A WALK CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.

When it's time for a change, Satish Kumar knows it's time to walk. In his youth he was a Jain monk in South India, but in time he became concerned with the ills of the world at large, and, following the lead of his teachers Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave, he started walking. In the 1960s, Kumar traveled from India to England, across the then-Soviet Union, carrying no passport, no money, no itinerary and no idea what would happen when and if he got there.

"Walking became a meditation," he says, "and every step was teaching me to be mindful. Breathing in, I inhaled the warmth of the air, the smell of the wet grasses, the coolness of the water, the purity of nature."

Kumar walked in the name of peace, bringing a message that he hoped people would want to hear, so that they would further his journey. Aside from a handful of cranky border guards and bureaucrats, that proved to be the case.

Not long after his arrival in Britain, Kumar, with no experience writing or editing or even spelling, was offered a job as editor of Resurgence, Britain's premiere magazine of alternative living and sustainable futures. Inspired by the "small is beautiful" ideas of economist E.F. Schumacher, he went on to start an exemplary school for local children in his village of Hartland, Devon, called--what else?--The Small School. And nine years ago, he founded Schumacher College, which offers three-week workshops staffed by eco-visionaries such as Vandana Shiva, David Brower, Amory Lovins and Peter Matthiessen, signing up hundreds of students from all over the world.

Says one environmentalist who's worked closely with him, "Somehow, no one can say no to Satish Kumar. He shows us just how much we can change the world with sheer good will, because his actions are so honestly selfless. His environmentalism knows no separation between the social and the natural--both are approached together with a firmness of spirit."

Kumar recently completed a five-week U.S. book tour in support of Path Without Destination (William Morrow, 1999), which vividly describes the journeys this gentle crusader has taken across America and the British Isles, and even to Mount Kailas in Tibet. The book ends with a thoughtful analysis of the mantra that Kumar chanted daily in the monastery and that he still returns to all these years later. It begins, "Nonviolence, truth, nonstealing, sacred sex, nonconsumerism, physical work, avoidance of bad taste ... local economy, and respect for all beings." These are Kumar's resolutions for the new millennium. He humbly asks you to try them out as well. CONTACT: Schumacher College, The Old Postern, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EA, England/(01)44-0-1803-865934/http://www.gn.apc.org/schumachercollege.