YOU ARE THEREFORE I AM

This inspiring and beautifully written book is the spiritual autobiography of Satish Kumar, the well known editor of Resurgence and programme director of Schumacher College. He begins by vividly evoking his childhood in India where his mother was his first spiritual teacher. Here he learns the basic elements of what he later calls a 'relational philosophy' when she explains the cycle of life of seed through tree and on to seed. 'Our individuality, she says, is dependent on others. Individuality is indivisible'. She went on: 'Seed serves the earth, and the earth serves the seed. A tree sheds its leaves to the earth, and the earth gives nourishment to the roots of the tree. Thus souls are serving each other and being fulfilled'. The same lesson is to be found in the pollination of the bee.

From the age of nine to eighteen, Satish lives the life of a Jain monk. He describes the principles of Jain philosophy that he learnt, as well as conversations with his mother during this period – it is hard to 'lose' your child to a monastery so early. These principles are described as Satish received them orally at the time and form a short course on their own. The next landmark comes when he reads the autobiography of Gandhi and realises that the secluded life of a monk is not for him – he needs to pursue a path of active engagement in the world. So one night after midnight he escapes from the order and returns home to a rather displeased mother who is not amused that he had broken his monastic vows. But Satish is undeterred and he journeys to Kerala to meet Vinoba Bhave, one of Gandhi's most important successors whose walks released some 4 million acres of land to the poor. Here he learns that non-attachment to the results of action – a classic injunction from the Gita - can bridge the gap between spiritual contemplation and social activism. The key word is 'sarvodoya', which means upliftment of all. According to Vinoba 'capitalism is self-centred, socialism is society-centred, sarvodoya is life-centred'.

These reflections lead into a chapter on Satish's trinity – not mind, body, spirit but soil, soul, society. This too is a reflection of the concerns of Gandhi and Vinoba; the soil issue comes up later in the book in a chapter on the work of the activist Vandana Shiva, who observes that 'diversity is the mother of abundance – whereas academic science insists on monocrops, the cause of scarcity'. The heart of this second part, the Quest for Wholeness, is an account of his meetings with Krishnamurti, Martin Luther King, Bertrand Russell and E.F. Schumacher. Krishnamurti's message that 'truth is a pathless land' was a welcome one to an ex-monk, as was his observation that organised religion is based on fear rather than liberation. Here too K remarks that relationship is the bedrock of our existence. The encounter with Russell is very different, with his emphasis on rationality but 'for him peace was a matter of policy, a goal to be achieved, rather than a way of life'. Martin Luther King was clearly impressed by Satish's long peace walk and coined the memorable phrase – 'we may have guided missiles but we have misguided politicians'.

The next part describes a number of journeys in India highlighting places like Mount Abu Jain temple and people like Vandana Shiva. Is also has a chapter on Islam with the key phrase 'avoid being angry at all times' as a characteristic of its essential teaching. The final short part contrasts the Cartesian cogito with the Hindu So Hum (I am therefore you are of the title) and formulates a reverential ecology: 'without reverence there can be no ecology, and without spirituality there can be no sustainability'. In conclusion, Satish sees the world at a crossroads with one path continuing business as usual and leading to ruin and the other the path of participatory science, values, ethics and reverence for nature. The first reflects an image of separation, control and manipulation, the second a mutual dependence and working towards peace and harmony. I am not sure if there is a middle way between these mindsets, but the second is what we need for long-term prosperity and it cannot be achieved by perpetuating the current economic system.