Soul Man - Satish Kumar - A New Trinity, A "Soil, Soul, Society" Philosophy

Satish Kumar has spent much of his life walking the Earth to spiritually connect with nature; now he wants environmentalists and all of us to forget gloomy predictions and follow in his footsteps. John Vidal reports.

A still from the Natural World documentary, Earth Pilgrim, in which Satish Kumar walks in Dartmoor in all its seasons. Photograph: Andrew Graham-Brown/AGB Films

It sounds like a tale from a more innocent and idealistic age. Forty-six years ago, when he was 19, Satish Kumar was sitting in a southern Indian cafe with a friend when they heard that 90-year-old English philosopher Bertrand Russell was going to prison as a protest against the spread of nuclear weapons. As Kumar tells it, the two companions were so impressed by Russell's commitment to non-violence and civil disobedience, and so appalled at the potential destructive power of the weapons, that they "talked and talked" about what they could do.

 

In the end, Kumar, who had been trained, as a wandering Jain monk, to revere nature, but who had run away from the monastery to become a disciple of Vinoba Bhave, Gandhi's spiritual successor, vowed with his companion to set off on a peace walk to the four corners of the nuclear world - Washington, London, Paris and Moscow - as an act of protest and non-violence.

Thirty months and 8,000 miles later, carrying no passport or money and having no idea what would happen when he finished, Kumar ended up at John F Kennedy's grave in the US. The pilgrimage was over and, on one level, there was nothing to show for their effort. The world had more nuclear weapons than ever, and Kumar and his companion had worn out dozens of pairs of shoes.

But while for many people the idea of walking around the world carrying a simple message was an irrational, illogical and wholly unrealistic exercise, it has proved to have had great influence in Britain, where Kumar then settled. He has now spent 35 years in Devon teaching many of the world's leading thinkers about the necessity for ecological and spiritual values, as well as editing the magazine Resurgence. His insistence that reverence for nature needs to be at the heart of the world's political and social debate is the counterpoint to the insistent mantra of economic "realism" advocated and practised by government, environment groups and authorities.

Kumar has no time for realists. "Is my approach unrealistic?" he asks. "Look at what realists have done for us. They have led us to war and climate change, poverty on an unimaginable scale, and wholesale ecological destruction. Half of humanity goes to bed hungry because of all the realistic leaders in the world. I tell people who call me 'unrealistic' to show me what their realism has done. Realism is an outdated, overplayed and wholly exaggerated concept."

Instead, he seeks to learn from nature, which he calls his guide and cathedral. "Nature is realistic, and I would say that man is the only being who is not," he says. "Who else goes to bed hungry? Not the snakes or the tigers or any other animal. Nature does not need 'realistic' Tescos or Monsantos to feed themselves. Our system of 'realistic' business leadership has totally failed."

Kumar argues that the spiritual aspect of the environment is what has been lost in the great debate about the way we live, and that the broad environment movement has not understood the power of concepts such as love and reverence, which are not to be confused with religion, he insists. "The environment movement here is very logical and analytical. But it is driven by doom, gloom and disaster."

People look at nature from a very utilitarian point of view and see what is good for them only, he says, and seek to manage it rather than protect it. "I want to move people to a more experiential philosophy of the natural world," he says. "That way you can protect it." He sees no reason why governments and authorities should not be driven by philosophies of reverence to nature rather than violence to it.

"Social systems can be changed," Kumar insists. "The ones we have now are not very old. The trouble is we are driven by fear and so we take panic decisions, like opting for nuclear power. At the moment, our culture is of violence - to nature, animals, people, ourselves. We are not protecting nature these days so much as managing it without knowing it. If you want to protect it, go out in it."

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