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“The Urgency of the Ecological Crisis – A Buddhist and Hindu Perspective.” Dialogue with David Loy, Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, Colorado, USA and Rajesh Purohit, Hindu Climate Action, Oxford, UK. Presented by the Temple of Understanding ECO JUSTICE FOR ALL Dialogue series.

This week's episode of Spotlights features Pankaj Jain, PhD, an internationally recognized academic leader in sustainability, Jain studies, film studies, and diaspora studies. He is the Head of the Department of Humanities & Languages and Chair of The India Centre at FLAME University. We discuss connections between dharma and ecology in Hinduism and Jainism, with particular attention to three books by Dr. Jain, Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and Sustainability (Routledge, 2011), Science and Socio-Religious Revolution in India: Moving the Mountains (Routledge, 2016), and Dharma in America: A Short History of Hindu-Jain Diaspora (Routledge, 2019). He tweets at @ProfPankajJain, and his podcast #DiscoverIndia is on Spotify, Apple, Google, YouTube, Gaana, and other platforms. You can also find more information at his faculty website.
Posted 01/10/2022

Gopal D. Patel (Gopal Lila das) has been a faith-based environmental activist, campaigner, and consultant for over 10 years, working in India, East Africa, Europe, and North America. He is Co-Founder and Director of Bhumi Global, a non-profit organization that works to educate and mobilize Hindu communities globally for environmental action. Working with the Hindu community internationally, the Bhumi project aims to raise awareness and address the environmental challenges facing our planet. Mr. Gopal has served in this capacity since 2010 and has helped Bhumi become a leading voice on environmental issues for the global Hindu community. He currently serves as co-chair of the UN Multi-faith Advisory Council and is a member of the Advisory Board to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

The wisdom of ancient India recognized the importance of nature and natural resources. Every aspect of the environment was regarded as sacred plants, animals, mountains, forests, rivers, water bodies and even entire cities. By deeming them sacred, they were automatically protected. The Sacred Ecology was common to all Indian cultures and there is no part of India which was untouched by it. The ideal of the sacred ecology lives on to this day and is expressed in the form of sacred groves or forests which may not be destroyed, sacred animals which may not be killed, sacred plants that may not be harmed, sacred rivers which give life, sacred mountains that inspire awe and reverence, and so on. Unfortunately, with the advent of western science and technology, the traditional sacred ecology of India has given way to a new society where the importance of nature is subsumed by the demand for development and growing consumerism. As we are threatened by problems like global warming and climate change, it behoves us to recapture those traditions which protected the environment through several millennia.

This episode features Christopher Key Chapple, PhD, Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology and founding Director of the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He shares his perspective as a scholar and practitioner of yoga, particularly with regard to the connections between yoga and ecology. He discusses his new book, which explores elemental meditations across different traditions of yoga, Living Landscapes: Meditations on the Elements in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Yogas (SUNY Press, 2020). More information about the book can be found here. You can find more information about Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain perspectives on ecology at the Forum Website.
Posted 02/22/2021.

This week's episode of Spotlights features Vijaya Nagarajan, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and in the Program of Environmental Studies at the University of San Francisco. She talks about her teaching, research, and activism at the intersection of Hinduism and ecology, with particular attention to her book, Feeding A Thousand Souls: Women, Ritual and Ecology in India—An Exploration of the Kōlam (Oxford University Press, 2018). You can learn more about her book here: https://feedingathousandsouls.com/ More information about Hinduism and ecology can be found on the Forum website: https://fore.yale.edu/World-Religions….
Posted 01/04/2021

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The Ganga River, known as the Ganges under British rule, is one of the most revered waterways in the world, yet also among the most polluted. PBS reports on the challenges of  India’s efforts to clean up the river and restore its natural flow.

This talk, offered by Malini Ranganathan of American University, considers the relationship between colonial history and contemporary struggles around caste identity and environmental outcomes in urban India.

David Haberman discusses Hinduism and Ecology with Mary Evelyn Tucker. “Hinduism and Ecology” is part of the larger “Conversations on World Religions and Ecology” project. Watch the whole “Conversations on World Religions and Ecology” series on the Forum on Religion and Ecology YouTube Channel.