This paper advances the urgent need for making sustainable living as the moral, cultural, and legal basis of natural resources protection, environmental protection, and human development in India. A concerted change is required within the social and cultural attitudes. If society is to combat the injustice and damage wrought due to unplanned development, mismanagement in the use of natural resources, effects of climate change, urban pollution, agricultural woes and human living conditions, people need to reorient their attitude as a whole. There may be lesson to be learnt from the ancient concept of Matsayanyaya.