Should Vaishnavas Be Ecowarriors?

[suchandra]

Never heard this before but could be that HH Jayadvaita Swami suggests a new market niche for Western Vaishnavas to be taken more serious and in this way expand the Sankirtan Movement.

 

 

<small>Are You More Than Green, Righteous, and Dead?

Submitted by phani on December 25, 2007 - 7:38am

http://namahatta.org/en/node/6299</small>

by HH Jayadvaita Maharaja

Twenty years ago, no one gave a damn. You could gum up a river with factory sludge, chop down rain forests wholesale, spray fluorocarbons into the air like a kid sprinkling confetti, and no one would say boo.

No longer. Grade-school kids want to grow up to be ecologists. New York tycoons sort their trash to recycle. Rock singers play concerts to save prairies and wetlands. Political candidates tell us they’re worried about the fate of the three-toed baboon.

Caring about the environment helps you feel good about yourself. At the supermarket you choose paper instead of plastic. You write your thank-you notes on cards made from ground-up newsprint and cotton waste. You chip in a few dollars for Greenpeace. Hey, you care about the earth. You’re a righteous human being.

Yet too often our concern for the earth lacks a metaphysical grounding. Intuitively, living in harmony with the earth feels right. If the earth is the house we’re going to live in, why litter the rooms with beer cans or pee all over the carpet?

But in an ultimate sense, so what? If life is just a series of chemical reactions, what does it matter if the chemicals go messy? Species come and species go. Why get all mushy and teary-eyed if a few berserk bipeds wipe out some hundred thousand kinds of their neighbors? The earth may be our mother, but sooner or later she’s going to blow to atomic dusting powder anyway. And from a cosmic point of view that’s just a few mega-moments down the line. So why all the fuss?

You can say it’s for our children, it’s for future generations. But they’re also just a flash in eternity. Why bother for them?

Guardians of the green remind us urgently that dirtying and devouring the earth is short-sighted. But to be far-sighted we have to look beyond what seems clean, pleasant, and harmonious on a physical spot of earth on a brief ride through the universe. We have to ask ourselves not only how well we’re treating the earth but why we’re on it and where we are ultimately going.

Otherwise, though ecologically aware, we’re metaphysically dead.

___________

 

 

Presentation by HH Jayapataka Swami, small is beautiful, Bhakti Vriksa is a program for making devotees based on small groups.

 

 

 

[Samia]

While I am no global warming alarmist I do believe that man has a negative impact on the enviroment due to our lifestyles. I do believe we should be visable in this movement though because if nothing else caring for and protecting the enviroment is an act of compassion for your fellow human and other species. In my tiny mind it is an even greater crime to senselessly pollute fish to death than to kill and eat them when hungry. Also if people were not so sickened by the enviroment around them maybe in their health they would find investigating god to be a worthwhile pursuit.

 

Just my tired 2 cents worth

[theist]

.

[theist]

 

Never heard this before but could be that HH Jayadvaita Swami suggests a new market niche for Western Vaishnavas to be taken more serious and in this way expand the Sankirtan Movement.

 

 

<small>Are You More Than Green, Righteous, and Dead?

Submitted by phani on December 25, 2007 - 7:38am

http://namahatta.org/en/node/6299</small>

by HH Jayadvaita Maharaja

Twenty years ago, no one gave a damn. You could gum up a river with factory sludge, chop down rain forests wholesale, spray fluorocarbons into the air like a kid sprinkling confetti, and no one would say boo.

No longer. Grade-school kids want to grow up to be ecologists. New York tycoons sort their trash to recycle. Rock singers play concerts to save prairies and wetlands. Political candidates tell us they’re worried about the fate of the three-toed baboon.

Caring about the environment helps you feel good about yourself. At the supermarket you choose paper instead of plastic. You write your thank-you notes on cards made from ground-up newsprint and cotton waste. You chip in a few dollars for Greenpeace. Hey, you care about the earth. You’re a righteous human being.

Yet too often our concern for the earth lacks a metaphysical grounding. Intuitively, living in harmony with the earth feels right. If the earth is the house we’re going to live in, why litter the rooms with beer cans or pee all over the carpet?

But in an ultimate sense, so what? If life is just a series of chemical reactions, what does it matter if the chemicals go messy? Species come and species go. Why get all mushy and teary-eyed if a few berserk bipeds wipe out some hundred thousand kinds of their neighbors? The earth may be our mother, but sooner or later she’s going to blow to atomic dusting powder anyway. And from a cosmic point of view that’s just a few mega-moments down the line. So why all the fuss?

You can say it’s for our children, it’s for future generations. But they’re also just a flash in eternity. Why bother for them?

Guardians of the green remind us urgently that dirtying and devouring the earth is short-sighted. But to be far-sighted we have to look beyond what seems clean, pleasant, and harmonious on a physical spot of earth on a brief ride through the universe. We have to ask ourselves not only how well we’re treating the earth but why we’re on it and where we are ultimately going.

Otherwise, though ecologically aware, we’re metaphysically dead.

 

Jayadvaita Swami is right. Both views separtely are incomplete. The earth is neither ours to pollute or neglect. What is essential though is to act in right consciousness.

 

We should take care of the Earth because it belongs to Krsna and we are his lower servants. As lower servants we have the responsibity of being caretakers of His estate. We are not to make messes and to clean up any mess that unexpectly arises.

 

Just basic caretaker duties, but for the pleasure of the real estate owner.

[theist]

 

While I am no global warming alarmist I do believe that man has a negative impact on the enviroment due to our lifestyles. I do believe we should be visable in this movement though because if nothing else caring for and protecting the enviroment is an act of compassion for your fellow human and other species. In my tiny mind it is an even greater crime to senselessly pollute fish to death than to kill and eat them when hungry. Also if people were not so sickened by the enviroment around them maybe in their health they would find investigating god to be a worthwhile pursuit.

 

Just my tired 2 cents worth

Yes the environment must be kept in the mode of goodness. Parks and agriculture instead of factories and parking lots.

[Samia]

 

Just basic caretaker duties, but for the pleasure of the real estate owner.

 

I smell a T-shirt

A truely inspiring way to descibe it.

[theist]

I feel much damage has been done by the misunderstanding of the word dominion as used in the Bilble in Genesis. "And God gave man dominion over the earth."

 

Someone with an exploiters mentality will here this word and take it as license to ravage, pillage and exploit everything with in sight for personal sense gratification. And that is what we see has happened. Many Christians believe this way and see it as a justification for animal slaughter among other senselees acts of selfishness.

 

A caretaker is also given dominion of the property of the real owner but only as far as it serves him in his duty's of taking care of the estate in a responsible manner. If he misuses his power of dominion to trash the estate and kill and misteat the masters children while eating the masters pets such a so-called caretaker will not only be fired but held criminally responsible for each of his deeds.

 

Man should never forget we have been given secondary powers of dominion that are only meant to serve our caretaker responsibilities.

 

Considering these points it makes sense to use to word caretaker rather than dominator as it gives a much clearer picture of man's actual role in relationship to God and the earth.