인도사상에서 인간과 자연의 관계

Abstract

The dilemma of mankind at the outset of 21st Century is symbolized in the destruction of the global environment that we have witnessed over the last half a century. Rapid progresses in up-to-date technology, genetic engineering, and a number of other fields of human activity have been really amazing. Nevertheless, we have had to pay a heavy price for this, as is clear from the acute ecological crisis that we face. It is almost needless to recount the terrible ravages that we have inflicted upon the global biosphere. We have polluted the land, the oceans, the rivers, the mountains, and the atmosphere so that many kinds of life have annihilated, many more are threatened with extinction and the human race itself may be beginning to lose its place upon the earth. The rate of pollution caused by human beings far exceeds nature's ability to purify and rejuvenate its life-sustaining air and water. In this paper I will examine the Hindu and the Buddhist views regarding the environment and grope for some clue to the ecological crisis that we are confronted with. It is obvious that Hindus and Buddhists perceived the value of maintaining a harmonious relationship between the needs of man and the spectacular diversity of the universe. To them, nature was not only a mother to sustain their life, it was the abode of divinity. Unlike Western culture, they did not believe that man's role on earth was to exploit nature to his own selfish purpose. Nor did they subscribe to the prevailing western worldview that the true end of man was essentially to dominate and control nature by all possible means. On the contrary, sanctity of life to them included not only the individual efforts to seek salvation but also to achieve it by developing a sacred attitude towards the spiritual significance of nature.