Religious Teachings about Environment

World reli­gious and indi­vid­u­als rit­u­als edi­tion can pro­vide a Frame­work for chang­ing atti­tudes world reli­gion teach­es us that the land, riv­er, moun­tain , min­er­als ‚ocean are held in the trust of God, but can be wide­ly used for gen­er­al Wel­fare of human­i­ty. Put anoth­er way our reli­gion stills us that we should con­sid­er our­selves only as trustees of the uni­verse and as trustees we are autho­rised by God to use nat­ur­al resources but we have no the wind pow­er over nat­ur­al nature and the ele­ments. from the per­spec­tive of many reli­gion the abuse and exploita­tion of nature for imme­di­ate gain is unjust and uneth­i­cal. Lets read more Reli­gious Teach­ings about Environment.

All reli­gion and cul­ture has some­thing to offer to con­ser­va­tion and Envi­ron­ment pro­tec­tion. from each reli­gion , sev­er­al injunc­tions and exhor­ta­tions can be brought forth to form a code of envi­ron­men­tal­ly sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. No reli­gion says that we have the right to destroy our habi­tat, and no reli­gion sanc­tions envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion. On the con­trary, penal­ties and admo­ni­tions are men­tioned for those who do so. This is amply demon­strat­ed in the codes of all reli­gion. A brief review of teach­ing about respect of nature and con­ser­va­tion of nat­ur­al resources as giv­en by Hin­duism, Jain­ism, Bud­dhism, Islam and Sikhism explained below.

Brief explanation about Religions

Hinduism

In hin­duism one finds a most chal­leng­ing per­spec­tive on respect for nature and envi­ron­men­tal con­ser­va­tion, and the sanc­ti­ty of all life on this plan­et and else­where is clear­ly ingrained in this reli­gion. Only supreme God has absolute sov­er­eign­ty over all crea­tures , includ­ing humans. Human being have no domin­ion. Over their own lives or non human life. Con­se­quent­ly they can­not act as viceroys of God , nor can they assign degrees of rel­a­tive worth to oth­er species. The Sacred­ness of God’s cre­ation demands that no dam­age may be inflict­ed on oth­er species with­out ade­quate jus­ti­fi­ca­tion. There­fore all lives , humans and non humans , are equal val­ue and have the same right to existence.

Accord­ing to Hin­du scrip­tures peo­ple must not demand or take domin­ion over oth­er crea­tures. They are for­bid­den to exploit nature ; instead they are advised to seek peace and live in har­mo­ny with nature. The hidu reli­gion demands ven­er­a­tion , respect and obe­di­ence to main­tain and pro­tect the har­mo­nious uni­ty of God and nature. This is demon­strat­ed by a series of divine incar­na­tions , as enun­ci­at­ed by Dr. Karan Singh in the Assisi Declaration:

The evolution of life on this planet is symbolised by a series of divine incarnations beginning with fish, moving through amphibious forms and mammals , and then on into human incarnations. This view clearly holds that men did not spring fully formed to dominate the lesser life forms, but rather evolved out of these forms itself , and is therefore integrally lined to the whole of creation.

Almost all the Hin­du scrip­ture are place strong empha­sis on the notion that not killing his crea­ture or hav­ing his cre­ation can receive god’s grace

Many trees and plants were wor­shipped dur­ing the time of Rig Veda about 1500 BC because they sym­bol­ise the var­i­ous attrib­ut­es of God.

Envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness was released even in pre Vedic periode.There are ref­er­ence of ‘Tree wor­ship’ in Mohan­jo­daro and Indus Civ­i­liza­tion. Envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness was more man­i­fest among human dur­ing the vedic peri­od. The con­cept Aranyani the queen of for­est iden­ti­cal to the con­cept of Tree God­dess­es of Indus people. 

Aranya­nis are wor­shipped as the pre­sid­ing spir­it of for­est ‚con­ceived as woman is praised, hon­oured by herbs and described as moth­er of wild ani­mals (Rigve­da). Instances of attri­bu­tion of divin­i­ty to plants are found in Rigve­da and Atharvaveda.

Ani­mals and nature were received along with the Gods. Hanu­man and Gan­pati are the most pow­er­ful deities , peepal, Gan­ga, Hima­van , Tul­si, Banyan tree are con­sid­ered holy even today.

Vedic man iden­ti­fy at least four major com­po­nents Sun, Agni ‚Prithvi and sky that sus­tain life and there­fore wor­ship them as deities.

(O King of trees , these are Bramha by your root Vish­nu by the mid­dle of our body and Shi­va by your front. Thou com­bine all the deities. we salute you.Disease van­ish at your sight and by Touch of you the sins van­ish. Ever cool and last­ing. We Salute you. (Rigve­da 1–48‑5)

Plant­i­ng of trees has been pro­claimed as con­duc­tive to great mer­it in Purane. Agni purana and Varah purana men­tion the ben­e­fits arrived from the trees.

Through such exhor­ta­tions and var­i­ous writ­ings, the Hin­du reli­gion pro­vides moral guide­lines for envi­ron­men­tal preser­va­tion and con­ser­va­tion. From The per­spec­tive of the Hin­du, cul­ture the abuse and exploita­tion od nature for self­ish gain is con­sid­ered unjust and Sacrilegious

Jainism

Jain­ism places great empha­sis on the prin­ci­ple that one should refrain from avoid­able acts that are harm­ful to oth­ers. Accord­ing to jain­ism vio­lence grows out of pas­sion and one who has pas­sion caus­es self injury. Pre­vent­ing injury to one­self and oth­ers is accom­plished through con­trol of speech, con­trol of thought, reg­u­la­tion of move­ment, care in tak­ing things up and putting them down and exam­in­ing food and drink and a vow is tak­en by Jains to do all of these things.

Ahim­sa (non vio­lence) , which is the fun­da­men­tal tenet of the jain way of life , a term that is clear­ly allied with real­ism , com­mon sense and per­son­al worth , and respon­si­bil­i­ty. It touch­es the deep­est and noblest aspects of human nature: 

It adheres to the universal law which states that like, order comes of order, and peace can only be achieved through peace. It maintains that in all situations the ends and means are one and the same , and that truth , honesty and compassion must be the foundation of any truly civilized community.

Buddhism

At the very core of the Bud­dhist reli­gion are com­pas­sion, respect, tol­er­ance and ahim­sa (non injury) towards all human beings and all the oth­er crea­tures that share this planet.

Bud­dha also set down rules for­bid­ding the pol­lu­tion of rivers, ponds and wells. 

As Bud­dha says in Sut­ta Nipta :-

Known ye the grasses and the trees.... Then know ye the worms , and the different sorts of ants...known ye also the four Footed animals small and great.... The Serpents.. The fish which range in the water... The birds that are borne along on wings and move through the air...

Bud­dhist regard the sur­vival of all species as an unde­ni­able right because as Co inhab­i­tants of this plan­et they have the same rights as human. In Bud­dhist to the rivers ‚for­est ‚grass­es ‚moun­tains and night are high­ly respect­ed and regard­ed as bliss best owers. Bud­dhist just think they have always had great respect for the sun moon and oth­er planets .

The teach­ings of Bud­dhism has con­cen­trat­ed on the the­o­ry of Kar­ma and the the­o­ry of cause and effect. they demon­strate that unmind­ful neglect of these prin­ci­ple of right leav­ing a lead to Chaos and thus to envi­ron­ment crisis.if we believe that all life forms are inter­con­nect­ed, our exploita­tive ten­den­cies towards nature can be con­trolled .This mes­sage that all life is inter­con­nect­ed and should be cared for — is the foun­da­tion of the bud­dhist ethics of nature.

Christianity

There is a com­mon thread in the old and new tes­ta­ments con­cern­ing the con­cept of nature and the rules gov­ern­ing our respon­si­bil­i­ty to it. Although cer­tain ver­sus in Gen­e­sis have been inter­rupt­ed as giv­ing human Domin­ion and absolute con­trol over nature there are place where the respon­si­bil­i­ty of human being has been clear­ly delin­eat­ed was stopped .

For exam­ple “And the lord God took the man and put him into the gar­den of edens to dress it and keep it” (Genesis2:15)

The word ‘dress’ hav­ing inter­pret­ed as a duty of men to man­age and the word ‘keep’ has been inter­pret­ed as pro­tect­ing the nat­ur­al world from harm.

Fur­ther­more the scrip­ture clear­ly estab­lish­es God as a sole own­er of the nat­ur­al world , while human­i­ty is active­ly respon­si­ble for the care of the world.

The earth is the Lord’s and every­thing in it , the world and all who live in it

Every ani­mal in the for­est is mine and the cat­tle on a thou­sand hills (Psalm)

The Bible also con­firms that the pur­pose of cre­ation is to pro­claim God’s Glo­ry because it is his hand­i­work. Divine Life is active­ly man­i­fest­ed in and through the cre­at­ed the world as such the earth is not to be con­sid­ered as a life-size enti­ty or a means to some high-end. To an extent a har­mo­nious tri­adic rela­tion­ship exists between the divine and human­i­ty, among human beings them­selves, and between human beings and nature , and fail­ure to main­tain this har­mo­ny May alien­ate human­i­ty from its cre­ator and also from nature.

Islam

In Islam the Holy quran and The divine­ly inspired world from Prophet Muham­mad (peace be upon him) from the foun­da­tion of the rules for the con­ser­va­tion of nature. The quran­ic mes­sage is one for human­i­ty ‚har­mo­ny ‚bal­ance and order. The Quran stress is the nature of law must be observed and the defined lim­it should not be exceed­ed. Men was cre­at­ed so that he could become a man­i­fes­ta­tion of divine attrib­ut­es and serves as a mir­ror to reflect the beau­ti­ful image of God. The Quran Says :

"Surely your lord is Allaha, who created the heavens and the earth in six days... His is to create and to govern (quran 7:54). And there is not a thing but we have unbounded stores there of and we send it in regulated quantities (quran 15: 21). Indeed we have created everything in proportion and due measure ( Quran 54 :49)

Accord­ing to Islam the rich­es of the earth our com­mon Her­itage. Every­one may ben­e­fit from them make them pro­duc­tive and use them for their own well-being and improve­ment but a quest for progress and devel­op­ment must not be deter­mi­nan­tal to the envi­ron­ment is it should ensure your conservation.

In both the Quran and the Sharia the legal course of Islam , the rights of the nat­ur­al world as strong­ly expressed and the abuse of them by human is con­demned the Quran says :

"He set on the Earth, firmly rooted , mountains rising above it, and blessed the Earth and provided sustenance for all, according to their needs".

Sikhism

Baba Guru Nanak Dev the founder of the Sikh reli­gion assigned divine attrib­ut­es to nature. Accord­ing to Sikhism peo­ple should respect God’s cre­ation and know the eter­nal truth regard­ing their place in the uni­verse. God had not grant­ed any spe­cial or absolute pow­er to humans to con­trol and dom­i­nant nature. To the con­trary, the human race is an inte­gral part of nature and is linked to the rest of cre­ation by indis­sol­u­ble bounds.

God him­self is a source of the birth, sus­te­nance and even­tu­al destruc­tion of all liv­ing organ­isms. it is he who cre­at­ed the uni­verse through his divine will and with his word. Acord­ing to Sikh holy book The Guru Granth Sahib from the divine com­mand occurs the cre­ation and the dis­so­lu­tion of the uni­verse. The basis of cre­ation , as start­ed in the Adi Guru Granth Sahib. 

From Primal truth emanated water

From air emanated water

From water emanated three worlds

And himself the merged with the creation.