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Year
14, Volume VII, Issue 1, Published On Thrusday July 31, 2003 (Shrawan
15, 2060), New York, USA
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Veda and Ecological Economics: Ray of Strong Sustainability By Surendra R. Devkota
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Veda and Ecological Economics: Ray of Strong Sustainability By Surendra R. Devkota
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Veda and Ecological Economics: Ray of Strong Sustainability
(Download this article in MS Word)
(Author has doctoral degree in Economics and holds strong interest in socio-economic development of Nepal.)
By Surendra R. Devkota Abstract
Veda, the oldest religious document in human history, is a bank of knowledge. The Vedic hymns collected in between 1000 and 500 BC are believed to be the eternal truth by Hindus, who are the religious followers of the Veda. The Veda also incorporates cultural, social, religious, and scientific analysis of the ancient Hindu civilization. Veda is one of the environmentally friendliest documents in contemporary religion. It describes the dynamics of five elements (panchan tatwa): earth, sky, wind, water, and fire (sun). Veda believes that sun is the nourisher and earth is the Goddess, which feeds everyone. All the entities in the universe are dependent upon these five elements. Moreover, modern society, which is proud of its technological advancements, is reluctant to accept the service of nature. Meanwhile, ecological economics is a new emerging trans-disciplinary science, which recognizes the service of nature for the sustainability of human being vis-à-vis all biotic and abiotic components. In this paper, a brief relationship of the Veda to ecological economics and sustainable development is presented. The connection between the Veda and economics or implications for the economic development is a relatively unexplored area of study. As today’s world is crying for sustainable development, the rules of nature and principles of life, food, intellect and immortality mentioned in the Vedas can provide new directions.
Introduction:
Religion, nature and economics are three very different but important disciplines for today’s human beings. These triangular forces are always regulating the human activities. In earlier generations, the relation between religion and nature seemed strong. As humans progress towards a more “economic man,” the basic foundations of both religion and nature are being distanced (Fig.1). Here the point is not to reverse the gear of development, but to ponder how the contemporary economic philosophy for development is ruining the affinity between nature and religion. In other words, how some men over other men are exercising man’s power with nature as its instrument.
Economics
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Nature < ==== ........ ====> Religion
(Fig.1 Economics is distancing the nature and religion).
This problem of economics versus nature and religion is equally disturbing to the followers of the Vedas, Buddhism, Abrahamic faiths and many others. For example, the Abrahamic religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam preserve the attitude that the meaning and significance of nature creation is not exclusively instrumental. In these traditions, the world is the creation of God. The use of the world by humans constitutes a pragmatic relationship between humanity and God, because God gives and humanity receives the riches of nature as an offering of God’s divine love for the sake of the whole world. However, there is a fundamental difference between Abrahamic faiths and much of contemporary ecology. Ecology, as espoused by bodies such as the United Nations, the World Bank, multinationals and many quasi-scientific bodies like the Worldwide Fund for Nature or the International Union for the conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, focuses on the assumption that creation is here for human use and is of significance primarily from a functional point of view. So the implicit logic behind the protection of environment is expressed purely as logic of convenience.
Veda:
Veda is the oldest religious document originally available in the Sanskrit language. Literally Veda means “knowledge” and Hindus are the followers of the Veda. The Vedic hymns were collected and arranged between 1000 and 500 BC. Vedas are considered to be the eternal truth and are comprised of four types; Rigveda (wisdom of verses), Yajurveda; (wisdom of sacrificial formulas), Samveda (wisdom of chants) and Atharvada (wisdom of Atharvan priests). Vedas are the absolute religious authority for Hinduism and also contains the social, religions, cultural, spiritual and scientific life of the Aryans in the Vedic period, i.e., second millenium to 7th century BC. , , , ,
Ecological Economics:
Although the words, “ecology” and “economy” have a common origin (“eco”) from the Greek word oikos, which means “house”, i.e., ecology (house of nature) and economy (house of humankind), they never met in history. Ecological research progressed towards the relationship between man and nature, while economic philosophers were limited in between production and consumption. Findings of naturalists such as Linnaeus, Emerson, Darwin and Leopold were unheard by the then economists, which may be due to limited understanding of the dynamics of ecology and economy.
Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary field of study that addresses the relationship between ecological and economical systems. Ecological Economics (EE) speaks of natural capital, human capital and manufactured capital, whereas the conventional economics simply relegates the contribution of the ecosystem. EE argues that natural capital and human-made capital are largely complements and natural capital is increasingly becoming a limiting factor for further development. Hence, EE ponders the dynamics of interdependence between ecological and economic systems. EE is not an alternative to any of the existing disciplines; rather it is a completely new trans-disciplinary way of looking at the problem.
Strong sustainability:
The normative definition of sustainable development meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs on environment and development. Many analyses and thoughts are expressed throughout the literature. , However, the two clear routes of sustainability are recognized, which are weak sustainability (WS) and strong sustainability (SS). WS is equivalent to non-decreasing total capital stock, while SS is non-decreasing natural capital. The concept of WS treats natural capital as a homogenous category of capital. It believes a high degree of substitution between natural and manmade capital. SS assumes that it is the natural capital that should be sustained, while WS is centered on well being. , Natural capital comprises of
(i) renewable resources, such as, fish, wood, and drinking water that are produced and maintained by the processes and functions of the ecosystem;
(ii) non-renewable resources, like oil and minerals, that are extracted from ecosystem; and
(iii) environmental services such as maintenance of the quality hydrological cycle, waste assimilation, recycling of nutrients, generation of soils, pollination of crops, provision of food and maintenance of a vast genetic resources. ,
The sustainability rules of ecological economics are;
(i) The rate of exploitation of renewable resources should not exceed the regeneration rate.
(ii) Pollution should be kept at or below the waste absorptive capacity of the environment. For degradable waste the rate of discharge should be less than the rate which ecosystem can absorb, whereas for the persistent wastes the rate of discharges should be zero since the ecosystem has no capacity to assimilate such wastes.
(iii) The extraction of nonrenewable resources should be consistent with the development of renewable substitutes.
Veda and Ecology:
Veda and Universe:
Since Hinduism is polytheistic, many objects both consumable and non-consumable are designated as “holy”. The Vedas have categorically explained the rule of nature, principle of food, life, intellect and immortality. Earth, space constellations, and their roles are also defined in the Vedas. For instance, sun and moon are celestial gods; air, water and sky are aerial gods, and earth, river, sea, and fire are the terrestrial gods. The universe is composed of five elements: earth, sky, wind, water and fire.
Earth is represented as a Goddess, which feeds everyone. All the forms of the earth and of life on it are the children of the Earth. Rivers, trees, animals are the attendants of the Earth Goddess. The sun, moon, wind, rain, and lighting are the children of the sky. The sun is one of the three main deities of the Vedas, which is at the center of creation and known as the nourisher. The Rig-Veda says that the sun is the soul of the world. Between the earth and the sky, the abode of the sun, is the sphere of sky and air-the cosmic life breath. Fire is the other important deity of the Vedas, which serves human from birth to death. Water is not only an element of purification but also the element pervading all life and thus a symbol of pervasiveness. The Veda speaks a lot about the water or the rivers. The Himalayas and rivers, particularly confluence, are the inhabitants of Gods and Goddesses.
Veda and Biodiversity:
The Vedas and the Upanishads mention that the Gods and Goddesses favor different biological resources. Knowledge of biodiversity, interrelation between living species and the environment, the need to maintain natural dynamism, and the right ways of transgressing the ecological principles are mentioned in the Yajurveda. Similarly, Rigveda mentions about the forest goddess and healing properties of plants, tribes of fishes, goats, horses, cow, calves, dogs, owls, frog etc. Cow is believed as a theriomorphic animal in Atharvaveda. Hence, followers of Veda should avoid eating it. In general practice, there are many flora and fauna which are sacred among the followers of the Vedas, because they are directly or indirectly related with different Gods or Goddesses. Among the faunal diversity, there is no discrepancy between domestic and wild animals. A general list of animals and their favorite Gods/Goddess are presented in Table 1.
Table 1. A general list of animals favored by Gods/Goddesses
Animal Favored by God/Goddess
Cow Goddess of wealth (Laxmi)
Bull Lord of animal (Pashupatinath)
Lion and Tiger Goddesses of power (Durga, Kali etc.)
Horse Lord Sun
Serpent Lord Shiva
Monkey Lord Hanuman
Dog Lord Bhairab
Rat God Ganesh
Swan Goddess of Knowledge (Saraswoti)
Fish Lord Vishnu
Similarly, there are many sacred plants that Hindus worship regularly. For instance, Tulsi (Ocimum basilicum), Rudrakchya (Elaeocarpus sphaericus), Bar (Ficus bengalensis), Pipal (Ficus religiosa), and Sami (Ficus benjamina) are the most religious plant species. In the Rigveda, Soma (Ficus benjamina) is mentioned as the king of the plants. There are hundreds of the medicinal plants , which are in use from the Vedic periods to now. This is one of the main economic activities, i.e., harvesting of wild medicinal plants, of people living in the upper mountain areas in Nepal, although harvesting rules are neither of both SS and WS.
There are some ecological codes of conduct practiced among the followers of the Vedas. For example, defecation in water resources is a sinful act. One should always pray the food. Likewise, no one should disturb the habitat of wild animals including bird’s at night when they stay in their nests. Also trees shouldn’t be cut during night because of the presence of God’s soul in tree trunk. Such rules are mentioned in Law of Manu (Manusmriti), and further catalogued by Tiwari and Dwivedi. These rules of Manu were probably to avoid the tragedy of commons in the communities.
Dynamics of Veda, EE and SS
The tension between man and earth is conspicuously present owing to pressures of the economic characters of humankind. Vedas believe that the earth is an object of worship because she is the basis of life. Man is a part of the earth like other creatures or elements, which are equally dwelling. Therefore, ecology was a sacred science for the Vedic man.
Economics in the Vedas is based on moral values, which encourages human beings to love nature and oppose the materialistic greed. Here it may not be irrational to mention that to the followers of the Vedas, a separate rule of economics was formulated by the Kautilya around 300 BC. Since the original work of Kautilya is in Sanskrit, it was virtually unknown to the western scholars. It was only in 1915 that the Economics of Kautilya was translated in to English. His work in economics is still viable and important in the field of economics, not only because of its historical significance but also because governing of its value in the present Hindu communities. For example, from an environmental conservation point of view, Kautilya had introduced green taxes on forest produces along with other environmental taxes on polluting sources like slaughterhouses, garbage etc.
The Vedas are perennial sources of green spiritualism and sustainability. The purpose of human life is categorized in to “studenthood”, life as a householder and life in forest (Table 2). Likewise, there are four parts of human life. Moral laws are learned during “studenthship”; material good and enjoyment are part of a householder’s life, and liberation can be obtained by spiritualism. In order to have liberation from the material wealth or greed, life in the forest was part of the ancient Hindu Rishis (philosophers). Forest life is a complete detachment from the accumulated materials as Prince Siddhartha did prior to be the Lord Buddha. This kind of detachment is more or less related with today’s environmental activities of deep ecologists and hunter-gather societies. On the other side is the complete attachment with nature. For example, recent ecological movements in India like Chipko and Narmada.
Table 2 Purpose of life as per the Vedic philosophy
Moral law (dharma) Studentship (brahmacharya)
Material good (artha) Life of householder (grihastha)
Enjoyment (kama)
Liberation (moksa) Life of forest/spiritualism (vanprastha)
The spirit of Veda, EE and SS are linear. Since the mainstream economics is failing to consider the services of natural environment, EE is advocating filling that gap for sustainability. So EE and SS are the two sides of a single coin. The SS rules, for instance, strongly support the stock of natural capital and harvest should be within the limit of natural rate of the regeneration. These kinds of SS rules are deeply rooted in the Vedic culture, although they may not be aware of the definition of the SS. For example, people, who live in agro-forest ecosystem in the rural parts of Nepal and India have been practicing the SS harvest rules since their ancestors’ time. The other classic example of SS is community forest management by forest users’ group in Nepal. There are many micro-scale examples of the SS in the Vedic culture, which have explicit or implicit explanation of the EE and SS.
Ethics is the other very common factor among the Veda and environmental conservation and sustainable development campaigns. Environmental ethics is an invitation to moral development. The Vedas accept that the soul is the sum of all the gods. The soul is the unity that links all individual beings. However, the soul of human beings is complex in character and so is the environment. Since material wealth, family, country, and the world can’t satisfy the human soul, the Vedas encourage to the spiritual freedom. Moreover, wealth and happiness is a legitimate human aspiration, but they should be gained in righteous ways if they are to lead to spiritual freedom. Each of these requires ethical disciplines , which is very hard to find in the traditional economics. If an economic man (Homo economicus) realizes ethics the world would be a very wonderful place for all.
The conventional economics always favors maximizing the material wealth so that the individual will have a better quality of life. This philosophy is incomplete from the environmental, social, and spiritual point of view. As mentioned earlier, Vedic philosophy equates quality of life with both non-materialistic and materialistic values (see Table 2). Hence, quality of life is a state where one is at peace with oneself, the nature and the society one lives in. The much harmony amongst these, higher the quality of life. However, the traditional economic version on quality of life relegates the role or services of nature, inter and intra-generational relation. The emerging theoretical notion of simple living in western culture is a negative reaction to material wealth and positive inclination to EE and SS. The other classic example would be life style of Mahatma Gandhi. His practice of simple living and non-violence sought to put the principles of ecologically aware life into motion. Recently, Diwan, in 1999, has discussed about the quality of life and relational wealth in poor and non-poor countries. Relational wealth is also a Vedic concept because it based on social structure and its relationship with nature or environment. Despite the material wealth in western countries, their quality of life is not satisfactory to them because it is improperly defined. For instance, gross domestic product (GDP) is the only so-called standard indicator for a better quality of life. As mentioned earlier, this measure does not incorporate the environment and social factors. Recently, a new definition of human well being is propagating by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as human development index (HDI), which consists of a cosmetic change in GDP. In addition to the GDP, the HDI has two more parameters; longevity and educational attainment. Again, environmental resources or services are excluded. The notion of human development will be incomplete until we continue to ignore the contribution of nature to the survival of human. Let us see an example from the same report of the UNDP (p.22); every year nearly 3 million people die from air pollution and 5 million people die from diarrhoeal diseases caused by water pollution. Here, both cause and victim of air and water pollution are human, but both indexes, GDP and HDI, simply avoided them. Hence the present consumption based economy, which believes the more you consume the more you will be better off, ignores the less consuming folks. This is an irrational measure of standard of living from even the Buddhist angle. Therefore, it is virtually impossible to distract nature from human well being. Had it been integrated with material wealth, it would give a different but true picture of the human well being. Hence, estimates of UNDP human poverty raised a serious question about its usefulness, both in terms of conceptual and in terms of measurement, Diwan further argues. In the prevailing context of conventional economic philosophy, EE supports social and environmental integration in order to achieve sustainability. The gist of the Vedas is also linear with human and nature. Human without nature is beyond the question and so does the so-called economy. The present economic needs and deeds are unethical as well as unsustainable because of relegation of natural capital. Vedas urge people to pursue the path of ethical and sustainable economy, which coincide with the philosophy of ecological economics for sustainable development.
Conclusion
The Vedas are the primary sources of not only moral enhancement for the economic man but also paths for misguided ecology to achieve a true sustainability. It views human perfection and happiness from integrated perspectives, which embraces both material and spiritual values in individual and harmonious unity. The Vedas will guide to enlighten the inner human soul in order to maintain have moral values, true purpose of life and care for nature. The Vedic cultures are unique from development perspectives. The Vedas have the potential of many remedies to the today’s world problems of unsustainable development. For instance, “dharma” is typical word in Hindu literature including Vedas, and still rooted in the Vedic cultures. It implies the sustainability, that is, if anyone violates the dharma, God may punish the violator, so no one will or should act against it. People save or even earn the dharma by visiting the temples or holy places in order to pave the way for heaven and have liberation, despite the multitude of sinful acts in other places. It seems that the modern act of Hindu people is also deviating from the Vedic philosophy, which is primarily due to the influence of “economic man”. It may sustain for a while, but not for the long term or strong sustainability. Hence, people need to have the real dharma, which loves nature and does not wish to rule over the nature, should be today’s ideal philosophy for development. Klaus Klostermaier opines that genuine religion begins and ends in conscience, not in books, organizations and professionals, so does the true ecology.
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by
Gautam Acharya
from
United States
on
Thursday, August 07, 2003
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08:56
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I could just utter a big "wow"!
It is such an eye opening article. I just read an article in Times about our meditation and how (biologically) it improves our mind and body and then I read this article in TND about how our Vedas has depicted the relationship between Nature and Religion and what all that mean which most of us western educated kids fail to appreciate.
These two articles are forcing me to think once again. I have decided I will try to spend some time to study our eastern philosophies.
Long live economical economy! and thank you Surendra Devkota dai!!
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Ram Pandit
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United States
on
Friday, August 01, 2003
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10:46
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A very good article in a newly emerging field. Thank you Dr. Devkota relating the new concept with our own age old religious belief and guiding principles.
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by
bishnu bhandari
from
Nepal
on
Friday, August 01, 2003
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00:43
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write mama 100% write.
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