A Search for Unity

Satish Kumar's autobiography, No Destination, is a fascinating read. Born into a Jain family in India, he left home at the age of nine, after the demise of his father. Discarding all worldly possessions he became a wandering Jain monk. After several years, however, he became disillusioned with the life he had chosen, and discarded the ascetic garb. Having once renounced the world however, he was refused acceptance back into the family by his widowed mother. Kumar was forced to remain a wanderer of sorts.

The book takes us through the many other formative experiences of the author, and paints a picture of how his ideals and outlook were shaped by them. The experiences are as diverse as they are unique. In some parts the narrative tends towards a list of places and names, and events are given just a cursory mention. But it is nonetheless interspersed with beautiful insights and effused with the author's joy of living.

Ecology, environment and spirituality are the central themes of the book, as indeed they are of Kumar's life and work. His message is one of peace, love and appreciation of the sanctity of all life.

Once human consciousness has changed, once we have a new awareness of our place in the scheme of things, once we have realised that there is more to life than the unending chase for material possessions, and once we focus on the importance of being rather than having, we will see a dramatic transformation all around us.

Satish Kumar is the editor of the Resurgence magazine, and is also programme director at the Schumacher College.

This entry was posted on Sunday, 2nd March 2008 at 10:13 am and is filed under Environment, Nature, What I'm reading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.