World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 592

that their presence did not constitute any conceivable hazard. However, according to McKibben, Lovelock later on changed his earlier views regarding the danger of the chemical pollutants. He also accepted his mistake and called it "one of my greatest blunders."
The theoretical way out is the development and adoption of a philosophy of life and the universe which generates and promotes a reverential attitude towards man and Nature. And the practical way out is to stop deforestation, to plant and grow more and more trees and to stop the inflow of pollutants into the rivers. Religion can play a very significant role in this regard provided, as Dr. R Sundar Rajan has suggested, that religion has remained a hermeneutics of soul and should become the hermeneutics of man. In this connection, he writes: "A fundamental transformation of our social consciousness of the natural world will come about only when the principle for reverence and responsibility for non-human life becomes a moral regulative." Sundar Rajan also mentions the fact that some Christian theologians are trying to revive the philosophical thoughts of Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), a German uneducated mystic, and F.W.J. Schelling (1725-1854), a German idealist. These thinkers advocate a philosophy of Nature which comes very close to spiritual non-dualism of Advaita Vedanta. For instance, Boehme said: "In all the processes of Nature, God is concealed; only in the spirit of Man. He is recognized. God is not sundered from Nature but is related to it as the soul to the body."' Schelling also writes: "Nature is visible spirit and spirit invisible Nature." At one place he remarks, "Nature herself is a great poem.” What Boehme and Schelling want to support is that Nature is not merely dead material substance. Religion will have to stress multidimensional nature of man and preach the doctrine of integralism in regard to empirical, social, moral and spiritual values. Surprisingly, such a doctrine is supported by both Vedanta and Sankhya philosophies. Prakriti (Nature), according to Sankhya, strives for both material enjoyment (Bhogartha) and spiritual liberation (Mokshaitha) of the individual soul. Moreover, Vedanta asserts that the Universe is the manifestation of the Divine and so there is harmony between man and Nature.
To sum up, man is a moral entity for only human actions are capable of being characterized as moral or immoral, rational or irrational. So it is his responsibility to preserve the earth's fitness for the existence. In this connection, Bruce Allsopp rightly asserts, “Man has become a major force in the ecology of the Earth. He can be creative or destructive...Man has trusteeship for nature. The exercise of this trusteeship depends upon his recovering the sense of respect which has become depraved in utilitarian industrial societies." To put it in a current journalistic jargon, the ball is in mankind's court. It is heartening to note that many institutions, organisations, and even eminent individuals are engaged in
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