Many people, especially self identified spiritual types, think that spirituality is pure but politics is dirty. This point of view has it that only retreat into a personal relationship with God has lasting value, that the “world” is dirty and that involvement with the world can only cheapen one’s relationship to God.
This point of view is completely erroneous. Traditional spirituality has always emphasized that karma yoga- the yoga of action, is not at loggerheads with bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion. The key to discerning the proper relation between the two paths is detachment.
The Bhagavad Gita, the Song of the Lord, or the discourse of lord Krishna to Arjuna on the eve of a fratricidal war, admonishes the cowardice of Arjuna to battle his brethren on the basis that detachment and dharma are the keys to spiritual action. One must always be true to spiritual honor, as well as detachment, in any situation, especially one of conflict. What is detachment? Complete indifference to the results of ones earnest and sincere actions.
This problem of “right action” in the face of conflict is the decisive issue of our day. Climate crisis requires that we all take a stand on the problem of sustainability. Our situation is even more grave than that of Arjuna who faced mortal combat with uncles, mentors and cousins. The consequences of not acting decisively to counter climate crisis affects all of mankind, and especially those who are poor and disadvantaged by environment and other factors.
Climate crisis encompasses many crucial dimensions of life and including those referenced by political economy. We are at a decisive crossroads that requires the complete rethinking of the status quo. Technology and capitalism have completely failed us, largely because they have always been in service to greed and exploitation. Accruing capital- money and resources, to make more and more money and to accrue more and more resources- and in the process to establish hegemony over the exploited, has proved to be from the point of view of green house gasses, a suicide pact.
We are now facing the problem of how to replace carbon based technology and capitalism with sustainable and just alternatives. This represents a kind of fratricidal revolution in that we must redefine who we are: we must kill our past. We must kill the illusion of progress who has been enshrined as a goddess for hundreds of years. We must give up the most cherished illusions that man has ever contrived: namely, that we can successfully recreate the image of man as dependent on heavenly Nature with the image of man as dependent on the infernal machine.
Climate crisis will result in long term crisis mitigation. We will have to shut down the carbon machine and reinvent ourselves as stewards of Nature who believe in our hands and hearts as the expression of our creative will.
The spiritual warriors of our time, like Greta Thurnberg, evidence both tremendous patience and tremendous zeal in their mission to lead all of us into this new spiritual advocacy.
