Soil, Soul and Society
I am honoured and delighted to receive the prestigious Goi Peace Award. I humbly accept it on behalf of all those who have supported me and guided me directly or indirectly, in my work for peace. First of all, I offer my humble tribute to my mother who was an embodiment of peace among people and peace with our precious planet Earth. She planted the seeds of peace in my soul. Then I pay my homage to my many teachers and companions who have inspired me to dedicate my life in the cause of peace. All my work is co-creation.
My life-long peace pilgrimage started when, at age nine, I became a Jain monk. Practice of non-violence and doing no harm to others is the principle of paramount importance for the Jains. For nine years I walked bear feet learning and teaching the philosophy of reverence for all life, human life as well as more than human life. When I was 18 years old, I read the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. He taught me that I need to practice peace and spirituality in the world. So, I left my monk’s robe and joined the land reform movement led by Vinoba Bhave, who was a friend and follower of Mahatma Gandhi. I walked with Vinoba persuading the landlords to make peace with the poor and share their land with them. We collected four million acres of land in gifts and distributed it among the landless people. This was a love revolution.
During that time, I was also inspired by the international peace movement and action for nuclear disarmament. So, with a friend I went on a peace pilgrimage walking without money across Asia, Europe, North America and Japan. We delivered the packets of peace tea to the leaders of nuclear powers in Moscow, Paris, London and Washington. We walked through 15 countries covering 13,000 kilometres over two and half years.
What I learned in this pilgrimage is that we have to make peace with the Earth, peace with ourselves and peace with people, what I call peace with soil, soul and society. A new trinity of peace. A new trinity for our time. I established Schumacher college to promote this new trinity and provide education of head, heart and hands. At Schumacher College we offer nature centred and earth centred education.
Let me focus on the theme of the trinity of Soil, Soul and Society in this speech.
Many historical movements in the world have three key words that express their spirit. During the French Revolution, for example, the key words were liberté, égalité, fraternité and in the American Declaration of Independence we find the words “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’ is a very nice trinity but it is very human: human liberty, human fraternity, human equality. In the same way, in the American Declaration of Independence, life is primarily human life, liberty is human liberty and happiness is human happiness. These words represent a more anthropocentric worldview. We have come to think that somehow human beings are at the centre of the universe. It is as if humans are the most important species and that the Earth’s other species are all there to serve human kind. This is a very human-centred worldview.
But this worldview is not valid. Especially once we realise that we are utterly dependent on other species. We need to recognise that the humans are not the rulers of the world; they are not here to do what they like. It is our responsibility to take care of the other species because we are all made of each other, we are not separate, we are all related, we are members of one Earth community.
So, we need a new trinity to replace those human-centred trinities. (Even the trinity adopted by the New Age movement, ‘mind, body, spirit’, refers to the human mind, human body and human spirit.) We need a new trinity that is holistic and inclusive, a trinity that embraces the entire planet Earth and not just the human species. We need a philosophy, a science, a religion and a legal system that will benefit all living beings, not just human beings.
So, I propose a new trinity. And at the top of this new trinity I put the word ‘soil’, which represents the entire natural world. Without soil there is no food and without food there is no life, no trees, no forests. Food and forests are transformed soil. Soil represents life on Earth.
In our human-centred worldview, in our educational systems, in our study of science and technology, we have come to think that soil simply means dirt, and that dirt is dirty. But dirt is not dirty: dirt is the source of life. Without dirt there is no life.
Soil, therefore, represents all natural life. And it is the fact that we are related to and dependent on the soil. Some people may think that food comes from the supermarket; most of us don’t grow food these days. If somebody grows food, we think: “Oh poor man, peasant, labourer; he is not educated so he has to grow food.” If you are educated, then you don’t grow food. Growing food, in the Industrial Age, has no dignity. You sit behind your computer and your food comes from some far away places. You don’t want to grow food because growing food is seen as a sign of backwardness. If you are advanced, educated, rich, then you manufacture cars or computers or some other gadgets. Or you become a banker, a lawyer or a civil servant.
Growing food has become a sign of underdevelopment. The word ‘peasant’ itself has become a term of an insult. I want to change that. I want to say that we must touch the soil; we must put our hands into the soil. How many times do you touch your mobile phone every day? Maybe 100 times? How many times do you touch the soil? Hardly ever! I want to give dignity to peasants, to those who grow food, to farmers and gardeners.
Soil is so important, yet we have forgotten it. Yes, we humans are important too, but the human species is only one of the 7.8 million species on Earth. We are not the kings. We are not an imperial power, and the Earth is not a human colony. At the moment, we behave as if we can do to Earth what we like. We do things which cause global warming and change the climate, we poison the soil, we destroy the rainforests, we overfish the oceans, we interfere with seeds through genetic engineering. This human behaviour needs to change and must change.
This is why I put the soil on the top of my trinity. We are all part of this healthy web of life maintained by soil.
We need to be humble; to be human is to be humble. The Latin word humus means soil. ‘Human’ ‘humility’ and ‘humus’ come from the same root. Human beings are literally soil beings. The soil is so important yet humble. When humans lose humility they are no longer true humans.
Once, the Buddha was sitting in meditation, with his right hand above the palm of the left hand, and his son, Rahul, came to him and asked: “Father, you teach compassion, forgiveness, love and forbearance – from where did you learn all these wonderful qualities? You are a world preacher, but who is your teacher?” The Buddha lifted his right hand in the bhūmiśpara mudra, which means ‘touch the Earth posture’ and he touched the Earth. Then he said: “I learned my forgiveness, compassion, friendship, kindness and all the other wonderful qualities of love, beauty, unity and generosity from the Earth.”
Do you know where the Buddha was enlightened? Sitting under a tree. My mother used to say that the Buddha got enlightenment because he was sitting under a tree!
A tree has intrinsic value. That is, a tree is good not because it gives us food, wood, shade or aesthetic pleasure. No, the tree is good in and of itself, even if nobody goes and looks at it, even if nobody ever says: “Wow, look at those beautiful cherry blossoms!” Even if no one ever sees it, the tree will still blossom. Trees represent the divine grace appearing on the Earth. Trees, animals, plants, rocks, mountains, rivers, worms, butterflies, honeybees – all creatures upon this Earth have intrinsic value. They have the right to be as they are, who they are and what they are. We talk about human rights, and that’s fine. But Nature also has rights. The trees have a right to exist. We have no right to cut them down without proper purpose. When we understand this, when we recognise the rights of the trees, the rights of Nature, then we are truly ecologists and have understood the paramount importance of the word ‘soil’.
The second word in my new trinity is ‘soul’, which sounds similar to ‘soil’. Soul is something we cannot see. The human body you can touch, hug, kiss and admire, but in order to touch soul I have to close my eyes. Soul is not something I can see. Yet, everything – trees, animals, worms and humans – has a soul. Soil is the outer landscape, and soul is the inner landscape.
We need to take care of the soul, as we take care of the body. But we can only take care of the soul when we slow down. No computer. No car. No shopping. Just sit in your room with tea and flowers: elegantly simple, without clutter. Go into a room which is peaceful, take no mobile phone. Take time for yourself. Meditate on the fact that you represent the totality of the universe. There is nothing in the universe that is not in you, and there is nothing in you that is not in the universe. The universe is the macrocosm and you are the microcosm. You are earth, air, fire, water, imagination, creativity, consciousness, time and space – you have all these elements in your genes and in your cells. Your soul is billions of years old. You have been recycled and recycled, again and again. You are a beautiful example of the total recycling principle of the universe.
So, if you want to take care of the universe, you start with yourself. Care of the soul is the way to self-realisation. Meditation is for self-realisation. As is gardening; mindful gardening is a form of meditation. When you are cooking mindfully you are also in meditation because you are not just cooking to feed yourself or your family, you are cooking for self-realisation: taking care of yourself, being at ease with yourself, being happy with yourself, being fulfilled in yourself is the way to self-realisation. Whoever I am, I am. Self-realisation will make you at ease with yourself. Everything you truly need and want is within you; courage, compassion, creativity and consciousness are all within you. You are capable of solving every problem in the world with your inner wisdom. Wisdom is a soul quality, as are generosity, love and friendship, unity and beauty. We are all gifted with these qualities. They are all there to be cultivated and be manifested.
You will realise that all you need is already here: the air, fire, food, water, trees, soil, sun and sky, everything is here. What more do you want? If you want more possessions and more clutter, it is because you have lost touch with your soul. That’s why your soul is hungry. That hunger will not be satisfied by computers, cars or mobile phones. To nourish the soul you need to slow down and take care of your soul. Without a happy soul you are the poorest of the poor. Spiritual poverty is the greatest poverty, greater than any physical poverty. And as you take care of the soil, you take care of the soul. Your outer body is soil, and your inner being is soul. When you take care of both, body and soul, you experience a sense of the sacred, you gain self-realisation and you achieve true wellbeing.
Caring for the soul has nothing to do with our ego. This is why we have the third word of our trinity: ‘society’. First and foremost, we are members of the Earth community. Then we are members of the human community. This sense of belonging to the human community liberates you from Ego!
I walked from India to America without money. When I came to the border between India and Pakistan – where three wars have been fought – I was joined by 35 people who had come to say goodbye. One of them said: “Here are some packets of food. At least take some food with you.” I said: “Thank you, but no thank you. I’m going for peace. And peace begins with trust; trust in human community. These packets of food are not packets of food, they are packets of mistrust. What would I tell my Pakistani hosts? That I did not trust them to feed me?”
My friend began to cry. I said: “Why are you crying, my friend?” she replied: “Satish, this might be our last meeting. I may never see you again. You are going to Muslim countries, Christian countries, capitalist countries, communist countries, mountains, forests, deserts, snow. You have no money, no food. You are walking. How are you going to survive?” At that moment, I said: “My friend, from today I’m not afraid of death. If I die while walking for peace, then that is the best kind of death I can have. And I’m not afraid of hunger. If I don’t get food, I’ll say this is my opportunity to fast.”
Then we entered Pakistan, and to my astonishment there was someone waiting for us. He said: “Are you the two men coming to Pakistan for peace?” I was surprised. “How do you know?” I asked. He said: “I read about you. And I thought that if you are coming for peace, then I should welcome you. This war between India and Pakistan is complete nonsense. We are all members of one human family.”
At that moment, I realised the fundamental unity of the human family. If we come here as Indians then we will meet Pakistanis. If we come here as Hindus then we will meet Muslims. But if we come here as human beings, then we meet only human beings. This way I was able to rise above my narrow identity and identify myself instead with whole of human society.
Mahatma Gandhi said that there is enough in the world for everybody’s need but not enough for anybody’s greed. At the moment, 1% of the greedy population is driving the economy while 99% of people are suffering. This 1% of population wants to be the superpower and dominate the world. For them there is no such thing as society. But for peace, justice and happiness we need to embrace whole of society. We need to solve social problems of poverty and wars with imagination, creativity and with forgiveness. All human problems can be solved by negotiation, by friendship, by letting go of ego and by going into eco. Eco means home, eco means relationships. Let us make a shift from ego to eco, from self interest to mutual interest, the common interest of whole human society.
If we can have a holistic view of soil, soul and society, if we can understand the interdependence of all living beings, and understand that all living creatures – from trees to worms to humans – depend on each other and we are all gifted with human spirit, then we can live in harmony with ourselves, with other people and with Nature. That is why I present you this new trinity of Soil, Soul and Society.
Satish Kumar is Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist and the founder of Schumacher College.