Podcast Summary:
New Books Network: Christopher Key Chapple, "Embodied Ecology: Yoga and the Environment" (Mandala Publishing, 2025)
Interview Date: December 11, 2025
Host: Dr. Raj Balkaran
Guest: Dr. Christopher Key Chapple, Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology
Episode Overview
In this insightful episode, Dr. Raj Balkaran interviews Dr. Christopher Key Chapple about his new book, Embodied Ecology: Yoga and the Environment. The conversation delves into the intersection of yoga philosophy, environmentalism, and the lived, embodied relationship between humans and nature—offering both personal reflection and scholarly perspective. Chapple explains how yoga can be both part of the environmental problem and the solution, explores Indic and Western ecological thought, discusses activists inspired by Gandhi, and illustrates how the practice of yoga fosters a reverence for all of life. The episode is rich with stories, references, and practical suggestions for ecological mindfulness grounded in tradition and personal experience.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
1. Origins of the Book and Personal Background
[02:16 – 10:07]
- Chapple's rural upbringing in New York State, surrounded by farmlands and remnant forests, cultivated a deep connection to the land and indigenous perspectives (Haudenosaunee/Iroquois, Ojibwe).
- Early yoga experiences led to embodied meditations based on the elements—earth, water, fire, air, space—mirroring the cycles of nature and fostering awareness of environmental changes.
- Chapple's first visit to India prompted questions about pollution and industrialization, connecting personal inquiry to global ecological challenges.
- Influenced by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and environmental crises like Love Canal and Bhopal.
- Encounters with Indian environmental activists, notably Vandana Shiva and the lawyer Dr. Mehta, underscored the importance of local action and policy reform.
“Our practice brought us in direct connection with soil… with water… with fire… with wind… and space… The power of observing that connection is well documented at the base of the meditative experience taught by the Buddha, taught by the Jinnahs, taught by the yogis.” — Christopher Chapple [05:44]
2. Yoga’s Dual Role: Problem and Solution
[10:07 – 12:51]
- The etymology of yoga (to “yoke”) connects ancient agricultural innovation—yoking oxen to plows—to both human mastery over nature and self-mastery.
- Yoga facilitated the rise of agriculture, leading to domination of the earth, which includes negative ecological consequences.
- Philosophically, India’s karmic traditions and the Bhagavad Gita call for self-restraint and wisdom, suggesting that yoga, as control, is both a cause of and remedy for ecological imbalance.
“Yoga is the problem… we have controlled the earth. And yoga is the solution… we need to control and pull back ourselves.” — Christopher Chapple [12:35]
3. Ecological Insights from the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita
[13:14 – 17:03]
- The Bhagavad Gita’s theology is panentheistic: divinity pervades all things—trees, water, fire, the sunrise.
- Reverence for nature arises from recognizing the sacred in everything; therefore, all of nature must be cherished and protected.
- Even in ancient epics, human conflict (e.g., Pandava brothers burning forests for conquest) reflects early ecological crises—a call to balance human presence with nature’s limits.
“Wherever there is a beautiful tree, there I am. Wherever there is free flowing potable water, there I am… If the divine is to be found in all things, then all things must be understood, all things must be revered, and all things must be held as sacred.” — Christopher Chapple [14:50]
4. Gandhi, Gandhian Activists, and Agricultural Legacies
[17:03 – 25:54]
- Gandhi’s vision: decentralized, village-based, self-sufficient economies, minimal industrial transport, reverence for the “language of the soil.”
- Cites E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful (originally “Gandhian economics”) and the Indian maxim “Annam Brahman” (food is God).
- Describes weekly fasting as a spiritually and energetically replenishing practice inspired by Gandhian discipline.
- Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement: redistributing land to address feudal inequities; resulted in land reforms and resistance to agribusiness, preserving agricultural integrity.
- Contemporary activism: Vandana Shiva’s advocacy for organic farming, local food sovereignty, and education at her Navdanya center.
“As we lose touch with our food, we lose touch with what the Upanishads proclaims—that food is God, Annam Brahman.” — Christopher Chapple [19:44]
5. Indic vs. Western Environmentalism
[25:54 – 29:13]
- U.S. National Parks were modeled (and emulated) in India under Indira Gandhi—often at the cost of displacing indigenous and tribal peoples.
- India’s crowded population creates different challenges; preserves must accommodate both humans and wildlife, leading to innovative coexistence (e.g., Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary).
- Features conservationist activists like Vivek Menon, working on elephant and tiger corridors, stressing human-animal cohabitation as a necessity in India.
“We have to literally tread lightly, even as we’re trying to live lightly on the Earth.” — Christopher Chapple [28:47]
6. The Book’s Overarching Message and Scholarly Projections
[29:13 – 34:43]
- Indian activism has inspired global climate action (Naomi Klein in This Changes Everything).
- Kim Stanley Robinson’s science fiction imagines a future India responding radically to climate catastrophe—children of Kali “monkey-wrenching” industrial development and promoting local economies.
- Chapple reflects on intergenerational shifts in technology, lifestyle, and ecological wisdom, emphasizing the need to recover “steady wisdom” for planetary survival.
“We’re going to have to pull back… regain steady wisdom in order not to undo the gift and the beauty of what it means to be human.” — Christopher Chapple [34:27]
7. Animals, Interconnection, and Practices of Reverence
[34:55 – 40:06]
- Yoga at Gurani Anjali’s Ashram included assignments to study animals, fostering kinship across species.
- Academic activism: Attended a pivotal 1984 conference on animal rights led by Tom Regan, awakening to the staggering scale of animal suffering due to agriculture and science.
- Personal and communal rituals, like offering food to birds before meals, reinforce awareness that “the world is more than human.”
- India’s visible integration of animals (e.g., black buck, dolphins, domestic animals) stands in contrast to the U.S. feedlot system and China’s urban environments.
“What I’m suggesting is that people can find great meaning in becoming acquainted with the birds that fly down, the birds that migrate, the birds that visit… an abiding acknowledgement that the world is more than human.” — Christopher Chapple [37:33]
8. Embodiment and Ecology: The Book’s Central Thesis
[40:06 – 42:11]
- Indian philosophical systems (especially Tantra and the Yoga Sutras) hold that the human body is a microcosm of the universe.
- Embodied practice means honoring the connections between inner and outer ecology by living with nonviolence, truthfulness, and harmony with the elemental world.
“As we feel our feet upon the earth, we develop a sense that this body itself reflects the entire universe and that by leading a meditative, purposeful life, we’ll be able to rise to the occasion of those yoga precepts… in a way that is body friendly and earth, water, fire, air and space friendly.” — Christopher Chapple [41:21]
Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments
-
On Yoga’s Double-Edged Nature:
“Yoga is the problem… and yoga is the solution.” — Christopher Chapple [12:35] -
On Sacred Immanence:
“If the divine is to be found in all things, then all things must be held as sacred.” — Christopher Chapple [14:55] -
On Steady Wisdom in Crisis:
“We need to recover our steady wisdom.” — Christopher Chapple [13:55] -
On Ritual Practice:
“We would always prepare a little plate of food and put it on the windowsill and wait until one of the sparrows or one of the starlings came and took a little bit… before we would nourish ourselves.” — Christopher Chapple [37:05] -
On the Embodied Self and Ecology:
“This body itself reflects the entire universe… we will move with dignity and reason in a way that is body friendly and earth… friendly.” — Christopher Chapple [41:21]
Important Timestamps
- 02:16 — Chapple’s personal background; elemental yoga practice
- 10:24 — Yoga’s connection to agriculture and control
- 13:55 — The Bhagavad Gita’s ecological theology
- 17:08 — Gandhi’s vision and its function in Indian environmentalism
- 26:03 — Differing environmental paradigms in India and the West
- 29:20 — Contemporary ecological activism and climate futures
- 34:55 — The significance of animals and ethical eating
- 40:16 — Embodiment as ecological principle
Conclusion
Dr. Christopher Key Chapple’s Embodied Ecology: Yoga and the Environment bridges yogic philosophy and ecological activism, drawing on personal narrative, classical texts, and models of activism to offer a vision of hope and responsibility in the Anthropocene. The episode’s open, reflective tone invites listeners to reconsider their relationship with the Earth, food, animals, and their own bodies in light of ancient wisdom and urgent contemporary challenges.