Aparigraha the Humane Solution

Author(s): Kamla Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 47

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION-RISK TO HUMAN SURVIVAL 39
the best of all creations. With his selfish anthropocentric approach he has made his life full of riches, with a great jump in his standard of living. His short-sightedness has made him indiscriminately ruin the environment of which he himself is a part. In doing so he has turned into a destructor of environment. Thus the unity of man and nature and the harmony between the two has become a myth.
The advancement of science and technology comes from the western world, which happens to be the Christian world. According to Christianity, in the hierarchy of God's creations, man occupies the highest place; everything is meant for him and he can do anything out of the lower creations of the universe to satisfy himself. Ironically this metaphysical world-view has been a kind of support-system for this ever encroaching attitude towards nature, similarly there seems a silence in respect to animal world, their status in God's creations seems to have been over looked. On the other hand, if there had been a religion which promulgates a philosophy that the entire living world is equal and all life is equally worth living even if differing in physical psychological and other forms of development', there would have been a kind of check on arbitrary 'expansion', 'growth' and 'development'. This does not suggest that this kind of world-view or this metaphysical or religious approach which is the essence of Indian philosophical thought would in some way stop the process of 'growth' or 'development' even in India and it would not be any less if there are sufficient opportunities to exploit the environment, but this, in India has emerged more out of competition or following a rat-race than out of original, innovative ideas as they have taken a lead in the West.
Meaning of Environment
The term 'environment' strictly refers to the physical surroundings or regional settings of the earth. It may be defined as the aggregation of forces and influences acting upon an organism and in relation to which the organism is capable of reacting and in turn influencing. In relation to man, however the environment is not just one, but of several kinds and it may mean many things. It means the air we breathe, the water we drink, it means the rivers, the forests, the
1. Daśavaikālika. 6,10.