Speaker: Prof Subhadra Mitra Channa, Dept. of Social Anthropology, University of Delhi, specialist on gender, religion and ecology with anthropological theory and methodology

Chair: Dr A.K. Merchant, General Secretary, the Temple of Understanding, India

Ecology as a concept originated in the West and defined a relationship between humans and nature which assumes that the two are on different axes and explicitly states that humans are superior. However, for many other worldviews including the ancient wisdom of the East there is no such essential difference: all of nature encompasses the human, soul as well as body. As depicted in the Jataka tales and for Hindus, who believe in the atman and paramatman, the soul or spirit that inhabits every life form is essentially the same. There thus is no ecology as such, it is only various forms taken by one spirit