2018 - Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 3:5-10.

Analytics

Added to PP
2024-09-18

Downloads
7 (#1,700,133)

6 months
5 (#853,286)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references