Environmental Ethics and Ecology in Traditional Sanskrit Texts

Sanskrit

A good and healthy environment is important for human survival on the earth. All components of the environment i.e. Water, air, soil, noise etc. seem pure in their natural form. But due the fulfillment of human needs, they become polluted and harmful for the health of the mankind. Today, globalization is running on a high speed. Many industries are being established in the remote areas. As various housing projects are spreading in each city of each state, the area farming land is decreasing day by day. As production of the new medicines and liquids going on in the factories, water is also being polluted. Due to the use of urea and pesticides in the agricultural lands everywhere, soil is losing its real capacity of fertilization. Burning of parāli in various states of the country and smoke of the increasing quantity of vehicle, air is also getting harmful for the breathing of man, animals, birds and others. In metropolitan cities, this is a big challenge to get pure water, milk, flour and other things. In this situation, there is need to understand the importance of the purity of all these components by man living in the society. He should know the benefit of the consumption of pure water, air and food. For a good health, this is very important for man to eat healthy food and drink pure water and live on a pollution free place. In Indian traditional texts like Vedas, purāṇas, Upaniṣads and other texts written in Sanskrit language, there are various mantras and ślokas which convey a message to the mankind that this ecological system is the base of human survival. Man is not the head of that system rather he is also a part of that. Bhūmi Sūkta Atharvaveda says “Yat te bhūmi vikhanāmi kṣipraṁ tadapi rohatu”. Kalidāsa also gave many motivational quotations in his works. Western thinker Fritjof Capra has also written about the ecological system in his book. So, all these thoughts will be discussed in this article.

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