Promoting Pathways To Sustainable Living -3

Man-Making and Planet-Building...

If Swami Vivekananda were to address the Parliament of World's Religions at Chicago in 2024, he would have given yet another dimension to Religion and called upon the religious leaders to unite to rebuild our Planet Earth. He would have added something more to his famous Chicago address... I am proud to belong to a religion which can provide mankind with a blueprint for rebuilding Planet Earth with sustainable possibilities for the future.

In the course of his lectures from Colombo to Almora he would have urged on his countrymen, the preservation of the purity of the Ganges, the sanctity of the Himalayas and the quality of our earth, water and air. He would have drawn endlessly from our grand mythology and enriched and expanded our global awareness. We would then have not slipped so miserably in our ecological responsibilities. We would have shown how a religion can be man-making and planet-building...

True to the demands of time, the Chicago Parliament of World's Religions 1993, in its centenary celebrations addressed itself not only to matters of spirit but also to many down-to-earth problems. The Millennium Institute which was a co-sponsor of the Parliament took up this issue on the second day itself. Though their entire paper "Global 2000 Revisited"-"What shall we do" is worth serious study, for the sake of brevity just a few points are presented here.

1. The spiritual leaders have a vital contribution to make to a country's reflections on sustainable possibilities for the future.

2. There is an urgent need for a more substantiative dialogue between "secular" issue experts and spiritual leaders of all faiths and traditions.

There are many pressing issues that need thoughtful holistic attention integrating both the spiritual and the secular or scientific perspective. When we study the world religions from this angle we find that a holistic approach has not been a significant part of all traditions. The result is, that secular people are convinced that religions have ruined the earth. Attacks on religion by the so-called wise secularists are not infrequent.

In one form or other, virtually every faith tradition is being criticised today for not having a thoughtful, informed, penetrating analysis of the issues facing Earth and Earth's human community in the 21st Century."

The Director of the Millennium Institute Dr. G. Barney raised several questions before the Parliament. The first one of them was directly connected with man, his essential nature and his interrelationships with everything around. To quote: "The task before us is fundamentally spiritual in nature, to discover who we humans are, how we are to relate to each other and to the whole community of life and what we are to do, individually and collectively here on Earth."

We in India are fortunate in having preserved (though not well enough) a tradition that has answers to all these fundamental questions - the Ultimate Truth of our real identity - a philosophy to comprehend this Truth and a way of life to actualize it in day today life, the dharma - or holistic approach to relate ourselves with everything on earth, a mythology revealing the multifarious facets of this dharma in action and the extensive rituals to concretise this philosophy and to reach it out to all and sundry. In the totality of Sanatana Dharma there lies the blueprint for the survival of mankind and preservation of our Planet Earth.

This is truly a great challenge for spiritual leaders and religious people. Hindu Dharma can fortunately provide very many clues which everyone can adopt irrespective of caste, creed, race or any other differences.

Need for a universal Blueprint.

If only we had a Blueprint how to co-ordinate the affairs of the Universe, we could have kept the five elemental forces in a proper form without contaminating and polluting them ........      

          We could have taken care not to disturb the natural rhythms.

          We could have assured that the flora and fauna would not become
          extinct at this fast rate of 100 species a day.

          We could have prevented the formation of holes in the ozone layers 
          due to  the accumulation of CFC in our atmosphere.

          We could have avoided the 'greenhouse effect' and its serious global

          repercussions and ,

          May be, we could have assured mankind of health, happiness and
          harmony through a new World Order and possibly guaranteed its survival
          as well!

Unfortunately, most of the Blueprints which the modern man has managed to put up have pushed the world and with it mankind, nearer to the brink of a global disaster. Somewhere, man, in the course of his progressive evolution, has misplaced it, if not lost it altogether. Suddenly, his progression is proving to be a "retrogression".

Mother Earth - the lessons she imparts

The blueprint just cannot get lost, because Nature never entrusted this to the custody of the foolish man alone. The first clue that a blueprint for survival exists comes from the fact that without taking the aid of the so-called intelligence of man, Mother Earth has preserved life for millions of years. Behind this truth lies the wonderful interdependence this planet has established with the other planets and the elemental forces around her - water, air, space and fire, energy, sun, moon and so on. Together, they have created a near perfect system, referred to by modern man as the Ecosystem, which is the best public service available to man, but of which he is almost totally ignorant. Creating a series of checks, levers and governors, planet Earth and the other elements have together created a climate of great diversity, an atmosphere of carefully chosen contents, geared to provide for the growth and metabolism of all that lives, a soil system with its dynamic equilibrium of moisture, air, minerals, flora and fauna which together maintain simple but nourishing soil fertility; a variety of mechanisms for energy absorption, pollination and fertilization in its magnificent plant kingdom through which it links up man with the five elements around and also provides the wide variety of food, clothing, shelter, medicinal herbs and so on and the most important of all, a perfectly harmless way of decomposing dead matter and keeping the place clean and tidy so that man has a cozy place to live! All this and more have been gifted to man by Nature and her self-renewing Ecosystems.

 

It is this wonderful life - creating - supporting – destroying capacity of  planet Earth that we, the so-called wise and learned men, are tampering with. In our greediness we are consuming more than the 'income' kept at our disposal, which in turn is supplied to the Earth by none other than that giant power station, the SUN. By interfering with the natural fertility of agricultural soil, groundwater resources, biodiversity, and various energy-transforming cycles in Nature, man is heading towards self-annihilation.

Need for a holistic answer

The survival of mankind is no longer a simple issue but is closely interlinked with the survival of the entire planet. But, who can give a holistic answer? Materialistic philosophy can, at best, provide only an economic world-view. Profit-oriented as it is, it will continue to harp on 'taking more out of less', of boosting production, enhancing desires, needs and consumption. It just doesn't know how to go beyond 'well-having' to 'well-being'. 'Survival' is of least importance to those who are habituated to looking at forests for its timber, at rocks for their ores, at landscapes for their real-estate value and of course at men and women as 'resources'.    

Disrespect and total lack of concern have become the hallmark of modern man. This has to be contravened and a new respect towards the entire creation has to be generated in the human mind. Only then will we learn to treat each other and our environment with respect and understanding and in that lies the first seeds ensuring survival of our human race. 

In ancient cultures and value systems, though survival was not a prime value, it certainly became the net result or by-product of man's greater achievements in human life, reflected in his knowledge of the Whole and the adjustments he made to co-exist peacefully with the Whole. One is reminded of Sri Krishna's words in the Bhagavad Gita

"parasparaṁ bhāvayantaḥ śhreyaḥ param avāpsyatha" (BG 3.11)

By cooperation between humans and the celestial gods, great prosperity will reign
for all.

In tune with this, the Indian blueprint insists on a different vision, an attitudinal change and a cultural reorientation. Time has come for the world to study the Indian Blueprint and the valuable information contained in it so as to adjust our lifestyles with global survival in view.

         

The Indian Blueprint is very simple, eloquent and grand in its sweep. It is as ternal as Truth and as nourishing as Life. It starts with man as its centre and endlessly unfolds as the ever-expanding universe, never for once snapping its ties between the individual and the Total. Only such a Blueprint can help the West to shift its attitude from the "well-having" to the "well-being" and help it learn the primary lesson of seeing the Whole in the part and part in the Whole.         

At the very outset it helps man to visualize Life as a Whole, Infinite and Eternal, far superior to the grasping power of human intelligence. Therefore, it holds that humility is the key, not aggressiveness, to unlock the mystery of everlasting life.

It also emphasises that Truth, the fundamental and prime basis of the Universe, the value behind the values is ONE, manifold though its expressions be. Seeing Unity in diversity, therefore, forms yet another clue for understanding Life in its totality.

From these two basic assumptions the blueprint unfolds revealing the grand vision of the universe with all that exists in it as ONE, interconnected and interpenetrated by one Divine Essence.    

The quintessence of the Indian concept regarding the laws of the Universe and the adjustments man must make to accommodate himself within it peacefully and harmoniously is effectively caught in the supremely meaningful opening stanza of Isavasyopanishad.

What does it say? To start with, there is the emphatic declaration that all that exists is pervaded by Divinity or Truth. To realise that Truth, making it a part of our life in knowledge, love and action is the surest way to achieve immortality. This tantamounts to recognising divinity everywhere and to one who has realised it in oneself; it is a question of seeing oneself, projected in the entire Universe! Thus, should man break the barrier of "otherness" which is the cause for spoiling our relationship with the world outside.

When man starts recognising the intrinsic worth of all that exists, naturally he will modulate his behaviour with love and respect towards all. Then would man learn to take from nature only what he needs for his well-being and not to exploit nature for his well-having.

The next step enjoins man  - 'to enjoy with restraint'. Behind the crisis at all levels that we face today is a lack of self-restraint in thought, words, work and enjoyments. To stop overutilisation and exploitation there is no other way than to practise "frugal consumption" and "voluntary simplicity". Global awareness resulting from and based on the above concepts, can undoubtedly reverse the self-annihilating trends that we find widespread today.      

An ultimate warning also is incorporated in the stanza to hold back man from destroying himself, that is 'to refrain from covetousness', unwanted competitions and petty jealousies that mar human relationships. So long as we are not ready to change our lifestyles, so long as we go on pampering ourselves in sensual delights and indulgences, so long as austerity and simplicity do not become part of our lives, we will not succeed in stemming the root of degradation that is threatening the life of this very planet. A reversal of the trend is a must.       

Swami Vivekananda wanted this message of India to reach far and wide before modern civilization irreparably turned this world into a graveyard through its blind passions, ignorance and morbid surrender to mechanical and materialistic culture and forces that are bent upon destroying the human race, nature and possibly the planet earth itself. He clearly foresaw that the only hope for the survival of humanity lies in renewing the macrobiotic vision of the ONE UNDIVIDED TRUTH in which everything in creation remains interconnected, interpenetrated and interdependent. Through his speeches and writings, he has drawn the attention of the entire world to this all-encompassing vision of truth or reality which is the cornerstone of the magnificent Indian spiritual heritage.  

If mankind, not in the far away future destroy, itself, it will not be due to lack of a blueprint, but because man was too egoistic to learn his elementary lessons spelt out in the blueprint. In such an impending global catastrophe the major share of blame would be on us, Indians in whose custody this blueprint had been lying from time immemorial.      

Through the three volumes of Kendra Patrika, Vivekananda Kendra-NARDEP has brought into focus this global problem and has also opened several windows to study it indepth. One comforting factor is the arrival on the scene of a large number of people belonging to all sections of society who are keen to study how to correct the imbalance in nature. It started in last century with several authors studying the book of Nature differently with a new meaning and purpose to help man find the right place in nature's magnificent gallery.  Many a heart has been touched and now they look at life and nature with a new deeper understanding. Examples of such wonderful studies at individual and collective levels including the state level are brought out in this volume. Also included are reviews on some of the publications by great thoughtful men and women who through their writings changed the human approach in remarkable ways.

Let me conclude this foreword with the wonderful blessing uttered by the great Saint Paramacharya of Kanchipuram, who made the world listen to India's message through the unparalleled melodious voice of India,
Smt. M.S. Subbalakshmi in the U.N. during its 50th anniversary, which dealt with Universal Brotherhood and peace as enshrined in the Sanathana Dharma which ends with this last prayer.

 

śreyo bhūyāt sakalajanānām

May all people be happy and prosperous.

 

                                                                                                                                 Dr.M.Lakshmi Kumari

 

Promoting Pathways to Sustainable Living - 2

 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations warns that the earth is in the ICU, and its environment is the culprit.

The problems are:

Depletion and degradation of life-support systems such as water, air, and the earth’s fertility.

Shrinking biodiversity, which provides the basic material for innovative gene combinations.

Man’s waste-making industrial culture, which guzzles up the world’s raw materials.

The present art/science of development as the process of converting nature’s limited gifts into consumables for Man.

An educational system that is a marketing process for industrial products.

A general mindset replacing nature’s spontaneity with manmade structures, wiping out humanity’s Sneha, Prema, Daya, and Bhakti.

The psychological effects of all-round degradation of nature's systems, family, community, health, entertainment, driving humanity towards narcotizing entertainment, drug culture, alcoholism, depression, and warfare, all resulting from the collapse of Man’s psychological support base of family and community, society, and the ecosystem.

As we navigate the complexities of environmental stewardship, the path forward intertwines innovation, education, and societal cohesion in the following areas: 

1. Promoting Circular Economy: Embracing Recycling and Reuse:

Metal, plastic, and wood-made articles, machinery, and consumable hardware can be used, reused, and re-reused. Manufacturers should offer buy-back options when they sell hardware. The materials can be easily reused. Water is said to have fifty uses, each use exploiting only one virtue of the element. With water resources shrinking at an alarming rate, recycling and multiuse technologies must enter the scenario.

2. Innovating Sustainability: Beyond Fossil Fuels:

Merely substituting fossil energy sources with renewable energy sources won’t serve any purpose if man’s mindset in consuming energy at the present rate continues. The pity is man continues to think in the old fashion in a totally new context. Take millets, for example. Each millet has a specific virtue, but the recipes for millet-cooking simply substitute millets for potato, amaranthus, rice, or wheat. Such fine arts and usages are being lost. Such mistakes occur because of man’s long-lasting friendship with Nature and its bounties fading out. Technology is a mindset that neglects fine details and individuality. Creative thinking and innovation processes emerge from closely watching and observing each gift of Nature.

3. Educating for Sustainability:

Dr. Ian Brown conducted a survey of 3000 schools across the world at the request of his mentor Maharshi Mahesh Yogi. Dr. Brown’s survey reveals the fact that the present-day school education cannot teach our children the worthwhile values of (1) Morality and ethics, (2) Appreciating Nature's (asthetic) values, and (3) Compassion. Green education has to include these vital lessons in its curriculum. Education both formal and mass education has to play a major role in environmental safety. The present education, a marketing process, is luring the student into accepting a particular lifestyle as appropriate.

The old system of education based on memory tests and rote is being edged out. Education has to be more entertaining to keep the students from running away from the classes. One Scientist, educator of England has pointed out that the teachers have to use more and more medicines to quieten the children and pin them down to the classroom. The teacher has to be the administrator of knowledge in a more entertaining way so that the child is retained in the classroom. The teacher has to retrain himself to administer education in a more alluring way because he has to compete with more attractive media such as cell phones, telephones, internet TV, etc.,

This makes the teacher’s job unenviable, and the teachers have to act like edutainers to attract students. In India, the attendance in Government school classes is continuously slipping down questioning the very effectiveness of Government schooling systems. The school has become part of the market, and it has to fight for its place in training the human mind. Uncontrolled media, social media, etc., grab the minds of the children. The present post-corona scenario forces teachers to admit they find it very difficult to run the offline classes for cell phone-addicted children.

True education simply does not dish out information but makes the student learn on his own. To wean the learner away from his groove of old consumption patterns, the teacher has to show enormous patience, love, eco-awareness, and communicate his/her wisdom to the student. MA VIDVISHAVAHAI. “Let us love each other” has to be the classroom ethos. The society accustomed to five hundred years of waste-making consumer culture will not yield its dearly held affiliation without a mother-like persuasive appeal by the teacher.

4. The Green Warrior's Path: Yoga, Kriyas, and Sustainable Consumption:

The green warrior embodies a holistic approach to sustainability, advocating for reduced consumption while emphasizing physical and psychological well-being through practices like Yoga and Kriyas. They understand that personal sacrifices yield rewards such as strengthened will, relaxed body, and heightened consciousness, setting a trend for societal change towards mindful living. Asking man to consume less, without offering some physical and psychological compensations, is not going to be easy. Yoga and Kriyas, which strengthen man’s will-power, enable man to do with less and less of the pleasures derived from external objects, will certainly help. A relaxed body consumes less food and absorbs the nutrients from the food in a better manner. This may not mean much to the food economy, but the opinion-makers and society leaders will set the trend for the common people. Ultimately man has to prove for himself that every sacrifice will reward him in the form of strengthened will, relaxed body, better concentration, greater consciousness of the mind, and a greater amount of love. Unless a green warrior accepts this principle, it will be unfair for the world to ask him to forego external sensual treasures.

5. The Purpose of Life:

Nature is continuously losing its orderliness as shown by increasing entropy. Nature consisting of animate objects cannot reassemble itself. It is the duty of living things to devote themselves to nature’s work. Man, being the highest on the ladder of life, has to take maximum responsibility to restore order. It is an unescapable duty of every man. Man does not have to go too far to search for his duty. That part of nature which gets degraded by the man handling of it should call for his first attention. Therefore, man’s duty towards nature, yajna lies in the objects which he handles in his day-to-day life. This is Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of universal thinking and local working.

6. Holistic Science: Integrating Analysis and Synthesis:

Science consists of two processes: analysis and synthesis. Man takes apart the constituents of a sugar candy – carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. But he misses two true points. He does not look up at the sweetness of sugar, which is its essence, and he does not come back to reassemble sugar from the parts. This process of synthesis is mostly neglected in science. Though strictly speaking analysis and synthesis make up science together, historical western science gives more credit to analysis than to synthesis. A green warrior has to correct this imbalance.

7. Cultivating Collective Consciousness: The Role of Social Units:

The individual cultural habits, consumption patterns, and tastes are shaped by his immediate family. A family is controlled by the community, though this control is invisible. The community is protected by the nation, and it helps to retain its cultural values. The nation’s culture justifies the existence of a nation and defines its contribution to the whole world, the whole creation. Its smaller unit is sustained by the larger unit and gets its liveliness from the next lower unit. In this manner, the smaller and bigger units of a nation and its culture are linked by symbiotic relationships. Environmental degradation impacts such relations and social break-up, atomization of the society leads to the breakup of all such entities. Therefore, the green warrior has to care for all such social units. But the individual breaks-up and crumbles to pieces when the family system breaks down. Germany and America are telling examples of such breakdown leading to drugs, personal abuse, alcoholism, and social discord. The inter-cohesion of society is linked to the inner harmony of the individual and vice versa. The role of the family system in providing care and safety for women, elders, and children has been well-studied. Therefore, greater, and greater social consciousness helps not only in saving the individual but also helps in saving the environment in the form of collectives such as grazing land, water bodies, fisheries, and public utilities. The individual, family, community, etc., are stages in the growth of collective consciousness.

8. Every Moment Matters: Cultivating Mindfulness:

It is the nature of many leaders to try to find universal solutions for every problem. They want a formula, a talisman, a sutra for every problem so that it can be universally applied. This act reduces universal problems to a small level, trivializing local problems. What is needed is a small solution that applies to local conditions and local problems. This comes from attentiveness, also called mindfulness. Clubbing a few unrelated problems in man’s overenthusiastic approach leads to neglecting individual problems. A Gobar gas plant suitable for a rocky and dry area in Tamil Nadu will not work in a water-locked area in the Netherlands. A green warrior has to curb his tendency to become the universal problem solver, a messiah. He has to have the humility to solve the problems one at a time, as they come.

9. Beyond Imposed Structures: Rediscovering Nature's Creative Flow:

Nature is very creative. It is very lively. It changes its actions frequently. And this unrehearsed action is called spontaneity. But man in his wisdom wants to impose his mentally made structures on the free-flowing nature. One scientist famously said, “This is the privilege of the Scientists, to find out the law of nature and impose human will on it.” This idea comes from the concept that no knowledge is good if it is natural. Every good thing has to be man-made. This has led man to impose his artificially made will, structure, calculatedness on free-flowing nature. Nature is amorphous. Nature does not confine itself to any formula. In that manner, all man’s understanding of its nature is only approximate and much less than the total truth. It is an approach that takes away from our understanding of nature’s creativity, spontaneity, productivity, and biodiversity. Jagdish Chandra Bose talks about nature’s rejuvenescence, nature’s spontaneity, chance, the very charm of living by presenting a series of surprises and keeps man constantly on his toes. Therefore, this structured approach to knowledge leads man to dullness, ennui, and forces man to seek happiness from elsewhere than from nature. This is the reason for man resorting to drugs, alcoholism, and narcotizing entertainment.

10. Unity in Conservation: Collaborative Environmental Roles:

The art of protecting nature, ecology, and environment has to be according to roles allotted to different segments of the society. The Governments can make only laws. And any law is as good as the lawmakers’ capacity to implement the law. Therefore, the Government has to have faith in the heart of man to save the environment. It can only make laws that emanate from the community and the individuals. The individual is very sensitive about the degradation of nature and is the first to suffer when the environment crumbles. Therefore, he is the starting point of any move to restore nature to its pristine harmony. But the voluntary organizations consisting of sensitive individuals, scholars, opinion-makers have to act as intermediaries between the individual and the Government. They have to control the greedy individual by the common ethical values and alert the Government about the impending damages. Therefore, each segment has its well-defined role in saving the environment.

11. Holistic Health: Embracing Natural Healing Alternatives:

A learned doctor with long-standing experience in the profession has written an article about medicines in this volume. Chemicals as opposed to herbs and nature cures are fighting for man’s attention. The medical corporate sector has such enormous clout that its budget is larger than the combined budgets of many countries. Therefore, medicine manufacturers use all their muscles to inject all kinds of chemicals into the human body. These chemicals prevent man’s natural self-healing energy, and the so-called modern medicine is a great threat to the human bodies all over the world. One science writer has written that if we could close all the hospitals today, we can think about human health fifty years afterward.

12. Water: The Modern Charkha for Green Warriors:

Jayaprakash Narayanji once said that he was searching for the modern equivalent of Gandhiji’s Charkha, the spinning wheel. This systematic tool has to be simple; it has to be relevant to all, and it has to keep man mindfully engaged and it should appeal to everybody’s need. Modern Green warriors have found that tool, for forming a cohesive society in WATER. Collecting, serving, distributing, recycling, and applying the multiple uses of water could be a society-building tool for humanity. It touches the lives of everyone and is already a universal problem touching not only human lives but also the lives of plants and animals.

13. Empowering Leisure: Cultivating Well-Being:

Asked what the greatest danger and problem for humanity in the future could be, double Nobel Laureate John Bardeen said “LEISURE”. All the speeding equipment, vehicles, airplanes, etc., glorify speed and science itself has equated speed with efficiency. Saving time in his workplace and travel, man has been left with much leisure time, not knowing what to do. He allows himself to be lured by drugs, alcohol, and narcotic entertainment. Ms. Magadelene, the ex-U.S. Secretary of State, drew our attention to this danger, wherein we fail to observe the beauties of our paths. The centenarian Paramacharya of Kanchi and Vinoba of the Bhoodan movement have enjoyed walking to the workplace, allowing themselves enough time to interact with people on the way. Modern speed-equipment leaves a great footprint on the traveller’s mind. He is agitated, moving, and restless, even when he has completed his journey. Tagore’s beautiful article “Walking barefoot to the school” should teach us what we miss when we run away or travel by a speeding-up vehicle.

14. Foot-loose Societies:

Schumacher, the energy expert, has bemoaned humanity’s habit of foot-loose traveling in the name of tourism. In Ancient India, everyone has to find happiness in his immediate surroundings, and an occasional traveller has to return to his base as early as possible. Today, smaller houses, crowded cities, the drudgery of work, drive people away from their habitats, causing a great drain on the world’s fuel stock. Man has to control his traveling to irreducible minimum to save fuel and to find happiness within himself and in his immediate surroundings.

Amidst mounting environmental challenges, a resounding call for change reverberates across sectors. The prelude sets the stage for a transformative journey towards sustainability. Embracing circular economy principles, stakeholders advocate for a paradigm shift in material consumption, promoting reuse and recycling. Beyond renewable energy adoption, the narrative urges a deeper cultural rethink of energy consumption. Education emerges as a linchpin, with calls for a holistic approach that instils values of morality, ecological consciousness, and compassion. The path to sustainability intertwines with personal wellness, as yoga and mindfulness empower individuals to consume consciously. Social cohesion and collective action emerge as essential pillars, urging communities to reclaim their roles in environmental stewardship. From local adaptations to global collaborations, the propositions paint a portrait of hope, resilience, and collective determination in the face of environmental crisis.

Vivekananda Kendra, NARDEP has produced a manual Environmental Awareness in day-to-day life. It could be our manual not only for saving the earth but also for saving oneself.

 

N.Krishnamoorti

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Editor Vivekvani                                                                                                & Senior Worker of Vivekananda Kendra

Promoting Pathways to Sustainable Living

Rationale

In the modern world, the consumeristic behaviour suggests a yardstick for success: the more you own, the better your life will be. We tend to equate buying things with positive emotions. Subsequently, we think that purchasing new stuff makes us happy. While our lifestyles and consumption choices might fulfil our needs and aspirations; they also have important impacts on our environment and on our interdependent societies and markets.

Our consumption habits are putting our resource levels at great risk. The amount of stuff we use in order to live has exploded in many parts of the world, highlighted by the fact that the global extraction of materials has tripled over the past four decades, rising to an enormous 70 billion tonnes in 2010. If current trends continue, then this dramatic increase in the amount of material we consume will continue to rise as populations grow, the middle class expands, and incomes increase (UNEP, 2011).

Today, cities are associated with 60 to 80 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, consume 75 percent of natural resources, and account for 50 percent of all waste (UNEP, 2012). By 2050, the number of people living in urban areas is expected to reach 6.3 billion – roughly two-thirds of the global population. This will have a profound effect on what and how individuals and societies consume, especially when it comes to food, mobility, housing, consumer goods and leisure.

As a result, this urban shift carries with it immense social implications. The extra pressure these new urban consumers will place on the world’s increasingly scarce resources will exacerbate existing tensions between the world’s wealthiest 10 percent, whose lifestyles contribute half of global carbon emissions, and the growing numbers of urban poor, who are responsible for only 10 percent of carbon emissions (Oxfam, 2015).

If current trends continue, by 2030, humanity will need the equivalent of two Earths to support itself, according to some experts. This is clearly not viable in a world where climate change will make it even harder for the natural world to provide for our needs.

There are encouraging signs that society is beginning to understand the impact of our daily choices. Terms like “quality of life” and “sustainable lifestyles” regularly appear in the media, illustrating that people are already weaving sustainability into their daily decision-making. Carbon footprinting, food waste reduction campaigns, urban gardening, vehicle sharing models, and surveys to understand the values and motivations of youth are all ways that are helping people to live more sustainable lifestyles.

Yet these actions, in general, are piecemeal. They are not yet framed within a holistic vision of what constitutes a sustainable lifestyle. Living sustainably is not just about individual choice: it is also about ensuring that governments and businesses enact policies that guide people towards these types of lifestyles. Often ignored is the role that public sector institutions can play in shaping better policy and the role of businesses in providing more sustainable goods and services.

Fortunately, sustainable lifestyles are now solidly anchored in policy. The COP21 Paris Agreement made it clear that sustainable lifestyles and sustainable patterns of consumption and production (SCP) will be key in the fight against climate change. The goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and intergovernmental processes like the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on SCP give further support to champions of sustainable lifestyles by acknowledging the powerful role they can play in lifting people out of poverty, ending hunger, and reducing inequality while protecting the environment. At least two of the eight themes of the World Economic Forum 2016 in Davos, Switzerland, highlighted the impacts of climate change on our lives and the effects of increasing wealth inequality on economic development. This clearly shows that sustainable consumption and lifestyles are growing in importance on the international stage (Akenji and Chen, 2016).

With this solid foundation in place, it is now time to develop a more structured, life-cycle, and evidence-based understanding of sustainable lifestyles to facilitate global dialogue and measure progress. This will enable us to focus on the ‘hotspots’ on where critical action can be taken.

For individuals, this means understanding the impacts of their daily decisions and embracing more sustainable lifestyles. For governments, it implies setting a conducive regulatory context, facilitating and inspiring better citizen decision- making, creating market demand through sustainable public procurement, and supporting research, development, and innovation. For the private sector, it implies integrating sustainability into core business strategies to develop innovative ways to meet the needs of people while reducing the pressure on the world’s dwindling resources. This includes communicating about product sustainability performance to enhance informed decision-making.

VK-NARDEP’s perspectives of sustainable living

Inspired by the Eastern wisdom of the Samagra Vikas approach, we at VK-NARDEP have learnt a deeper and broader meaning of Development. Our understanding of development goes beyond materialistic and quality of life indicators. We see Development as the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual growth of man in consonance with his family, community, patriotic and global identities and relations, helping him to live in harmony with Nature and live without impoverishing or endangering future generations.

The Samagra Vikas approach greatly emphasises on development with a human face.The modern science and economies see the parts as divorced from the whole. This approach sees trees and misses the woods. This vision also failed to see the interdependence of the parts of Nature, their underlying linkages and the overall utility. Synthesis and holism lost out the race for a place in man’s scheme of things. Thereafter, the economies got divorced from the social concerns of man and became the study of the management merely of the materials and wealth.

In this paradigm, social units such as family, community and cultural entities suffered the most. The new science and economies promoted lifestyle and a thought-pattern that led to the atomisation of the community. This resulted in isolation of the individual from his emotional and biological provenance and cultural background. The modern science and technology is emphasising on production of ‘over concentrated useful things’ like vitamins through intensifying the technology and leaving the rest of the things as waste. This is the central cause of all problems of today. Life is natural and cannot be compartmentalised.

In earlier days, man was slow, land-loving, Nature-lovers and family and community centred. He led a subsistent way of life, which kept him self-contented. The values and norms promoted by the institutions of the early days, guided the man to live in harmony with fellow human beings and Nature through sharing and caring. Commercialisation of social transactions degraded community values and created orphans, who could not ‘purchase their way out’.

The present paradigm of development, for sure, is leading to an irreversible destruction to the mankind. It is the responsibility of every individual human being to change the present situation. Each individual’s role in restoring our ancient lifestyles is inescapable. Everyone should keep doing at his/her own capacity towards this cause and one should not wait the whole society to change. “Be, but don’t expect”.

VK– NARDEP is committed to translating the grand concepts of sustainable living into packages for application in day-to-day life and take the same to the masses.

Digital Exhibitions

VK-Nardep has established an exhibition entitled Gramodaya Park, in the headquarters campus of Vivekananda Kendra at Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. The exhibition gives insights into sustainable solutions to the problems encountered by the world. Presently Gramodaya Park has established permanent exhibitions on water management, agriculture, housing and health. The exhibitions are visited by thousands of  people per annum on an average.

Now, we propose to promote a digital exhibition in Gramodaya Park on “Promoting Pathways to Sustainable Living” with the following objectives:

Strengthening the individuals’ existing knowledge about sustainable lifestyles.

Motivating the individuals to adopt sustainable living practices.

Sharing best practices and partnerships among the practitioners, aspirants, implementing agencies, government bodies and policy makers.

Cultivating partnerships and networking among the different stakeholders.

To bring the contents of the exhibition to the knowledge of non-viewers, we have decided to present them simultaneously in print medium in the form of 3 volumes of Kendra Patrika with a title – “Promoting Pathways to Sustainable Living”. The first volume covers the five sections (i) Philosophical aspects (ii) Economy, Energy, Environment (iii) Inner Sustainability (iv) Thinkers and (v) Sustainable Development through stories.

The second volume will cover different verticals such as (i) Water (ii) Food (iii) Energy (iv) Forests (v) Agriculture (vi) Housing (vii) Mobility (viii) Markets (ix) Globalisation (x) Consumer Goods (xi) Communication (xii) Education (xiii) Health etc.

The third and the last is the most important volume – The Trend Setters which will have 4 sections such as:

1. Nations – Bhutan, Cuba, Germany, Costa Rica etc.

2. Movements such as Voluntary simplicity, Slow living, Slow cities, Minimalism, 
     Holistic Health, Organic Natural farming etc.

3. Individuals – Green Warriors, Sadhaks, Followers etc.

4. Book Reviews of a few important books related with Sustainable Development

Contributors of the first volume are mainly our colleagues who are practitioners of Sustainable Living such as:

Shri N.Krishnamoorti – who is our friend, philosopher and guide for the last four decades.

Shri Dileep Kulkarni, who worked for Vivekananda Kendra a few years before settling in Kokan area of Maharashtra and living in tune with Nature for the last 3 decades and motivating and guiding people of Maharashtra by conducting shibirs, giving lectures and writing highly inspiring books.

Shri T.Raghunandan who too worked for Vivekananda Kendra in the formative years, managed a 10+2 Senior Secondary School in Rajasthan for thirty-one years with his wife Vasantha and has now settled  down in Kerala for sadhana.

Shri Aravindan Neelakandan too is associated with Kendra since last two decades and who is now an associate editor of the famous magazine “Swarajya”.

Dr.Prakash Maithani retired as an advisor, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India is also closely associated with us since last three decades.

In addition, to cover the gaps, we have added articles of the few individuals to make the volume complete.

Our close friend and well-wisher Shri Venkataraghavan alias Keshav added value to the Kendra Patrika by designing the cover page and illustrations in the pages of this issue. Hope, readers will appreciate our efforts.

                                                                                                            G.Vasudeo