Train rides in India have become much more comfortable and hygienic. I was traveling in one of the AC compartments from Siliguri(West Bengal) to New Delhi and I was offered clean sheets, fresh-smelling pillow covers, and soft unblemished blankets. After a while, the sweeping service cleared out all the trash thrown inside the compartment. Feeling a sense of satisfaction, sitting silently in my seat as I watched children playing, and cattle grazing at the center of a field surrounded by huge piles of plastic, cans, wrappers, and rubbish. It just gets worse as the train passes through hundreds of small houses amidst the pond of garbage. My sense of satisfaction disappears into the gloomy corners of my mind.
The pollution outside
The pollution situation is alarming, we all see it around us. No one needs to convince us about this fact. We can see the obvious land pollution once we step out of our homes. Thankfully awareness programs are on the rise and people are getting mindful about disposing of the trash. Indeed, efforts in the form of innovations, executions, information spreading, building habits, etc., of the outside world are necessary for a pollution-free world but more is needed to fight against this gigantic problem.
Sooner or later we would need to have a system where the destruction/ recycling efforts would have to be much larger than the efforts to produce. While recycling/ destruction increases from a low base at arithmetic progression, consumption is already rising at geometric progression. Developed countries are pushing pollutants onto developing and underdeveloped economies. Where shall these poor economies push their pollutants? If a system/ global economy where destruction/recycling is far more sophisticated and at least equal(even if not larger) than production comes into place, then alone a pure environment is possible. By all means, such an economic system could be more sustainable and practical.
The pollution inside
Let’s analyze a few facts about the existing pollution situation. What’s causing pollution? All sorts of pollutants. What’s bringing pollutants to the world? The rising levels of material consumption. What’s causing the rising levels of consumption? Of course, increased identification with materialistic things and running after the evanescent pleasure of materialism. What’s resulting in the chase after ephemeral things? Ignorance. What’s causing ignorance? Impurities in the mind in the form of greed, attachment, ego, jealousy, etc.
Consider a situation where you decide to buy another fridge despite having a perfectly working one or similar life situations. Just sit silently for some time contemplating and you can trace it back to either of the impurities mentioned above. Day by day as we are growing, our consumption is also increasing. For that momentary pleasure of buying a new thing or eating another tasty expensive food item, we don’t mind slogging like a slave. A new phone every year, a new shirt every fortnight, a new restaurant every weekend, a new water bottle every day, a new cigarette every hour; there is no end to consumption.
Large organizations target the masses to consume more and we are trapped in this game consciously as well as unconsciously. Now it’s not only the game of products but also of information. With the aid of information systems especially social media, we are made addicted to consuming more information. Then it is used to sell more products and we keep buying. Can we imagine the vicious cycle we are in? Greed, attachment, and jealousy have led to all the trash in the outside world.
Ego makes us feel that there is a distinct I and you, and something is mine and yours. This separation makes one dump trash outside his/ her house for inside the house is his/her property and outside it is someone else’s. This ego is making the developed nation dump its trash on lower economies. Because of this, the factories release polluted water into rivers and polluted gases into the atmosphere without thinking about the harm they are doing. It is the same ego that makes a person throw away garbage on the floor of the train compartment.
Internal purification is a necessity
It is impossible to tackle external pollution without clearing out internal pollutants. Let’s try to analyze this from the bottom up. Every decision that we make has its source as a thought in our minds. You can read more about it in another article, Thought vs Action: Which One is You? Most of our thoughts are the mental manifestations of these hidden impurities i.e. greed, attachment, and jealousy. Therefore, a yogi who has completely purified himself/herself of all impurities is free from all such thoughts. These thoughts direct our decisions and thus result in actions in the physical world.
How do we tackle these external problems without acknowledging and addressing these root causes? To arrest the apparent physical pollutants outside, internal purification from these impurities in the form of greed, attachment, jealousy, ego, and lust is extremely important. A humongous effort to raise awareness about the significance of the purification of the mind is essential to save our Earth. A purified mind would not only help tackle the external pollutants that he/she is producing but would start to educate, make aware, and even lead efforts for minimizing the external pollution level of others.
Leave a Reply