Eknath Easwaran's Commentary
In the ancient Indian tradition, many timeless truths underlying life – on which the health of the world depends, and our life too – are conveyed in simple, beautiful allegories. The earth is Goddess Earth. She is a person. She is a living personality. Today we have forgotten that the earth is our mother, and that unless she is healthy, that with which she nourishes us will not make us healthy.
Air is also considered to be a great god, whom we are expected to worship by keeping it pure, because our very life depends upon it. It is incomprehensible to me how this vital necessity of ours has been ignored in our modern civilization in the frantic pursuit for material possessions, many of which are not necessary. We needn’t embrace poverty, but a beautiful life can be a simple life. Isn’t pure air more precious than anything else?
This is not a pessimistic outlook; it is a very optimistic one, because environmental problems can be solved by little people like us, working together.