Ecological Spirituality: Hindu Scriptural Perspectives

From the Jacket :

Every major step man takes wreaks its own damage on the environment. Aware of this, man is yet unwilling to forgo the immediate material benefits his actions give. For all his professions of concern about the environment, in reality his concern reduces to nothing more than cosmetic changes in the exterior which are of no value. This slender monograph is a critique on this pervasive culture of ambivalence.

The author resorts to first principles, Sanatana Dharma which literally means eternal order. Disorder can be overcome only by order. Here there is nothing fundamentalist or sectarian. What could be the true meaning of civilization? What constitutes progress? What is the content of development? Why does man, so successful in exterminating every other species, fail to check his own kind? These are a few of the questions addressed by the author.

He is conscious his perceptions and prescriptions may sound utopian, simplistic. Equally firm is his conviction that anything less will not do. Not environmental engineering but ecological spirituality is the answer. In fact this is the only religion the world needs.

About the Author:

G. Naganathan, a physicist and telecommunication engineer by formal education and profession, has been a deep votary of the humanities, thanks to a very early tutelage or gurukulavasa under his scholar-linguist-thinker-lawyer father. He sedulously cultivated an abiding interest all through his life in literature, particularly English, French and Sanskrit, philosophies, comparative religion, science in general and modern theoretical physics. Retiring from the Central Government as Director (Engineering) South Zone, AIR and Doordarshan, he did a purely honorary stint at the International HQ of The Theosophical Society at Adyar, Chennai as Editor of Publications for nearly a decade and half.

His passionate conviction in the sanctity of Nature, ahimsa, animal rights and so on led him to write a small booklet, Animal Welfare and Nature, which was first published in USA and later republished in India.

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