Eco-Spirituality: the Perceptions of Mahatma Gandhi

Abstract

The green thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi, rooted in the Hindu tradition and the Bhagavad Gita, offer a vision for harmonising nature with the needs of the people, and Gandhi has been described as the apostle of applied human ecology. His ideas of satyagraha, founded on truth and non-violence, of simple living and of need-based development show how progress is possible without harm to nature or to fellow beings, and his teaching that nature has enough for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed provides an ethical foundation for modern environmentalism. Gandhi regarded the earth as a living organism and expressed his ecological thought through two fundamental principles, the cosmic law and the law of species. His call to go back to the villages, his swadeshi spirit and his support for small-scale and cottage industry all express a Gandhian environmentalism, while the methods of non-violence and tapasya that he taught were later taken up by environmental movements such as the Chipko Movement and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Drawing on his notions of Advaita, Mother Nature, self-realisation and self-discipline, this paper sets out the philosophical foundations of Gandhi’s eco-spirituality and its bearing on the search for a sustainable way of life.