Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive for

rights reasons we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 2005, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

My castaway this week is a man of peace. For the last 32 years he's produced a magazine that

argues for the virtues of non-violence and ecological awareness and against speed,

size and the relentless pursuit of the individual. The growth of the magazine resurgence

from a home spun newsletter to a quality production mirrors the life of its editor.

He was born in India. At the age of nine he became a monk devoted to a totally

ascetic way of life. He left the order at 18 to become a follower of Ghandian principles,

and in 1962 he set out with a friend to walk from Ghandi's grave in New Delhi to the four

nuclear capitals of the world, Moscow, Paris, London and Washington. The walk established him as a

pioneer of ecological humanism and friends of many like-minded people, Bertrand Russell and

Yefudi Menuin and Prince Charles to name but three. We have become human doings rather than beings,

he says, slow down, you will go further than you ever imagined. He is Satish Kumar. So slow is

beautiful Satish, but it's difficult to achieve in a society that's taught itself that speed

is the essence and frankly it's a lovely thought but it's hopelessly impractical isn't it?

It is impractical as we live today, but where has speed led us?

We have gone, gone and gone and yet personal happiness, the family life, friendship, all the qualities

for which we hunger are nowhere. Time makes perfect. When you give something a bit of your time,

then whatever you are doing, whatever you are making will be better. You can't write a beautiful

poem in a hurry, you can't make a nice loaf of bread in a hurry, you can't do anything well in a

hurry. So if you want to do something well we have to slow down. It's interesting you mentioned

...