Abstract
I argue that a normative environmental ethical theory can be coherently derived out of the theological matrix of the Bhagavad Gītā. I build upon Ithamar Theodor’s articulation of the Gītā’s underlying unifying structure to depict how the Gītā conceives of three possible relationships with nature. This allows me to tease out three concurrent worldviews in the Gītā—a world-affirming worldview, a world-renouncing worldview and a bhakti worldview, which is simultaneously world-affirming and world-renouncing. I show how three distinct theories of motivation—three different reasons for acting in the world—emerge from the interconnected normative, soteriological and ontological dimensions of each of these three worldviews. More importantly, the motivation to act for the welfare of individuals in nature, such as animals and plants, can be legitimately derived from these three theories of motivation. I contextualize the Bhagavad Gītā’s environmental ethics by placing it within the larger framework of the text’s distinctive multi-layered approach to ethical theory, in which the foundational teleological mokṣa theory grounds and explains the plurality of more superficial normative foundational theories.
Highlights
Lawrence Sullivan (Sullivan 2000, p. xiii) has observed that religious traditions and their lived manifestations offer “a treasury of motives, disciplines, and awarenesses” that can facilitate earth-friendly living and it is certainly in this spirit that scholars of religion and environmental studies alike have turned to Hindu texts and traditions
What generally goes by the name of Hinduism represents more a “galaxy of worldviews emerging over centuries in India” (Valpey 2020, p. 1)
Despite the obvious heterogeneity of the Hindu cosmos, it is not too much of a stretch to claim that the Bhagavad Gıtā has singularly informed Hindu self-representations since the turn of the nineteenth century
Summary
Lawrence Sullivan (Sullivan 2000, p. xiii) has observed that religious traditions and their lived manifestations offer “a treasury of motives, disciplines, and awarenesses” that can facilitate earth-friendly living and it is certainly in this spirit that scholars of religion and environmental studies alike have turned to Hindu texts and traditions. Lance Nelson has argued that the ontological vision and soteriological goal promoted by the Gıtā is fundamentally hostile to environmental ethics In his ecological critique of the Bhagavad-Gıtā, Nelson writes that the Gıtā’s “hierarchical, fundamentally dualistic outlook” which elevates “pure spirit above matter” implies that nature is “ irrelevant to the Gıtā’s soteriological goals.”. Lance Nelson (Nelson 1998) has argued that the classical Advaita Vedānta of Śaṅkara—which he deems to be the central viewpoint of the modern Hindu renaissance—encourages attitudes of devaluation and neglect of the natural universe Against this interpretation of ‘Hinduism’ as a world-negating religion incapable of inspiring environmentalism, David Haberman (Haberman 2006) has argued that most Hindus identify themselves with theistic, Purān.ic, and world-affirming traditions that include immanent strands within their theologies and has buttressed his argument with many examples of Indian environmentalists who draw their inspiration from such traditions. I will begin by looking at the context of the Gıtā
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