The Prithvi Sukta, the great hymn to the Earth in the Atharva Veda, contains a line that has become famous: mātā bhūmiḥ putro ahaṃ pṛthivyāḥ — “The Earth is my mother; I am her child” (12.1.12). The hymn praises mountains, forests, rivers and the many peoples who live on the land, and asks forgiveness for the wounds that digging and building inflict on her.
Enjoy through renunciation
The Isha Upanishad opens with the teaching that all this is pervaded by the divine, and that we should enjoy it through renunciation, not coveting what belongs to others. Read ecologically, it is a principle of restraint: take what is needed, with gratitude, and leave the rest.
From reverence to restoration
Reverence that stays in the mind is incomplete. The natural next steps are restraint in what we consume and restoration of what has been harmed — planting, cleaning, protecting, learning the land. These are practical acts, but they can also be practised as acts of devotion.
Cosmos, human, Earth
Kalki Darshan pictures the human being standing between the stars and the soil — the one creature able to choose how it will live. Ecological restoration is where a transformation of consciousness becomes visible in the world.
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