Research Associate Swasti Bhattacharyya on ‘Radical Inclusive Love’

Swasti Bhattacharyya is Visiting Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies and Ethics and an HDS WSRP Research Associate for 2021–22. In fall 2021, she taught the HDS course, “Ecofeminism, Religion, and Ethics: Reorienting Our Lives.”

As Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religion at Buena Vista University, Swasti also served as director of Gender & Women’s Studies as well as the study abroad program. She has taught courses in various world religions, applied ethics, and nonviolence, peace, and justice.

Her current ethnographic project, “The Long View,” explores how current generations are living out Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave’s (Gandhi’s disciple, friend, confidant, and spiritual successor) commitments to peace and nonviolence.

Her latest publication, "Shiva’s Babies: Hindu Perspectives on the Treatment of High Risk Newborn Infants" in Religion and Ethics in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (Oxford University Press, 2019) and her book Magical Progeny, Modern Technology (State University of New York Press, 2006) combine her experiences as a registered nurse with her expertise in ethics and the study of religion.

Since 1959, the Brahma Vidya Mandir Ashram in Maharashtra has been home to a community of women who model wholistic ecofeminism grounded in Indian Dharmic traditions. Followers of Vinoba Bhave (1895–1982), disciple, friend, confidant, and spiritual successor to M.K. Gandhi, their lives and voices expand the diversity of perspectives and approaches in ecofeminism and religious studies.

Based on a lifetime of contact with the ashram and extensive interviews conducted with 17 of the sisters from 2006 to 2011, Swasti’s year-long project at the WSRP, which she discusses below, views their work through the lens of applied ethics.

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I have a new title for this book, which is Radical Inclusive Love: Sarvodaya in Action. I want to make the word Sarvodaya ubiquitous. Sarvodaya meaning “holistic uplifting of all segments of humanity, of all life,” or the “flourishing of all.”

To me, Sarvodaya challenges the very premise of materialism and consumerism. Sarvodaya is saying, “How do we include everybody? How do we create a world where everyone can flourish?” We don't leave anybody behind. We move forward only once we have everybody on board.

This project is tightly intertwined with my life. This book is my story of my encounters over the years with the sisters of the Brahma Vidya Mandir Ashram in Maharashtra. My dad was connected to these women, who I first met when I was very young. I went back in the early 2000s and I began to learn from them. The sisters have inspired me, educated me, and challenged me, and that’s what I want to do with this book: inspire, inform, and challenge people who are already invested in making the world a more just, compassionate, and loving place.

The sisters are followers of Vinoba Bhave (disciple, friend, and spiritual successor to M. K. Gandhi). In 1959, they approached Vinoba with their desire to follow a spiritual path. He gave them his ashram and encouraged them to form a community of women with the primary goal of Samuhik Sadhana (collectively, as one community, working toward enlightenment). They don't call themselves eco-feminists, they don't call themselves peace activists, or environmentalists, or feminists. But they are, in fact, living those principles.

One of the things that I've come to realize, and I why I'm so attracted to them, is that these women have chosen the life that they're living. The sisters are mindfully choosing to live in solidarity with the poor. They want to show that one can live a full and fulfilling life without all that materialism. Without all that stuff.

For example, the sisters, by wearing khadi, hand-spun, hand- woven cloth, are circumventing that entire market economy that oppresses and suppresses the poorest and most vulnerable in society. They know where their clothing has come from. They know they have not oppressed anybody. Again, it's a choice they make.

Not everybody has the same types of choices, or can control their surroundings. Even within systemic racism, sexism, and other oppressive systems that need to be challenged and abolished, we have varying levels of privilege and choices we can make. The sisters have reminded me to be aware of the choices I have. They challenge me to consider how am I relating to the multiple oppressive structures, and how am I using the agency I have. It is about being mindful and taking responsibility for how I'm choosing to live.

I’m privileged to be the transmitter of the sisters’ stories because they don't go out much. They have told me, “You're the bridge. You can take our stories out there and do with them as you please.”

Ethnography is a fancy way of saying collecting stories. I tell stories because stories contain the nuggets of humanity in them; of our meaning, purpose, questions, ideas, and beliefs. Then I pull out principles, and I apply them. They’ve entrusted me with their stories, and I'm trying to figure out a way to convey them so that people will be inspired, informed, and challenged.

Certainly my applied ethics have evolved because of the sisters. I’ve become more mindful, and more cognizant of the opportunities and questions I have, the choices and the decisions I'm making in every aspect of my life. My goal in life is to be more compassionate, but I don’t know if that is synonymous with happiness. Because what is happiness? Sometimes I'm not happy doing something, but I'll do it because it's the right thing to do.

After reading about the sisters, a student in class asked, “Do I have to sacrifice my flourishing for the flourishing of others?” We have to remember that the sisters are operating out of a worldview that sees an underlying unity to all life. So, in terms of the idea of flourishing, it doesn’t have to be an either/or question. Also, with the concept of nonattachment and Sarvodaya, the goal is to create a world where everyone may flourish.

Living with the principle of Sarvodaya, and of being mindful of how we live, is a daily journey, it’s a daily commitment. Increasing our awareness is a challenge, as is taking responsibility for how we live. The sisters live as simply as they are able. They live as close to the earth as possible. They're not perfect by any means. Perfection is not their goal. Working toward seeing the good in every person and always responding with love—these are the goals of the sisters. If all of us were to be able to be more mindful and intentional in how we lived; to even consider broadening our scope of whose experiences we’re including, this world would be a different place.

In the face of global disparities, climate change, violence and war, it can be easy to get discouraged. When I find myself losing hope and the will to keep working for a more just world, I remember the sisters’ teaching of nonattachment. Every day they recite the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.

One of the important lessons in this chapter is the teaching of nonattachment. We are to act, to do our dharma (duty), without attachment to the fruits of our actions. The sisters live as they do with the goal of gaining enlightenment as a community of women so as to increase peace and love in the world. The fact that injustice, war, and environmental degradation continue does not deter them. Likewise, my goal is to bring about more justice, compassion, and love into the world. If I’m acting without attachment to the fruits of my actions, then regardless of what is happening in the world, I keep moving toward my goal because it is my dharma, it is the right thing for me to do.

Being a Research Associate of the WSRP is an incredible gift. I literally wake up every morning and I'm thankful for these 10 months. Absolutely thankful. It’s giving me time so the sisters' stories can be told.

Interview conducted and edited by Madeline Bugeau-Heartt