Sustainability Through Eco-Spirituality: The Perceptions of  Swami Vivekananda

Dr. Umesh K

Assistant Professor, Government College, Madappally, Vadakara, Kozhikode, Kerala

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Abstract - India, with 1.4 billion citizens, is among the world’s fastest-growing economies, and one consequence of its rapid development has been an exceptional level of environmental pollution. The ancient Sanskrit texts of the Hindu tradition, the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Puranas, teach that every facet of the natural world is to be nurtured and protected, yet the force of these ideas has weakened as India’s cultural life has changed over the past two centuries. Eco-spirituality is now drawing renewed attention, partly through the New Age movement and partly through Swami Vivekananda’s scientific reinterpretation of Vedantic philosophy. This paper sets out Vivekananda’s eco-spiritual vision and relates it to the contemporary discourse of sustainability. According to Vedanta, the principal monistic philosophy of the Hindu faith, all life is fundamentally one, and this oneness expresses itself naturally as reverence for all things. The study argues that the Vedanta and yoga traditions are rooted in ecology, that sustainability is, in the Vedic view, the maintenance of a unified sensibility in search of wholeness among matter, life and mind, and that eco-spirituality, with its call to think cosmically and to act locally but wisely, offers a vision of global humanism and self-realisation that lies at the ethical heart of India’s composite cultural heritage.

Key Words:  Cosmic integrity, dharma and karma, eco-spirituality, Hindu tradition, sustainability, Vedanta, yoga.