Story highlights Gopal Patel: Sensitivity to the environment is an inherent part of the Hindu spiritual worldview

As Diwali, the festival of lights, approaches, faith leaders have come together to advocate the benefits of solar power, he writes

Gopal Patel is the director of the Bhumi Project, based at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies in the UK. The project works with Hindu communities globally to encourage good environmental practice, based on Hinduism's core teachings. The project also facilitates partnerships between Hindu and non-Hindu groups which have a common purpose to protect the environment. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.

(CNN) At the end of this month, Hindus in India and around the globe will adorn their houses with lamps, share feasts and exchange gifts to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights. For Hindus, light symbolizes the triumph of good over darkness, or of knowledge over ignorance.

In many Hindu traditions, the sun -- our planet's source of light -- is a major source of energy and power; now, as the world seeks to address climate change, Diwali's celebration of light takes on a very contemporary significance.

Sensitivity to the environment is also an inherent part of the Hindu spiritual worldview. The Mahabharata, Ramayana, Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Puranas and Smriti contain the earliest messages for the preservation of environment and ecological balance. Hindu traditions and teachers have always advocated for care and respect of the natural world. As we are growing more materialistic, we are in danger of losing this connection.

Gopal Patel

Indeed, many of the choices we have made have put grave strains on the links between humankind and the environment that we live in. As winter approaches in India, city dwellers will be bracing themselves for the annual pollution season , when high levels of particulate matter raise health threats for the young, the old and those with respiratory illnesses.

It is timely, then, this Diwali, to consider the vital role of sunlight and solar technology in solving the most pressing environmental challenges we face -- generating clean energy at a massive scale.

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