2022 Binusian Earth Day: Loving Earth with Balinese’s “Tri Hita Karana”

“Inside of the challenge, there is an opportunity.”  – Made Janur Yasa

On this year’s Earth Day, Binusian had a lifetime opportunity to get to know Made Janur Yasa, or Bli Janur, one of the top 10 CNN Heroes. He initiated the Plastic Exchange, a program that aims to empower communities, improve welfare, and educate people through Edu-aksi (education through action). He offered the idea of exchanging plastic waste for rice. This idea makes the local communities work together to pick up plastic waste in a super fun way and inspire the world to do so.

Collecting trash is not for everyone yet, some see it in a completely different way. During the 2-hour fruitful session, Bli Janur showed some traditional Balinese philosophy underlying this movement.

Tri Hita Karana consists of three words: Tri = “Three”, Hita = “Happiness,” and Karana = “Causes”. The literal translation of Tri Hita Karana would be ‘the Three Causes of Happiness.’ It teaches us the three ways to achieve happiness through the harmonious connection between humans to God, humans to humans, and humans to the environment.

Next, Tatwam Asi can be interpreted as “You Are I”. Tatwam Asi carries a profound sense despite its simple meaning. We are what we do – and that caring for Earth is caring for ourselves. Bli Janur said that “If Binusians take care of Earth, Binusians take care of themselves.”

Bli Janur believed that by taking care of Earth, we are practicing Sad Kerthi, the six purifications. Bli Janur gave a wonderful example that doing the positive work (such as managing our waste) will purify the Atma (spirit), Jana (humans), Wana (forests), Danu (water source), Segara (sea), and Jagat (relation between all beings).

Along with his presentation, he revealed that Indonesia is in the second rank of the highest polluting country, where a person uses an average of 700 pieces of plastic bags here in Indonesia. Bli Janur mentioned that we, as Binusian, can start taking an action to reduce these numbers. He challenged Binusian to start reducing plastic bag usage. He even illustrated that if there are 3000 Binusian stop using plastic bags and change to the reusables, Binusian can save at least 2.100.000 pieces of plastic bags.

In this great opportunity, Binus is also launching a new program named “E-Recycling”. It is a waste management program that aims to help Binusian preserve the environment. More information will be provided soon by Human Capital. Let’s get started taking our “Edu-Aksi” and saving our beloved Earth.