| A holistic way of life based
on respect for all life holds the key to our future.
Story by Margaret Evans
 “I
do not desire kingdom, heaven, paradise or even nirvana.
I only desire the end of suffering of all beings upon
this Earth.” – Sanskrit verse recited by
Mahatma Gandhi in his daily prayers.
“We live in an age of anguish.”
As the opening statement of a book, any book, it commands
attention, particularly as it seems to be more resonant
with truth with each passing day. Yet in this particular
book, “Spiritual Compass: The Three Qualities
of Life” by Satish Kumar, this confronting phrase
serves to identify the commonality that links us all
– an anguish that is political, social, ecological
and spiritual, regardless of where, and how, we live
on the planet. And, in that simple act, it’s already
started the healing process.
Once again, I’m struck by how attuned the finest
thinkers and holistic healers are to the needs of us
mere mortals – they seem to know instinctively,
intuitively, what we need at a given time. Eckhart Tolle
did it with “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's
Purpose”, then Deepak Chopra followed with “Power
Freedom and Grace” 18 months or so ago, and Wayne
Dyer with “Change your Thoughts – Change
Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao” more
recently.
Yet while these others are household names and some
would suggest they’re just doing what they do
best, Satish Kumar has a humility and directness that
speak directly to the heart and the soul. Indian by
birth and a Jain monk for nine years (the Mahatma was
also a Jain, a sect whose guiding principle is extreme
non violence to honour all living things), Kumar espouses
the philosophy of Ayurveda for its holistic healing
of the self and the planet. Steeped in this ancient
tradition, Kumar is also well aware of the materialistic
and self indulgent ways of the West having lived in
Western Europe for the past 30 years. He is a well known
commentator, magazine editor and, lately, a presenter
on BBC TV of a program that demonstrates his holistic
view of nature.
In keeping with Mahatma Gandhi’s desire to end
the suffering of all beings, Satish Kumar’s intention
in “Spiritual Compass” is to give us “a
way out of the anguish”, a direction to follow
in all aspects of our lives. The “three qualities
of life” of which he speaks are the Ayurvedic
principles of sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. Simply put,
the idea of sattva or a sattvic person is “comparable
to the Wabi-Sabi of Japan, the Zen of Buddhism, the
Tao of China, the Sufi way of Islam and the ways of
the Shakers and the Amish”. It seeks wholeness
and harmony, or as Kumar frequently suggests, “elegant
simplicity”.
The rajasic way as we can probably gather from the
root word raja, is all about drive and energy and arrogance
and making the big statement. We are very definitely
living in an age where the rajasic way rules supreme,
says Kumar with the clear firm voice that gives this
book its very distinctive tone. I suspect not everyone
will like his forthrightness and some will find his
comments about the apparatus and attitude of the global
environmental movement, for instance, something he dismisses
as “scientific environmentalism lacking depth
and wholeness” and thus rajasic, as too dismissive.
Maybe even a little rajasic themselves!
The growing preoccupation with the dire consequences
for our planet, and all who live on her, from climate
change, rising oil prices, widespread pollution, depleted
energy sources, and, most recently, soaring food prices
on the back of less and less space to grow staple grain
crops, is leading us somewhere we have to strenuously
avoid retreating, Kumar suggests. The common thread
through all is fear, a tamasic quality relating to all
the forces of darkness. It takes us to a place where
we’re better not to venture, says this astute
and compassionate thinker. While fear has its place
in the climate debate, in making us act in a meaningful
way to change policies and our own lifestyles, “if
we allow fear to overwhelm us, to rule us, if fear becomes
the driving force behind our environmentalism, then
we are likely to be debilitated, disempowered and depressed.”
This man doesn’t mince his words and I suspect
no institution is safe from his piercing, but always
truth seeking, gaze.
The alternative to fear, is, quite simply, love. And
when he espouses this idea, it’s easy to find
the Jain monk still beneath the trappings of a successful
life in the West. “Our lives and our actions need
to be rooted in love of the Earth and of the natural
world,” he tells us. And for most of us, “caring
for the Earth is a way of life rather than a way of
crisis management”. His deep conviction that we
really can find our way out of this morass and that
the future is not one of dustbowls and deluges is very
reassuring. But that’s only possible, says Kumar,
with a total turnaround of the prevailing attitude that
really it’s only humans who matter on this earth.
Such rajasic “born to rule” arrogance flies
in the face of an intrinsic understanding that we are
but one small part of nature’s whole. I’m
reminded of a telling comment by a senior lecturer in
the Theosophical movement reported here in NOVA a year
or so ago that Gaia would still exist in her eternal
rhythms long after the human race had disappeared! It
seems even more prescient now.
Satish Kumar tells us that he is frequently asked whether
he is a pessimist or an optimist and his answer is always
“optimist” because pessimism is tamasic,
the way of no return. While he agrees with the scientific
view that we are currently on the precipice because
of our slavish devotion to a life fed by unsustainable
and destructive fossil fuels, in his clear sighted way
he believes this makes our choice easier: “If
we go any further we will fall into the abyss. So the
only thing we can do now is to take a step back; I call
it the ‘the point of return’.” Interestingly,
Sanskrit has a word for this state, pratikraman, and
another, atikraman which means stepping outside our
natural limits. And says Kumar, “Atikraman is
what happens when we break the universal law.”
Applying this knowledge to today’s world, we
need to step back from our current attitude of atikraman
towards our natural and finite resources and return
to energy derived directly from air, water and sun,
the Pratikraman way. Given our Western love affair with
the car (can it really be true that here in Australia
four wheel drives are the fastest growing segment of
the motor industry?), not to mention all those other
creature comforts we find it impossible to live without,
this is no easy task. But Kumar, at least, thinks it
is achievable and, once again, he is persuasive. After
all, this “ wasteful, destructive and consumerist
tamasic culture” has only been around for 250
years or so and “in the context of the evolutionary
timescale 250 years is a very short time. What was created
by humans can be changed by humans.” He’s
right of course so maybe that optimism is well placed
after all.
It’s Satish Kumar’s effortless understanding
of what it means to be holistic, to have a holistic
worldview, that makes “Spiritual Compass”
a book I will turn to again and again. A Jain sees the
universe as a single entity, a uni-verse, as opposed
to the dualistic view that prevails in so many ways.
One example is the way we view the land and its use
– in a biodynamic, Slow Food culture, there is
reverence for the rhythms, integrity and balance of
nature, and the creatures that exist in that ecosystem
are permitted their place as well as man and his useful
“commodity” animals. But when monocultures
driven by monopolies – Kumar informs us that four
or five giant multinational corporations now control
80 per cent of the international food trade –
hold sway this is the tamasic, almost nightmarish, vision
“resulting in the breakdown of society and destruction
of the natural world.” And aren’t we seeing
that already in the current escalating global food crisis
where staple foods are being priced beyond the reach
of millions because such foods are in shorter and shorter
supply. Not only can’t they not afford them, they’re
just not available anymore. The reason? In large part,
it’s that we have allowed monopolies to replace
food crops with biofuels to feed our insatiable demand
for energy, for cars, for comfort, for a continuance
of the profligate lifestyles we have arrogantly assumed
as our right.
Here’s where people like Satish Kumar and, before
him, Mahatma Gandhi, have so much to offer us that is
relevant as we face up to these modern crises. The Mahatma
told each of us: “Be the change you want to see
in the world,” and his disciple Kumar actually
comes to our rescue with an 11 point program of “sattivic
action” so that we can “combat the rajasic
values of consumerism, address the problem of global
warming and begin to live a joyful life”. Some
of the more immediately accessible include “live
simply”, “consume less”, “waste
not”, “use no harmful products”, “walk”,
“meditate”, and “work less”.
Primarily though, it all starts when we “change
our attitudes” because it’s only from a
viewpoint of acknowledging the right of other creatures,
plants and fellow human beings for that matter to live
a full and contented life that we can possibly begin
to bring about the change we want to see.
“Spiritual Compass: The Three Qualities of Life”
is a book for our times and I can’t recommend
it enough.
Spiritual Compass: The Three Qualities
of Life
Satish Kumar
Finch Publishing
RRP $24.95
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