Thought pollution: The root of environmental crisis
Most of us living in this world are very much aware of the word ‘Pollution’, be it a child, a youngster or an old person. However, one could not really contemplate over the reasons or source from which this dreadful monster called pollution really occurs. Today, globally every country is facing consequence of pollution, contamination or abuse of air, water, food & even Space on a very large scale, but they are not able to find a foolproof solution to this dangerous threat for humanity. Although many institutions & regulatory bodies have been established & many designs and plans have been made to resolve this problem, but those are like a bucket of water used in hopes of extinguishing an enormous blazing fire.
Today a fast-developing country like India stands poised on a pinnacle of wealth and power, yet we Indians live in a land of vanishing beauty, increasing ugliness, shrinking open spaces, and of an overall environment that is diminishing daily by pollution and noise and blight. Warnings of scientists & environmentalists about the dangers of pollution seem to fall on the deaf ears as the majority of people continue to pollute the air with their automobile exhaust, the water with their sewage, and the whole panorama with plastic bottles and cans. So where does this take us? Would there really be a solution to control or tackle pollution problems & save humanity? Well!! the answer lies with the ones who are posing this question, i.e. we the humans, YES! Over the years, while discussing deeply about cause & effect of pollution, we smartly avoid looking at the actual problem that’s deep rooted in the mental sphere rather than the sphere of matter.
If we look up for the dictionary meaning of word pollution, we may find something like ‘to destroy purity of; to contaminate’. However, we humans are only aware of the material pollution in the branches of the polluted tree & we have totally disregarded the seed or root of ‘thought pollution’ which gave growth to that tree. So, without destroying the root basis of pollution, the source can never be purified. In Fact, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that the problem of environmental pollution is actually due to pollution of man’s mind which is full of selfishness, jealousy, greed, anger, etc. The problem of ecological imbalance is due to our mental imbalance, and the disequilibrium in nature is due to disequilibrium in man’s mind.
Another fact which is generally unknown or is little realised, is that the vibrations from a polluted mind contaminate or corrupt the atmosphere; they make it tense and vicious. Most of us make a mistake by thinking that our thoughts are invisible & psychic and hence they can’t do anything, but actually thoughts have both hands and legs, because one can control one’s hand to rob nothing, control one’s legs to kick nobody, but one can scarcely control one’s thought without thinking as thought is too deep to be expressed, too strong to be suppressed, too fast to be drawn back, hence he who will not command his thoughts, will soon lose command of his actions. The wars and struggles and quarrels of mankind are very often caused by this.
A deep thinking would reveal that most of the present global problems are due to thought pollution, for this pollution destroys a person’s sense of being impartial, considerate and co-operative and makes him callous, inimical, violent-prone and vicious. It influences economics, politics, commerce, business, even friendship and all relationships and destroys real love, kindness and human values which are essential to peace and happy life. The ultimate solution to this problem lies in realising the self and also our relationship with other human beings. Remember! Great men are those who see that the spiritual force is much stronger than the material force. Hence without a spiritual orientation of the relationship between man and man, moral and spiritual values cannot be brought into play or be sustained, and, in the absence of these core values, no problem can really be solved for a considerable length of time. It is, therefore, essential for all of us to understand our real and intrinsic nature behind the mask or the garment of the body to set the direction right. If this is not done, then possibly science without spirituality may dangerously lead mankind to a nuclear catastrophe or population explosion or environmental upheaval. So, let us use the powerful weapon of spiritual wisdom to cleanse our soul from thought pollution & survive in harmony with nature & its elements without any kind of disturbance whatsoever.