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Vandana Shiva is an environmentalist and author. She took part in the Chipko movement and has consitently fought for eco-friendly policies on food, seeds and farming.
What does Spirituality mean to you?
It is the awareness of the connectedness and creativity of the universe; and built into that creativity, a sense of the divinity that pervades the entire cosmos.
Do you believe you are guided and protected by a superior force?
Very much so. I would not be here without it. I can feel it especially as some very crucial moments, when I am very aware of my smallness, my helplessness, my sense of inadequacy --- and am then made adequate to the challenge, way beyond my objective capabilities.
Do you believe you have a special mission or purpose in this life?
Growing up in the hugely ecological environment of the Himalayas and in a home of a spiritual nature, I knew from very early on that I would dedicate my life to the exploration of nature.
Why did I first choose physics to do so was a mystery. No one in my family or surroundings was even remotely a scientist. Physics were not taught in school. But I felt I had no choice but follow that path. Obviously that inspiration came from somewhere else. Some people describe it as a calling. It is like an inner energy burst. The same feeling happened when I felt I had to focus on saving seeds. I had never read or heard about this idea, nor attended a single lecture on biology. But something told me I had to do it.
So my life has been about the search for the understanding of the workings of nature, and of course of its preservation. I started alone but even at the toughest moments something would occur showing me there is grace at work. I have been working on tough issues, fighting powerful adversaries, hell bent to destroy the planet. I have had to deal for instance for more than twenty years with companies patenting and genetically engineering seeds, which to me are amongst the most criminal corporations in the world. And there is no way my limited brain would have come up with solutions. It is too unknown, too complicated, too difficult. But I managed, again because of that grace at work.
But although I do believe there is a mystery beyond, and that human intelligence is limited compared to the intelligence of the universe, it does not mean one should sit ignorant of the levels our intelligence can reach, and reduce oneself to blind ritualism in the process. Blind ritualism means for instance bathing in the Ganga as a sacred ritual without bothering about its pollution and dirt. We must act to prevent the pollution. Instead, we say that bathing is so spiritual of an act that dirty waters do not matter. It is a dangerous approach, because it means spirituality is irrelevant to the universe’s creative energy’s manifestation, which is matter. And that is a perception I would always fight forcefully.
