Hinduism & Ecology

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PREFACE
Hindus did not know that they were Hindus until we told them so, nor that their land was called India. To them it
was, and still is, Bharat, and has been so named since the time of the great emperor Bharat, whose life is
recounted in their ancient histories. As for their religion, it did not have a name, any more than existence itself,
because to live in Bharat meant to share a way of life common to all, a spiritual and material culture so
all-pervading as to be invisible to those within it, like the air they breathed.
The word 'Hindu' entered the English language in the nineteenth century. It came from the Persians, whose Muslim
descendants ruled India for close to a thousand years. They derived it from the river Indus, which flowed through
the north western plains of the sub-continent and gave its name to the land and its people. How apt that in naming
the religion of India, we should call it after its bio-region. Hindus, with their reverence for sacred rivers,
mountains, forests and animals, have always been close to nature.
The two principle branches of Hinduism are Vaishnavism, which focuses on Vishnu and his avatars, and
Shaivism, which follows Shiva. In essence these traditions are two sides of one coin. Although the information in
this book is drawn from the Vaishnava tradition, most of it will be found to be common to both schools.
If Hinduism can be given a legitimate name it is 'Sanatan Dharma', which is used by many Hindus today. Roughly
translated, this means 'the eternal essence of life'. This essence is not limited only to humans. It is the essential
quality which unites all beings - human, animal or plant - with the universe that surrounds them and ultimately
with the original source of their existence, the Godhead. This perception of underlying unity is what causes
Hindus to steadfastly refuse to separate their religion from their daily life, or to separate their own faith from the
other great faith traditions of the world. To them all religions are part of the process of discovering the unity of
God, humanity and nature.
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CHAPTER O*E
INTRODUCTION: THE BANYAN SEED
"I am the seed of all existence. There is no being,

moving or still, that exists without Me."
Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita
There was once a cobbler who lived a simple and honest life. He was a poor man and had to work hard to
support his wife and children, but whatever little extra he had he devoted to the worship of Vishnu, the lord of
creation. He lived beside a huge banyan tree. Like all banyan trees its central trunk was massive, surrounded by
smaller trunks which hung down from the branches to put out fresh roots. The tree was very old and was just like
a small forest. One day, as he worked in the shade of the banyan tree, the great teacher Narada came to visit him.
Narada is famous among all Hindus as the personal messenger and friend of Vishnu. He is able to see Vishnu
whenever he wants, but he spends most of his time travelling throughout the universe, visiting Vishnu's devotees
and instructing them. The cobbler was very happy to receive so honoured a guest. After welcoming him with
proper respect he ventured to ask if he had recently seen Vishnu.
"Yes," replied Narada, "I have just been with Him and He has sent me to see you."
The cobbler was amazed to hear that Vishnu had sent Narada to him. No one important ever came to see him - he
was only a shoemaker. What possible interest could Vishnu have in him? After some time his curiosity overcame
his shyness. "Why did Vishnu want you to see me?"
"He thought you might have some questions."
"Questions?" The cobbler was taken unawares. Narada himself had come to answer his questions! Of course, he
did have questions from time to time, but now, with this unique opportunity, his mind went blank! In confusion he
racked his brain for something to ask. Suddenly he thought of one. It wasn't very profound, but at least it was a
question. "What was Vishnu doing when you saw Him?"
Now Vishnu knew that the cobbler, although simple-hearted, was really a very special person, and He knew what
would happen when Narada suddenly appeared in front of him. Because he knows everything, he knew the
cobbler would ask this exact question. Wanting to teach Narada a lesson, he had already told him what his answer
should be.
"He was threading an elephant through the eye of a needle," Narada replied mysteriously.
"Threading an elephant through the eye of a needle?" the cobbler was surprised. He hadn't expected that Vishnu
would be doing this. "Well, one thing's for sure," he laughed, "Only Vishnu could do that!"
"Surely you don't believe me," smiled Narada, amused at the cobbler's simplicity. He had given this answer
merely to test the cobbler and didn't expect him to believe it. "I don't think even Vishnu could really do that - it's
impossible."
"Why can't Vishnu do that?" responded the cobbler, a little taken aback at Narada's lack of faith. "Nothing's
impossible for Vishnu. This world is full of His miracles. He makes the sun rise each day. He makes the wind
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blow. He makes the rivers run and the trees and flowers grow."
The cobbler warmed to his subject. "Look at this," he went on as he bent to the ground and picked up a seed from
beneath the banyan tree, "Inside this seed is a banyan tree as big as the one above us. It's just waiting to come out.
If Vishnu can squeeze a whole banyan tree into such a tiny seed, surely he can thread an elephant through the eye
of a needle!"
Hearing the wisdom of the cobbler's words Narada had to admit that what he said was true. He realised that this
man was not the simpleton he had taken him for but was very wise because he could see in everything the hand of
God.
The cobbler had the sense of wonder at his environment, which we in this age of science and technology have
lost. He could still be surprised at what he saw and see the miracles. The common everyday things of this world,
like the banyan tree seed, are things which we take for granted and do not stop to wonder at. We don't see that
really they are miracles. Although we could explain to the cobbler in modern scientific terms how a seed
produces a tree, we would still not understand what he understood, namely the divine presence within the tree and
its seed. No matter how believable an explanation science can give for the workings of nature it will always be
incomplete because it cannot explain the reason and purpose behind it. It may tell us HOW but it cannot tell us
WHY.
The world is like a beautiful painting or a musical symphony. We might know how the colours are mixed on the
canvas or how the musical instruments are played in the orchestra, but that does not help us to appreciate the
beauty of the picture or the music that is produced, or the inner meaning which the artist or composer has given it.
It is this inner meaning which the cobbler was able to see. All of life, from the universe itself down to the
individual trees and seeds and the very earth beneath his feet, is full of the divine purpose of God, the artist and
creator behind it.
Unless we can understand this divine purpose which lies behind the world, we will not know how to live in it
properly, or how to use it. Science has greatly advanced in the last two hundred years, making it possible to
manipulate nature in ways that were previously impossible. This has brought many benefits such as medicines and
comforts of life, but it has also created many dangers. If we don't know what the world is meant for, if we don't
know how to use it properly, we can do immense harm with the power that modern science has given us.
Therefore the Hindu scriptures have advised that knowledge of matter, namely science, must be coupled with
knowledge of spirit if it is to be of benefit to humanity.
A man once bought an ornate antique birdcage to decorate his home. He carefully restored it, cleaning and
polishing it all day. Inside the cage was a bird, but he took no notice of that, not even bothering to feed it. When he
proudly displayed his birdcage to his friends, they were shocked to see that despite the beauty of the cage the poor
bird inside was dying of hunger. Western culture has effectively built a very elaborate cage in which the human
spirit is now languishing, imprisoned by its own material excesses. Despite its sophistication, this civilization has
failed to see the inner meaning of life, and the bird in the cage is dying.
In the great cycle of the Mahabharata, the epic history of old India, spiritual teachings are set in the classic
tradition of the teacher showing wisdom to the disciple. At the heart of the epic is the Bhagavad Gita, the 'Song of
God', in which Krishna teaches his warrior friend Arjuna, who is presented with an awful dilemma: whether to
fight in battle against his own relatives and dear friends, or to allow the forces of evil to overrun his kingdom.
Taking this as a metaphor, Arjuna finds himself He says to Krishna, "I'm confused; I'm frightened; I don't know
what to do or who I can trust. Please advise me."
Arjuna's position has obvious parallels with today's overwhelming environmental and social problems. Like
Arjuna, we find ourselves in a position of danger where confusion obscures our path and our duty is not clear. We
have created a civilization of great complexity in which our economic and social needs are intricately woven into
a global web of cause and effect over which we have less and less control. The whole edifice, being based upon
the principle of trying to replace the natural order with an artificial one aimed at satisfying material desires, is
highly insecure. We are trying to solve our problems by making constant adjustments to the balance of life,
without any clear knowledge of what the consequences may be. We stumble on without knowing where we are
going.
The further we progress along this path, the deeper our disillusion becomes. In a survey of public opinion in
Britain conducted by the Daily Telegraph in August 1991, 42% of people asked said that they would be prepared
to give up all the benefits of modern science and technology in order to have a natural way of life in a world that
is free from pollution. We think that we are making progress, but our progress is like that of the deer in the desert,
who chases after a mirage. The poor animal runs deeper and deeper into the desert until it can go no further. Led
on by its burning thirst, trapped by its blindness and misjudgment, it eventually lies down to die in the wilderness.
Western civilization needs to rediscover the balance and harmony which it has lost. We must take advantage of
the fact that we are now a global community and are no longer limited to learning from only one tradition. There
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are many sources of wisdom left to us all over the world. The West has much to learn from the wisdom traditions
of India. Having exposed most of the rest of the world to our own traditions, and having largely abandoned them
ourselves, we now need to learn from others; to put aside our swords and guns, our computers and microscopes,
our cars and televisions, and have the courage and the vision to journey in new territory where these seemingly
indispensable aids may be of little value.
Reincarnation is a good example of a teaching which has been largely ignored by Western civilization, despite the
fact that it has always existed in one form or another in the unofficial religions of our countries. It is important
because it stresses the equality of all life forms and their transience too. It does not support the human-centered
culture of the West which permits human society to terrorise the animal kingdom and dominate the cycles of nature
for its own convenience. Nor does it support the empire-building mania of the European societies, who wanted to
possess as much of the world as they could, believing that they only had one life in which to do it all. It is these
attitudes that have encouraged us in our present path of industrial and technological war upon nature and the
world.
Re-incarnation and other knowledge of the spirit is taught by the Vedas, the sacred books of the Hindus. They
contain the collected wisdom of the Vedic culture, the world's oldest living civilization, which in modern times
has come to be known as Hinduism. They teach about the meaning and purpose of the world through philosophy
and stories from Vedic history. Like Narada's answer to the cobbler's question, many of the stories in the Vedas
may be hard to understand or believe, especially for us in the twentieth century, but the Hindu would say that they
are closer to the real truth than the most scientific descriptions of life that we read in our textbooks of physics,
medicine or psychology.
The Vedas tell the story of a five year-old child named Dhruva, who went to the forest to seek Vishnu. He was
advised to practice penances and meditation. So, standing on one leg he slowed his breathing down to the point
where he was barely inhaling or exhaling. After four months he managed to stop breathing completely and
remained with his mind fixed on the form of Vishnu, suspended between the inward and outward breath. At this
point he became at one with the universe and his foot seemed to press down on the earth with unbearable weight.
The devas of the heavens - the sun, the moon and all the elements - began to feel as if they too could not breathe.
They were suffocating because of the intense self-control of Dhruva who had somehow syncronised his own
breathing with that of the total universe.
To save the devas, Vishnu appeared before Dhruva and blessed him. Then Dhruva relaxed his meditation and the
universe was released from his grip. In recognition of his strength and determination, Vishnu gave Dhruva the pole
star as his kingdom. Ever since then, in memory of the time when Dhruva brought the whole universe under his
influence, the heavens have revolved around his star.
This story demonstrates the profound relationship between every living being and the universe itself - all beings,
even devas, are linked in a complete whole of interdependence where each of their actions effects everyone else.
Only Vishnu, the supreme, lies apart. Although all existence ultimately depends upon Vishnu, and although Vishnu
is present even within the atom, Vishnu is simultaneously far, far beyond the limits of physical existence.
Dhruva's meditation took place in the forest, where Hindus have found so much inspiration. Modern society,
having left the forest far behind, needs to see the divine purpose of Vishnu that pervades all life. In its search for
technological advancement it is sowing seeds of destruction, seeds which can destroy the beauty and harmony of
this world for a long time to come. At this crucial time the stories and teachings in this book are offered from the
Vedas and their followers. Like the cobbler's seed they illustrate truths about the natural world which are highly
relevant to today's problems. They are seeds of truth whose lessons must be shared.
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CHAPTER TWO
THE WORLD FOREST
"Forest, at one level, means the world. It includes the

whole creation. You are also part of that forest. It is not
that you are outside the forest. You can re-order it, but
you cannot by-pass it."
Banwari
The traveller in India soon learns to appreciate the ancient trees which often grow by the wayside. Trees such as
mango, nim or banyan have always been planted along the roads to give shelter and shade, their leaves acting as
natural air-conditioners. Beneath their broad canopies generations of travellers, stopping for a rest or a meal from
a roadside stall, have found relief from the heat.
Planting trees and digging wells have traditionally been the two great acts of charity by which anyone could earn
merit and universal appreciation. Sadly these big shade trees along the roads are now becoming rare, but
wherever they are found, rooted in the soil of India, they carry with them a brooding sense of magic and history.
They stand as silent symbols of India's spiritual roots - last outposts of the vast forests and jungles which once
covered the whole continent, and which gave shelter to Lord Rama and his beautiful wife in their years of exile
and echoed with the sound of Lord Krishna's flute as he danced with his friends and herded the cows.
Sages dwelt in these forests, living simple and austere lives in search of spiritual perfection. Living with them
beneath the trees were their students, who could learn the Vedic truths in perfect natural surroundings, reminded in
a thousand ways of the all-pervading presence of God.
Because they lived in the forest, the early Vedic teachers attached great importance to trees. Beneath a tree was
the correct place for a disciple to receive spiritual instruction from a guru. The tree was the symbol of patience
and tolerance. They carefully studied and recorded the herbal and medicinal properties of the forest. Some trees
gained special significance and poems and prayers were composed about them and the spirits dwelling within
them.
"Just see these greatly fortunate trees, whose lives are completely dedicated to the welfare of
others. How great they are that they bear the storms, rains, snow and scorching sun and then they
protect us!"
This tradition of valuing trees was passed on into Indian culture and led to a subtle ecological relationship
between human communities and the forest community of trees, plants and animals. The basis of this relationship
was the recognition of the rights of the trees, forest-dwelling animals and plants to a life of their own, free from
exploitation by humans. 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.
Banwari, the day-editor of 'Jansatta', a Hindi daily newspaper published in Delhi, has made a detailed study of
the forest culture of India for a book he is writing. He spoke to me of his findings.
"The Hindu idea is that this whole world is a forest. To keep this world as it is we have to keep
the world-forest intact. Hinduism describes everything in terms of divinity and in relation to the
Ultimate Reality. The different aspects of this Ultimate Reality are all to be found in the various
forms of the physical world.
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"Every physical object symbolises some aspect of Reality. Amongst these, the forest symbolises
the divine attribute of 'totality', combining all life forms together in a single inter-dependent whole.
"In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna compares the world to a single banyan tree with unlimited
branches in which all the species of animals, humans and demigods wander. Indian consciousness
is full of trees and forests. If you look, for example, in Greek literature you will find only a few
descriptions of trees and forests, whereas Indian literature such as Ramayana and Mahabharata is
full of such descriptions, as if the people were always under the trees. The bond between Indian
people and trees is very strong.
"Hindu tradition describes three basic categories of forest. One is shrivan, the forest which
provides you prosperity. Then there is tapovan, where you can contemplate as the sages did and
seek after truth. The third is mahavana - the great natural forest where all species of life find
shelter. Each of these categories must be preserved."
Banwari explains how originally the land is covered with trees, but as the human population increases trees are
cleared to make way for cultivation. How the land was cleared and the earth cultivated was described long ago in
the ancient story of King Prithu, who milked the earth in the form of a cow. He was credited with clearing the
forests and establishing the first organised agricultural settlements and townships.
Once some of the original forest was cleared, however, Vedic culture required that another kind of forest be
established in its place. To remove the forest was simply not acceptable. It was the source of natural wealth such
as fodder, timber, roots and herbs. Moreover the trees guaranteed the fertility of the soil and purified the air and
water. Therefore the villages would each preserve sections of forest for their own specific needs. These forests
were different from the mahavana, the wild forest or jungle, because they were open for exploitation and
harvesting according to strictly ecological practices. This kind of forest was called shrivan, which literally means
forest of wealth - they were the basis of the community's prosperity.
Each village was responsible through its pancayat, or committee of five elders, for maintaining the forests in its
own locality. No village would be complete without its corresponding woodlands in and around its houses. As
Banwari explains:
"The village has many things - it is not significant only because of its human population. It is
significant because of its water, because of its animals and because of its trees. According to
tradition, that village will be a full entity only when there are certain categories of forest or trees
in and around the village. This is called shrivan, the forest of prosperity."
The shrivan could be in the form of groves of a particular kind of tree, such as the mango tree. Many such groves
would be looked after by temples, having been given to the temple in the distant past and kept up for countless
generations. Such sacred groves still survive in places today as a reminder of the old system. They are often the
only surviving areas of mature woodland in otherwise denuded surroundings and provide a refuge for wildlife
from the encroaching development of housing, roads, modern agriculture and factories.
Today in India many are saying that there should bemore trees planted in and around the villages. This is because
the tradition of shrivan has been allowed to lapse. According to tradition it was not trees that should be in the
village, but the vaillage that should be among the trees. Villages should be planned in such a way, with dense
groves and gardens, that the whole area is enshrouded by useful trees.
The third category of forest is tapovan, the home of the sages. This kind of forest is natural and untended, but is
specifically set aside as a place for the practice of religion. Why should a forest be required for religion? The
answer is found in the meaning of the name tapovan: tapa means penance and vana means forest. The life of a
rishi, a holy person, is meant to be one of self-control and penance, through diet, simple living, renunciation of
belongings and meditation. The rishi must live in a place which is apart from the bustle and passion of worldly
life, a place pervaded with the presence of God - this is tapovan, the forest of penance. If one wished to meet with
such advanced souls one had to go to the forest where their ashrams, or hermitages, could be found. There are
many stories in the Vedic literatures of encounters between worldly persons and sages in their forest ashrams.
From this profoundly natural setting emerged the Vedic teachings of the Upanishads such as the Brihad-Aranyaka,
which means 'The Teaching Which Began in the Forest.'
The presence of these sages also guaranteed the protection of the forest. No animal or tree could be harmed near
where they lived. Even kings who violated the sanctity of the area by hunting could be punished. Nowadays it is
necessary to establish sanctuaries by force of law and keep them under constant guard agaist poachers and
vandals, but previously the mere presence of holy persons ensured the saftey of all around them.
"What is your image of the world?" Banwari asks:
"If your image of the world includes all things which are naturally there, then you will keep this
world intact by keeping all those things intact. If your world is narrow, revolving around man and
his desires, then your world will exclude things which don't fall into that scheme. If your image of
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the world is complete then you will restrict your actions so that they don't harm the creation.
Forest, at one level, means the world. It includes the whole creation. You are also part of that
forest. It is not that you are outside the forest. In India, the world is mahavana. You can re-order it,
but you cannot be outside it."
Another way of seeing the world is as a village which includes the forest and its animals, along with humanity.
For example, one of the endearing, although sometimes frustrating, features of Indian cities is that cows and bulls
wander freely where they please. You often come across an entire herd of cows spread over a half-mile of busy
arterial highway in the midst of a city such as Delhi. Sometimes they will sit with their calves on the narrow
central reservation dividing the opposite lanes of traffic, or they may stand in the midst of the traffic, with cars
and lorries whizzing past them on either side, apparently oblivious of the danger to their own lives and the
disruption they are causing. Until now no one has attempted to change this state of affairs, but recently many cities
are trying to introduce legislation to ban them. According to the Indian tradition, cows have as much right to be in
cities as have human beings: they are part of the world forest, and the world-village must maintain a balance of all
aspects of life - trees and animals cannot be excluded. Yet some modern Hindus now see the presence of cattle in
their cities as an embarrassing sign of backwardness and a hazard to traffic. Others say that the cows belong
where they are; that the traffic, whose volume and speed is increasing across India at an unprecedented rate, is
itself the hazard, not only to the cows but to the whole of India's world.
"In traditional, real India this could not happen," says Banwari:
"For example, every village must have a cluster of five great trees which represent the forest. They
are called pancavati. There is a saying that these five trees symbolise the five primary elements of
earth, water, fire, air and ether - the totality of everything. Similarly, cattle represent the animal
world. They are part of the world, and therefore part of the city - you cannot exclude them."
***
Up to the last century India was covered with thick forest land. However, everything changed when the British
government set up the Indian Forestry Department to exploit the forests. From the beginning of the nineteenth
century Britain had systematically felled large areas of virgin Indian forests mainly to meet the ever-expanding
needs of her ship-building industry. From 1853 the arrival of the railway in India required further vast amounts of
timber for sleepers and for fuelling locomotives. When, later, coal replaced timber as a fuel, the coal-mines
themselves needed large quantities of timber for their underground galleries. Exploitation continued, and during
the Second World War 6,326 square miles of previously untouched Indian forests were felled for the war effort.
To meet the Empire's needs, during the nineteenth century the forests were gradually nationalised. The present
Indian law controlling public access to government forests dates back to the Forest Act introduced by the British
1878. In essence these laws meant that much of India's forests were taken out of the hands of the local people.
Villagers were denied rights of access to what had always been theirs. Because the basic connection between the
village and its forests has been broken, the tradition of caring for trees, of respecting and even worshipping them,
has fallen into disuse.
Banwari expresses the frustration among India's environmentalists:
"The Forestry Department claims to be a great admirer of the forests but the fact is that the state's
main interest is in natural resources. To acquire these it will always violate nature and has now
become the enemy of the forests."
The villagers, on the other hand, are the natural friends of the trees. It is common understanding among them that
trees must be protected so that the soil will be fertile for agriculture, but because of the crushing economic
pressures that are now placed upon them their common sense and their traditional reverence for trees have been
overshadowed by their immediate need for short-term economic survival.
Despite his disappointment Banwari is hopeful:
"The traditional religious literatures will have to be re-written and re-published; people must
again be made aware of what were the customs, what were the norms, what are the quotations,
what is the image of a particular area - which invariably includes a forest, and why that forest was
destroyed. Perhaps one thousand books will have to be written explaining all of this. Then you
will have to make an effort to re-vitalise the old customs. Then, if the state would give up its
control of the forests and return that control to the villages, India will blossom again."
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CHAPTER THREE
FOREST SPLENDOUR
Sri Sewak Saran lives in Vrindavan, one of the twelve forests which were once the home of Sri Krishna and his
cows. Sewakji inherited two acres of land on the edge of the pilgrimage town of Vrindavan where he has
established a small wildlife sanctuary and tree nursery. In the midst of this patch of undisturbed nature is
Sewakji's own simple house where he lives with his wife, her parents, and two cows. It is an old tumbling
one-and-a-half storey structure built from local brick and thatch, half-hidden by the trunk and spreading branches
of a large kadamba tree which grows against one wall. It is the sort of building that looks as if it grew straight out
of the ground on which it stands. It was here, nine years ago, that Sewakji experienced a deep change in his life.
He had been living a peaceful existence, happy with his devotional practices, doing little else than worshipping
Krishna and chanting Krishna's name. In keeping with Hindu custom, he had retired from working life to devote
himself to his religion.
One day his peace was broken by the sound of an axe striking a tree. He went to investigate, and found on the lane
at the back of his land three men cutting down a very large tree. The tree was the only big one left in the area and
was the home of several peacocks, who will only spend the night in the higher and bigger trees. He was surprised
to find that these men were devotees of Krishna who, like him, were living in Vrindavan and supposedly
worshipping Krishna's sacred forests. Thinking that they would agree to his request to leave the tree, he tried in
all possible ways to persuade them to stop, but to no avail. The tree was a sesame, and they were cutting it for
timber. Normally, a sesame tree could be cut for timber, provided there were plenty of other trees nearby. But
when there were so few trees left in the area Sewakji considered the cutting of this single tree, which was home to
so many birds and which alone gave shade to passers-by, to be a terrible act.
While the three men continued cutting the tree, Sewakji went to seek the help of a local guru who had some
authority over them and who might have been able to stop them. However he declined to get involved. Sewakji
then reported the incident to the police. The inspector of police came but he also did nothing. Within two or three
days the tree was gone.
"When I saw this state of affairs it actually created a sort of vacuum inside me," Sewakji recalled:
"For two days I was not in a position to know what to do and what not to do - just blank! It was a
very strange state of affairs inside me. Then immediately I came out, just like I was being kicked
out of some place - `What are you doing? What is the use of your chanting and what is the use of
your worship in the temples and what is the use of your taking bath daily in the Yamuna and what
is the use of your daily parikrama round the sacred forest if you can't protect these trees and
animals which are part of your devotion; whom you consider to be your gurus? If you can't protect
them there is no use of any worship. You are just a hypocrite.' Since then I have been running from
one door to another, this door to that door, from this city to that city, this person to that person,
begging everyone to look after Vrindavan and Krishna's trees."
Over the years Sewakji had studied the Vaishnava texts and developed a deep understanding of Vaishnava
theology based around the Vrindavan tradition of devotion to Krishna and his female counterpart, Radharani.
Together they are the presiding deities of the twelve forests of Vrindavan. Now he also began a thorough study of
ecology and taught himself to be an environmentalist. He now interprets the worship of Radha-Krishna as a
profoundly ecological basis for life and has formulated his own unique approach to the environmental problems
of Vrindavan, which are similar to the problems faced almost everywhere in India and in much of the world. The
rest of this chapter is a retelling of some of the concepts which Sewakji kindly taught me during the two weeks I
spent in his company in Vrindavan.
***
Vrajbhumi, the region around Vrindavan, always had a very good environmental balance, following the traditional
pattern of Hindu India. This balance was achieved through the relationship between human settlements, forests
and water resources. Between the villages there would be three types of forest patches: forest sanctuaries, dense
woodland and sacred groves. The first type was called raksha, 'sanctuary'. This would be entirely left to itself -
no human would enter it - as a sanctuary for wildlife. If a bird had made a nest on a tree-branch the entry of a
single person could disturb its habitat. Therefore this small forest would be completely protected from human
disturbance. During the daytime the birds and animals would go into the village or wherever they wished and
safely return to their habitat at night. All of them living in that patch would feel quite safe.
"Nowadays the government is spending a huge amount on wildlife sanctuaries," Sewakji explains,
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"but still they are not able to maintain the standards of protection that existed in the old sanctuaries.
In those days these small sanctuaries, anywhere between one and ten acres, were everywhere
between the villages. This is a better system than having huge government sanctuaries, because it
provides more local variety of habitat and involves the local communities directly in caring for
their own environment and the animals."
This type of raksha forest corresponds to both the mahavan and tapovan forests described by Banwari in the
previous chapter. The shrivan forest, which encompasses and supports the village, has two features according to
Sewak Sharan: dense forest and grove.
Dense forest was called ghana. In this forest the natural arrangement of trees and plants would not be
unnecessarily disturbed, but people would go there to collect dry wood, leaves, forest produce and a limited
amount of green timber. As care for this woodland was the responsibility of the village communities, and as their
livelihood depended on it, they naturally conserved it from generation to generation.
Finally comes the grove, called vanakhandi, usually of one particular species, say mango, specially planted by the
villagers: Amara-khandi (mango), Kadamba-khandi, Tamal-khandi and so on.* These groves were usually
composed of fruit trees and were maintained by the village as places for religious observance, festivals and
recreation. A typical pastime was julan, swinging from a seat suspended from the branches of a tree. Most
recreation, such as dancing or singing, had to do with religious festivals like rasalila, the circle dance of Krishna.
This commemorates Sri Krishna's dancing with the cowherd girls during the full-moon night of the autumn season
in the sacred groves on the banks of the Yamuna river.
Another essential part of the traditional ecology of the villages is the water tank, or reservoir of rainwater. These
tanks vary in size from small ponds to large lakes of up to four acres excavated to a depth of twenty feet or more,
with steps built into their sides for access. They are situated in the natural depressions in the ground, where they
can best receive the surface rainwater. Most tanks contain one to four bore-holes, depending on the tank's size, to
feed surplus rainwater down to the underlying ground water. In this way every year the abundance of monsoon
rain is captured and the ground water replenished to ensure a constant supply of sweet water.
In the past these tanks were constructed or restored by wealthy benefactors, particularly in sacred pilgrimage
places such as Vrindavan. They would sometimes be embellished with beautiful stonework and pavilions to give
shade and resting places to the many pilgrims who would come to bathe in their waters. Many of these tanks have
sacred connotations, commemorating events in the lives of great saints or avatars. Frequently they have histories
going back thousands of years.
Nowadays, however, with the availability of pumps and piped water these tanks are falling into neglect. They are
silting up and their bore-holes are becoming blocked and useless. The rainwater gullies which were meant to feed
the tanks are sometimes used as sewage ditches and the tanks either dry up or become health hazards. Indeed,
there are few places in India where the inter-relationship between villages, water-tanks and forest patches has
been maintained. This neglect threatens the well-being of India's villages, whose survival depends utterly on the
health and abundance of their surroundings.
Sewak Saran points out that the environment is not only flora and fauna: it includes the human species. The inter-
dependence of human beings and their environment is of utmost importance. Sadly, it is only human beings who
misuse and harm the environment. In his own words: "When we talk of environment we cannot leave humans out
of the picture. If we have to re-create the environment, we will have to consider ourselves. When we start
re-creating ourselves we have to look within our hearts and see where we have erred and made mistakes. This
means to be religious - to proceed towards God. In this way the environmental approach becomes the religious
approach.
"Ultimately we will have to think for ourselves where we are going wrong in creating this imbalance in nature. If
we are not kind to the tree, the ant or some other animal or plant, we are not environmentalists. We have to see
Krishna in every being. This is one of the requirements for the environmentalist."
Based on his understanding that an environmental approach to life is part and parcel of spiritual culture and flows
from human self-development, Sewakji has defined seven facets of human existence which together make up what
he calls Human Ecology. In his analysis, each level of concern grows out of, and is dependent upon, each of the
others.
1 Forest Splendour
The splendour of the moon, the stars, the rising sun, the winds, the sky, the vegetation, the animals, birds, rivers,
trees and mountains together form the beauty of the natural creation in its entirety. Part of that beauty is called in
sanskrit vanavaibhava. There is no exact equivalent in English for this word, but the nearest term would be "forest
splendour". Human beings are part of this forest splendour and should therefore, in their natural state, love and
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respect it. We are part of it, it gives us our identity, and without it we are lost. Thus we must carefully nourish and
preserve the forest. This is the world forest referred to by Banwari, the primeval forest from which we come and
where we find our identity.
2 Spirituality
To understand our relationship with this forest splendour we must look within ourselves and thus begin the
spiritual path: spirituality begins from looking within. True spirituality means not only looking within ourselves,
but looking within the whole of nature - to understand the internal reality of nature. In Sewakji's own words:
"When we feel ourselves as part of the whole, and think to ourselves how this creation is working,
how our own being is working within it and who has created it and how; when we try to find the
motive force behind all of this - this is spirituality. Without this internal dimension we may have
external culture but we will use it for the wrong reasons - selfish ones - and we will not benefit
others by our actions."
This is the next ingredient of human life - spirituality - and we must take care of it. True spirituality cannot survive
without reference to the natural environment.
3 Culture
Sewakji goes on to explain that culture is the outward expression of spirituality. As a painting expresses the spirit
of the artist, culture expresses the spirit of society. Culture is expressed in the way a society lives, how its people
behave, and in its religious expressions. These will alter according to time and place, but they will nevertheless
speak unerringly of the underlying consciousness of that society. In particular, the way in which humanity sees
itself in relation to its surroundings is a fundamental reflection of human culture.
According to Sewakji:
"Sometimes human culture may not be in unison with the surroundings and it may have a harmful
effect on nature. These days human beings have gone very much astray and are destroying nature:
whenever nature stands in the way of what they want she is pushed aside. Such behaviour which is
not in harmony with nature is not really human culture. In our Indian perception, Manav is a human
being who perfectly respects nature and danav is one who misuses nature. It is not wise to go
against nature. History has shown that those cultures which are not respectful to nature do not last
long: they bring about their own downfall. Vedic culture, on the other hand, has lasted for many
thousand of years and is still visible even now. It is called 'sanatan dharma' - the way of life which
lasts for ever, self-perpetuating and regenerating."
4 Heritage
Springing from human culture comes heritage - the permanent impressions left in stone, art and literature - those
things by which we pass on our values to the next generation. This is an essential part of human life from which
we gain nourishment and support, from which we learn who we are and how to live.
We have received so much from previous generations and civilizations, but unfortunately human society acts
irresponsibly and neglects its heritage. This means that others in the future will not receive it. Particularly in
India, whose culture is so great, the traditional heritage has been largely destroyed by foreign rulers who imposed
their own ideas upon it. They assumed that they had surpassed the knowledge of previous societies and had no
more use for it.
We have an obligation to pass on what we have received to those who come after us. We must preserve our
heritage, learn from it, and give it to our children. This is the fourth facet of Human Ecology.
5 Pilgrimage
To know these cultures and heritages one must travel to different sacred places, to find out how all these different
patterns are tied together - to find unity in diversity. To go on pilgrimage is to experience the values of a
particular place; to feel one with the culture of that place. When the buildings and surroundings speak with us and
have a message for us - a message of the spirit - then it is pilgrimage. In the Vedic tradition the most enlightened
souls are considered to be the sannyasis, the wandering monks who move around and give enlightenment. They
travel from place to place to learn what truth is and to teach it to those they meet.
6 Human Welfare
When we have learned to see the common thread which unites all different expressions of human culture and
heritage, then we can have a full sense of human welfare. The next consideration is how humans should behave
towards one another. They should be kind and co-operative with one another, otherwise they are not truly human.
Being kind to others includes being kind to nature. Nature's welfare and human welfare cannot be separated from
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each other. For this reason Vedic culture taught that the earth and the cow are to be loved and cared for as
mothers. If we are kind to nature we will naturally be kind to one another.
7 Human Ecology
All these points taken together add up to human ecology. They proceed from human beings situated in their natural
environment of 'forest splendour'. If we do not find this initial point of contact with our natural origins, we fail to
find ourselves in relation to the world and to truth.
While explaining to me his understanding of ecology, Sevak Sharan shared with me his deep concern about the
deterioration of Krishna's forests in Vrindavan. We agreed to work together to try and do something to change the
situation. (The problems of Vrindavan and the conservation project we have begun there with the support of WWF
are described in chapter eleven)
Sewakji is a comparative rarity in India. Not many souls, devout though they may be, have seen the connection
between their religious practice and the need to care for the natural world around them. In fact, quite the opposite.
Despite their deeply ecological tradition, the majority of Hindus are surprisingly unconcerned about their
surroundings to an extent which often shocks the outsider. There are historical and social reasons for this, of
course, which I will explore later in this book.
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CHAPTER FOUR
VISHNU, THE SLEEPING CREATOR
At the temple of Budhanilakanth, just north of Kathmandu, is an ancient deity of the creator Vishnu. Carved from
black stone, half submerged in the waters of a small lake, he reclines on the body of the cosmic serpent
Anantasesh, coiled under him like a floating bed. His serene thirty-foot long form, constantly attended by priests
and pilgrims, lies wrapped in mystic sleep. The creator and ultimate controller of the material realm, the One who
is described in Bhagavad Gita as the source of all material and spiritual worlds and the origin of all living beings,
this final source of life and power, has withdrawn himself from the drama he has set in motion and is forever
asleep.
Vishnu is one of the names given in the Vedic scriptures for the supreme being. Although Hindus believe in many
lesser gods called demigods, they know that there is only one Supreme, the source of all others. Vaishnavas know
Him as Vishnu, the Lord of all creation. Before this world existed, before there were any demigods or sun, moon
or stars, Vishnu existed in his own eternal realm.
But why is Vishnu sleeping? Why is he not taking part in the world he has made? To understand this we must hear
the Hindu story of creation, as told in the Puranas. Creation does not happen only once. As the cycle of seasons
endlessly repeats itself, Vishnu creates the world of matter and withdraws it into his existence time after time.
This is how he creates.
There exists an eternal realm of light, stretching in all directions for infinity. As the light of this world comes from
the sun, so the brilliance of that spiritual sky comes from the dazzling rays shining from the personal form of God.
That energy of God, called brahman, is the basis of creation.
In one corner of that never-ending sky, Vishnu, the lord of all beings, created a cloud. In its shadow he brought
into being a great ocean. The water of that ocean was quite unlike the water of this world. It is from that ocean that
this world was made, so it is called the waters of creation. In the coolness of its waters Vishnu lay down to sleep.
While he slept, submerged in the water, he began to breathe deep, regular breaths. Time came into being. Aeons
passed.
Then came sound, the basis of the world. From sound came ether and the sense of hearing. The combination of
ether and the sense of hearing created texture, which in turn produced air and the sense of touch. The mixing of air
and the sense of touch created form, from which came fire and the sense of sight. The combination of fire and the
sense of sight created flavour, which in turn produced water and the sense of taste. By the mixture of water and the
sense of taste odour was created, and from it came earth and the sense of smell. Together these elements made up
the ingredients for creation.
The Vedic scriptures describe how each element was created and how they are all related, one to another. They
show how the senses of hearing, touching, seeing, tasting and smelling are each related to a particular element and
how all are woven together to form a living world where all the parts depend on each other. If a disturbance is
made in one part of this web its balance will be upset and a disturbance will be caused somewhere else. This
disturbance may not just be in the outside world, but also in the internal health of our own body and senses. This
kind of effect can be seen in the twentieth century in the damage done to nature and to our own health by the
continued industrial exploitation of the environment.
With his outward breath Vishnu scattered clouds of tiny bubbles into the waters, and every time he breathed in
they were sucked back inside him. Each of these bubbles, which seemed so small in comparison with his gigantic
sleeping form, grew into an entire universe like ours, whose lifespan was equal to a single breath of Vishnu. All
these universes were clustered around the form of Vishnu like foam in the ocean.
When all the elements of matter were present, Vishnu expanded himself and entered each universe, bringing it to
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life by filling it with souls, tiny particles of his own spiritual nature. These souls were filled with desires for
enjoying the world. To fulfil their desires they needed material bodies. So began the second phase of creation.
From Vishnu inside each universe Brahma was born. Brahma created the planets and stars and all the thousands of
demigods, each of whom was given charge of a particular part of the cosmic order. Indra was given the rain, Vayu
the wind, Surya the sun, Candra the moon and Varuna the waters. Goddess Bhumi was given the earth.
Brahma and the demigods created the myriad life-forms of the universe, among them human beings. The demigods
were given the power to grant great blessings to their worshippers. For Hindus these demigods are not just
mythical figures. They are the powers behind the elements of the natural world such as wind, rain and the earth
itself. These elements are usually taken for granted as being automatic forces working as part of a complex
machine, but really they are under the higher control of the demigods. Even the earth planet itself is controlled, by
Bhumi, and therefore Hindus always treat the earth with great respect, considering her as their mother who gave
them life and without whom they would die. However, powerful though the demigods are, behind them lies
Vishnu, and it is really he who creates and controls all. Without him they can do nothing.
It is said that the oceans are Vishnu's waist, the hills and mountains are his bones, the clouds are the hairs on his
head and the air is his breathing. The rivers are his veins, the trees are the hairs on his body, the sun and moon are
his two eyes and the passage of day and night is the moving of his eyelids. In the words of the Bhagavad Gita:
"Everything rests on me as pearls are strung on a thread. I am the original fragrance of the earth. I
am the taste in water. I am the heat in fire and the sound in space. I am the light of the sun and moon
and the life of all that lives."
Once the world came to life, filled with numberless living beings, Vishnu expanded himself into a third form and
entered the hearts of all beings to sit alongside each individual soul as the Supersoul.
The individual soul, called the atma, is the basis of life. By its presence as the self, it gives energy to the body.
The world is thus a combination of matter and spirit, innumerable life forms and the soul within them. When the
soul leaves one body, that body dies. The soul then enters another body, like an actor changing clothes. Moving
from body to body in search of happiness, it passes through all forms of life, from insect to demigod. Materially
these life-forms are not of the same importance, but spiritually they are equal because they are all coverings for
the soul. It is this soul that Vishnu accompanies in the heart of each being as the Supersoul.
The Mundaka Upanishad gives a simple allegory for understanding the Supersoul. There are two birds sitting on
the branch of a tree. One bird is tasting the fruits of the tree, some bitter, some sweet. The other bird is a friend,
watching the first bird. The friend is patiently waiting for the first bird to turn to him and share his friendship, but
the first bird is unaware of his presence. The tree is the body, the bird who tastes its fruits is the individual soul,
and the friendly bird is the Supersoul - Vishnu - who offers his protection, friendship and love.
For Hindus, this world is not made of inanimate matter, to be wasted and exploited for selfish ends. When they
see the sunrise and feel its scorching heat, when they taste water or smell the earth in the monsoon rains, they are
reminded of Vishnu. Vishnu is both inside it and outside this world, and it cannot be separated from him. All is
sacred, God-given and mystically created. It all came from Vishnu and it will all return to him in the end.
Although Vishnu is sleeping in the ocean of creation he is not unaware of the actions of his offspring, the tiny
souls. In their hearts he is following them as they journey through the vastness of time and space. Waiting.
Watching.
"Everywhere are his hands and legs, his eyes, heads and faces. His ears are everywhere. He
knows all things, past, present and future. He also knows all beings. But no one knows him."
He knows all beings, but they do not know him. It is they who are unaware of him. That is why he is sleeping. It is
really not he who sleeps, it is the souls of this world, who are asleep to him. He only waits for them to turn from
the worldly tree and return to him and to their original home in the eternal world of light. That is another world,
and another story.
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CHAPTER FIVE
THE COSMIC PERSON
"Oh King, the rivers are the veins of the Cosmic Person and the trees are the hairs of his body. The
air is his breath, the ocean is his waist, the hills and mountains are the stacks of his bones and the
passing ages are his movements."
Srimad Bhagavatam 2.1.32-33
The remote valley of the river Gandhaki, high in the Himalayas, is innaccessible for nine months of the year,
walled in by snow and ice. When the snows thaw and spring briefly gives way to summer, pilgrims find their way
in from the plains below, seeking the treasures that lie in its icy torrents. Rolling down the river bed are not
precious stones or gold, but small black pebbles, smooth and round, adorned with strange circular markings.
These stones are called shalagram and are said to be produced from the semen of Vishnu, as is the universe itself.
They are sought after as forms of Vishnu to be worshipped in home or temple. To get a stone, the worshipper must
go on pilgrimage to the valley where they are found. After reciting special mantras the pilgrims reach into the icy
waters and, if they are fortunate, one of the sacred pebbles appears within reach to be taken and worshipped as a
form of Vishnu.
Shalagram stones, signifying the presence of Vishnu, the Cosmic Person, are found in homes and temples all over
India and beyond. Long ago Vedic sages described Vishnu as the One whose existence spans the cosmos. When
our universe first came into being it was only one of countless seminal seeds springing from the gigantic body of
Mahavishnu, the Great Vishnu, seeds which floated in the Causal Ocean like clusters of bubbles (see chapter 3).
Each seed became a golden egg into which Vishnu entered as the Purusha, the Cosmic Person. Appearing inside
its dark hollow, he transformed primeval matter into earth, water, fire, air and ethereal space. As his universal
body developed, corresponding elements of the physical and mental world came into being. His mouth became
Speech, presided over by the fire-god; his nostrils became Breathing and the sense of Smell, controlled by the
wind-god; his eyes became the sense of Sight, controlled by the sun-god; Movement appeared along with his legs,
rivers along with his veins, and Mind along with his heart. The moon was his mind and the demigods Brahma and
Shiva were his intellect and ego.
In the Hindu world consciousness pervades the universe and all within it. A human being, an elephant, a cow, a
dog, an ant, a tree, mountains, rivers, the planet earth itself - all are conscious. The sun, moon and stars shine their
consciousness upon us, and conscious beings fill the space between us with their invisible presence. All these
beings exist within the Cosmic Person.
The universe is the form of the Cosmic Person. Vedic cosmology divides the space inside the universe into
fourteen layers of planetary systems, from the Patala planets, which are the soles of his feet, to the heavenly
planets called Satyaloka, which are his one thousand heads. An ancient Vedic hymn called Purusha Sukta
describes the form of the Cosmic Person and relates how all within this world is a part of his universal form. This
hymn is recited every day by priests and devout Hindus as part of their worship of Vishnu.
In this daily worship different physical elements are used as constant reminders of the sacred origins of matter.
All matter is imbued with the presence of the divine, but it is easy to forget this. As fire is present in wood, and
can be drawn out given the right conditions, so spirit is present in matter, but can only be seen by one who has
aquired the right vision. The ritual of daily worship in which the elements of matter are resanctified awakens the
dormant sense of divine presence, enabling the worshipper to see that presence even in everyday objects. A deity
of the personal form of God can be made out of wood, stone, earth or paint, or can be created in the mind, and
then worshipped with the sanctified elements of matter. One such traditional form of deity is the shalagram, the
small black pebble from the bed of the river Gandhaki.
The method of worship has been handed down through lineages of brahmana families and gurus for thousands of
years. Although the actions performed are simple enough, they cannot be done mindlessly. Before receiving
initiation into the worship of a deity the student must understand that the deity is not mere stone or wood, but an
embodiment of the supreme Vishnu. Nor is it an idol, an imaginary invented image, but is formed following the
teachings of the tradition as they have been handed down in order to faithfully reproduce Vishnu's form, thus
summoning his presence. Though the details of worship vary from one tradition to another, all follow a common
formula, based around the recitation of prayers and a ceremony during which the deity is bathed in water and then
rubbed with oil and anointed with sandalwood paste. The basic elements used are water, ghee, scented oil,
incense, a burning ghee lamp, fruits, milk, food-grains and leaves from the sacred Tulasi plant. To these may be
added fire kindled in the agni-hotra sacred fire ceremony, into which are made offerings of ghee and grains. The
fire acts as the mouth of the Cosmic Person, receiving the offerings. The prayers of purusha-sukta, describing the
Cosmic Person, are chanted during the worship.
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An essential part of a brahmana's worship is the recitation of the gayatri mantra, which begins with meditation on
the sun as the representative of God. The sun is the eye of Vishnu, which sees all; by its energy all living things
flourish. Vishnu himself enters into the sun as the sun-god. The daily appearance of the sun is greeted as a moment
of great auspiciousness when brahmanas recite the gayatri mantra. The mantra is repeated again at noon and at
sunset, calling upon the sun, which illuminates the earthly and heavenly realms, to enlighten the mind of the
meditator with divine inspiration.
Another prayer, commonly used at the beginning of worship or meditation, offers respect to mother Earth and asks
for her protection: 'Oh mother Earth, the worlds are maintained by you. Oh goddess, you are upheld by Lord
Vishnu. Kindly purify this seat and daily maintain me.' The earth and the sun span the world of human experience.
The sun, the 'eye of God', gives forth energy and life, fertilising the earth, who is the mother from whose womb all
life-forms are born.
In the Vedic literatures mother Earth is personified as the goddess Bhumi, or Prithvi. She is the abundant mother
who showers her mercy on her children. Her beauty and profusion is vividly portrayed in the beautiful Hymn to
the Earth in the Atharva Veda, from which the following verses are taken:
Your castles and fortresses are built by divine engineers. In every province of yours people are
working hard. You bear all precious things in your womb. May God, the lord of life, make you
pleasing on all sides. (43)
O mother, bearing folk who speak different languages and follow different religions, treating them
all as residents of the same house, please pour, like a cow who never fails, a thousand streams of
treasure to enrich me. (44)
May you, our motherland, on whom grow wheat, rice and barley, on whom are born five races of
mankind, be nourished by the cloud, and loved by the rain. (42)
O mother, with your oceans, rivers and other bodies of water, you give us land to grow grains, on
which our survival depends. Please give us as much milk, fruits, water and cereals as we need to
eat and drink. (3)
Verses from Atharva Veda 12.1, paraphrased from the translations quoted by O. P. Dwivedi and B. N. Tiwari in Environmental
Crisis and Hindu Religion, Gitanjali, New Delhi, 1987.
Earth's production of food is dependent on the principles of karma which lie at the root of the workings of the
universe. All actions bring reactions, linking everything together in a seamless web. Hence the supply of food is
influenced by the moral or spiritual behaviour of humanity. This may seem irrelevant in these scientific times,
when we are able to control so much for ourselves, but it is nevertheless a fundamental principle of Hinduism. In
Hindu tradition food is offered daily to God in the temple. Without these offerings the earth will not be satisfied
and neither will we be. It is not that the earth is herself worshipped, but that she is satisfied when she sees that her
own produce is being offered back to God, its original source.
It is often supposed that humans can get what they want from this world provided they are prepared to work hard
enough for it. With their greater intelligence they can create wealth for themselves by exploiting the earth's
resources, whereas animals are forced to follow their instincts and are only capable of struggling for survival.
This ability of human beings to exploit their environment is supposed to mark them out as superior to animals. At
any rate, this concept has been at the root of the expansion of human domination of the planet, particularly in the
West, over the last five hundred years.
How different this concept is from that taught by the Vedas! According to the Isa Upanishad, this planet does not
belong to humanity, any more than it belongs to the other species living on it:
Everything in the universe belongs to the Lord. You should therefore only take what is really
necessary for yourself, which is set aside for you. You should not take anything else, because you
know to whom it belongs.
So long as we treat the planet carefully and take only our share, acknowledging that it and everything else belongs
to God, the planet will provide for our needs; but as soon as we try to take nature's gifts without offering anything
in return we become no better than thieves.
The Srimad Bhagavatam tells a story from long ago of a time when the world was governed by the cruel and
selfish King Vena. Blinded by pride in his own wealth, Vena stopped all religious functions and started his own
cult, with himself as the deity. He ordered everyone to worship him instead of Vishnu. When they saw that the true
worship of God had been stopped, the sages of the world foresaw disaster. They knew that as soon as religious
activities were stopped there could be no peace or prosperity.
The sages first went to King Vena and demanded that he change his ways; reasoning with him in persuasive
words, they explained to him that his first duty as ruler was to promote piety and religion in society; that if
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brahmanas made offerings to God the demigods controlling the workings of the world would be pleased and
reward humanity with natural prosperity. Vena, however, ridiculed their advice. He insisted that, as the rightful
king, he was the divine embodiment of all the demigods, and should be the only object of worship for everyone.
King Vena's beliefs have a parallel in modern times. Today's secular governments, under the influence of modern
economists and scientists, argue that religion and traditional customs, being unscientific, are no longer of any
value because they have been replaced by rational and objective scientific and economic theories; all we now
need for success, they argue, is more and more expenditure on science and technology and economic development.
In other words we should make our offerings to a new god, the god of science, technology and economics.
When Vena refused to change, the sages decided they had no alternative than to remove him for the good of
everyone. They cursed him and such was the power of their words that he immediately died. They then prayed for
a divine incarnation of Vishnu to take his place. The new king became famous as Prithu, the subduer of the earth.
He established townships and organised agriculture for the first time. Most importantly, he reintroduced religious
functions and subdued the planet earth, not by raping her, as the phrase suggests to inhabitants of the twentieth-
century, but by pleasing her and invoking her motherly instinct. Because of the unjust rule of Vena and the bad
elements which had flourished in human society as a result, she had withheld her riches. She said to King Prithu,
"My seeds, roots and herbs, which are meant to be offered to God, were being used by untruthful men of no
spiritual understanding, therefore I have hidden them, but you can now extract them by pleasing me."
Bhumi, mother Earth, is conscious of the behaviour of human beings, and she responds to that behaviour. If they
treat her kindly she supplies them with everything they need, but if she is mistreated she can keep back all these
things. The way to please her and ensure abundance is through religious activity. Being herself a servant of God,
she is pleased when she sees God being worshipped. In the Bhagavad Gita this principle is explained:
All beings live on food grains, which are dependent on rain. Rain is produced by yajna (religious
ceremony) which is based upon the performance of duties as taught in the Vedic scriptures.
As the story is told in the Bhagavatam, Bhumi took the form of a cow and asked Prithu to bring a calf. He then
milked from her all the herbs and grains which she was keeping. When the mother cow sees her calf, she is
overwhelmed with love and her milk flows freely. The symbol of the cow and her calf used here therefore
emphasises that the relationship between the earth planet and her inhabitants is that of a mother and her children.
What is needed is love and affection, not scientific exploitation, to bring out her life-nourishing goodness.
In a manner reminiscent of the rule of King Vena, modern rulers exploit the earth, extracting food grains, seeds
and herbs as well as valuable minerals and other resources, but they make no offerings in the temple for the
pleasure of Vishnu or any other form of God. Sometimes stocks of grains are destroyed to keep the prices down,
or farmers are paid to stop producing. Worst of all, they sometimes build up huge surplus stocks of food-grains in
one part of the world while elsewhere people are forced to starve, all in the name of trade laws and the pursuit of
profit. The earth is a devotee of Vishnu, and her service is to provide all living beings with food, as a mother
feeds her children. If we abuse her kindness and waste what she gives us, she becomes unhappy. She does not like
to give her abundance to selfish men who fail to honour God and who use what she gives them only for
themselves. Therefore, feeling neglected and uncared for, she may again stop supplying food for such people, and
they may themselves starve. There is evidence that this process may have already begun to affect even the affluent
West. In North America, despite all efforts of the latest agricultural technology, declining fertility, loss of topsoil
and water shortages are beginning to pose a serious threat to cereal production.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells how everything was originally created in abundance. In the beginning of the
universe, he says, the Lord of all creatures sent his children into the world and told them to be happy and
prosperous through performing sacrifice for Vishnu, by which all their desires would be fulfilled. The demigods,
Krishna says, are servants of Vishnu placed in charge of the various universal elements. They will be pleased by
humanity's offerings and will arrange for the proper supply of all that it needs. Food grains - life's greatest
necessity - will be plentiful only if society is religious. This is because grains are dependent on sufficient rainfall,
which in turn depends on religious action, or following the laws of God as prescribed in the scriptures.
According to the Vedic tradition, therefore, prosperity and happiness will be the natural result of living a
religious life in harmony with nature. Any amount of human endeavour which does not take account of the need for
pleasing God will bring the same result, but rather, as in the case of Vena, will bring disaster.
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3 of 3 08-06-2010 09:56
CHAPTER SIX
THE TEN AVATARS
The ten incarnations of Vishnu are a recurrent theme in Vedic history. Vishnu exists outside the material realm as
the creator, and he exists within every being as the Supersoul. He also enters this world as avatar, 'one who
descends', to restore balance whenever his presence is needed. His descent is described by Krishna:
"Whenever there is a decline of religion, and a rise of irreligion, I incarnate myself. To protect the
good, to destroy the wicked, and to re-establish religious principles, I appear in every age."
There are said to be more incarnations of Godhead than there are waves in the ocean. It is also said that Vishnu
incarnates in all species of life. The ten avatars of Vishnu are of particular interest because He takes
progressively more developed forms, from fish, tortoise and boar to half-animal, half-man, and finally human
form. That God should incarnate as an animal, even a supernatural one, shows that animals have an important role
to play in God's eyes. They are not simply dumb beasts, or 'livestock' meant for satisfying human needs and
appetites. They are living expressions of the spirit and of the presence of God.
In his 'Gita Govinda', an elaborate poem of devotion to Krishna, the poet Jayadeva composed ten verses in praise
of Vishnu's avatars. I have included with each verse the story of that incarnation. The tales of these incarnations
have had a profound influence on Hindu culture.
The First Incarnation

MATSYA - The Fish
All glories to you, O Lord of the

universe, who took the form of a fish.
When the sacred hymns of the Vedas
were lost in the waters of universal
devastation, you swam like a boat in
that vast ocean to rescue them.
Once a King named Satyavrata was performing a sacred ceremony beside a river. While scooping water from the
river he accidentally caught a tiny fish in the palm of his hand. The fish begged him not to throw it back into the
river where it would be eaten by larger fish. The king felt sorry for the little fish and took it home to his palace
where he put it in a small bowl. Next morning the fish had outgrown the bowl and begged the king to put it in
something larger. The king then transferred it into a pond, but it very quickly outgrew that too, so he put it into a
small lake. Within no time the fish had outgrown the lake and had to be put into the largest lake in the kingdom.
Soon, however it had grown so big that even this was not large enough and the amazing fish had to be put in the
ocean.
By this time the king concluded that the fish must be a divine appearance of God. He offered prayers and asked it
why it had taken this form. Matsya, the fish incarnation of Vishnu, replied that in seven days a huge devastation
would engulf the lower part of the universe. He told the king to call the seven great sages and gather samples of
all the herbs and seeds and all kinds of living creatures. He promised that he would send a large boat to save them
all. After that the king would fully understand who he was. Then he swam away.
As Matsya had predicted, huge clouds appeared from all directions and began pouring incessant water on land
and sea. Soon the ocean overflowed onto the land. Then Satyavrata and all his companions saw a large mysterious
boat floating towards them across the waves. Remembering the words of Matsya, Satyavrata led them aboard it
and they found safety. Matsya, who by now was a golden fish of inconceivable size, then appeared in the ocean.
Using the giant serpent Vasuki, they tied the boat to Matsya's horn and he towed it, full of all the different species
of life, across the waters of devastation. For countless years darkness covered the worlds and together they
wandered across the stormy wastes waiting for the waters to subside. During their journey Vishnu-Matsya
instructed King Satyavrata and the sages in the spiritual knowledge of the Vedas.
It is said that whoever hears this story is delivered from the ocean of sinful life.
The Second Incarnation
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KURMA - The Tortoise

universe, who took the form of a
tortoise. When the ocean of milk was
churned you became the pivot beneath
the churning rod of Mount Mandara
leaving a beautiful impression on
your back.
Once, the demigods and the demons both wanted to get the Nectar of Immortality. Whoever drank this nectar
would be invincible. On the advice of Lord Vishnu, they made a pact and agreed to co-operate together to get it.
Vishnu told them what to do. In the universe is a sacred ocean of milk. They should throw all kinds of vegetables,
grass, creepers and herbs into that ocean and churn it. From this churning, he said, would come the Nectar of
Immortality. To churn the ocean they would have to use the golden mountain, Mandara, as a churning rod. With
great difficulty and Vishnu's help they managed to bring Mount Mandara to the Milk Ocean. They used Vasuki, the
giant serpent, as a rope. Wrapping him round the mountain, the demons took hold of his head and the demigods
took his tail.
They tried to churn, but the mountain sank into the ocean floor and they began to despair. Vishnu then took the form
of a gigantic tortoise, Kurma, and supported the mountain on his back. Using Kurma as a pivot, the demons and the
demigods started to churn again, back and forth. Kurma felt as though they were scratching an itch on his back and
this gave him pleasure. The first thing the churning produced was a deadly poison which threatened the whole
world. This was drunk by Lord Shiva to save everyone. As they continued churning many wonderful things came
out of the ocean, but at last they got what they wanted - the Nectar of Immortality. Both groups wanted it, and a
quarrel developed. Vishnu came to the aid of the demigods and helped them get the nectar for themselves. Seeing
that they had lost the nectar, the demons attacked the demigods and after a terrible battle the demons were
defeated.
In the form of a giant tortoise, Kurma balanced the opposing forces of the demons and the demigods about the
churning rod of Mount Mandara in the Milk Ocean. In the end the demigods, who were his devotees, got immortal
nectar. The demons, who had worked so hard, but who did not have the blessing of Vishnu, got only
disappointment and poison. This is the fate of an atheistic society which works hard to aquire material success
and comfort, but offers nothing to God - all its good work turns to poison and pollution and it ends up with
nothing.
The Third Incarnation

VARAHA - The Boar

boar. When the earth fell into the
ocean at the bottom of the universe
you caught her on your tusk, where
she looked like a spot on the moon.
Hiranyaksha was the first and greatest demon that ever walked this earth. His body was so big and strong that it
blocked the view in all directions just like a mountain. The crest of his crown seemed to kiss the sky and cover
the sun. When he walked the earth shook at his every step. Even the demigods hid themselves from him. Fearing
death at the hands of no one, he wandered the earth searching for a suitable opponent to fight. He wore golden
anklets, a golden girdle, golden bracelets on his arms, golden armour and a crown of gold. To obtain this gold he
mined the earth. He considered the earth as his property to do with as he wished, and so he mined her deeper and
deeper - so deep that she lost her inner balance and fell from her position in space. Plunging to the depths she
came to rest in the primeval waters which lie at the very bottom of the universe. There she lay, lost and helpless
in the darkness.
Vishnu saw the distress of the earth planet as she was lying in the dark ocean. He took the form of a gigantic boar,
Varaha, and entered the universe to rescue the earth from the deep. It is said that he first appeared in a tiny form
no larger than a thumb, and steadily grew until he seemed to fill the heavens. Although a boar is normally
considered to be an ugly animal, Varaha was most beautiful. All the demogods and sages sung his glories as he
dived into the ocean. Meanwhile Hiranyaksha, not caring for the earth's predicament, roamed about restlessly
looking for someone with whom to do battle. As Varaha was picking up the earth on his tusks, the angry demon
came upon him and eagerly challenged him to fight. There was a great battle, fought for the sake of the earth, in
which the demon finally lost his life. Varaha picked up the earth and carefully restored her to her proper position
in space.
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When modern industrialists drill for oil, Hindus remember what happened to the earth all those millennia ago.
Scientists say that oil has no value lying under the ground where it serves no purpose for anyone. In their opinion
it only has value when engineers extract it and use it to produce energy and manufacture plastics. No one stops to
ask whether the oil might have been serving some more fundamental purpose, lying beneath the surface for all
those thousands and millions of years. Are we to suppose that the entire process of evolution of oil and other
fossil fuels was just to satisfy twentieth-century man's 'lust for gold'? Now that they are rapidly disappearing into
the atmosphere in the form of pollution, what unseen imbalance has been created in the subterranean depths? To
what dangers have we exposed our dear, forgotten mother, the earth planet, who was once rescued by Vishnu-
Varaha from the cruel exploitation of the demon Hiranyaksha?
The Fourth Incarnation

NARASIMHA - The Man-Lion

man-lion. As easily as crushing a
wasp between your fingers, you tore
apart the demon Hiranyakashipu with
the pointed nails of your bare hands,
which are beautiful like the lotus
flower.
The brother of Hiranyaksha was another demon named Hiranyakashipu. When he saw that Hiranyaksha had been
killed by Vishnu he swore vengeance. With blazing eyes he called all his associates together and vowed, "I will
kill Vishnu and sever his head from his body. You all go down to earth and attack the brahmanas and devotees of
Vishnu. Wherever cows are protected set fire to the houses and cut down the trees."
Vedic culture places special importance on the welfare of brahmanas (spiritual teachers), cows and trees.
Hiranyakashipu knew that if they attacked these three they would be destroying all that was most dear to Vishnu.
Hiranyakashipu then set about becoming the most powerful person in the universe, trampling all beneath him and
spreading a reign of terror. But always he was searching for Vishnu to kill him. He tried to force Brahma, chief of
the demigods, to make him immortal. Brahma, however, could not do that because even he had to die eventually.
So instead the demon extracted from him various assurances: he would not die during the day or the night; on land,
at sea or in the sky; inside or outside; by the hands of human or beast; or by any weapon. Now, he thought, he was
immortal!
In due course Hiranyakashipu had a son. The boy turned out to be quite different from his father - he was a
devotee of Vishnu. His name was Prahlad. From the beginning of his life Prahlad spread light and love around
him. His father tried every possible way to turn the boy into a demon like him, but nothing worked. Unable to
tolerate a member of his family worshipping his mortal enemy, he decided to kill his own son. But it was not easy.
He gave him to his soldiers to execute, but they couldn't do it. He tried throwing him off a cliff, crushing him
beneath an elephant, putting him amongst venomous snakes and poisoning his food. Nothing would work.
Prahlad's life was protected by some supernatural force. Finally in anger Hiranyakashipu demanded, "Where do
you get your strength?"
"From the same place you get yours, father, from Vishnu."
"Where is this Vishnu of yours! Let me see him so that I can kill him!"
"He's everywhere!" replied Prahlad.
"Then he's in this pillar," cried the demon, and rushing at a nearby pillar of the palace struck it a terrible blow. At
that moment a fearful sound came from the pillar, as if the universe itself was about to split apart. All who heard it
were afraid. The pillar burst asunder and a terrifying form emerged from it - with the head of a lion and the body
of a man. This was Narasimha, the man-lion incarnation of Vishnu, who had come to protect his devotee, Prahlad.
Hiranyakashipu tried to attack him, as an insect flies into a fire. After a brief struggle, Narasimha picked up the
demon and killed him.
He was killed at the point of dusk, neither day nor night; he was on the lap of Vishnu, neither land nor air nor sea;
his death took place on the threshold of the palace, neither inside nor outside; he was killed by the Lord's nails,
not by any weapon; he died at the hands of neither human nor animal, but half-man, half-lion. Thus Narasimha-
Vishnu, whilst keeping all the conditions of Brahma, still killed the demon Hiranyaksha, who had so cruelly tried
to end the life of his devotee Prahlad. After his death, Hiranyakashipu was freed from his hatred of Vishnu. Being
purified by Narasimha's touch, he gained liberation from the cycle of birth and death.
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Whenever they hear the roar of a lion, devotees of Vishnu remember how Narasimha rescued Prahlad and if there
is danger, they pray to Narasimha for protection.
The Fifth Incarnation

VAMANA - The Dwarf

brahmana dwarf. By covering the
world in three steps you deceived
Bali and released the waters of the
Ganges, which flow from your toes to
purify all beings of the world.
The demon-king Bali once became so powerful that he conquered all the planets of the universe, forcing Indra, the
king of heaven, out of his heavenly kingdom. The demigods prayed to Vishnu for help. To save them he appeared
as the beautiful dwarf Vamana. He was so enchanting that no one could resist his charm. One day he came to the
court of King Bali dressed as a brahmana. It is the custom that a king should always give in charity to a brahmana,
so Bali offered charity to Vamana, saying, "Whatever you want you can have."
Vamana replied, "I don't need anything from you. Just give me three paces of land, as measured by my own steps.
That will satisfy me."
"But I can give you a whole island," urged Bali, "Whoever takes charity from me should never have to ask for
anything ever again. Please take as much as you want."
"If I were not satisfied with just three paces of land," responded Vamana, "I would not be satisfied even with the
whole universe. If I got one island, I would want others. It is better to be satisfied with whatever destiny brings,
for discontent can never bring happiness." In this way he hinted that Bali should not have set out to conquer the
whole universe, because it would never bring him happiness.
When Bali's counsellor heard Vamana's words he urgently warned Bali, "This is Vishnu himself in disguise, come
to trick you. Don't give him anything."
But Bali would not go back on his word. "How can I behave like an ordinary cheater," he said, "I have given my
word, and there is nothing worse than untruthfulness. The earth once said that she could bear any heavy thing
except a person who is a liar. Therefore I don't fear hell so much as I fear cheating a brahmana. And anyway, if
this is Vishnu, what have I to lose by giving to him?"
Turning to Vamana, he agreed, "Very well, please take three steps of land."
Then Vamana-Vishnu started to grow in size. He grew and grew until he filled the whole universe. Everything
was within his form - the earth, the seas, the birds, beasts and human beings and the planets themselves. Bali saw
everything that existed in that wonderful form of the Lord. His feet were the surface of the earth, his breath was
the wind, his hair was the clouds and his eyes were the sun. The lower planets were on the souls of his feet and
the heavenly planets were on his head.
Then he took his three steps. With his first step he covered the entire surface of the earth. With his second step he
covered all the planets of heaven, and nowhere remained for his third step. "You promised me three steps," he
said to Bali, "I have covered everything with two. Now you should think about where I can put my third step."
Bali was defeated. "Please, Lord, put your third footstep on my head," he replied. In this way he surrendered
everything he had, even himself, to Vishnu.
One may possess everything there is to have, and still not be happy. Sometimes, out of mercy, God takes away a
person's possessions in order to help that person realise where true happiness lies. At the present time, Western
society has become obsessed with having more and more of the earth's limited resources, thinking that happiness
can come from owning material things. One day God will take away the West's opulence and pride, as he did with
Bali, so that we can all appreciate what brings real happiness in this world.
When Vamana took his second step, his toe pierced the coverings at the edge of the universe, and some of the
surrounding waters of creation poured in from outside. Falling down through the different planets these waters
eventually reached earth, where they were caught by Lord Shiva in his matted locks of hair. The same water flows
down from the Himalayas as the Ganges and the Yamuna Rivers. That is why all Hindus revere the Ganges and
Yamuna. They are the waters that have washed Lord Vishnu's toes. By bathing in these waters all their sins are
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washed away.
The Sixth Incarnation

PARASURAMA - The Warrior

universe, who took the form of
Parasurama. You bathed the earth
with the blood of the warriors whom
you killed and washed away the sins
of the world, releasing people from
the fire of material life.
The world was once overburdened with soldiers and kings who were always fighting one another and creating
disturbance. Vishnu incarnated as Parasurama to kill these fighting men. It is said that he killed the entire kshatriya
(warrior) race twenty-one times over, armed with nothing more than an axe. Then he renounced fighting and went
to the Himalayas to perform penances.
The duty of the rulers of society is to protect religious principles and the teachers of religion, the brahmanas.
When they fail to do this they become a burden on the earth. There can be no happiness in a society ruled by such
men. At the present time the world is dominated by the military-industrial might of a few countries. New machines
of death are invented almost daily and manufactured at vast expense, while millions of people don't even have
enough to eat. At the same time industry is poisoning the earth. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna describes this kind
of society: "Ungodly persons, who are lost to themselves and have no understanding, perform harmful, painful
work for the destruction of the world." Such manipulation of human affairs by governments and armies is
misguided and sinful. Although Vishnu is benevolent and merciful he can also punish. Therefore he came as
Parasurama to save the world from warlike aggressors.
The Seventh Incarnation

RAMA - The King

universe, who took the form of Rama.
You distributed the ten heads of the
terrible demon Ravana for the
pleasure of the gods of the ten
directions, fulfilling their desires to
see him dead.
Rama was heir to the throne of Ayodhya. He married the beautiful Sita. Before he could take his rightful place on
the throne he was banished to the forest for fourteen years by his envious stepmother, who wanted her own son to
be king. While he was in the forest he lived very peacefully with Sita and his brother Lakshmana. They showed
how to live a simple and happy life without unnecessary luxuries and conveniences.
While Rama and Sita were in the forest the demon-king Ravana heard about Sita's beauty and decided he must
have her for himself. He sent a magical deer to lure Rama and Lakshmana away from their cottage. Then the
ten-headed demon Ravana came and carried off Sita in his aerial chariot pulled by mules. Rama was mad with
grief and he and Lakshmana searched everywhere for her. They met Hanuman, the powerful and supernatural
monkey, who helped them find her. Hanuman is the hero of the Ramayana because, although a monkey, he was the
dearest servant of Rama and Sita. With his supernatural powers, he found Sita on the island of Sri Lanka and
helped Rama bring an army of monkeys there to save her. In the battle Rama killed Ravana. Rama brought Sita
back to Ayodhya where he at last became King. His reign was the perfect example of monarchy. Even among
today's political parties in India it is remembered, as Rama-Rajya - the rule of Rama.
The full story of Rama and Sita is told in the Ramayana, the most popular tale in India. It is the subject of infinite
dances and plays which are performed the length and breadth of South-East Asia. People never tire of hearing or
seeing the story, no matter how many times they have heard or seen it before. It is full of moral tales and, together
with the Mahabharata, teaches the traditional wisdom of Hindu society in a way which everyone can enjoy.
Animals played an important part in Rama's adventures. Hanuman the monkey was his dearest servant and best
devotee. His army was made up of monkeys. A vulture named Jatayu gave his life to try and save Sita from being
kidnapped. Jambavan the bear helped in the battle on Lanka. The role of these animals in helping Rama has given
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special status to all their kind, especially to monkeys.
The picture of Sita and Rama living together with his brother in the forest is very dear to all Hindus. It underlines
the Hindu ideal of simple life, depending on nature's goodness. Even God, when he plays the earthly role of a
king, is content to work and live alongside nature in her natural state.
The Eighth Incarnation

BALARAMA - The Cowherd

universe, who took the form of
Balarama, carrying a plow. The
garments on your brilliant white body
are the colour of the Yamuna River,
whose dark waters reflect the fresh
rain clouds, and who was afraid of
the striking of your plow.
When Krishna came down to this world he did not come alone. With him were all his eternal associates from the
spiritual realm. Chief among them is his brother Balarama. Balarama is the direct expansion of Krishna, like a
second candle lit from the first, of equal power and illumination. In this prayer from Gita-Govinda he is counted
as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. (Krishna is not included because Jayadeva considers him to be the original
Godhead himself, not an incarnation.) Like Rama, Balarama and Krishna lived in the forest as cowherds with
their friends, the boys and girls of Vrindavan, the cows, the monkeys, the peacocks and the deer.
Balarama always carried a plow, and he is particularly associated with the soil of Vrindavan. He loved to play in
the forest. On one occasion he wanted to bathe with his friends in the Yamuna River, but she was too far away.
Rivers in India sometimes shift their course from season to season, depending on the amount of rainfall. It appears
that on this occasion the Yamuna had moved further away than Balarama liked. So he threatened her with his
plow. She was afraid and immediately ran towards him, but not before he had scratched her banks and created
small streams along them.
Nowadays the Yamuna is again too far from Vrindavan. Devotees of Krishna and Balarama pray to Balarama to
once more bring her back to her place, running sweetly beside the sacred groves where Krishna and Balarama
danced with the cowherd girls to the music of Krishna's flute.
The =inth Incarnation

BUDDHA - The Teacher

universe, who took the form of Lord
Buddha. Your heart is full of
compassion for the poor animals who
were slaughtered in the ritual
sacrifices of the Vedic age.
It may come as a surprise to know that Buddha is revered by Hindus as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu. Most of
the recorded teachings of Buddha, such as the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are readily accepted and
endorsed by Hindus. He stopped the ritual slaughter of animals which was going on in the name of Vedic
sacrifice, and taught compassion to all living beings. Nowadays many followers of Buddha eat animal flesh.
However, among Hindus he is particularly remembered for his compassion, as is recorded in this prayer, and for
his teaching of ahimsa - non-violence. These are universal principles of religion. The Srimad Bhagavatam
instructs:
"One should treat animals such as deer, camels, asses, monkeys, snakes, birds and flies exactly
like one's own children. How little difference there actually is between children and these innocent
animals."
The Tenth Incarnation
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KALKI - The Slayer

universe, who will take the form of
Kalki. Like a comet, you will appear
riding a white horse and carrying a
terrible sword. You will come to
destroy all wicked people at the end
of Kali Yuga.
In the Vedic understanding of time, history passes in cycles of four yugas - Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali. Satya
Yuga is the age of goodness, but as each age passes goodness is replaced by passion and finally ignorance. By the
end of the Kali Yuga - the present age - almost all who remain of the human race will be sinful. The earth will be
crowded with a corrupt population and terrorised by merciless rulers. Plants and trees will be tiny. The bodies of
all creatures will be reduced in size. Innocent people will be driven by famine and fear to hide in the forests and
mountains.
At this time, nearly half-a-million years from now, Kalki comes. He will kill the cruel leaders and the thieves
who support them. Then fragrant breezes will purify the world and the minds of the people, bringing Kali Yuga to
an end. Those who remain will be left to populate the new golden age of Satya Yuga. Then the whole cycle will
start again.
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CHAPTER SEVE+
KRISHNA, THE FOREST COWHERD
When Krishna played his flute to call the cows, the river stopped flowing, her waters stunned with
ecstasy. Instead of swimming or flying, the cranes, swans, ducks and other birds closed their eyes
and entered a trance. The cows and deer stopped chewing, their ears raised. They became
motionless like painted animals.
from Srimad Bhagavatam 10. 35
Srivatsa Goswami, a Vaishnava scholar and devotee who has established his own study institute in the pilgrimage
town of Vrindavan, India, has a fascinating explanation of the role of Krishna, the forest deity of Vrindavan,
whose life Srivatsa considers to be "the greatest chapter in environmental history".
Unlike Vishnu, who is God in the city of opulence, adored and served with reverence and awe by thousands of
servants, Krishna dances with the peacocks, splashes in the river, plays the bamboo flute and spends his time with
his friends in the forest herding cows.
At the very beginning of his life on earth, Krishna left the city of Mathura in order to live in the forest with the
cowherds. Krishna is God living in simplicity in the forest. There are no stories of Krishna creating. In order to
create, Krishna becomes Vishnu. They are both the same God, but Krishna does not personally involve himself in
controlling the affairs of the universe - he prefers to stay in the forest as a cowherd boy. For this reason Srivatsa
maintains that one who is devoted to Krishna could never be callous towards the environment, because Krishna
himself loves nature. What Krishna loves his devotee also loves.
Srivatsa says that there were only two recorded occasions when Krishna performed formal religious worship.
The first occasion was when he worshipped Govardhan Hill in Vrindavan. Srivatsa takes up the story:
"In the Srimad Bhagavatam the description given of this event is the essence of Hindu philosophy.
Krishna and Balarama were coming home with the cows at dusk. They saw all the elders gathered
on the doorstep of their house arranging for a festival to worship Indra. They asked their father
what was going on, but he replied, 'This is not your business - you go inside and eat.'
"So Krishna went inside and told his mother that he would not eat anything. Eventually his father
relented and called him back to explain what they were all doing. He said, 'We are people whose
livelihood is based on agriculture. We trade in the produce of the land and the cows, both of which
depend on rainwater. Indra is the lord of water. The rain clouds are his agents, so we have to pay
him tax. Every year we arrange this festival'.
"Then Krishna replied in a very unexpected way. He denounced the cowherdmen's act of religious
worship. He said, 'All creatures are born by force of karma. By force of karma alone they die. By
force of karma they experience pleasure and pain. If there is any God who dispenses the fruit of
other actions, he only rewards or punishes us according to our actions. Therefore don't make a
show of worshipping Indra, because by the law of karma you are in control of your own destiny.'"
Krishna spoke like this to shock his father and the cowherdmen. He wanted to teach them that they were all
responsible for their own actions. The law of karma is that by our practical actions we create our future, good or
bad. It was therefore more important to care for the hills and cows, and Krishna, than to worship Indra.
Srivatsa explains:
"This is the key to the environmental problem today. We depend on others - government agencies,
the UN Environmental Fund, or some local civil government - to do something; we shift the
responsibility to somebody else when all the time it is us who are responsible for our own
predicament. Krishna spoke like this to destroy the ignorance of his own people, saying, `Your
environment is your concern, it is your duty.' In the words of the Srimad Bhagavatam:
"'My dear father, our home is not in the cities or towns or villages. Being forest
dwellers, we always live in the forest and among the hills. Therefore begin a
festival in honour of the cows, the brahmanas, and Govardhan Hill.'
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"Then Krishna went with them and worshipped the hill. In order to convince them, he assumed a
gigantic mystical form and merged himself with the hill, demanding, 'Feed me more!' He asked for
the worship to be given equally to the mountain, the cows and the brahmanas as well as himself."
By this incident Krishna taught that it was better to worship the hills, forest and cows than to perform a ritual for
the demigods. But he also showed that he was present in the hill, and that by worshipping Govardhan Hill they
were worshipping him. Since that time Govardhan Hill has been worshipped by the local people as a form of
Krishna.
According to Srivatsa, the second time Krishna performed organised worship was when he worshipped the sun
god:
"Krishna's son Sambha once got leprosy. Krishna advised that, rather than try to treat his disease
themselves, they should get it treated by the sun-god. This is the history of the famous sun temple at
Konarak in Orissa - where his son was treated. These are the two occasions when Krishna
worshipped: one was mountain, the other was sun!"
Srivatsa goes on:
"Elsewhere Krishna cleaned the river. He defeated the serpent Kaliya and purified the Yamuna
river. He swallowed the forest fire to protect the forest. He looked after the cows. He spoke to the
birds in their own language. Krishna was always protecting nature."
Krishna lived as a child among the twelve forests of Vrindavan. The trees were His friends. Whenever the sun
was too hot he would lie beneath a tree with a root for a pillow, shaded by its outstretched branches. The
branches of the trees would bend down low, offering their fruits to Krishna, and trying to touch the ground at His
feet. In their previous lives, the trees had been great philosophers. They had now taken birth as trees in the forest
of Vrindavana to become purified and have their chance to serve Krishna.
Today in the heart of Vrindavana, the forest area where Krishna played, stands a small grove of trees called
Seva-Kunja. Some of the trees here are said to have witnessed the dancing of Krishna five thousand years ago.
They are revered as great souls, devotees of Krishna.
It is sad that the great forests, such holy places for the Hindu, have now all but disappeared. No longer do the
hillsides of Vrindavana resound with the cries of the peacocks perched in the branches, no longer can one sit
beneath the cool shade of the groves of bael, mango and tamal trees and watch the parrots and forest animals dart
from tree to tree as Krishna once did. The lush undergrowth of tulasi and forest flowers which provided Krishna's
garlands, once sheltered by the trees, is now unable to survive the hot rays of the sun. Without the trees, the land
of Vrindavana has become parched and dusty, unable to hold the moisture from the rare rainfall or the morning
dew.
When Krishna grew up and left Vrindavana, His childhood girlfriends, the gopis, were beside themselves with
grief. In their madness of love they used to mistake the tamal trees, which had the same dark colour as Krishna, for
their own beloved and embrace the trunks of the trees exactly as if they were Krishna. Now the trees themselves
are disappearing. Wherever the trees have gone the damage to the natural environment is almost irreversible. An
arid, stony landscape remains which cannot hold water or nourish plants. This scene is becoming widespread
throughout India. Yet the Vedic scriptures teach that trees must be protected, as must all species that live on the
land.
Human society has the responsibility to see to the welfare of all. Srivatsa's explanation of Vaishnava teachings
contradicts the traditional Western perception of Hinduism as a religion of fatalism. According to him Krishna, by
his own example, rejected the ritualistic worship of a 'God in the clouds' in favour of an earth-based religion
which recognised the sacred in the everyday relationships between human beings and their environment. To live
in harmony with nature, to show love to all creatures, never to harm any living being, to rejoice in the beauty of a
natural life of simplicity: this was Krishna's practice of religion.
Srivatsa concludes: "The best way to teach environmental concern is through Krishna's life. We must have films,
dramas, folk plays, all based on this lila. Krishna is the only saviour of the environment - that is the sum total."
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CHAPTER EIGHT
VILLAGE ECONOMICS
"The incessant search for material comforts and their multiplication is an evil. I make bold to say
that the Europeans will have to remodel their outlook, if they are not to perish under the weight of
the comforts to which they are becoming slaves."
M K Gandhi ( Young India, 1931)
From the traditional teachings of Hinduism we now pass to the present. In the last hundred and fifty years India
has been subjected to enormous changes quite unlike the changes experienced in many other parts of the world.
The traditions of Hindu culture, virtually unchanged for thousands of years, have been swept aside by influences
originating from very different cultures and world views. However, one of the great strengths of Indian traditional
life has been her villages. They provided a practical embodiment of many of the principles outlines in the first
part of this book.
Mohandas Gandhi, called by his people Mahatma, which means 'great soul', loved India's villages. He believed
that they were the key to her happiness and prosperity. In the face of powerful political and economic forces, he
courageously tried to preserve their simple way of life. Economic behaviour determines the way a society treats
the Earth therefore any discussion of environmental values has to include economics. The village economics of
India gives a practical example of an environmental way of living.
The original meaning of economics is 'household management'. This is not so much a science as an art which is
handed down from parent to child: how to grow food and prepare it; how to produce cloth; how to construct a
simple shelter and care for it; how to join together with others, including animals, and by thus co-operating lighten
the burden of the struggle for survival. All this is learnt in the same way that language is - organically, by
participation and by sharing in the experience. There is no point at which the child or the adult can say, "Now I
have learnt economics," because there is no end and no beginning to the knowledge of how to live in the right
way: it is a stream of experience which passes from generation to generation and has given rise to as many
'economies', or ways of living, as there are climates, terrains and peoples - in short, environments - in the world.
In the last few hundred years this stream of acquired wisdom was interrupted. This happened first in Europe.
Later the interference spread through colonial domination and trade to every continent. Alien sources of
knowledge, from outside the family or community circle, were introduced into the cycle of living. As a result the
balance of economic life, which had been maintained over ages past, developed by the ceaseless passage of
human life on this earth, was upset. The golden rule of economics had always been: what you take must be
returned and whatever you return shall again come back to you. Humanity has now arrived at a point where it is
taking and not returning. We are taking goodness from the earth but we are returning poison. As a consequence we
are receiving back from the earth that very same poison.
If we are to resolve the environmental problems which now beset us, we must examine the connection between
our environment and our way of life. Nor does a way of life exist in a vacuum. It is based on a way of thinking: a
philosophy of life.
Gandhi recognised this truth. He believed that it would not be possible to bring about change in society without a
corresponding change in the way people behaved. To change the way people behaved meant to change the way
they thought. Therefore Gandhi's primary objective was to influence people's philosophy of life.
Gandhi did not want to identify himself with any particular religion. In a country plagued with sectarian strife
between Muslims and Hindus, he always tried to appear even-handed, often championing the cause of the
Muslims and criticising the Hindus. He was also greatly influenced by Christianity, counting among his closest
friends many devout Christians. Nevertheless he was at heart a Hindu. His parents were devout Vaishnavas. His
name, Mohandas, means 'servant of Krishna', his favourite book was the Bhagavad Gita, he always kept in his
room the sanskrit inscription 'O Rama', and he died with the name of Rama on his lips.
Gandhi's philosophy of life was therefore derived from Hindu tradition, and as such no one had a greater
influence on Hindu society in this century than he. He was brought up as a strict vegetarian, and early in life
decided to make non-violence, of the deepest kind, his guiding principle in life. His concept of non-violence was
more than to avoid physically hurting others or to be vegetarian. It was a code of chivalry which demanded that no
one should ever have to suffer on his behalf. It meant that he could only take from the world what he absolutely
needed, because if he took more he would be depriving others. It also meant that he could not ask of another what
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he was not prepared to do or suffer himself. He believed that the independence which he so much wanted for
India could not be achieved by any other means than this non-violence. If the British were somehow to be forced
out of India by means of terrorism and murder, he asked, "Who will rule in their place? The only answer is: the
murderers. Who will then be happy?"
He said, therefore, that the means to achieving independence was the reform of the Indian people by teaching them
how to live simply and positively; above all, by teaching them non-violence. He believed that their subservience
to British rule was more their own fault than that of the British because the British could not rule without their
co-operation. "The English have not taken India," he said, "we have given it to them. They are not in India because
of their strength but because we keep them." Indians only had to withdraw their co-operation, in a peaceful
non-violent way and the British would have to leave. Independence could be available whenever Indians were
ready for it.
In keeping with all Hindu tradition, he taught that life must be viewed as a whole, that any attempt at outward
change must be paralleled by a corresponding inward change. Self-government for the nation could not be had
without self-control for the individual. The public could not behave non-violently until the individual did so.
Therefore personal morals and ethics were at the root of change.
According to Gandhi's philosophy today's environmental problems have their roots in individual behaviour and
attitudes. Just as he argued that it was not only the British who were to blame for India's predicament, but also
Indians themselves, we would have to recognise that it is not just government or big business who are responsible
for our crisis: it is the people as well, because the people 'keep them'.
We are all partners in the destruction of nature, because we all agree to benefit from its spoils. Therefore, it
would not be enough for us to call upon others to stop cutting down the rain-forest or producing carbon dioxide
from their factory chimneys unless we were prepared to make similar sacrifices. Nor would it be enough for us to
introduce lead-free petrol or environmentally friendly cars, because these do not address the issue. They allow us
to keep our wasteful habits while postponing the day of reckoning. We would have to find an alternative to cars
themselves and to the Western way of life which is based upon them. This would undoubtedly mean a good deal
of personal sacrifice and public commitment.
Gandhi insisted on this need for individual commitment and action, and ultimately for personal change. This is
what he called 'Swaraj', self-rule or independence. For him it had a far deeper meaning than mere political
independence. "Swaraj is a sacred word," he wrote, "meaning self-rule and self-restraint, not freedom from all
restraint which 'independence' often means." If, therefore, we of the late twentieth century would wish to gain our
independence, not from the power of a single nation, but from the international web of financial exchange and
industrial development which holds our world in economic thrall, forcing us to participate in its despoilment, we
would first have to achieve 'self-rule and self-restraint'. We would have to learn a simpler way of life which did
not demand consumption of the earth's resources at the present nightmare pace. Each of us would have to be
prepared to work for our fair share of the world's resources.
Gandhi taught the value of work, and the sinfulness of waste. Work was not something to be avoided, but
something which brought dignity and fulfilment to a man or a woman. Waste was the greatest sin. One should only
take from the world what one needed and no more. Both of these ideas were based on the teachings of Bhagavad
Gita.
For this reason he was opposed to industrialisation. It wasted resources and took people's work from them. What
was the point of labour-saving devices when they created unemployment? Furthermore, by honest labour one
could find perfection! The British rule of India was based on the exploitation of her resources. Cotton, timber and
other raw materials were taken to Britain for manufacturing. The resultant goods were then sold back to Indians.
The effect of this was to destroy India's own traditional internal economy. The stream of household wisdom which
taught the art of living in this world - economics - was broken at its root - the village. How this destruction was
brought about, and the absurdity of it is illustrated by Vinoba, a follower of Gandhi:
"The field opposite grows cotton. The owner of the field sells it to a man who collects it. This man
sells it to a dealer who sells it to another who transports it to Bombay, where it is sold to a
shipper who ships it to an English port where it is sold to a factory which turns it into spun cotton
and sells it to another factory which turns it into woven cloth and sells it to a dealer who ships it to
Bombay where it is sold to a dealer who sells it to a peddlar who sells it in the village to the
owner of the cotton field.
"By playing ball with tons of cotton they expose it to the hazards of mites and termites, mould and
fire, theft and shipwreck, strikes and the rise and fall of the market, crises and war. For this ball
game thousands of miles of railway lines are needed, ports, docks, warehouses, customs officers,
inspectors, policemen, courts and prisons, offices, banks and stock exchanges, armies and guns,
colonies and enslaved peoples, factories, machines and millions of workers always on the verge
of rebellion.
"The proper economy is this: Let the owner of the field get hold of a spinning wheel and turn it,
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until his cotton field has clothed him, his family and the whole of his village."
from Lanza del Vasto, Gandhi to Vinoba, London, 1956
A non-violent economy, Gandhi taught, was one which did not exploit anyone. It was one in which no one took
more than they could use, because if they did they were in effect stealing it from someone else. "It is a fundamental
law of Nature," he wrote, "that Nature produces enough for our wants from day to day; and if only everybody took
enough for their own needs and nothing more, there would be no poverty in this world."
Had there been an environmental crisis in Gandhi's day, there is little doubt what his response would have been.
He would have called for a change in lifestyle in the extravagant West. He would also have called upon all to
stop passively supporting such a lifestyle by their compliance. For example, the way to overcome British
industrial might in India was to withdraw from participation in its wasteful, exploitative economy. The symbol of
this withdrawal was the spinning wheel. He himself operated a spinning wheel for an hour a day, wherever he
was, and he expected everyone to do the same. By that one hour a day, if everyone took it up, India could supply
her own cloth and be freed from the tyranny of the cotton mill trade, which created dependence on Britain and
mass unemployment in India.
He believed that, as consumers, all members of society had the power to influence the forces that apparently
controlled them. So he called for a boycott of foreign goods, particularly cloth, and asked lawyers to leave the
courts, students to leave their colleges, and government servants to resign.
This philosophy would call upon us all, in the modern age, to stop supporting the industrial economy which is
responsible for causing so much pollution and exhausting the natural resources of the world, by withdrawing our
co-operation. I leave it to the reader to decide for themselves what this might mean.
No one can deny that the industrial way of life is what has brought us to the crisis we face today. This was
foreseen by Gandhi. He had a deep suspicion of machinery, revealed in these words, written as long ago as 1909:
"Machinery has begun to desolate Europe. Ruination is now knocking at the English gates.
Machinery is the chief symbol of modern civilization; it represents a great sin.
"In India railways have increased the famines because, owing to the ease of transport, people are
able to send their grain to be sold at the dearest markets. People become careless and so the
pressure of famine increases. Thus railways accentuate the evil nature of man. Bad men fulfil their
designs with greater rapidity. The holy places of India become unholy."
Hind Swaraj, 1909
The greatest reason for avoiding machines was that they created unemployment. Gandhi said that he was not
against the idea of a machine as such; after all, the human body itself was the most delicate machine; some
machines, like spinning wheels or wheelbarrows, were good because they acted as tools to extend the power of
the human hand. So long as a machine remained the servant of the hand, being powered by it, and did not become
the source of power itself, it could be valuable. "What I object to", he said,
"is the craze for what they call labour-saving machinery. Men go on 'saving labour' till thousands
are without work and thrown on the open streets to die of starvation. I want to save time and
labour, not for a fraction of humanity, but for all. I want the concentration of wealth, not in the
hands of a few, but in the hands of all. Today machinery merely helps a few to ride on the backs of
all."
Young India, 1931
It was this tendency of industrialisation to focus power and money in the hands of a select few that Gandhi saw as
most dangerous. It spelled the end of the millennia-old village economy of India because it took away from the
individual and the community the means to control their own livelihood. Nearly eighty years after these words
were written, we can easily see how the concentration of production and capital among a tiny minority of the
world, mostly in the West, has spelt the ruin of traditional lifestyles in every corner of the globe - lifestyles which
were organically in harmony with nature and trod lightly on the earth.
Gandhi's answer to this threat was to resurrect the villages of India. In 1924 he started his movement to transform
India's villages from 'dung heaps' into ideal settlements. "India lives in her villages, not in her cities," he
declared. The village ought to be the home of village industries and crafts, chief of which should be the
manufacture of Khadi, hand-made cotton cloth. In addition there should be "hand-grinding, hand-pounding,
soap-making, match-making tanning, oil-pressing and many others." He stressed the need for support from the
whole population:
"All should make it a point of honour to use only village articles whenever and wherever
available. Given the demand there is no doubt that most of our wants can be supplied by the
villages. When we become village-minded we shall not want imitations from the West or
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machine-made products."
'Constructive Programme', India of My Dreams, p. 15
The ideal village would have perfect sanitation of the traditional kind, based on local recycling of human and
animal manure. The cottages, built of materials found within a five-mile radius, would be light and
well-ventilated. They would have courtyards where the householders could plant vegetables and house their
cattle. The lanes and streets would be clean and free of dust. There would be adequate wells accessible to
everyone. There would be places of worship, a common meeting place, a village common for grazing, a
co-operative dairy, primary and secondary schools where the main subjects would be practical crafts and village
industries. It would have its own pancayat (the five-man body of elders) for settling disputes Finally it would
produce its own milk, grains, vegetables, fruits, and Khadi, cotton cloth. This was Gandhi's ideal village.
His concept of village self-sufficiency extended to government as well, because only the local community could
understand its real needs and solve its problems, from simple economic needs to law and order. He was opposed
to centralisation of power away from the villages. The objective should be almost total local self-sufficiency. The
only affairs for which a central government would be needed were those which required a scale beyond the
capacity of the village:
"I do visualise electricity, ship-building, iron-works, machine-making and the like existing side by
side with village handicrafts. But the order of dependence will be reversed. Hitherto
industrialisation has been so planned as to destroy the villages and village crafts. In the state of the
future, it will subserve the villages and their crafts. Nothing will be allowed to be produced by the
cities that can be equally well produced by the villages. The proper function of the cities is to
serve as clearing houses for village products."
Harijan, 1940 and 1939
He wanted people to live in communities that matched their human size and thought patterns; communities small
enough to allow genuine self-government and sharing of responsibilities. Each community should be joined with
others, to form a larger unit, but not so large as to tempt any one individual to abuse power by having too much of
it. The larger a democratic group grew the less say the individual or local group would be able to have in making
their decisions, therefore limits would be placed on the size of a regional group.
When questioned as to how to start the transformations which he called for, Gandhi advised that one should begin
with oneself. After giving instructions on how to make a traditional toothbrush from a twig, he commented:
"The beginner...will find these brushes to be cheaper and much cleaner than the very unhygienic
factory-made toothbrush. The city-made toothpowder he naturally replaces with equal parts of
clean, finely-ground wood-charcoal and clean salt. He will replace mill-cloth with village-spun
Khadi and mill-husked rice with hand-husked, unpolished rice and white sugar with gur (unrefined
molasses)."
Harijan, 1935
This approach to self-improvement as the necessary condition for improving the community, and society as a
whole, was based upon Gandhi's unshakeable belief in the sanctity of the individual. This belief extended to
animal life, as he explained in relation to the cow:
"The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection. It is to me one of the most wonderful phenomena
in human evolution. It takes the human beyond his species. The cow to me means the entire
sub-human world. Man through the cow is enjoined to realise his identity with all that lives. Why
the cow was selected for apotheosis is obvious to me. The cow was in India the best companion.
She was the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she also made agriculture possible.
The cow is a poem of pity. One reads pity in the gentle animal. She is the mother to millions of
Indian mankind. Protection of the cow means protection of the whole dumb creation of God. The
appeal of the lower order is all the more forcible because it is speechless. Cow protection is the
gift of Hinduism to the world."
Young India, 1921
It was these sentiments which led him to remark: "A society can be judged by the way it treats its animals."
In the long and difficult struggle to gain independence for India, Gandhi encountered many set-backs. On numerous
occasions he endured lengthy jail-sentences at the hands of the British. He fasted eighteen times in protest, mainly
at the misbehaviour of his own people, and he was many times disappointed and let down. Nonetheless, from
1919 until its independence in 1947, he was India's undisputed spiritual and popular leader, giving her purpose
and direction. What, then, happened to his ideals for his beloved India? Why were they never put into practice?
After he had so forcefully pointed out her needs and her path forward, and had brought her to the brink of
independence, why are her problems, of poverty, of inequality and of injustice as manifest now as they were then?
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Tragically, to these problems we must now add all the consequences of the environmental degradation that has
followed in the wake of India's industrialisation, so eagerly carried forward since her independence - pollution of
water and air, deforestation, desertification, flooding and other environmental disasters.
To answer this question it is necessary to explain Gandhi's own greatest fear. He had always said that real
independence for India was not just to become free from British rule. It was also to become free of British culture
and industrial way of life and to re-establish the traditional Indian village-based culture which he had always
struggled for. He saw India's destiny as different from that of the West:
"I feel that India's mission is different from that of others. India is fitted for religious supremacy of
the world. There is no parallel in the world for the process of purification that this country has
voluntarily undergone. India is the land of duty, not the land of enjoyment."
Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi
Consequently he foresaw disaster if India were to try in her new-found independence to imitate or compete with
the West. "European civilization is no doubt suited for the Europeans but it will mean ruin for India, if we
endeavour to copy it." After independence Gandhi, who was heart-broken at the partition of India, retired
completely from any active part in the political scene. He was 79 years old, and a disappointed man. He could
see that exactly what he had feared was taking place. He felt the only thing that had changed in India was that,
whereas previously Englishmen had lived in the imperial palace, now Indians did. But the culture remained the
same.
The new Prime Minister of India was Nehru, who had been one of Gandhi's closest followers and admirers.
However, Nehru confessed that as early as 1921:
"Few of us [in the Congress party] accepted Gandhi's old ideas about machinery and modern
civilization. We thought that even he looked upon them as Utopian and largely inapplicable to
modern conditions. Certainly, most of us were not prepared to reject the achievements of modern
civilization, although we may have felt that some variation to suit Indian conditions was possible.
Personally, I have always felt attracted towards big machinery and fast travelling."
Nehru, Autobiography, London, 1936
It seems that amongst the new political leaders of the country, there were none who were prepared to take
Gandhi's vision of a peaceful, rural society seriously. On the contrary, now that they had the power to run the
country, they were eager to industrialise India and turn her into a world power in her own right. What followed is
history. Over the last forty years India has become the leading industrial and military power in south-east Asia. In
human terms, the price of this apparent success has been enormous. Her population has more than doubled, and
with it the number of poor. Her land, her villages and her people have been laid waste.
In 1948, the year after independence, Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who opposed his pacifism. He
left behind him what now seems only a dream of what might have been. Perhaps his epitaph should be:
"I believe that if India, and through India the world, is to achieve real freedom, then sooner or later
we shall have to go and live in the villages - in huts, not in palaces. Millions of people can never
live in cities and palaces in comfort and peace. Nor can they do so by killing one another, that is,
by resorting to violence and untruth. I have not the slightest doubt that without truth and
non-violence mankind will be doomed."
Letter to Nehru, 5 October 1945
It is remarkable that Gandhi, who lived in a place so remote from the electronic world of today, whose life was
finished by the mid-point of this century, should have so much to say to us in its closing years.
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CHAPTER )I)E
LIFE OF SACRIFICE
Everything within this world is possessed by God. He

pervades both the animate and the inanimate. Therefore
one should only take one's fair share, and leave the rest
to the Supreme.
Isa Upanishad 1
Although Gandhi's ideas were never put into practice by the rulers of India after independence, they are still very
much alive in countless organisations across India. A whole generation of social activists are the heirs to his
tradition. Among them are the thousands of 'sevaks' or servants of the people who went into the villages to teach
his methods. In particular Vinoba carried forward Gandhi's vision for the villages with his Sarvodaya Samaj, the
Society for Service to the People, founded shortly after Gandhi's death in 1948. He travelled from village to
village throughout India organising voluntary re-distribution of land and teaching the villagers how to properly
care for it. He is acknowledged by many as the successor to Gandhi.
Among the many other activists and thinkers who were deeply influenced by Gandhi is Satish Kumar. Born in
Rajasthan in 1936, he became a Jain monk at the age of nine. When he was eighteen he decided to leave India for
the West. However, to travel by air or across the sea was not in keeping with his principles. Vinoba had also
taken a vow to only travel on foot, because he did not wish to use any machine that he could not make with his
own hands. So, like Vinoba, Satish Kumar decided to walk. He walked the 8,000 miles from Delhi to London. He
is now settled in a small village in Devon with his wife and two children. For the last twenty years he has edited
the magazine Resurgence, which has become one of the most influential forums for discussion of the root causes of
industrial society's problems and the solutions to them. He has founded the Small School, which serves as both
primary and secondary school in his village and pioneers a new approach to education on a small scale. More
recently he has co-founded and directed Schumacher College, in Dartington, Devon, the first international college
exclusively devoted to teaching a spiritual approach to the environment. The college offers courses, taught by
world-renowned authorities, on ecology, spiritual values and the practical skills needed for an environmentally
conscious society.
By his outstanding work and his deep understanding of the environmental crisis and the keys to overcoming it,
Satish Kumar has become a source of inspiration to many in Britain and internationally. He explained to me at
length his ideas, which are firmly rooted in the Hindu religion, or as he prefers to call it, Sanatan Dharma (a term
which he explains below). What follows is my own summary of what he told me.
The Isa Upanishad tells us that everything, from a blade of grass to the whole cosmos, is the home of God. God
lives in every corner of existence. Therefore the whole creation is sacred. The Ganges is the symbol of that holy
spirit which permeates through every river and holy mountain. Kailash is the holy mountain, but all mountains are
holy because God lives there. The cow is holy because ultimately all the animal kingdom is holy. This sense of
the sacred in the whole creation is fundamental to our relationship with nature.
Western civilization considers human life to be sacred, but Hindus have gone much further and said that not only
human life but all life is sacred. Therefore all life forms, not just human beings, must be revered and respected.
This is the reason for being vegetarian, which is ecological in the deepest sense. Animal life should not be taken
for our own purposes, nor should it be artificially created, as it is in the West where millions of cattle, pigs and
chicken are reared for slaughter in factory farms. There should be a natural pattern of birth and death in the forest,
on the land, in the air and sea. Rearing animals for our own use is not natural.
The Hindu tradition gives us three principles: yajna, dhana and tapas - sacrifice, giving and penance. These are
the three ecological principles for replenishment of the earth. Through yajna you replenish the earth. For example,
for your clothes you must take cotton, therefore you ought to spin cotton for others. This is what Gandhi practised
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with his spinning wheel. If you take a tree to build your house, you must plant five trees for the future. The best
thing is to take as little as possible. Always work to reduce your needs. If you can do with five items for your
food, don't take six. Whenever you take, eat, or consume you must consider whether you have left something for
others - for God, for nature, for the poor and for future generations. This is sacrifice, or yajna.
The symbol of this principle is the sacred fire ceremony. It is a very beautiful ritual performed at weddings or
festivals, or to celebrate a birth or a time of renewal. Some pious Hindus perform a fire sacrifice every morning.
You make a fire and take the most precious substance, ghee, and offer it into the fire. Ghee is the purified form of
butter, which is the condensed form of milk, which is the product of the cow and the land. Therefore ghee is the
essence of the essence and is the most precious substance. The ghee is not burned to nothing. It has given life to
the fire, and that fire of purification will burn all our greed and anger, and with them all our illusions. It is the
symbol of purification through sacrifice. The ghee sacrificed in the fire symbolises that every activity - whatever
is most precious to you - should be sacrificed for others or for God.
Next comes dhana, giving. This is replenishment of society. Just as we take from nature and therefore must make
sacrifice, so we take from society. In every field - architecture, poetry, painting, music, ideas, books, religion -
we have received so much. But we mustn't be just consumers. We must make our own sacrifice to replenish
society. Write a poem - not for money or fame - but as a gift to the world. Paint a painting, build a house, design
something new, spread the religious word. You receive so much wonderful knowledge, tradition, culture, religion
and wisdom from the great teachers of the past. Do you just consume it? No - you must do something to give it
back. Dhana is not only the little gift you give when a monk comes to your door. Give your money, your labour,
your intelligence, your time - whatever you have. This maintains the ecology of society. If society is based on
dhana there will never be poverty, or exploitation or deprivation. In western thinking environment means the
outside natural world; but Hindu philosophy does not relate environment only to nature. The social and human
world is also part of the environment.
Finally comes tapas, self-control, which replenishes the soul - your own internal spiritual environment. You must
not only make sacrifice for nature and give back to society but you must replenish your own inner environment. If
you fast or take a vow of silence that is tapas. Gandhi was silent every Friday. No matter how busy he was or
however many important political matters he had to attend to, he had enough time to have a whole day of silence.
On the eleventh day of the waxing and waning moon Hindus practice tapas by fasting or praying. At other times
they go on pilgrimage to holy places like Vrindavan. That is also tapas. Meditation is tapas. Because of all the
things you do in this world there is a tremendous amount of wear and tear of the soul and it has to be replenished.
That replenishment can only happen when you are engaged in tapas.
Tapas includes brahmacarya, sexual self-restraint. When you are young you have a family, but there is a stage at
which you sacrifice your sexual life. After you are fifty you go on pilgrimage and take vanaprastha. That means
you renounce your sexual life. That way, population was always kept under control in an environmentally sound
and healthy way. Hindu philosophy always advocated limits, even limits to sexual activity. A certain period of
life, between twenty-five and fifty is meant for sexual activity, that's all. There are four stages of life: up to the age
of twenty-five is brahmacarya - no sex; then comes family life when everything is permitted in a limited way; then
after fifty comes vanaprastha and finally sannyasa, complete renunciation of the world.
With these three principles of sacrifice, giving and self-control you keep replenishing the total environment. This
Hindu view of ecology has social, political and economic implications.
In the typical Indian village everything is deliberately kept simple. In my own village in Rajasthan people would
be very busy in the spring and autumn with sowing and harvest, but in the winter and summer they would not be so
active. They would spend a lot of time just sitting and talking. This is not because they were lazy. It was because
they valued rest and what we call leisure. They didn't call it leisure. In Hindu philosophy it would be called
inaction or meditation, or just silence, and it plays a very important part in Hindu life - the opportunity to
understand. So they sat and gazed at the world - at the sun, the stars, the moon, or the trees and flowers - or they
talked to each other. They thought, "If I have a piece of bread and clean water and a loin cloth round my waist,
what more do I need? Why should I work, work, work, and produce, produce, produce, when I have no time to
ponder and talk and go inside myself?"
So they deliberately kept their lives very simple - they lived in simple houses, huts mostly, and spent their time
outdoors because the weather permitted that. Their demands were very small. This is how they lived in my village
when I was a child.
In the past forty or fifty years the influence of economic growth, government, and western media have fostered a
new philosophy. It says that if you don't have enough you are backward. You need development, and development
means having more goods. Indians used to think that, once you have the basic necessities of food and simple
clothing and simple housing, your other needs would be social and spiritual - that was your wealth. Wealth was
well-being of the family, the community and the temple. But nowadays we are interested in materialism which
means that you are judged by what you have rather than what you are. In the Indian vision the poorer you were and
the less possessions you had, the higher your status. Brahmana is the highest caste, but they were the poorest. They
had no trade, no land, no business or industry - they lived on gifts. The sadhus were the poorest, but people
worshipped them. Gandhi lived the poorest way - a loin cloth and simple food - but he is still called the Father of
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the Nation.
In traditional Hindu thinking material possessions were a sign of regress but in the modern world they are a sign
of progress. When people are deprived of care, friendship and culture they try to find happiness through having
more and more material possessions. When other people have something, you want it too, and this is encouraged
by western advertising and consumerism which creates the illusion of need where none actually exists.
To have a truly harmonious relationship with nature we must understand that it is better to have less. Then nature
has plenty. Gandhi said that there is enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed. We have to always
examine, always question, what is our actual need.
The very nature of Indian society, fostering the idea of less consumption and reduced needs, encourages giving. In
a traditional Indian village no traveller needs to stay in a hotel or bed and breakfast or anything like that. In my
own home there was a room built for travellers and in the evening my mother would always send me to see if any
traveller was in the room. I would ask his name and where he was going and if they would like a meal. Then my
mother would give me a dish of rice, dhal, vegetables, chapattis, papadams and chutney and a glass of water and I
would take this to the passing traveller whoever he may be. In many homes this happens. This is in addition to the
dharmshala, the village guest house, where twenty or forty people canstay. That is built by donation. If a
businessman is successful then he has to make a gift to the village: he can build a dharmshala. Every village has at
least one, so that any traveller can stay free of charge and receive one day's free meal.
These guest houses were mainly for pilgrims. Pilgrimage is the environmental alternative to tourism. Tourists go
to the mountains, but not for a sacred purpose. They go for recreation. With pilgrimage you go for a more spiritual
purpose, and recreation happens anyway. The idea of pilgrimage, and of villages providing space for travellers,
means you don't put too much pressure on the environment. To say there should be no travelling would be wrong,
because people want to experience the world, but travel should be as pilgrimage.
Pilgrimage, fire sacrifice, and other aspects of Hindu life, have many dimensions. These rituals were designed
symbolically to create a healthy relationship with the three environments: the natural environment, the social
environment, and your own inner environment. Hindus say 'Om shanti, shanti, shanti' - 'Peace, peace, peace' -
before every prayer. The first 'shanti' means peace with nature, ecological peace; the second means peace in
society, between human beings, communities, nations and peoples; the third means shanti within myself, spiritual
peace. Ecological peace, social peace and spiritual peace - for the Hindus, environment embraces all three.
Until now we have spoken of the Hindu ideal. The present reality in India is unfortunately far from this. Modern
Hindu society has become a very split society. Over the last two hundred years there has been an highly organised
campaign to undermine the traditional values. This started with the Charter Act of 1813. Lord Macauley said in
the British parliament that it was necessary to introduce British education in India at all levels in order to create a
whole class of people who would be Indian in body, but English in taste and thought. He said that Indian literature
- the Vedas, Upanishads, Gita, Ramayana and Mahabharata - were primitive and added up to nothing. They could
be put on one small shelf and that was all India had. His purpose for educating Indians was that if the British
wanted to rule India they would have to do so through the Indians. Therefore massive amounts of money were
spent to create a complete conditioning of the Indian mind.
English is still the language of education in India. Almost all the universities, colleges and schools are conducted
in English. The most influential newspapers for the last two hundred years, such as the Times of India, Hindustan
Times, Hindu Statesman - weeklies, monthlies and dailies - are published in English. Furthermore, Macauley had
wanted not only to introduce English education in India but to bring all the rich and influential people of India to
England to be educated, turning them into Englishmen. Nehru, who was Prime Minister for thirteen years after
independence, was himself in Macauley's tradition, having been educated at Oxford. He thought the only progress
for India was to compete with the West by industrialisation and having everything Western.
As a result of this planned onslaught India is now a divided society. If you go into the family homes in the lesser
cities, such as Bangalore or Madras and smaller towns such as Allahabhad, Benares, Lucknow or Jaipur you will
see educated Indians working in the offices, factories, businesses and so on in a more or less western, modern
industrialised style; but when they go home they will put on their dhoti and have puja at their home shrine. In their
homes, particularly among the women, their Hindu culture is still intact. It can also be found in the temples, of
which there are still hundreds and thousands, and new ones being built all the time. They don't want to leave it
because emotionally they are attached to it - in their heart of hearts they know this is the secure womb, the place
where they can feel happy and safe. But they suffer from an inferiority complex, because all the newspapers and
modern books and all the industrialised world are telling them this is backward! They feel shy to admit that they
have Indian culture and that they have their own tradition. So they will come out to the office in their suit and tie,
even in the boiling heat of the summer. They will wear woollen three-piece suits - inside they are sweating -
because unless they have these suits they will not be respected. This is the tragedy of India in the modern times.
This predominance of western culture, however, will probably be short-lived. The culture of the industrial world
has no soul. It has no substance. It is a paper tiger, a balloon - one prick and it will burst. What that one prick is
going to be we cannot know, but the industrial way of life and materialistic mode of education is not sustainable.
Nor are there the natural resources, or more significantly the social and spiritual resources, to sustain it. It is all
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external. Modern industrial culture is very glamorous with its cinemas, televisions, supermarkets and airports and
its tremendous military power. But inside it is hollow. On the other hand, the Hindu way of life and Hindu
philosophy may look very modest from the outside, but inside it is very rich and solid and has thousands of years
of maturity. It is not going to disappear very easily.
It is a very sad thing that as a result of western influence the government of India is bent on achieving economic
growth and high living standards at the expense of the quality of life and traditional values. Indian industrialists
are building big dams, big industries, big roads and big airports; there is a tremendous amount of pollution and
resources are being depleted; population and demands are growing; greed is growing; poverty is increasing; there
are more poor now in India than there were at the time of independence. In the name of reducing poverty and
hunger we are increasing them. Progress and development are actually causing hunger. If India could again
practice yajna, dhana and tapas poverty could be cured.
Hinduism is a holistic religion. It is a way of life rather than a religion or a set of beliefs. It includes economic
life, sexual life, political life - everything is part of Hindu religion. 'Religion' is a Western word, and so is
'Hindu'. A correct description is 'sanatan dharma'. Sanatan means eternal, and dharma means the true state. The
dharma of fire is to burn; the dharma of water is to quench thirst. So 'sanatan dharma' means to find the true,
everlasting state of being, the eternal path. Hindus (we call them Hindus, but we mean the Indian people) are
searching for the dharma of the soul, the meaning of life. That is the quest.
The Isa Upanishad says it all. Nature is sacred, all life is sacred, the whole earth is sacred. That is the Hindu
contribution. Western industrial life has become desacrilised. The only sanctity left is human life. We have to
push the frontier beyond human and include the whole earth. Earth is our mother, earth is goddess, earth is Kali,
earth is Parvati, earth is Sita, Earthmother - and she is the home of God.
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CHAPTER TE)
O KING OF TREES, I BOW BEFORE YOU
O King of trees! I bow before you. Brahma is in your

roots, Vishnu is in your body, Shiva is in your branches.
In every one of your leaves there is a heavenly being.
Amongst the new wave of people-led environmental groups in India, Trees For Life is an outstanding example of
an attempt to incorporate deeply-held spiritual values into a practical environmental project. The organisation
was founded in 1987 by Balbir Mathur, a dynamic international businessman who lives in America. The story of
how he was led from the competitive world of business management to planting trees is worth telling.
Mathur was born and raised in Allahabad, India, in a Hindu home. His father was in the army and he attended a
British school where he was taught by Catholic missionaries. Like so many of his generation, he grew up with an
inferiority complex about his mother culture. "I was led to believe that Indian religion was darkness and
oblivion," he remembers, "I wanted to be like the British, who seemed to have so much power. What was it that
made them so powerful and us so weak?" Wanting to throw off what he saw as the apathy he had inherited through
his Hindu background, he vowed to discover the secret of Western dynamism The search eventually took him to
America in the late fifties where he married an American girl and settled down as a successful management
consultant. His ambition was to bring his management expertise back to India. "I desperately wanted to help
restore India's self respect now that she was an independent country," he recalls, "but first I had to become more
American than the Americans and beat them at their own game."
Materially he found success, but in 1976, on a trip home to visit his mother, his life took an unexpected turn.
While he was in Allahabad preparations were underway for the world's largest religious festival, Kumba Mehla,
which takes place every four years at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. In freezing winter
temperatures several million Hindus bathe in the sacred waters at the time of the full moon. It is said that anyone
who bathes there at this time is released from their karma and freed from the cycle of birth and death.
For Mathur, the festival was a mass demonstration of Hindu superstition which, besides being a waste of time and
an irrelevance in modern India, was also, with its huge, densely packed crowds and lack of proper amenities, a
health hazard and quite often dangerous. When in his youth his mother had taken him to visit the 1955 Kumba
Mehla, he had watched helplessly as hundreds of people had been crushed to death during a freak panic in the
crowd. This experience had intensified his disillusionment with Hinduism. Now, however, he was fascinated by
the spectacle of the world's largest gathering of human beings and decided to try and get the National Geographic
magazine from America to cover it. Back in Washington he managed to convince them to commission him to do
the job himself.
Mathur takes up the story:
"Within two weeks I was back in India in the middle of the Kumba Mehla with two photographers.
On 19th January 1977 was the main event. I had been up since before dawn going round
interviewing everyone I could. At around seven or eight in the morning I came back to my tent. A
man appeared and told me there was a yogi there who claimed to be 350 years old! One of the
traditions at Kumba Mehla is that yogis who are normally never seen come out of the forests or
down from the mountains and show themselves to the crowds. Many of them claim to have special
powers, and I now know that some undoubtedly do, but a lot of them are fakes who just come to
enjoy the adulation of the crowd and collect money.
"So when I heard that this Baba was claiming to be 350 years old I didn't believe it. I said don't
give me all that bunk! But the man wanted me to see for myself. He challenged me, 'If you're a
journalist then you should examine this man - he is one of the main attractions here. You are
debunking him without seeing him - how can that be?'
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"I had to respond to the challenge. 'Where is this guy?', I said, and off we went over eight miles of
sand to see him. Eventually we crossed the Ganges and reached his place. He gave me an
audience, but I was unimpressed. Then it started to rain. I thought of all these innocent people who
might die of exposure. Northern India in January is very cold and it really rained. People were
slipping, getting lost and hurt. I forgot all about my writing and just began helping. I was very
angry at all these superstitious people coming here with no proper arrangements. Around two in
the afternoon it occurred to me that one of these Hindu 'bishops' would probably declare that the
rain was a blessing from God. So I thought, 'Before that happens let me ask the people and find out
what they really feel.'
"The first person I approached was a barber sitting in the wet slushy sand. I asked him how much
money he would have made if the rain hadn't come.
"He said about 100 rupees. So I asked him how much he had made. He said around 20 rupees. So I
thought I had the case sealed and tight. 'Well,' I said, 'Was the rain good or bad?'
"He gave me a completely blank look. 'Rain is an act of God. It's neutral. How can I decide
whether it's good or bad? Who am I to judge an act of God?'
"An illiterate, poor barber! I froze. Somehow the meaning sank into me. I was speechless. I
consider that barber to be my teacher. It was a turning point in my life. In the next two hours I
talked to sixty-three people and all of them gave me the same answer.
"Soon after that I returned to New Delhi. I was on a busy schedule but somehow my conscience
told me to go back to the Mehla. This time I went to discover what gave that barber his strength. I
spent fifteen days roaming and talking to people. I realised it was not the East that should learn
from the West, but the West that should learn from the East."
From then on Mathur took an increasing interest in spiritual matters. The same energy and enthusiasm which he
had previously directed at becoming a Westernised businessman he now began to dedicate to the exploration and
promotion of the Hindu values he had rejected in his childhood. He began to practice yoga and regularly fasting.
At the same time, back in America, he lost his previous sense of drive and his business began to fail. In 1980,
after a six-day fast, Mathur vowed to dedicate the rest of his life to fighting world hunger by planting fruit trees.
Balbir Mathur had always loved trees - not in the usual way, as a horticulturalist or a naturalist - but in a
mysterious and personal way. He felt drawn into deep empathy with them. Influenced by his mother and his Hindu
upbringing, he had imbibed a natural sense of the dignity of trees. For the Hindu, trees are to be respected as
fellow living beings, not simply a source of firewood. Particularly on account of the extreme heat of India, the
shade of the tree is welcome, and the tree is looked upon as a friend.
As a child Balbir often heard his mother recite a prayer popular among devotees of Krishna which compares a
tree to a humble devotee. The tree lives to a great age standing upright in scorching heat, freezing cold, wind and
rain and is always prepared to give shelter to passers-by. It freely gives its fruits and flowers. Among its roots
grow healing herbs. In its branches a whole host of creatures can live. If someone cuts its limbs, it remains silent
and does not complain. The tree is the very symbol of tolerance and generosity. It is the model for all devotees of
God to follow.
A popular Krishna story tells how two demigods were once cursed to stand as trees. They were born as twin
arjuna trees in the courtyard of Krishna's childhood home, in the forest of Vrindavana. Krishna, with His beautiful,
blackish complexion and peacock feather in His hair, was God Himself playing as a mischievous child. One day,
after the trees had grown to their full height, Krishna playfully pulled them down, releasing the two demigods
from their imprisonment. After spending long years of penance as trees, they were much wiser than before and had
become purified of their sins. They offered prayers to Lord Krishna and returned to their home in the heavenly
realms.
This story illustrates the Hindu teaching that a soul is made to enter the body of a tree as a result of being too
sensual. By living as a tree the soul learns patience and tolerance. While in this predicament, the living being in
the body of a tree should be treated with gentleness and sympathy. To do otherwise would be to add further
hardship to the great trial which that soul is already undergoing.
Influenced by this religious sensitivity to trees, and by his own inner affinity, in his childhood Balbir had actually
experienced a close relationship with a tree. It was the lemon tree that grew in his garden. Each day he would get
a fresh lemon from this tree for his tea. He used to say to this tree, "You have provided me so much nourishment
and love, one day when I am rich I will plant thousands of lemon trees for poor people so that they too can share
your nourishment."
One day he felt as though the tree spoke to him. He never forgot that tree. "All during those years in America this
lemon tree friend kept on coming back to remind me of my promise, `When are you going to do it?'"
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So finally Balbir had decided to do something. He decided to begin by planting 144 lemon trees. Back in India he
hired a gardener to follow him and plant a tree with fertiliser and water wherever he pointed. First he approached
his mother: "I asked her, `Can I plant a tree by your house?' She said no - she was seventy-three years old and
who would take care of it? He approached other relatives and friends but they had other excuses. It seemed that no
one wanted a tree on their land. Eventually with difficulty I managed to find homes for some of the trees. My real
wish, though, was to plant unlimited trees, but how was I to get people interested?"
Mathur hit upon the idea of asking a local holy man to bless lemon tree saplings. The man was visited by
thousands of people daily and if he were to bless the plants then perhaps some of those pious people could be
persuaded to take them and grow the trees as a sacred task.
When he spoke to the holy man he received significant advice.
"I asked him to bless my lemon trees. At first he was reluctant. He said that such a project had to
be 'an act without any consequences'. If I were to act in that way then my work would be
successful. He said that if I were to think even of other people's benefit then I would also think of
my own, and it would fail. If I were simply to express my soul, the world would follow."
Mathur arranged for the man to bless 2,500 trees. Suddenly everyone wanted one because the trees were blessed.
Some people stood in line all day to get one. Not only did they take the trees to plant at home, but some promised
to plant many more as well. From this Mathur understood that it was not enough just to ask people to plant trees,
however good the reasons may be. There had to be another dimension, a spiritual one. It was this that the holy man
had hinted at in telling him that it must be an act 'without consequences'. In other words, it had to be a spiritual act,
an act of service to the Supreme. In Hindu understanding, all actions in this world have consequences, or
reactions. The reaction, either good or bad, comes as a result of the desire that caused the original action. If one
does some work for one's own benefit, then one must accept the reaction, good or bad, depending on whether the
original motivation was good or bad. Obviously, planting trees is a good act, and brings a good reaction, or good
karma. However there is a stage beyond this: an act without any reaction, without consequence. In performing
such an act there cannot be any attachment to the good result, as in the case of an ordinary good deed, done to earn
a reward in this world. This is an act for the sake of God. Only such an act can be free of karma, and consequently
completely selfless.
The realisation that Mathur had stumbled upon was that planting trees had to be more than a mere good deed, it
had to be a transcendental action, one that appealed to the deep-seated spiritual conscience of the Indian people.
By appealing to their underlying religious sense, Mathur felt he would be able to touch their deeper motivation -
the same motivation that brought them in their millions to bathe in the sacred waters at the Kumba Mehla - their
desire for liberation from the world of birth and death.
And so the concept of Trees For Life was born.
For five years Mathur went into the villages, finding out what it was that people wanted, what their needs really
were. Not surprisingly he found that they truly wanted trees. But a number of practical conditions would have to
be met for them to genuinely support any attempt by an outsider to plant trees in their villages. It was no good
talking to the farmers about the world's environmental problems. They had pressing needs of their own. Mathur
had to become an instrument to fulfil those needs. All over India there are tree planting projects, usually
sponsored by the government, but the success rate is appallingly low - roughly ten percent of trees planted survive
their first year - because people are not motivated to care for them. For a project to succeed it had to be simple, it
had to be practical, and it had to appeal to the immediate needs of the village people. "It is not a tree issue, it is a
people issue", says Mathur.
The first thing Mathur discovered was that the choice of tree was essential. In order to deserve the attention of the
hard-pressed villagers, the tree should give quick returns. Mathur's intention had always been to plant fruit trees,
because they were a real means to give nourishing food where it was most needed at minimum cost. Now he
devised a list of basic conditions: the trees must give nutritious fruit; they must grow quickly and give fruit within
one year; they must be easy to look after and grow in poor soil; and they must be able to fit in a confined space.
To meet these conditions he came up with a shortlist of five trees: lemon, papaya, banana, drum-stick and falsa.
His next discovery was that it was better to deal with the women of the village. The men were often producing
cash-crops on their land and it was hard for them to give space for planting trees, no matter how nutritious they
were. They were caught in the trap of always needing money for today, without being able to think of tomorrow.
However, give a fruit tree to the woman of the family, for her to plant outside her back door, and she will guard it
carefully. She has to feed her family, and the fruit from the tree will help her. Mathur found that the women of the
villages naturally wanted to care for the trees he gave them.
After a year or two, the whole family would appreciate the value of the tree and would have established a
relationship with it. It was their tree, or rather it was part of their family, just as the cow or buffalo who gave
them milk or plowed their field were, and like them it must be cared for in return for its service.
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Mathur developed the lesson he had learned from the holy man who first blessed his trees. He gave the whole
programme a spiritual base. Wherever possible the trees would be blessed before being given out, and Mathur
himself would always emphasise that this was divine work; that to care for a tree was a sacred duty, as has
always been taught in the Hindu scriptures. He published a leaflet filled with scriptural quotations glorifying trees
and the act of caring for them. (see chapter end)
In Mathur's words:
"Wherever possible, we distribute trees as prasadam (spiritual blessing), whether from temples,
gurdwaras or mosques - it doesn't matter. Westerners don't understand this, but that doesn't make
any difference - the religious or spiritual centering of the tree is very important. Trees have a
power and a language of their own which is not easy to communicate. When the holy man blessed
my lemon trees, all the people who earlier weren't interested wanted one. It is that change in the
heart that is needed, the same change that I had experienced when the barber spoke to me."
Finally, now that the families had their sanctified trees and were receiving their fruit, they may be ready to go
further. The long-term goal of Trees For Life is to give people a taste for caring for trees so that they can grow
such trees as mango and guava, the traditional mature trees of India, which should be found at the heart of every
village and lining every road. These trees grow slowly over many years and need much more care and
commitment when they are young. But they are a gift not just to one family, but to generations of villagers in the
future. This is the real goal of Trees For Life.
By 1989, Trees For Life had grown into a large network of volunteers with a full-time office in Delhi. During that
year they planted over 700,000 trees in villages across India.
In the same year Balbir Mathur went back to the Kumba Mehla with Trees For Life and distributed 200,000
saplings to pilgrims. Mathur believes that ninety-nine percent of these trees have now been planted and are being
cared for. "You could see from the faces of the people how well they would care for them - they took them
literally as their babies, the way they would take prasadam, the sacred food from the temple."
While handing out the trees, Balbir also handed out a few postcards, to be filled in and returned as a makeshift
survey of the results. Some of these eventually came back with details of the date planted and the address. On one
of them was written, "You have not given us a tree, you have given us amrita, heavenly nectar."
THE GLORY OF TREES
verses gathered by Balbir Mathur from Hindu scriptures
Trees are like good people who care for others. They have to keep standing in the sun but they give
shade to others. Whatever fruits they bear they do not eat themselves, but give them to others. How
kind they are.
(Vikrama Caritam 65)
The whole life of these trees is to serve. With their leaves, flowers, fruits, branches, roots, shade,
fragrance, sap, bark, wood, and finally even their ashes and coal, they exist for the purpose of
others.
(Srimad Bhagavatam)
Trees have five sorts of kindness which are their daily sacrifice. To families they give fuel; to
passers by they give shade and a resting place; to birds they give shelter; with their leaves, roots
and bark they give medicines.
(Varaha Purana 162, 41-42)
O tree! You bear fruits, leaves and flowers and protect people from scorching sun. Whoever
comes to you in scorching heat, you take away their suffering and give them coolness. This way
you surrender yourself for others. That is why you are guru of all kind people. Even the most
generous person cannot do things with such devotion as you. And yet you show yourself to no one.
Therefore, O tree, please accept my heartfelt respects.
(Bhamini Vilasa 89)
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O tree! You are standing on the path. Live for a long time and be happy, because with your
blossoms the cuckoo is happy, with your pollen the bumblebees are happy, and passers by are
happy with your fruits. So live long!
(Upadesa Tarangini)
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CHAPTER ELEVE+
HUGGING THE TREES
What does the forest bear?
Soil, water and pure air.
Soil, water and pure air
Are the basis of our life.
Chipko folk song
Sunderlal Bahugana is a small, bright-eyed man with a laughing voice. His unassuming exterior conceals a
strength and determination which has been a driving force behind Chipko Andolan, the now world-famous
tree-hugging movement which started among the Himalayan villages of Uttarkhand in 1973. I caught up with him
on one of his rare visits to Delhi and although he was busy he immediately agreed to see me. The next morning at
8 o'clock he welcomed me like an old friend in the room at the Gandhi ashram where he stays when in town.
Sunderlal does not like to be in Delhi. He would far rather be out among the villages where his work is, speaking
with the people, educating them and encouraging them, urging them on to fight for the protection of their
environment. On this occasion he had come to the nation's capital to lobby politicians as part of his long-running
campaign to stop the Indian government building what will be Asia's largest dam across the Bhagirathi-Ganges
River at Tehri.
Sunderlal's fight to save the Himalayan environment began in 1973. He was working among his native villages as
a Gandhian community worker 'dedicated to the highest good'. One of the major threats to the mountain people
was the steady loss of their forests, cut down by commercial logging companies from the plains. This had been
going on for a long time. It began when the British, having exhausted their own forests, looked to India to supply
their timber needs for building their ships and firing their factories. By the 1850s there was a growing demand for
railway sleepers and more and more of the magnificent hardwood forests of the Himalayas were being destroyed.
The people of the mountain valleys had always depended on the forests for their livelihood in one way or another,
but they had never simply taken from them - they had preserved the forests for future generations, using only what
they needed in a sustainable way. Now all that was changing. The government took over the forests and sold
felling rights to timber contractors. Year after year the foothills became more and more denuded. Where trees
were replaced after cutting, it was with faster growing and more profitable, but environmentally less desirable,
pine trees instead of the Himalayan oak and deodar for which the hills were famous.
By the 1950s it was becoming apparent to many that the deforestation of the hills was having serious
environmental consequences. The trees were being treated as a disposable source of instant wealth to feed
industry, but they were also an essential protection for the land. Trees captured the moisture of the heavy monsoon
rains and released it gradually into the river system, ensuring a steady round-the-year supply of water to the
plains. They also held the fragile mountain-sides in place. Without tree-cover, they became disaster areas. Flash
floods and landslides became regular occurrences and have been responsible for a growing toll of death and
damage throughout the second part of this century. Diminishing forests also meant the drying up of mountain
springs, loss of topsoil, fuel, fodder and fertiliser - all essential for village economy.
In 1973 things came to a head and a group of villagers who had formed a self-help action group decided it was
time to stand up for their rights. They hit upon the idea of hugging the trees to prevent the axemen from cutting
them. "When a leopard attacks a child, the mother takes his onslaughts on her own body," reasoned one of the
activists. Thus the Chipko movement was born. The word Chipko literally means 'to hug'. As soon as the village
people began to gather to protect the trees they met with success. Time after time they were able to prevent
contractors from cutting the trees down.
Sunderlal, passionately dedicated to campaigning for justice for the rural people, soon became the messenger and
spokesman of this movement, and began to travel widely throughout the Himalayan villages. His classic method of
spreading the word was the padayatra, marching on foot from village to village. In each village he would stay
overnight and teach the people the value of their forests and encourage them to join in the Chipko movement. One
of the Chipko folk songs recorded the confrontation that had taken place when a forest officer had been sent to
persuade villagers to give up their struggle:
The forester asks:

Resin, timber and foreign exchange.
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To this the village women reply in chorus:

Soil, water and pure air.
Soil, water and pure air
Are the basis of our life.
Here is a confrontation between two conflicting world-views. One sees nature simply as a commodity to be sold
on the world market, and the other sees it as something sacred, the 'basis of our life'. Through songs such as these,
talks and debates, Sunderlal was able to convince local people that their own villages depended on the survival
of the trees. Together with his co-worker, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, he succeeded in creating widespread support for
Chipko among the villagers. This in turn lead to pressure being brought on the government to change their forestry
policies.
In 1980, after years of campaigning (which included periods of public fasting) Sunderlal forced Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi to declare a complete ban on commercial green tree felling in the Himalayas in the state of Uttar
Pradesh. By this time he was becoming a well-known figure in India, and this was a major victory for him, but he
was not satisfied. His desire was to take his campaign onto the wider stage. In 1981 he undertook an
eighteen-month walk along the full length of the Himalayas, a distance of almost 5,000 kilometres. With personal
good wishes from Indira Gandhi, he set out to visit villages and study the condition of the forests and valleys from
Kashmir to Nagaland, the easternmost state of India, bringing his message to many who had never heard it before.
Sunderlal, now in his sixties, is now famous in India and in the international environmental movement. He writes,
gives talks and is regularly invited to visit the west. He still spends time each year walking through his native
hills and talking with the villagers. Having brought world attention to the deforestation of the Himalayas, he has
now dedicated himself to stopping the construction of the Tehri dam. If this dam is completed it is calculated that
it will submerge 11,000 acres of Himalayan valley, including the town of Tehri and 24 villages, displacing over
80,000 people. Of it Sunderlal says, "Such dams are disastrous. They do not serve any purpose. What you achieve
is an illusory magnificence after a great deal of destruction. This is practically cheating the people."
Sunderlal is a deeply religious man and his personal life is highly disciplined. He has always been a follower of
Gandhi's principles, and was particularly influenced by Mirabehn, one of Gandhi's close disciples, in his youth.
His actions are closely modelled on Gandhi's, who said, "My life is my message."
According to Gandhi, society is based on four pillars - Authority, Wealth, Army and Philosophy. "You may be
surprised to know how philosophy is a pillar," comments Sunderlal, "But all through human history these three,
authority, wealth and army have been supported by philosophy. Everybody has a philosophy. Hitler had a
philosophy, Stalin had a philosophy, Napoleon had a philosophy, and their philosophies have been supporting so
many things."
Gandhi's first proposal was to replace Authority with Service: rather than demand obedience, governments should
serve the people and encourage the people to serve one another. He further said that Philosophy should be
replaced by Good Conduct. In other words, religion was meant to instil good behaviour in people - to be a way of
life - not just a philosophy. This was why Gandhi said, "My life is my message." Gandhi went on to say that
Wealth should be replaced by Austerity, or the power to exercise self-control, which has long been accepted in
India as the mark of true wealth. "You may have cows, elephants, diamonds and jewels," goes the Hindi saying,
"But once you find inner peace all this wealth will seem like dust." That peace, as taught in the Gita, can be found
through self-restraint. Finally, Gandhi concluded, if these other principles are practised there will be no more
need for the Army which can then be replaced with Peace.
In accordance with Gandhi's ideas, Sunderlal believes that personal morality and selflessness lie at the heart of
any effective attempt to change the world. In his own words:
"Bhagavad Gita, our basic book of Hindu philosophy, tells us to carry on acting - doing things in
this world - but without any desire for the fruits of our action. Every action has some result, good
or bad, which we call the fruit of action. Krishna says that we should act without desire for this
fruit. It is not I that am saying this - it is the Almighty: our duty is to work without any selfish end.
This is a way of self-purification also. When we do only outward action and we do it for material
gain, with no sense of inner purpose, then it does not purify us internally. Our work should be such
that elevates us, that makes us more and more noble. This should be our objective in life, to do all
work as divine work."
Sunderlal's work is not simply about the external environment. To change the world he must start with himself. It
is from the heart, he says, that change must come.
"Your actions should be dictated by your heart, not by your head. The combination of these three -
head, hands and heart - will make a balanced personality. These three represent the basic elements
of the Gita - Knowledge, Action and Devotion. The difficulty today is that we have big heads - too
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much knowledge - so we try to solve all our problems just with knowledge. Unfortunately our
destinies today are being decided by intellectual prophets and technocrats. Modern man has a big
head, very feeble hands and no heart. We are unbalanced. The whole of life is unbalanced. That is
the cause of the problems we are facing on every front.
"What we need is a human outlook. Instead of being human beings we have become socialists,
capitalists, environmentalists - we have so many 'isms' - but we are not human beings. Gandhi
said, 'I have no '-ism' - the day people will make an 'ism' out of me, I am dead.' So the first thing
we need is HUMANism. We should be human beings first, and human being means to have a
balanced personality. This means being balanced in head, hands and heart. What we need today -
from our heads to our hearts - is that whatever we are thinking we should feel. Today you think
what you don't feel! We have no heart, so it won't feel anything. The world has become so
complicated, so many things are happening, that they can have no impact on our heart. We only
think about those things, we do not feel them."
Finding balance is a theme of Sunderlal's. Our mistake is to see problems in isolation from one another, forgetting
that the universe is a single whole, that all problems are interlinked. He explains:
"Today we are seeing problems in pieces, whereas we should have a holistic view of the whole
thing. We are just like the traveller going from one country to another and collecting stickers on his
baggage - this airline, that airline - and in the end the whole baggage is covered with stickers and
the actual thing disappears. Similarly today, we view problems with different angles and the real
problem disappears: we only see the 'isms' outside."
The key to Sunderlal's success, he says, is that he has always concentrated on educating the masses. He has made
great use of folk-songs, such as 'The Appeal of a Tree', originally written in Hindi, by folksinger Ghanshyam
Sailani, a dedicated Chipko activist:
I have been standing for ages,

I wish to live for you.
Do not chop me, I am yours.
I wish to give you something in the future.
I am milk and water for you.
I am thick shade and showers.
I manufacture soil and manure.
I wish to give you foodgrains.
Some of my kind bear fruits.
They ripen for you.
I wish to ripen with sweetness.
I wish to bow down for you.
I am the pleasant season.
I am spring. I am the rains.
I am with Earth and life.
I am everything for you.
Do not cut me, I have life,
I feel pain, so my name is tree.
Rolling of logs will create landslides
Remember. I stand on slopes and below is the village.
Where we were destroyed,
Dust is flying there.
The hilltops have become barren.
All the water sources have dried up.
Do not cut us, save us.
Plant us, decorate the Earth.
What is ours is yours.
Leave something for posterity.
Such is the Chipko movement.
Travelling on footmarches from village to village, Sunderlal carried songs such as this and told stories about
Krishna. "During the campaign against the Theri dam I fasted as a protest," he recalls,
"Then, when my fast was over, at the same place where I had been fasting on the dried-up bed of
the river (it had been diverted in order to build the dam), we organised a ceremony to hear the
story of Krishna for seven days. Through that story we explained the relationship of human beings
with nature. The story of Lord Krishna is very popular in India. We have one week's programme in
which the whole story is recited and people come with great devotion bringing offerings of rice,
vegetables or fruits - that was the old system. What we did was to explain the whole story in terms
of three things: your relationship with your inner self, with society and with nature.
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"For example, Krishna goes with his cowherd friends into the forest and says, 'See how
magnificent is this tree. This tree is living for others, not for itself. It gives shade to everybody. We
should envy the selflessness of this tree and we should learn from this.'
"Women came with a handful of rice to listen to the story and the new interpretation of their
religion, and the government people said, 'Oh! so many people are coming here and the movement
is gaining strength!' They were so terrified that on the sixth day they put a ban on the entry of the
people, posting police all around and telling people it was dangerous to enter. I said, 'Let the
women come!' But the police prevented them because they were very much afraid of our strength.
Religion amongst the people is so powerful. We organise the people, educate them and collect a
handful of rice from each family - that means the involvement of each family - and people take a
pledge to work for our cause and so it goes on.
"There are people in India who are very devoted to religion and that is the secret of success of the
Chipko movement. We tried to interpret religion in its real sense. Ritual has done so much harm to
religion in India that people have forgotten the real spirit of religion. The body is there, but without
any heart. We have to revive the real spirit of the religion. This is what we did in Chipko
movement."
Feeling oneself to be one with nature is the great environmental message of Hindu culture, according to Sunderlal.
Hindus see life everywhere, not only in human beings, but in trees, birds, animals and insects - a oneness of life in
all creation - and they have a worshipful attitude towards this life. "Some see nature as a commodity," he says,
"They see a tree not as a living being, but as timber! But Hindu culture teaches us to worship life."
Another aspect of Hindu culture is its respect for austerity. One who has less is the most respectable person in
Hindu society. There are many examples - the sadhu, who lives alone devoted to religion with few possessions;
the sannyasi, who has given up his family in order to teach and accept disciples; the brahmin teacher, who
depends on charity. "Why is it that hermits were respected in our society while Kings were not?" asks Sunderlal.
"Because one whose material needs are less will take less from nature."
Traditional Hindu culture is in sharp contrast with today's materialistic society which Sunderlal sees as having
started from the Industrial Revolution. That revolution brought fundamental changes in human thinking. It
destroyed the harmonious relationship between nature and humanity by teaching us to see nature as a commodity.
It established human beings as the masters of nature, with science and technology as their tools of power to
control and exploit, taking more and more for themselves.
"We have to chip at the roots of this thought," insists Sunderlal, "And that we did through religion.
We said, 'See how Krishna has become one with the universe by his love for everything. When he
plays on his flute the peacocks dance and the cows shed tears: the whole forest becomes happy,
and this way Krishna enjoys himself.' The Yamuna River, where Krishna bathes, is something
living, she is loved by Krishna too. When the many-headed poisonous serpent Kaliya came and
polluted the Yamuna with his venom, Krishna drove him away. And who is this Kaliya? He
represents the pollution of our present day! Kaliya was polluting the river, and by that had become
a nuisance for the whole society, for everything. This pollution is the Kaliya snake and every
citizen has to play the role of Krishna today. That means you have to become like Krishna - a lover
of all life; at one with the universe. Until you become 'Krishna' you cannot save this river from
being polluted; you cannot save this world from being exploited by the demons like Kaliya."
Sunderlal sees the problems of the world in profoundly simple terms. He says that our three great enemies are
War, Pollution and Hunger and they are all linked together. People have been taught to want more and more, and
in order to get it the big powers fight for control over the places where there are resources like timber or
minerals. To maintain their spheres of influence, Sunderlal says, the Western countries have created the arms
trade. Never in the history of humankind was the sale of arms such a big and profitable industry as it is today.
Through it they are able to maintain their living standard. Poor countries have no choice but to export their only
resources - cutting down their trees and poisoning their soil with chemical fertilisers to produce cash crops for
export. "The best land is all used to earn foreign exchange," he explains, "Whatever land is left is quickly drained
of goodness and the water is polluted by manufacturing industries. This means, in a way, soil and water are
exported to pay for arms. Soil and water are the two basic resources of humankind - if these are destroyed the
people will starve and that is what is happening."
In the face of these problems does Sunderlal feel there is any hope?
"Yes there is hope to change. Young people are needed who have hearts full of compassion and
creative minds to find out the solutions and hands which are ready to serve. We need to bring three
types of people together in small groups wherever they are. First are humanitarian scientists, who
will use their knowledge to mitigate the miseries of human beings and mother earth. Then social
activists who are impatient to bring a change through non-violent means. Third are compassionate
artists, musicians, journalists and literary men and women. These three types of people should
come together in small groups and find out the solutions to the problems.
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"These three people are the symbols of three basic principles of the Gita - knowledge, action and
devotion - jnana, karma and bhakti. Action, karma, is the way to communicate to the people - you
must become the symbol of your thoughts and ideas - but the most important element is bhakti,
devotion. Without it there is only argument. This is why the path of devotion has been regarded as
the easiest path. When your mind is arguing and your hands are fighting, only devotion can help,
can allow you to accept everything.
"Change is sure to come, but it will come only when these three types of people come together.
Today they are apart. They are all very impatient to do something, but they are not in contact with
each other. These people are very few, yes, but always in history a small minority has been able to
change the course of society. They have always been swimming against the tide, but ultimately,
because they had solutions for humanity's problems, they changed everybody."
Sunderlal Bahugana is one of those few.
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CHAPTER TWELVE
AN ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY
"If we forget the aim of human life and simply take supplies from the Lord for sense gratification
and become more and more entangled in material existence, which is not the purpose of creation,
certainly we become thieves, and therefore we are punished by the laws of material nature."
A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami
As a young man Bhaktivedanta Swami was a keen supporter of Gandhi. He admired his idealism and shared his
belief that India had the potential to offer something of immense importance to the world, but that in order to fulfil
that potential she must first gain her independence from the British.
He was born in a middle-class family in Calcutta in 1896 and received a Western-influenced education finishing
at the Scottish Churches College. When the time came to sit his exams, however, he responded to Gandhi's call to
boycott the colleges and refused to write anything, joining his fellow-students in the demand for 'Swaraj!',
self-rule for India.
He was not a conformist and was always prepared to stand up for his principles. When, at the age of twenty-two,
he met the outspoken religious teacher Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, the man who was to be his guru, he argued with
him that now was not the time for religious reform - the priority was to get rid of the British; only then could India
have her self-respect in the world. Saraswati, however, convinced him that society's spiritual needs were too
urgent to take second place to politics. If the spiritual goal of life could be established, and the rise of materialism
turned back, then everything else would follow. Bhaktivedanta was convinced, and this conviction formed the
basis for the rest of his life.
Through his guru he was initiated into the Vaishnava tradition of Bengal, centred on devotion to Krishna. The
principal historical figure in that tradition was Chaitanya, the fifteenth-century religious reformer. Chaitanya
taught that love of God was the universal religion regardless of caste, creed or race. Rejecting the conservative
and privileged outlook of the caste brahmanas who dominated Hinduism at the time, Chaitanya travelled all over
India, taking religion out onto the street and to the people. Influenced by Chaitanya's spirit of reform and
adventure, Bhaktivedanta decided to dedicate his life to presenting the teachings of the Krishna tradition to the
Western world. He had been taught to speak and write English by the British rulers of India, and he had been
schooled in Western ways in Calcutta, still the second city of the British Empire during his youth. His guru, on the
eve of departing this world, blessed him, full of hope, saying, "Teach Krishna consciousness to the English-
speaking peoples of the world. That will do good for you and for those who hear you."
In 1965, at the age of seventy, after a lifetime's preparation, Bhaktivedanta finally left India's shores on his lone
mission to the West. He was penniless but someone gave him free passage on board a cargo steamer. He chose to
go first to America, where he considered his message was most urgently needed. Few would have expected him
to achieve much. The odds against him were too great. He was old. He was alone. He knew practically nothing of
the West. His message was too spiritual. He would be asking people to give up materialism - which in his book
included intoxication, meat-eating and illicit sex - and dedicate themselves to serving Krishna. How could
Americans agree to abandon their hard-won lifestyle and worship a god they had never heard of before? Why
would anyone listen to him?
But they did - especially the young people in New York and San Francisco. One reason for this was his own
complete conviction in what he had to say, and his faultless practice of what he preached. His sheer warmth of
personality and strength of character also attracted many to him. Another compelling reason to take his words
seriously was that he spoke with such a sense of urgency and addressed the problem that was uppermost in the
minds of many of the young generation - the overwhelming materialism of the Western way of life. To those who
cared to listen, Bhaktivedanta had a challenging message. He condemned materialism and proposed a spiritual
way of life based on simplicity and devotion to God. It seems appropriate to end this book with his ideas,
because, addressed to the world as it entered the current period of crisis, they encapsulate the true teachings of the
Vedic tradition on the nature of the relationship between human beings and their environment. Few among the
twentieth-century teachers of Hinduism, either before or since, have presented them in such a straightforward and
uncompromising spirit.
Bhaktivedanta believed that nature could provide humanity with all its needs if only we would live more simply.
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He regarded industry as unnecessary; it disturbed the balance of peaceful life:
"The natural gifts such as grains, vegetables and fruits, rivers, hills of jewels and minerals and the
seas full of pearls are supplied by the order of God, and as He desires nature produces them in
abundance or restricts them at times. The flow of river waters fertilises the fields and minerals are
produced in the hills and jewels in the ocean. The natural law is that the human being may take
advantage of these godly gifts of nature and flourish without exploiting and lording it over material
nature. If human civilization has sufficient grains, minerals, jewels, water and milk then why
should it hanker after terrible industrial enterprises at the cost of the labour of some unfortunate
men? Human prosperity flourishes by natural gifts and not by gigantic industrial enterprises, which
are products of a godless civilization and cause the destruction of the noble aims of human life.
The more we go on increasing such troublesome industries to squeeze out the vital energy of the
human being, the more there will be unrest and dissatisfaction of the people in general, although a
few only can live lavishly by exploitation. The more we attempt to exploit material nature
according to our whims of enjoyment, the more we shall become entrapped by the reaction to such
exploitative attempts."
These words, written in 1962, before the modern environmental crisis had become generally apparent, foresaw
the consequences of exploiting nature's resources. According to Bhaktivedanta modern industry was a source of
evil. It polluted the atmosphere and promoted inequality, injustice and poverty. In particular, it deprived the
people working in it of the natural beauty of God's world which could help them to develop their finer spiritual
instincts, which Bhaktivedanta saw as the greatest need in human society:
"Perfection of human civilization is made possible by utilising the gifts of nature in their own way.
As we find herewith in the description of its opulence, [the city of Krishna] was surrounded by
flower gardens and fruit orchards along with reservoirs of water and growing lotuses. There is no
mention of mills and factories supported by slaughterhouses, which are the necessary
paraphernalia of a modern metropolis. The leaders of modern civilization select their own
residential quarters in a place where there are naturally beautiful gardens and reservoirs of water,
but they leave the common men to reside in congested areas without parks and gardens. [In
Krishna's city] all people depended on nature's gifts of fruits and flowers without industrial
enterprises promoting filthy huts and slums for residential quarters. Development of factories and
mills deteriorate the finer sentiments of the human being and society. The dungeons of mines,
factories and workshops develop demoniac propensities [while] vested interests flourish at the
cost of the working class, and consequently there are severe clashes between them in so many
ways. Human energy should be properly utilised in developing the finer senses for spiritual
understanding, in which lies the solution of life. Fruits flowers, beautiful gardens, parks and
reservoirs of water with ducks and swans playing in the midst of lotus flowers and cows giving
sufficient milk and butter are essential for developing the finer tissues of the human body."
Prosperity in human society, Bhaktivedanta taught, depended ultimately on receiving the blessings of God:
"The secret to success is to take refuge under the protection of the Supreme Lord. Without His
sanction nothing can be possible. To make economic development by our own endeavours on the
strength of tools and machinery is not all. The sanction of the Lord must be there, otherwise despite
all instrumental arrangements everything will be unsuccessful. The rivers, oceans, forests, hills
and drugs are not creations of man. They are all creations of the Supreme Lord, and the living
being is allowed to make use of the property of the Lord for the service of the Lord. There is
enough of everything by the will of the Lord, and we can make proper use of things to live
comfortably. If the Lord is pleased, every part of nature will be pleased. The river will flow
profusely to fertilise the land; the oceans will supply sufficient quantities of minerals, pearls and
jewels; the forest will supply sufficient wood, drugs and vegetables and the seasonal changes will
effectively help produce fruits and flowers in profuse quantity."
Bhaktivedanta saw our relationship with God, nature and other creatures in an intensely personal way. God was
our father, nature our mother, and other creatures our younger brothers and sisters. It was our responsibility to the
rest of the family not to create chaos by our own greed:
"In the Bhagavad Gita it is said that the Lord Himself is the seed-giving father and nature is the
mother of all living beings in all shapes. Thus mother nature has enough foodstuff both for animals
and men, by the grace of the father almighty Sri Krsna. The human being is the elder brother of all
other living beings. He is endowed with intelligence more powerful than animals for realising the
course of nature and the indications of the almighty father. Human civilizations should depend on
the production of nature without artificially attempting economic development to turn the world
into a chaos of greed and power only for the purpose of artificial luxuries and sense gratification."
Modern technology was an instrument of exploitation and disaster. "In modern civilization," he wrote, "on account
of too many machines there are so many unemployed people. Technology is not freedom, rather, it is a free way to
hell. This factory system is most demoniac. It is not required at all. For the interests of a few persons this device
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has been invented. The discovery of nuclear energy has been disastrous to people in general because demons all
over the world are manufacturing nuclear weapons. Demoniac persons act in such a way that ultimately their
discoveries will be inauspicious for everyone."
However, he was not so impractical as to expect the world to immediately renounce technology. Therefore, in
accord with the philosophy of devotional service to God, he recommended that if it must be used, it should be
used for the right purpose. In the absolute sense a machine was neither good nor bad. The way it was used was
what mattered:
"If the western world, the blind man, takes India, the lame man, on its shoulders, then the lame man
can point the way spiritually and the blind man can sustain them materially, technologically. If
America and India pool their technological and spiritual resources, this combination will bring
about perfect peace and prosperity all over the world. How blind these Americans are. They have
attained the human form of life - such an intelligent form of life - and yet they are utilising it for
riding motor boats in the lake. Of course, the Americans are doing things in a very nice way, with
great technological advancement, but what they are doing is blind. You may be a very good driver,
but if you are blind, how well will you drive? You will create disaster. The American people must
open their eyes spiritually, so that their good driving capacity will be properly utilised. Take this
car - so nicely decorated. If I say it is all nonsense is that very intelligent? No. The purpose for
which you have created this car - that is nonsense. I simply want people to change their
consciousness. I don't condemn the things they have produced. For instance, with a knife you can
cut vegetables and fruit, but if you use it for cutting your throat, that is bad. Now people are using
the knife of technology for cutting their own throat, forgetting all about self-realisation, Krsna
consciousness. This is bad."
Bhaktivedanta's alternative vision of how human society ought to live could be summed up with the twin concept
of protection of brahmanas and protection of cows. Brahmanas are the spiritual teachers of society. Vedic culture
teaches that society must give protection and support to them so that they can carry on their most important
function - to guide people on the spiritual path. Without proper guidance and instruction from religious teachers,
(who must have no professional motivation) people will naturally be misled. So much energy is put into modern
education even though it has no spiritual dimension. Bhaktivedanta believed that the most important education was
the spiritual one; other forms of education were only valuable if they were related to it.
To ensure spiritual well-being, brahmanas must be protected, and to ensure material well-being, cows must be
protected. In a simple agrarian society it is easy to see the value of cow protection. The cow eats grass which
humans cannot eat, and turns it into the 'miracle food' of milk, which is versatile and full of nutrition. From milk
comes yoghurt, cheese, butter and ghee (butter-oil). In return for her milk, the cow is protected and cared for as a
member of the community, and she and the bull are never slaughtered. The bull cannot give milk, but he can be just
as valuable because he likes to work hard in the fields, ploughing, grinding and pulling carts. While the bull helps
to produce grains and vegetables, the cow gives milk. Milk products combined with grains and vegetables
produce the perfect balanced human diet. The protection of the cow and the bull is therefore the basis for a simple
and prosperous life:
"The bull is the emblem of moral principle, and the cow is the representative of the earth. When
the bull and the cow are in a joyful mood, it is to be understood that the people of the world are
also in a joyful mood. The reason is that the bull helps production of the grains in the agricultural
field, and the cow delivers milk, the miracle of aggregate food values."
To protect the cow is more than good economics, it is a matter of principle. In the Vedic tradition she is one of the
seven mothers: the real mother, the wife of the spiritual master, the wife of a brahmana, the wife of the king, the
nurse, the earth and the cow. All of them should be respected and cared for. Bhaktivedanta explains our moral
obligation:
"By God's will and nature's way a cow gives 40-50 pounds of milk per day, but she does not drink
it. We may harm her but she still gives it to us and the rest of human society. "You take it. But don't
kill me! Let me live. I am eating only grass." Without touching your foodstuff the cow is eating
grass which is given by God. She then gives you the first foodstuff - milk. Just after your birth you
began drinking cow's milk. All I drank was milk from the beginning of my life, given by mother
cow, and when I grow up I kill her. This is my gratitude. Those who kill cows and maintain
slaughterhouses are not even human beings - they are less than animals and have no gratitude."
It is a tragedy that modern society does not appreciate the significance of caring for cows and bulls, but instead
exploits and kills them:
"Milking the cow means drawing the principles of religion in a liquid form. The great rishis and
munis [saints] would live only on milk. It is the duty of every householder to have cows and bulls
as household paraphernalia, not only for drinking milk, but also for deriving religious principles.
The cow's calf is not only beautiful to look at, but also gives satisfaction to the cow, and so she
delivers as much milk as possible. But in [this age] the calves are separated from the cows as
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early as possible. The cow stands with tears in her eyes and the worker draws milk from her
artificially. When there is no more milk the cow is sent to be slaughtered. These greatly sinful acts
are responsible for all the troubles in present society. People do not know what they are doing in
the name of economic development. They do not know how one earns happiness by making the
cows and bulls happy, but it is a fact by the law of nature."
Nowadays there are many countries whose economy is based on animal slaughter, and the eating of meat is taken
for granted as civilized human behaviour. Despite today's trend towards vegetarianism, such a diet is still
regarded as extreme and unreasonable by the majority. Bhaktivedanta saw it the other way. Quoting from the
Manu-Smriti, the basic law-book of Hinduism, he writes:
"According to Manu, the great author of civic codes and religious principles, even the killer of an
animal is to be considered a murderer because animal food is never meant for the civilized man.
He says that in the act of killing an animal there is a regular conspiracy by the party of sinners, and
all of them are liable to be punished as murderers exactly like a party of conspirators who kill a
human being. He who gives permission, he who kills the animal, he who sells the slaughtered
animal, he who cooks the animal, he who administers distribution of the foodstuff, and at last he
who eats such cooked animal food are all murderers, and all of them are liable to be punished by
the laws of nature."
The karmic result of indiscriminate slaughter of animals, warned Bhaktivedanta, would be continued suffering in
human society:
"Men do not understand that because they unrestrictedly kill so many animals, they also must be
slaughtered like animals in big wars. This is very much evident in the western countries. In the
west, slaughterhouses are maintained without restriction, and therefore every fifth or tenth year
there is a big war in which countless people are slaughtered even more cruelly than the animals.
Sometimes during war soldiers keep their enemies in concentration camps and kill them in very
cruel ways. These are reactions brought about by unrestricted animal killing in the slaughterhouses
and by hunters in the forest."
***
As is clear from all the above, Bhaktivedanta's concept of human life was very different from that of Western
civilization. Some would find his judgements harsh and his prescriptions extreme. However, no one can deny that
today's world is desperately in need of some extreme medicine if we are to survive the crisis we face. Taken in
the context of that crisis, and placed alongside the opinions of environmentalists and alternative thinkers the world
over, his statements are not so extreme and deserve to be taken seriously.
The last twelve years of his life, from 1965 to 1977, were spent ceaselessly travelling the world, broadcasting his
message to anyone who would listen. During this time he established the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness, dedicated to practising and spreading the message of Krishna. He gained many followers and
initiated over 8,000 disciples. To them he was known as Prabhupada, 'master among masters'. He founded twelve
rural communities in Europe, North America and India where the way of life he taught could be demonstrated. In
1976 he wrote to one such community:
"That you are growing all your own grains is very good. It is my ambition that all devotees may
remain self-dependent by producing vegetables, grains, milk, fruits and flowers, and by weaving
their own cloth in handlooms. This simple life is very nice. Simple village life saves time for other
engagements like chanting Hare Krsna."
Om Tat Sat
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CHAPTER THIRTEE*
RESTORING THE FORESTS OF KRISHNA
"Krishna brought forward the cows and played on His flute through the forest of Vrindavan, which
was full of flowers, vegetables and pasturing grass. The Vrindavan forest was as sanctified as the
clear mind of a devotee and was full of bees, flowers and fruits. There were chirping birds and
clear water lakes with waters that could relieve one of all fatigues. Sweet flavoured breezes blew
always, refreshing the mind and body."
Srimad Bhagavatam
In the pilgrimage town of Vrindavan everyone worships Krishna. Krishna is present in every house and every
shop. He has temples on every corner. About 20,000 people live in Vrindavan, but two million pilgrims visit each
year. They come not just to see Krishna - they can see Him in their own homes or local temples. They come to be
where Krishna lives. They want to see His river, the Yamuna, and bathe in her; they want to see his hill,
Govardhan Hill which he lifted as a child, and walk round it in prayer; they want to see the place where he
danced through the night with the gopis, the cowherd girls of Vrindavan, in the forest amongst the blossoming
Kadamba trees.
Vrindavan lies at the focus of Vraj, the region where Lord Krishna lived. The whole region has been worshipped
for thousands of years. It falls just inside the 'golden triangle', stretching from Delhi south to Agra and west to
Jaipur in Rajasthan, and was the setting for many of the events recorded in the Mahabharata, the epic history of
ancient India. Mathura, Krishna's birthplace seven miles south-west of Vrindavan, is one of India's oldest cities.
If you come to Vrindavan the first thing you must do is roll in the sand. Because Krishna walked on this sand it is
sacred. People wear markings on their foreheads made of yellow clay taken from the ground, because it is the
earth from beneath Krishna's feet. If they wear it they will be protected by Him. So you might wear that mark,
called tilaka, on your forehead. On the first day you will go down to the river, most probably at Keshi Ghat,
where Krishna bathed to purify himself after killing the Keshi demon. Pilgrims follow his example and bathe in
his sacred river to purify themselves of all the karma they have brought with them from their past lives.
Then, after visiting some temples and being given prasadam, holy food consecrated to Krishna, usually
milk-sweets and fruit, you will make your way to one of the innumerable guest houses which are specially
provided for pilgrims. That's if you're lucky - many of the pilgrims end up sleeping in the open because there isn't
enough space; or they sleep inside the tour bus that brought them and their village half way across India.
You won't sleep for long. Very early in the morning, two hours before sunrise, Vrindavan comes to life. All the
temples have their morning ceremonies to awaken Krishna for the new day. They bathe Him, dress Him and feed
Him. While this goes on bells are rung and visitors come, announcing their presence with loud calls of Govinda!
Gopinath! and Jaya Radhe! - names of Krishna and his beloved consort Srimati Radharani.
One of the important things you must do during your stay will be to go on parikrama. Every sacred Hindu site has
a parikrama path: a pilgrim route that encircles it. The performance of parikrama, or walking around a holy place,
is one of the most powerful ways of honouring it. Circumambulation, always done clockwise, represents the
process of living centred on the particular deity who resides at the sacred spot. The religious life involves
realising one's true potential for self-motivation and self-direction whilst at the same time yielding to the pull of
the inner divine source of being. The circle is the expression of this movement and stillness; of the balance
between dynamic motion and calm centre. It represents the equilibrium of the inner and the outer life.
Serious pilgrims to Vrindavan all perform the parikrama, usually in groups. They often bring along their children
too. Many of them do it repeatedly. Residents sometimes take vows to do parikrama every day, every week, every
month or on special holy days. Sometimes thousands do it at one time. The eleven-kilometre walk passes mostly
through sand and loose earth, and the bare footprints of walkers are left imprinted on the path. Over thousands of
years it has become hallowed ground. It is nothing less than a living temple.
When you go on parikrama, it will be best if you start early, before sunrise, to avoid the heat. You might even start
while it's still dark. To show respect to the holy ground, you should try to go barefoot (but watch out for stones!).
If this is one of the four special days in the lunar month - the full moon, dark moon, and the eleventh days of the
waxing and waning moon - there will already be a good number of others walking on the path. Everyone walks
quickly, even the old ladies, of whom there are many, and mostly in silence, except to chant Krishna's names.
While walking in the early dawn you will notice that all is not well on the parikrama path. The twentieth century
has taken its toll. Where once was a forest path filled with shade, nowadays few trees remain and the sand will
soon be burning hot. There are many places where the path is contaminated by raw sewage and strewn with
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rubbish, leaving quite a smell. Parts of the path, where local developers have made hard roads for their cars, are
covered with sharp gravel and stones which cut your feet. In these sections vehicles might force you off the path
as they pass.
No one complains about these distractions. They don't seem to notice. It's as if that's how they would expect it to
be. They are absorbed in the sense of Krishna's presence which pervades Vrindavan, regardless of its external
condition. It all adds up to the experience, you suppose, of pilgrimage in India - the dirt, the smell, the noise and
discomfort. You may even feel an indefinable sadness that hangs in the air, as if the thinning trees and the
dwindling river Yamuna are pining for Krishna to come back and put everything right.
It wasn't always like this. If you speak to the locals you will find that the condition of the environment has been
steadily deteriorating over the last thirty years. This is the case all over India, of course, but it is distressing to see
the same thing happening in Vrindavan. Of all places, this is the one where the environment, being the home of
Krishna, is most sacred, and where you would expect it to be most cared for.
The trouble began with the Yamuna River. Eighty miles upstream from Vrindavan is the huge city of Delhi,
population 10 million. Two-thirds of the city's water supply is taken from the Yamuna and practically all of its
sewage and waste water finds its way back into the river, mostly untreated. To this must be added the increasing
volume of industrial effluent spewed out from the factories and power stations. The whole stretch of the Yamuna
from Delhi to Agra, which includes Vrindavan, is now declared unfit for drinking and bathing. This strikes at the
heart of Vrindavan's culture. Water from the Yamuna is used to bathe the deities of Krishna in the temples, is taken
as a purifying drink, washes away the sins of those who bathe in it and is the ever-present reminder of Krishna's
frolics and his all-purifying potency. Now pilgrims can no longer even safely bathe in it. If you stay in the water
too long you will get a skin-rash.
A more remote and far-reaching menace is the effect of deforestation in the Himalayas on the flow of the
Yamuna's water. The extent of the deforestation and the problems it causes have been described in the previous
chapter. Its effect on the Yamuna has been to reduce the normal flow of the river to a fraction of what it was, thus
lowering the water table and drying out wells and water tanks throughout the area. Another effect is to cause
catastrophic silt-laden floods during the rainy season, resulting in the drastic change in course of the Yamuna at
Vrindavan. She used to flow round the town on three sides, holding the sacred groves and temples in a loving
embrace. Vrindavan's riverside is filled with ornate bathing ghats, terraces and steps with ornamental shelters and
palaces where pilgrims used to bathe. They are now marooned, crumbling and neglected, amidst the dry sand and
debris left behind by the retreating river. Now she is a mile away from her old bed, and only touches the town for
a few hundred yards at Keshi Ghat. Either side of the river is a widening flood plain of sandy, treeless desert.
And the trees! Vrindavan, famous for its groves of sacred Kadamba, Pipal, Tamal, Amalaki and Vata is now
almost bare. Most of the groves and forests in the surrounding landscape have been removed for farming. Around
the town itself the few remaining trees are rapidly disappearing under the hands of unscrupulous developers.
Many of the sacred groves connected with events of Krishna's life have disappeared completely, and those that
remain are under threat. The importance of trees to Krishna and to the whole awareness of Krishna in Vrindavan
is fundamental. The name 'Vrindavan' itself means forest of Vrinda, the plant most dear to Krishna. The Srimad
Bhagavatam, the most sacred book of devotees of Krishna, tells us how Krishna and his brother Balarama entered
the forest with their cows:
"Krishna saw all the trees, overloaded with fruits and fresh twigs, coming down to touch the
ground as if welcoming Him by touching His lotus feet. He was very pleased by the behaviour of
the trees, fruits and flowers, and He began to smile, realising their desires. Krishna then spoke to
His elder brother as follows: 'My dear brother, You are superior to all of us. Just see how these
trees, full with fruits, have bent down to worship Your lotus feet. Just see how the peacocks in
great ecstasy are dancing before You. The deer are welcoming you with the same affection. And
the cuckoos who reside in the forest are receiving you with great joy because they consider that
Your appearance is so auspicious in their home. Even though they are trees and animals, these
residents of Vrindavan are glorifying You. The herbs, creepers and plants are also fortunate to
touch Your lotus feet. And by touching the twigs with Your hands, these small plants are also made
glorious.'"
Vrindavan without trees is like a mother without her children. The deer and other forest animals have
disappeared. Even the peacocks, forever the forest companions of Krishna, are disappearing for lack of the
mature trees which are their habitat.
The final catastrophe, and perhaps the one you will notice most on your visit, especially if you are from the West,
is the sewage problem. I'm sorry to introduce this distasteful subject into so sublime a setting, but it can't be
avoided - it's everywhere! Until 1970, Vrindavan employed the traditional system of all ecological societies for
dealing with human waste. Toilets were dry, the waste was removed daily and composted. There is no better
fertiliser - that is the perfect arrangement of nature. It was as simple as that. Then in 1970 somebody in
government decided that what Vrindavan needed was a modern sewage system. Quite why this was felt necessary
no one seems to know. (It has been cynically pointed out that installing it was a lucrative contract for someone.)
Deep trenches were dug under the main streets and pipelines put in. All the branch lines fed down towards the
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river, the lowest point, where they were to connect with the main trunk sewer which would carry everything to a
treatment plant situated outside the town.
A year after the installation a series of disastrous blockages occurred deep underground, which have never been
properly dealt with. In addition to this it was found that the capacity of the system was totally inadequate -
sufficient account had not been taken of Vrindavan's growing population and the influx of pilgrims. These
problems pale into insignificance beside the startling fact that the main trunk sewer was never completed and the
treatment plant never built. The sad consequence is that the entire contents of the inadequate system, if they don't
first overflow onto the street, empty into the sacred Yamuna, just upstream from Keshi Ghat. Many of the branch
lines never even reach that far and empty their contents here and there, wherever there is a depression in the
ground. The result is that Vrindavan is full of polluted water and bad smells.
The moral of this tale of environmental madness is: traditional systems that have worked for thousands of years
should not be interfered with - there's usually a good reason why they have worked so long. A further lesson is
that the Western system of sanitation, developed in a part of the world where water is plentiful, is inappropriate
for India, where water is scarce and so valuable that it is considered sacred. In fact, because in Hindu thought
water is by nature sanctified and pure, Hindu tradition teaches that human waste should never be mixed with
water:
"One should not cause urine, stool or mucus to enter water. Anything mixed with these unholy
substances, or with blood or poison, should never be thrown into water."
Manusmriti 4.56
Hindus consider water to be a powerful medium for purification as well as a source of vigour and energy. It is
used in all sacred rituals. This is why they have placed such emphasis on keeping it pure. The fact that Vrindavan
is bounded on all sides by contaminated water - the Yamuna on one side and sewage on all others - is a deep
injury to her well-being and her function as a place of purification and revitalisation.
How could this situation have come about? If Hindus, especially devotees of Krishna, care so much for trees,
rivers, water and animals, why have they allowed these things to happen?
Part of the reason is, no doubt, their own negligence. The pilgrims who visit and the people who live in
Vrindavan could have done more - so could the local government. But there are underlying causes which have
contributed to this.
Satish Kumar points out in chapter eight that for nearly two hundred years Indians have been estranged from their
own culture by English education. They have been encouraged to think in Western ways and to value the things
which the West values. Their own traditional values have been marginalised. In many cases they no longer know
what those values were or why they were held because those things are no longer taught. The family, which was
the cradle of learning in Hindu society, is in decline as a result of migration from village to city and the disruption
of modern life.
Gandhi warned of the consequences of industrialisation, which he said would ruin India. Most of the forces
attacking Vrindavan's environment are the consequence of industrialisation and Western lifestyles. Motor
transport and modern communications swept into village India during the seventies and eighties. In doing so they
entered a social setting that had changed very little in five hundred years, and their presence has created
tremendous tensions and contradictions. High-speed tourist buses and lorries share the same road with bullock
carts and pedestrians. Television exposes the unwary villagers to the sophisticated pressures of modern mass
marketing learned from the West, tempting them with a lifestyle they can only dream of. The arrival of gleaming
tractors on the farms foreshadows the disappearance of trees, cleared to enlarge the fields and make way for
agricultural machinery. Pilgrimage is being replaced by tourism. The new affluent middle classes from Delhi
build retirement homes in Vrindavan which stand empty on choice pieces of land cleared of trees. The list goes
on. These are the ills which Gandhi feared.
Against this background we must also consider the fact that for over a thousand years the rulers of Hindu society
were not Hindus. For eight hundred years Muslims ruled from Delhi. The whole surrounding region, including
Vrindavan, bears the deep impression of this rule, which did nothing to foster Hindu culture, and at times bitterly
suppressed it. Then the British, with their more subtle form of tyranny, made Hindus second-class citizens in their
own land. The effect of this subjugation has been to drain the enterprising spirit, the self-determination and inner
resourcefulness from a people who had their affairs run for them by outsiders for longer than most nations or
cultures have endured. This is why Gandhi stressed that India would not be able to have true independence until
her people discovered 'Swaraj' - the power of self-rule - within themselves. This day has not yet come.
India stands at a crossroads. In the words of WWF India's 1990 report, "Time is running out. Unless we take
immediate steps to make every child, woman and man of India a partner as well as a beneficiary of the
conservation movement, we will be silent spectators to one of the greatest biological tragedies in human history."
Some say this tragedy has already begun.
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All over India people have become estranged from their natural surroundings and have forgotten the
time-honoured ecological values of their culture. A signal is needed to warn Hindus everywhere that
environmental destruction cannot be allowed to continue if there is to be any hope for the future. If they were to
see their environmental traditions of cleanliness, simple living and respect for nature being practised in one of the
great holy places of India they would appreciate that these traditions are not just something of the past.
When I first visited Vrindavan as a pilgrim in 1975 I was hardly aware of these problems. I presumed that what I
saw was how things had always been - the dry river-bed, the absence of trees, the sewage problems. Then
gradually I came to know the history. I realised that many of the serious problems facing Indian society, which are
so apparent to all visitors from the West, were the result of inappropriate technologies and lifestyles imported
from the West. These problems didn't have to be simply accepted and tolerated, which has tended to be the Indian
attitude, certainly in Vrindavan. Given a proper understanding of their causes and a commitment to the solution,
they could be resolved.
With this in mind I began to study the Vrindavan situation with new eyes. I began to ask questions and look for
people with an interest in Vrindavan's environment. It was then that I met Sri Sewak Saran, who had long studied
Vrindavan's difficulties and had many ideas to improve the situation. He had been trying alone for several years to
enlist help, but without much success. He was a lone voice crying in the wind. Together we drafted some
proposals and went to the World Wide Fund for Nature for help. Our idea was to draw the attention of all Hindus
to the destruction of Vrindavan, enlisting their help to save it. In the process we would educate them about India's
environmental problems and how the traditional ecological values of Hinduism could be promoted as a solution
to these problems.
WWF liked this approach. As part of their wider goal of fostering a change in people's attitudes towards their
environment through environmental education, they have been committed for some time to promoting
environmental values in the world's religions. They recognise that the different religions each contain
environmental values of their own, expressed in different ways. Often, however, these values are not understood
or practised even within the faith communities. WWF therefore wished to encourage them to re-assess their own
practices in the light of these values and to promote them both within their communities and in the wider world
where faith communities still have a major influence on opinion and behaviour.
Our proposals for Vrindavan fitted perfectly into this aspect of WWF's work and they agreed to help us. A WWF
Vrindavan project was set up to run for three years. The project is asking devotees, pilgrims and local residents to
plant and care for trees and to remove rubbish from the sacred parikrama path which surrounds Vrindavan. In
doing so the project is creating a symbol of regeneration and environmental care based on Hindu values and is
promoting a positive role for religion in combatting India's environmental problems. Ultimately we need hope to
see the religious communities of Vrindavan playing a major part in the protection of their own environment.
Our principal task is planting trees. A tree nursery has been set up alongside the Parikrama Path on land made
available by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which is one of the important religious
institutions in Vrindavan. Ten thousand trees of local origin are being raised here along with a variety of
flowering bushes and medicinal and religious plants of local origin.
Restoration work on the path is being carried out with maximum involvement of the local community in planting
and caring for the trees and shrubs. In this way they are developing personal commitment to seeing the project
succeed. Without their support and help the project cannot succeed.
Stage one is to plant two thousand trees and shrubs along a two-kilometre stretch and to build up a support system
with the local community. As well as planting, we are restoring the path, dealing with eyesores and obstacles as
we encounter them. This requires some landscaping and drainage work. Stage two will expand the planting based
on the experience gained in the first year. The project will run for three years and include the entire eleven
kilometre path.
As the project gains active local support it will be possible to campaign with the local community and the
authorities to draw attention to the other problems of the parikrama path. Particular attention will be paid to the
problems of the riverfront section, where we will push for action to prevent rubbish being dumped on the path and
to remove the rubbish that is there. We will also search for a solution to the problems caused by Vrindavan's
inadequate sewage system. At present the untreated sewage discharges into the Yamuna river through unsightly
open ditches which pass alongside the parikrama path.
An important aspect of the project will be the accompanying literature and educational resources. These will be
developed with the help of trained educational advisors for use within the educational system and with the wider
Hindu population. They will include:
1. "Twenty Things You Can Do To Save Vrindavan" - a 20-page booklet with black & white line
illustrations for mass distribution. To be published in Hindi and in English.
2. "Guide to Vrindavan" - at present there is no single pilgrim's guide to Vrindavan or the Vraj
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area. This book will focus on the natural environment of Vrindavan and encourage pilgrims to help
in restoring it.
3. A video, using the project to explore the Hindu concept of the environment, will act as a
medium for spreading the message and gaining further support for the project as it progresses.
An Exhibition and Information Centre is being incorporated on the nursery site which immediately adjoins the
Parikrama Path. It will use the nursery as a resource, displaying examples of important trees, shrubs, herbs and
plants of religious significance and will demonstrate environmental principles through practical displays and
religious themes to do with the sacred pastimes of Krishna. It will also serve as a distribution point for saplings.
Although this is a small project in relation to the massive problems faced by India, it is a step in the right
direction. All over India there are local environmental projects, grass-roots groups struggling against the tide of
pollution and environmental destruction. Steadily they are gaining ground and influencing public opinion. Some of
them are attracting the attention of government and big business. We can only hope that this process continues to
grow and that they are not too late to reverse the destruction of India's natural habitat.
As Sunderlal Bahugana has described, Krishna once saved Vrindavan from the threat of pollution. A huge
venomous serpent called Kaliya entered the Yamuna river and made his home there. Because of his presence the
whole river was poisoned. Trees on the river's banks withered and died. The air itself became so polluted that
birds flying over the water fell into it. One day Krishna's cowherd friends drank from the river, not knowing it
was poisoned, and fell to the ground unconscious. When Krishna saw this calamity he decided to fight with
Kaliya. He dived into the poisonous water and wrestled with the serpent for two hours. During this time the
people of Vrindavan watched terrified from the bank. They were sure Krishna would be defeated and were ready
to die with him. Suddenly Krishna overcame Kaliya and, climbing on his many heads, began to dance on them in a
beautiful way, pressing them down beneath his lotus feet. Exhausted, Kaliya surrendered to Krishna and begged
for his mercy. Krishna told him to leave Vrindavan and never return. Once Kaliya had left, the water of the
Yamuna river was restored to its natural state and the trees returned to life. Krishna revived his friends and they
all celebrated his victory.
This story has long been popular among Hindus, and has been the inspiration for many paintings and statues of
Krishna dancing on Kaliya. However, it has now been given fresh significance by the fact that the Yamuna River,
for the first time since the defeat of Kaliya, is once more poisoned. The poison comes not from a mystic serpent,
but from the factories and sewers of Delhi, seventy miles upstream.
Vrindavan is not just another town on the map. It is Krishna's abode on earth and a powerful centre of spiritual
energy. Krishna's devotees see it as the source of life for the whole planet. For them, it is the very root of
existence. If here, at such a sacred place, life is diseased, the balance of nature is under threat and the elements
are poisoned, what omen does that signify for well-being of the rest of the planet? If, on the other hand, the serpent
of pollution can again be driven from Vrindavan and once more its forests can flourish, full of clear waters, sweet
breezes, peacocks, deer and chirping birds, then a message of hope will be sent to all of India and to the world.
The story of Vrindavan and the work we are doing there is one of thousands of similar tales. All over the world
people are working to reverse the tide of environmental pollution which is engulfing our planet and their
achievements are beginning to make an impression on the juggernaut of development and international finance.
There are signs that enlightened policies are being taken up by the people and institutions that run our world.
However, fine tuning the present system is not going to be enough. If there is to be real hope of a sane life on this
planet for the coming generations, we will have to find a new way of understanding our place in the world.
Perhaps the most profound, and simplest, message that can be learned from the Hindu spiritual tradition is the
value of a simple life. Western civilization has created the cult of the consumer. Human fulfilment has come to be
measured in terms of possessions. Whoever has the most is considered the most advanced. One who travels on
foot is inferior to one who travels by Concorde.
By contrast, in the Hindu tradition fulfilment refers to the human spirit. Human life, says the Vedanta Sutra, is
meant for understanding spirit, which alone can bring real fulfilment. In Hinduism, the one who takes the least is
the most respected. A society which upholds the value of the inner life does not crave the pursuit of material
wealth as a means of achieving happiness.
In the West, we have developed a life-style which humanity, and the earth, cannot afford - which consumes
without thought for the future - a society of high living but simple thinking. Fundamental questions have to be
asked about the way we run our lives, questions requiring honest answers. That a simpler way of life is needed
for the West is self-evident, but such a simple life must be underpinned by a deeper spiritual ethic if it is to be
sustained. This is why spiritual values are so important. People will agree to change only when they see
something better. When simplicity is valued as a necessary step towards human fulfilment, people will want to
live more simply.
All the world's religions say that materialism doesn't work - that a simple life is best. The highest 'standard of life'
5 of 6 08-06-2010 10:02
is the simplest. This has always been the Hindu way - the way of simple living and high thinking.
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Preface http://www.fov.org.uk/hinduism/00.

[Chapter One >>]

INTRODUCTION: THE BANYAN SEED

"I am the seed of all existence. There is no being,

Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita

"He thought you might have some questions."

[<< Preface] | [Next chapter >>]

"Forest, at one level, means the world. It includes the

"What is your image of the world?" Banwari asks:

Banwari expresses the frustration among India's environmentalists:

Despite his disappointment Banwari is hopeful:

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[<< Previous chapter] | [Next chapter >>]

This is how he creates.

[<< Previous chapter] | [Next chapter >>]

Srimad Bhagavatam 2.1.32-33

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The First Incarnation

All glories to you, O Lord of the

The Second Incarnation

KURMA - The Tortoise

All glories to you, O Lord of the

The Third Incarnation

All glories to you, O Lord of the

The Fourth Incarnation

All glories to you, O Lord of the

"He's everywhere!" replied Prahlad.

The Fifth Incarnation

All glories to you, O Lord of the

The Sixth Incarnation

All glories to you, O Lord of the

The Seventh Incarnation

All glories to you, O Lord of the

special status to all their kind, especially to monkeys.

The Eighth Incarnation

All glories to you, O Lord of the

The =inth Incarnation

All glories to you, O Lord of the

The Tenth Incarnation

KALKI - The Slayer

All glories to you, O Lord of the

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from Srimad Bhagavatam 10. 35

Srivatsa goes on:

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M K Gandhi ( Young India, 1931)

from Lanza del Vasto, Gandhi to Vinoba, London, 1956

Hind Swaraj, 1909

Young India, 1931

'Constructive Programme', India of My Dreams, p. 15

Harijan, 1940 and 1939

Young India, 1921

Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi

Nehru, Autobiography, London, 1936

Letter to Nehru, 5 October 1945

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Everything within this world is possessed by God. He

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O King of trees! I bow before you. Brahma is in your

Mathur takes up the story: