Sustainable consumption as a means to self-realization: a Hindu perspective on when enough is enough
In this paper, I investigate the religious notion of self-realization or self-actualization in the context of sustainability, and argue that sustainability is the means to this end. I am particularly interested in Hindu perspectives on self-realization or the <TOGGLE>Purusharthas</TOGGLE>. The <TOGGLE>Purusharthas</TOGGLE> provide an interesting sustainability critique because they consider the satisfaction of material want as an important step to self-actualization; the reconciliation of <TOGGLE>want</TOGGLE> and <TOGGLE>need</TOGGLE> is a fundamental sustainability tension. The issue of growing <TOGGLE>want</TOGGLE> is doubtless an important one, given the rapidly growing middle classes in the developing world that aspire to Western material dreams, as illustrated by the case of Delhi. The <TOGGLE>Purusharthas</TOGGLE> may be seen to give consumption legitimacy; however, I argue that it is the selective understanding and institutionalization of the religious message that causes the sustainability problem. Viewed in their entirety, the <TOGGLE>Purusharthas</TOGGLE> provide the correct prescriptions for the sustainable enjoyment of want, and take the adherent beyond sustainability into greater transcendence or self-awareness. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Year of publication: |
2010
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Authors: | Narayanan, Yamini |
Published in: |
Sustainable Development. - John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., ISSN 0968-0802. - Vol. 18.2010, 5, p. 252-259
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Publisher: |
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
Saved in:
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