The intriguing, intellectual, amazing behind the scenes point of view of music from super producer Young Guru through interviews

Source: Variety of Youtube channels. The videos will be added below as they are made or as they come to my attention.



From youtube channel TheMovementMagazine. Young Guru And The Movement Magazine talk about the future of the music industry.



From youtuber hakimgreen7. Young Guru speaking on religion, history & the impact of music.



From goomradio. Young Guru speaking on religion, history & the impact of music



From youtuber damosman and The 54 Reality Show



From youtube channel The Hip Hop Chrincle UK

Kanye West performs the songs Power & Jesus Walk in Morocco North Africa

Source: youtube channel VibLand

Morocco is an interesting and symbolic place to do both songs. Also North Africa which is having revolutions, rebellion & uprising going on.

Vandana Shiva speaking on the importance of farming, organic seeds, earth balance & Grandmothers

"Vandana Shiva was born on November 5, 1952, Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand, India. She is a philosopher, environmental activist, and eco feminist. Vandana Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than 20 books and over 500 papers in leading scientific and technical journals. She was trained as a physicist and received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 1978 with the doctoral dissertation "Hidden variables and locality in quantum theory." She is one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization, and a figure of the global solidarity movement known as the alter-globalization movement. She has argued for the wisdom of many traditional practices, as is evident from her interview in the book Vedic Ecology by Ranchor Prime, that draws upon India's Vedic heritage. She is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, Spain's Socialist Party's think tank." - From Wikipedia.com

She continues her fighting against GMO seeds, teaching, lecturing and fighting seed corrupting companies like Monsanto.

The official Beyoncé - Run The World (Girls) video [HD] & pictures

Source: Beyonce youtube Vevo

Hmmm, interesting. A red flag with a black "B" on it. Also women & men with a red tie around the waist. A virgo screaming girl power or dealing with matriarchy would not be surprising. Who Run The World symbolism is interesting. The visuals are below.

New videos for Stic Man of Dead Prez album called The Workout

I am very happy that Stic Man through his life experiences, him wanting a personal change, a mental, physical, spiritual & financial betterment for himself is doing great music that will reflect that. It will encourage those that he come in contact with to inspire to do the same. What more can you want in life but an all around wholistic/holistic balance. Working out, meditation & spirituality, working for self & healthy vegetarian/vegan/raw food eating, spreading light in all direction. Below is the album cover, also an interview and updated music videos as they are released for the album, & links to websites.









Dead Prez official site

Stic Man official site

RBG Fit Club official site

Microsoft's agenda to transform humans into living antenna & sensor activator

Source: Live Science website



A team of researchers from Microsoft has discovered a home automation system that could eliminate costly rewiring and outsmart even the smartest appliances.

The Redmond, Wash., team has shown that the human body is a natural antenna. It reliably picks up the electromagnetic signals that emanate from all electrical systems and appliances in the home. These ambient signals can be used to create an affordable home automation system that controls household electronics with a pat on the wall or even a simple hand gesture.

The researchers conducted a set of experiments in 10 houses representing a variety of construction types in the Pacific Northwest. Each homeowner was equipped with a laptop and data-acquisition device and had a sensor pad strapped to his or her neck.

Although the test equipment for their initial experiments was rather bulky, the researchers concluded that the sensing equipment could be incorporated easily into a watch or mobile phone.

The home control system would require training, including input from the homeowner to essentially "teach" the wearable software the layout of the house, calibrate electrical components, and program simple control gestures. Family members could devise their own personal gestures for home control, the researchers noted.

Walls as sensors

Since it is hard to see the actual electrical wiring behind walls, researchers proposed a "stud finder" approach, in which the homeowner runs his or her hand on the surface and audible feedback indicates whether the area under the hand contains enough signal for interaction.

By examining the noise picked up by the body, the absolute touch position around a light switch or blank wall near electrical wiring within the home was determined with nearly 87 percent accuracy. The system could even discriminate between left-, right- and two-handed contact more than 96 percent of the time.

The ability to turn almost any wall surface or electrical device in the home into an interactive input system would make the possibilities for controller-free living virtually limitless. Gestures could be mapped to digital lighting in a room without the need for switches; tapping above or below any existing light switch could raise or lower the thermostat from any room, or control the volume of music playing from a housewide audio system.

Smarter appliances

To test the new system with common appliances, the researchers focused on two of the original 10 houses. Homeowners touched each of six appliances in the two kitchens: refrigerator, freezer, stove, microwave, dishwasher, and faucet. They were reliably classified by their ambient electrical signatures 100 percent of the time.

This suggests that "uninstrumented" appliances could be turned into real-world "buttons," eliminating the need for complicated knobs and panels.

Researchers concluded that the ability to scale the entire home into an input system also opens the door to a breadth of new gaming and general computing applications that could easily be deployed in any home. Exploring and building these applications remains future work.

Scorpions glow in the dark with the full moon light

Source: Live Science website



The horror, the horror: As if scorpions weren't frightening enough, when illuminated by ultraviolet rays from a black light, the armored arachnids glow an unnatural neon blue. UV light that hits these creepy crawlies gets converted by proteins in their exoskeletons into light of a blue hue, which is visible to the human eye.

Scorpions are already outfitted with armor, pinchers, and painful and poisonous stingers, so one has to wonder: Is glowing in the dark really necessary?

Actually, arachnologists have spent untold hours trying to answer that very question. What, they wonder, is scorpion fluorescence good for?

Actually, arachnologists have spent untold hours trying to answer that very question. What, they wonder, is scorpion fluorescence good for?

ome say glowing might help scorpions find each other; their earth-tone coloring makes them otherwise difficult to spot in the desert. Others think they do it to dazzle prey. Alternatively, the light conversion effect could act as a sunscreen. Upon experimental investigation, however, none of these hypotheses hold up to scrutiny, leading some arachnologists to speculate that scorpion fluorescence has no function at all. Perhaps, they say, it's just a random act of evolution.

California State University arachnologist Carl Kloock thinks otherwise. Over the past few months, Kloock and his colleagues have started unraveling the mystery of why scorpions glow.

"They may be using UV as a way to determine whether or not to come to the surface to look for prey, based on the light levels," Kloock told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.

Scorpions are nocturnal creatures. They abhor the heat and evaporative effects of sunlight, and it turns out they specifically avoid UV light too. In a recent issue of the Journal of Arachnology, the Cal State team reported that the arachnids adjust their activity level depending on the amount of UV shining on them. When flooded in UV, they are less active than when lights are dim.

"My thinking at this point for why they would respond to UV is that there is a UV component in moonlight," Kloock wrote in an email. If scorpions are hungry, he explained, they'll come out and hunt regardless of light levels. But if they're satiated, research shows they tend to lie low on moonlit nights, especially around the time of the full moon. "[Fluorescence] may be part of the mechanism by which the scorpions respond to moonlight," Kloock wrote. He is preparing a follow-up experiment to test the idea directly.

Perhaps, to the great satisfaction of scorpion scientists everywhere, the question of why scorpions glow under UV light may finally be getting answered. As for everyone else — especially people who live around deadly species of scorpions — their fluorescence allows for a very different sort of satisfaction. By patrolling the house with a black light, you can easily find and kill them.

The oldest preserved mummies & mummied children ever found on earth is in South America

Source: In quotations are Wikipedia.com info.

The oldest mummies in the world ever found is in South America known as the Chinchorro Mummies. However the oldest best preserved mummied humans are also in South America. In an area called Llullallaco.

"Llullaillaco is a stratovolcano at the border of Argentina (Salta Province) and Chile. It lies in the Puna de Atacama, a region of very high volcanic peaks on a high plateau within the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places in the world. It is the fifth highest volcano in the world, and it is also the seventh highest mountain of the Western Hemisphere. The peak's name comes from Aymara 'murky water': llulla= dirty and yacu= water. Other sources propose it to have originated from Quechua Lullac= lie, Yacu= water: 'lying (or treacherous) water'."

"In 1999 on Llullaillaco's summit, about 22,110ft (6,739 metres), an Argentine-Peruvian expedition co-directed by Johan Reinhard and Argentine archaeologist Constanza Ceruti found the perfectly preserved bodies of three Inca children, sacrificed approximately 500 years earlier. This is the highest Inca burial so far discovered in Tawantinsuyu, and is the world's highest archaeological site. According to contemporary writings by Spanish priests, these children were participants in capacocha, a sacrificial rite that occurred in celebration of key events in the life of the Inca emperor. The mummies are those of a 15-year-old girl, nicknamed "La doncella" (The maiden), a seven-year-old boy, and a six-year-old girl, nicknamed "La niña del rayo" (The lightning girl). The latter's nickname reflects the fact that sometime in the 500 year period the mummy spent on the summit, it was struck by lightning, partially burning the preserved body and some of the ceremonial artifacts left with the mummies. The three mummies are exhibited at the Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña in Salta, Argentina, in a rotating fashion, so as not to expose any of the mummies for too long a time at once. Mummies are typically rotated in the exhibit every six months."



"'La Doncella', older girl mummy: This mummy was found wearing a magnificent headdress, which meant she was probably an aclla or Sun Virgin. That is, she was chosen and sanctified as a toddler to live with other girls and women who would become royal wives, priestesses, and sacrifices. She also wore a brown dress, and was buried with several statues. Her hair was braided elaborately and she had a few white hairs, perhaps indicating emotional stress. She and the others are believed to have been drugged with chicha, a maize beer, along with coca leaves, before being abandoned on the mountain."





"Boy mummy: Some of the boy's clothes contained vomit mixed with blood, suggesting that he may have suffered from a pulmonary edema. It is believed that he died from suffocation. He was the only one of the mummies to be tied up, and a piece of cloth had been pulled around him tightly enough to crack his ribs and dislocate his pelvis."

"Lightning Girl', young girl mummy: This child's body was hit by lightning sometime after her death. She wore a headdress with a metal plate over her brow. She was buried with jars which were made around Lake Titicaca and Cuzco, showing how far she may have traveled. She is the only one of the three whose face is turned upward."

* I find it very interesting that the one they called lightening girl was the only one hit by lightening, & the only one that was facing upwards. It appears she really wanted to go into the astral realm & project out.

The super multi-genius 5 year old known as Mabou Loiseau from Queens, New York

Source: New York Daily News, writer ERICA PEARSON



Seven languages. Six musical instruments. Two types of dance and two sports. It all adds up to one busy little Queens girl.

Five-year-old Mabou Loiseau's parents spend $1,500 a week on tutors and lessons - and she spends seven hours a day in some type of instruction, with Sundays off.

She grew up speaking French, Creole and English, but her immigrant parents didn't want to stop there. She's also learning Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic and Russian.

"Russian is my most favorite. I just hear something, and if I don't understand I say, 'What does that mean?' and they'll tell me," said Mabou, whose Laurelton house is plastered with flashcards in different languages.

She can sing her ABCs in Spanish, count in Mandarin, read fairytales in Russian, and already has an ambitious list of career goals.

"I want to be a firefighter, and I want to be a doctor, and I want to be a dancer, and I want to be a princess," Mabou said with a smile, sitting shyly on her mom's lap. "And I want to be an actor, and I want to be a musician, and I want to be a singer, and I want to be a veterinarian, and I want to be a mom."

Mabou has her own dance studio with a mirrored wall where she learns tap and ballet. Her mom recently got rid of the kitchen table to make room for a full-size drum set. She's also learning to play the harp, clarinet, violin, guitar and piano. When she's not taking ice-skating or swimming lessons.

"All the sacrifices in the world for her," said her mom, Esther Loiseau, a piano teacher who taught French at an American school before leaving Haiti for Queens 15 years ago. "Furniture is not important. Education is."

Loiseau, 47, said friends and neighbors were initially shocked that she was starting Mabou on such a regimen so early - instead of just letting her be a kid.

"But I make sure I leave enough time for her to play," Loiseau said. "All she knows is learning. What becomes fun for someone is what they know."

Loiseau tells the tutors to play with Mabou, speaking in their native language, for half of the lesson. They spend the other half reading, writing and practicing vocabulary.

She said a sure way to make the opinionated only child behave is to threaten to cancel one of her lessons - especially Russian.

"It's a great experience for me, honestly. A lot of even adult people can't understand what she does," said Rogneda Elagina, 24, Mabou's Russian tutor. "We like to read together ... we started with the alphabet and connecting letters, and now she can read real folklore."

Mabou's dad works 16 hours a day as a parking attendant in Manhattan to pay for everything, and the Loiseaus have also started hosting other students for classes at their house.

The proud parents homeschool Mabou but found out last week that she scored in the 99th percentile on the city test for gifted and talented schools.

"Honestly, I just want to open doors for my daughter," said Loiseau. "She is really my princess."

How well do you know your body? Lets go inside

Source: BBC youtube channel

Is Ivan Stoiljkovic the real magneto from X-Men?

Source: telegraphtv youtube channel

"The six year old Croatian boy can hang up to 25kg of metal from his chest, including cutlery, coins and even a non-stick frying pan."

Black In Latin America - 2011 PBS special

Source: PBS

Black In Latin America is a PBS special done by Louis Gates Jr. tracing the footsteps of melanated people in what is known as the Latin America today. The clips are below, anymore will be added towards the bottom as they are available. Click on the picture to get a 10 minute preview, if you want to watch the full episode for each, click on the link that says "full episode" below each:

Watch the full episode. See more Black in Latin America.

Watch the full episode. See more Black in Latin America.

Watch the full episode. See more Black in Latin America.

Watch the full episode. See more Black in Latin America.

Dr. Konstantin Korotkov explains Bio Electrical Photography which shows ones aura

Source:

"A Russian scientist is trying to convince people they can change the world simply by using their own energy. He claims that thinking in a certain way can have a positive or negative effect on the surrounding environment. "We are developing the idea that our consciousness is part of the material world and that with our consciousness we can directly influence our world," said Dr. Konstantin Korotkov, a professor of physics at St. Petersburg State Technical University. To bridge our understanding of the unseen world of energy, scientific experiments are being carried out using a technique called bioelectrophotography. The assumption is that we are constantly emitting energy. Bioelectrophotography aims to capture these energy fields seen as a light around the body -- or what some people would call your aura."

The interesting Captain Morgan video

Source: CaptainMorgan youtube channel

These videos are interesting, including the Moors or Moorish pirates.

A day in the life of a Kiva warehouse robot

Source:

Secrets Of Nature: How water insects breath under water

Source: NationalGeographic youtube channel

Paul Nicklen tales of his ice bound adventure in the wonderlands of Antarctica

Source: TEDtalksDirector youtube channel

Understanding the relationship of food, providing food & karma

Source: Huffington Post by Andrew Blackmore-Dobbyn and Vikas Khanna



"Sharing food is the highest form of Karma." --Bhagavad Gita

In Hinduism, the sharing of food is an essential part of the human experience. When there is scarcity, this sharing can mean the difference between life and death. Civilization cannot exist without it. When we share food in a spiritual setting, we imbue it with a meaning that draws us closer to our creator and closer to one another. We affirm that we share in each other's destiny. A simple dish of lentils in this spiritual context becomes much more than sustenance. It becomes a spiritual experience that elevates our consciousness and celebrates the divinity within us. Sharing with others forces us to mutually recognize our humanity and creates a powerful bond between people. These bonds spread outward to create the shared identity we call community and it is within this community we find the true essence of our lives. Out true existence lies in our experience of family, friends and community; through these we indentify ourselves and our place in the world.

"Too many people are working at jobs they hate to buy things they don't particularly want to impress people they don't even care about." --Dr. Deepak Chopra

Every day of our lives we interact with others and often fail to perceive them as true members of our community, thereby failing to make these interactions as meaningful as they can be. It is entirely up to us to make this experience meaningful. Unfortunately, too many of us squander the opportunity and feel our lives to be hollow or lacking in substance. When we make meaningful connections with each other our lives are enriched and we feel that we have a higher purpose than merely acquiring more "stuff." Shaunaka Rishi Das directs the Centre for Hindu Studies at Oxford University. He finds in the stories of the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita the presence of a lively and impish boy named Krishna who steals butter and plays pranks. Lord Krishna manifests later as an artist, a musician, a politician, a poet and singer, a military leader and finally a king. Each of these manifestations is part of what Shaunaka calls "the wonderful Krishna," a fully approachable, divine intelligence that instructs through beautiful stories. Lord Krishna's combined humanity and divinity serves as an inspiration. The lessons he gives include those that inform how we are meant to share food with the clear understanding that such sharing creates ever more love and more abundance. Hinduism is a faith of deep compassion and love. This is the great meaning of our lives: that we make sure everyone matters.

"God comes to the poor in the form of food." --Mahatma Gandhi

Seva is one of the most important concepts in Hinduism. It means service. When we give of ourselves to the community we enrich our fellow human beings and share in abundance. Sharing food, according to the Bhagavad Gita, is the highest form of Karma. In practice, this means volunteering time and preparing meals that can be shared with those in need in temples in India and around the world. When Arun Gandhi, the Mahatma's grandson, speaks of God coming to the poor in the form of food, he is talking about the first obligation of believers in the path of Krishna. Until you feed someone who is poor and hungry, you have not recognized his humanity and he cannot entertain any spiritual aspirations. How can you talk to a man or woman about spiritual matters when they are hungry? When you feed someone with pure intentions you widen your community and add a real reason to feel good about your existence. In Gandhi's belief, it is Krishna's divinity that works through you to feed hungry people. In the western world, where the poor are struggling with obesity and the rich are slender, it can be difficult to find places to perform meaningful seva but it remains nonetheless essential in our lives. When you do something for other people, you affirm them in the most important way possible: you make them part of the human family.

"We have to help the hungry as best we can. We have to see that feeding the hungry is no less than the worship of God." --Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi Devi)

Through our friend, Anuttama Dasa, we discovered the Mid-day Meal Program. Anuttama is the director of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness' (ISKCON) international Food for Life Program, the world's largest humanitarian food relief organization. ISKCON's Mid-day Meal Program feeds many thousands of Indian children who are living on the streets. The only requirement for the children to be fed is that they must stay for lessons. The education they receive offers them a real chance at a future off the streets. It is as powerful an agent for change as there can be and it is work done as seva by the followers of Krishna. It takes an adamantly positive belief in humanity to work for this kind of change and it shows that there are many people who do not accept the status quo in India. People like Anuttama Dasa step in where governments fail all around the world.

A shared humanity

Feeding people is an essential act of humanity, and, as such, every religion has beliefs and rituals associated with food. Vikas Khanna and I make our films to draw people to awareness of this commonality of the world's religious traditions and to illuminate their differences in a way that will engender mutual tolerance and respect. Taken together, the Holy Kitchens films are our offering to a conversation that is meant to create more peace and harmony in the world. Along the way we meet wonderful people who live the words of their holy books in their everyday actions and we are humbled by their generosity and grace.

The Holy Kitchens films explore, within the context of the world's major religions, the manifold spiritual meanings of the communal sharing of food in the hope that such an exploration can illuminate the source of the deep satisfaction universally found in such sharing. Our second film, Karma to Nirvana, premieres at the N.Y. Indian Film Festival on May 7. It follows the life of Krishna in the Hindu tradition.

Biblical stories that hint at sacred & ancient dancing rituals

Source: Huffington Post by Rabbi Adam Jacobs







An '08 article in Scientific American suggested that it might have something to do with stimulating the orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral striatum but concluded that, "Scientists aren't sure why we like movement so much, but there's certainly a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest we get a pretty big kick out of it." Indeed. For those who prefer a less reductive approach, Jewish teachings on the topic may offer a satisfying alternative.

The Jewish mystical tradition holds that there were a series of epochs or pre-universes before our own, each with its own unique characteristics and energy array. (Interestingly, there are analogues to this belief found in theoretical physics.) These dimensions, Kabbalists believe, are alluded to in multiple biblical narratives and are even embedded into various biblical genealogies. The dominant trait of the world that preceded ours was that it was conceptually circular (unlike our own, which is linear). Unlike the linear plane, which is intrinsically fraught with inequality and hierarchy, the circle world was built on equity, harmony and balance. As such, it represented our collective past as well as our ultimate destination. A corollary to this concept would also suggest that all ideas and movements which stress the circle-world qualities are unconsciously tapping into an innate human desire to rectify reality and return to our roots. In this regard, the modern drive for equality in its various forms hearkens back to our primal, collective pre-history. For better or worse, however, the only method we possess to bring this about is through our presently flawed and hierarchical plane of existence. The circle is the future. This is the reason that Jewish tradition has embraced the symbol of the circle dance.

There are two quintessential biblical stories about dancing which explain the two purposes of dance from a spiritual perspective. The first is when Miriam the Prophetess leads the Jewish women in a (drum) circle dance directly after the nation was delivered from the Egyptian army. Her dance comes on the heels of the joyous song that the men sang. Interestingly, the verse literally translates as "the men will sing," in the future tense, implying that in the moment they were not fully in touch with the newly opened access point of "circle universe" awareness. The women, by contrast, seize the energy of the moment and channel it to kinetically express their joy. The Miriam story is very deep, but suffice it to say that there is a certain point at which one's consciousness expands to such a degree that it can no longer be contained by the heart and mind alone and one's entire being needs to be utilized to capture the moment. As Kabbalistic thinker Sarah Schneider explains, it's "like trying to run a complex graphic program on an antiquated laptop, there is not enough space in the computer's brain to hold the complexity of operations ... similarly here, 'circle awareness' is so vast that it takes an entire body to hold it." At times it requires a whole network of people together. Anyone who has experienced it can attest there is huge power generated by a large group dancing with a unified purpose. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the import of the moment can be palpable.

The second biblical account of the spiritual power of dance is that of King David's ecstatic dance before the Ark of the Covenant as it was being brought into Jerusalem. In David's case, the dance was a vehicle for him to access deeper recesses of his consciousness. Like other repetitive acts such as mantras, prayer and meditation, the dancing overrides analytical consciousness, opening a purer and deeper channel. In this regard, dancing and praying may be considered very closely related (when done properly) and is the reason that many mystically inclined religious groups, such as Judaism's Hasidim, employ so much singing and dancing in their observance.

The intensity of David's dance raised the ire of his wife Michal, who was shocked at the raw emotionality he displayed in public, commenting that he had conducted himself "as one of the empty people." The King's retort defended his exuberance and suggested that it would intensify further in the future declaring, "I will continue to play before God!"

Like all good art, ecstatic dance reflects the desire of the inner self to transcend its limitations and merge with something greater. This is the root of its power. Most people find such a transcendent state to be uniquely blissful. Some spend their entire lives in its pursuit. From a Judaic perspective, it is the soul's spontaneous desire to reach beyond its corporeal container and express its most sublime root in the highest realms.

10 Hindu Environmental Teachings

Source: Huffington Press by Pankaj Jain, Ph.D



Hinduism contains numerous references to the worship of the divine in nature in its Vedas,
Upanishads, Puranas, Sutras and its other sacred texts. Millions of Hindus recite Sanskrit mantras daily to revere their rivers, mountains, trees, animals and the earth. Although the Chipko (tree-hugging) Movement is the most widely known example of Hindu environmental leadership, there are examples of Hindu action for the environment that are centuries old.

Hinduism is a remarkably diverse religious and cultural phenomenon, with many local and
regional manifestations. Within this universe of beliefs, several important themes emerge. The diverse theologies of Hinduism suggest that:

• The earth can be seen as a manifestation of the goddess, and must be treated with respect.
• The five elements -- space, air, fire, water and earth -- are the foundation of an interconnected web of life.
• Dharma -- often translated as "duty" -- can be reinterpreted to include our responsibility to care for the earth.
• Simple living is a model for the development of sustainable economies.
• Our treatment of nature directly affects our karma.

Gandhi exemplified many of these teachings, and his example continues to inspire contemporary social, religious and environmental leaders in their efforts to protect the planet.

The following are 10 important Hindu teachings on the environment:

1. Pancha Mahabhutas (The five great elements) create a web of life that is shown forth in the structure and interconnectedness of the cosmos and the human body. Hinduism teaches that the five great elements (space, air, fire, water and earth) that constitute the environment are all derived from prakriti, the primal energy. Each of these elements has its own life and form; together the elements are interconnected and interdependent. The Upanishads explains the interdependence of these elements in relation to Brahman, the supreme reality, from which they arise: "From Brahman arises space, from space arises air, from air arises fire, from fire arises water, and from water arises earth."

Hinduism recognizes that the human body is composed of and related to these five elements,
and connects each of the elements to one of the five senses. The human nose is related to earth, tongue to water, eyes to fire, skin to air and ears to space. This bond between our senses and the elements is the foundation of our human relationship with the natural world. For Hinduism, nature and the environment are not outside us, not alien or hostile to us. They are an inseparable part of our existence, and they constitute our very bodies.

2. Ishavasyam -- Divinity is omnipresent and takes infinite forms. Hindu texts, such as the Bhagavad Gita (7.19, 13.13) and the Bhagavad Purana (2.2.41, 2.2.45), contain many references to the omnipresence of the Supreme divinity, including its presence throughout and within nature. Hindus worship and accept the presence of God in nature. For example, many Hindus think of India's mighty rivers -- such as the Ganges -- as goddesses. In the Mahabharata, it is noted that the universe and every object in it has been created as an abode of the Supreme God meant for the benefit of all, implying that individual species should enjoy their role within a larger system, in relationship with other species.

3. Protecting the environment is part of Dharma. Dharma, one of the most important Hindu concepts, has been translated into English as duty, virtue, cosmic order and religion. In Hinduism, protecting the environment is an important expression of dharma.
In past centuries, Indian communities -- like other traditional communities -- did not have an
understanding of "the environment" as separate from the other spheres of activity in their lives.

A number of rural Hindu communities such as the Bishnois, Bhils and Swadhyaya have
maintained strong communal practices to protect local ecosystems such as forests and water
sources. These communities carry out these conservation-oriented practices not as "environmental" acts but rather as expressions of dharma. When Bishnois are protecting animals and trees, when Swadhyayis are building Vrikshamandiras (tree temples) and Nirmal Nirs (water harvesting sites) and when Bhils are practicing their rituals in sacred groves, they are simply expressing their reverence for creation according to Hindu teachings, not "restoring the environment." These traditional Indian groups do not see religion, ecology and ethics as separate arenas of life. Instead, they understand it to be part of their dharma to treat creation with respect.

4. Our environmental actions affect our karma. Karma, a central Hindu teaching, holds that each of our actions creates consequences -- good and bad -- which constitute our karma and determine our future fate, including the place we will assume when we are reincarnated in our next life. Moral behavior creates good karma, and our behavior toward the environment has karmic consequences. Because we have free choice, even though we may have harmed the environment in the past, we can choose to protect the environment in the future, replacing environmentally destructive karmic patterns with good ones.

5. The earth -- Devi -- is a goddess and our mother and deserves our devotion and protection. Many Hindu rituals recognize that human beings benefit from the earth, and offer gratitude and protection in response. Many Hindus touch the floor before getting out of bed every morning and ask Devi to forgive them for trampling on her body. Millions of Hindus create kolams daily -- artwork consisting of bits of rice or other food placed at their doorways in the morning. These kolams express Hindu's desire to offer sustenance to the earth, just as the earth sustains themselves. The Chipko movement -- made famous by Chipko women's commitment to "hugging" trees in their community to protect them from clear-cutting by outside interests -- represents a similar devotion to the earth.

6. Hinduism's tantric and yogic traditions affirm the sacredness of material reality and contain teachings and practices to unite people with divine energy. Hinduism's Tantric tradition teaches that the entire universe is the manifestation of divine energy. Yoga, derived from the Sanskrit word meaning "to yoke" or "to unite," refers to a series of mental and physical practices designed to connect the individual with this divine energy. Both these traditions affirm that all phenomena, objects and individuals are expressions of the divine. And because these traditions both envision the earth as a goddess, contemporary Hindu teachers have used these teachings to demonstrate the wrongness of the exploitation of the environment, women and indigenous peoples.

7. Belief in reincarnation supports a sense of interconnectedness of all creation. Hindus believe in the cycle of rebirth, wherein every being travels through millions of cycles of birth and rebirth in different forms, depending on their karma from previous lives. So a person may be reincarnated as a person, animal, bird or another part of the wider community of life. Because of this, and because all people are understood to pass through many lives on their pathway to ultimate liberation, reincarnation creates a sense of solidarity between people and all living things.

Through belief in reincarnation, Hinduism teaches that all species and all parts of the earth are part of an extended network of relationships connected over the millennia, with each part of this network deserving respect and reverence.

8. Non-violence -- ahimsa -- is the greatest dharma. Ahimsa to the earth improves one's karma. For observant Hindus, hurting or harming another being damages one's karma and obstructs advancement toward moksha -- liberation. To prevent the further accrual of bad karma, Hindus are instructed to avoid activities associated with violence and to follow a vegetarian diet.

Based on this doctrine of ahimsa, many observant Hindus oppose the institutionalized breeding and killing of animals, birds and fish for human consumption.

9. Sanyasa (asceticism) represents a path to liberation and is good for the earth. Hinduism teaches that asceticism -- restraint in consumption and simplicity in living -- represents a pathway
toward moksha (liberation), which treats the earth with respect. A well-known Hindu teaching -- Tain tyakten bhunjitha -- has been translated, "Take what you need for your sustenance without a sense of entitlement or ownership."

One of the most prominent Hindu environmental leaders, Sunderlal Bahuguna, inspired
many Hindus by his ascetic lifestyle. His repeated fasts and strenuous foot marches, undertaken to support and spread the message of the Chipko, distinguished him as a notable ascetic in our own time. In his capacity for suffering and his spirit of self-sacrifice, Hindus saw a living example of the renunciation of worldly ambition exhorted by Hindu scriptures.

10. Gandhi is a role model for simple living. Gandhi's entire life can be seen as an ecological treatise. This is one life in which every minute act, emotion or thought functioned much like an ecosystem: his small meals of nuts and fruits, his morning ablutions and everyday bodily practices, his periodic observances of silence, his morning walks, his cultivation of the small as much as of the big, his spinning wheel, his abhorrence of waste, his resorting to basic Hindu and Jain values of truth, nonviolence, celibacy and fasting. The moralists, nonviolent activists, feminists, journalists, social reformers, trade union leaders, peasants, prohibitionists, nature-cure lovers, renouncers and environmentalists all take their inspirations from Gandhi's life and writings.

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