Sanskrit and sustainability

Sanskrit is my favourite language in the world, I’ve had the privilege of extensively studying it, and today the importance of this ancient parent language is more than what we realise. Like the environment, which has given us livelihood, ecosystem, leisure, nature, infrastructure - in a similar way, Sanskrit has given us heritage, most of Indian modern-day languages, a legacy to carry on, and even the hottest thing today - computer languages, the binary code and also the everlasting ‘zero’.

This is beyond any religious or national sentiments, this is beyond historical databases and the records of which alphabet came first - this is about me learning some of my biggest lessons from the Sanskrit language and drawing a parallel towards what I am most passionate about.

There is a story. I read when I was 14, it mentioned my favourite phrase ever ‘तत् त्वम् असि’, which is literally translates to ‘you are it’, or rather ‘you are what you can be’ - leading to a belief of maximising our potential. 

It is about this child who was curious about the seed of a Banyan tree. He goes and asks his teacher as to where does the bank tree grow from, the teacher asked him to open the seed and to his surprise, the hollow from within, upon which the teacher explains that there is no substance that you need to see for a huge dense spectacular everlasting banyan tree to grow out of it - that small hollow seed is more than enough. The story hints towards how all of us have so much of potential and power inside us, and always doesn’t have to be visible to the naked eye, we can harness it whenever the need be. 

I feel that the story deeply resonates with the kind of climate and nature based solutions that have been coming up, the power of regenerative agricultural, to empower our local farmers and communities through organic culture and cultivation of sophisticated crops like coffee and cocoa or regular crops wheat and barley - harnessing, the power of the environment has been in full swing. Utilising research and technology to utilise renewable rockets at the level of national space missions, two developed solutions from within the earth, for the earth, is no joke - it is pure vision and hard work. With India’s green hydrogen mission, to bringing to life the world’s biggest solar park in Rajasthan, to achieving record, renewable energy in the energy mix as a part of our netzero mission, to countless plantation drives, to constructing the first highway (NH66) with steel slag and to building and leading the Global South’s first sustainability commune - India’s work towards environmental stewardship is akin to the hollow Banyan seed, but we can constantly strive to do so much, and then so much more. 

Indeed there is so much more to do, but change has begun, and the start is solid.

Sanskrit also talks about ‘काल’, or the cycle of time and of life. How the earth does not need us, but we need the earth and the ecosystem to survive, how this planet can regenerate and has survived, transitioned and evolved over centuries and eras, is purely remarkable and definitely signifies the cycle of life and cycle of time that we humans have to consider when we talk about climate action. 

Another thing I feel very strongly towards is this grammatical concept in Sanskrit, which is called ‘सन्धि’ - this means a union of words, but it also from a sustainability standpoint signifies the new union of two elements, nature and humankind, while also laying the foundation for inclusion, diversity, and embracing all differences that make us so unique and remarkable together.

Working towards a better environment in the current time of the planet of humanity does require so much, hope, faith and endless optimism - it also requires an open mind, superseding effort and the power to get through breakdowns to reach breakthroughs.

Today, let’s take more than a step, let’s take more than a commitment - let’s stop focusing on futile issues, and be really united for a better tomorrow. 

The world is one, and it has to come together, for a greener planet and a greener future.

This article is also published on LinkedIn. illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability & Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.