Speaker #1Nature is our nationality. Love is our religion. And yet... We are rooted in our community, the sense of community and cosmos, the intimate and the ultimate. Together, with magnanimous mind, generous heart, breathe in, breathe out, smile, relax and let go. Thank you. Everyone is a leader. Even a child is a leader. And everybody can lead in something. We had wonderful leaders who cooked our dinner. They let the dinner party serve. Somebody led this fire. and created the beautiful fire. The leadership there, leadership is not only being in 10 Downing Street or in the White House or in the Kremlin. Leader is here in every one of you. So in order to be a leader, what quality do you need? Quality number one, self-confidence, self-love. Self-recognition. Self-awareness. Self-awareness. Are you aware of who you are? Often we think that I know who I am, but many people don't know who they are. The moment you know that you are a leader, then you start to know who you are. So self-confidence, self-awareness, self-respect. Each and every one of us are very special. No one, there's no double of any of us. Everybody is unique and very special. So recognize yourself as a very special gift from the universe. to the universe you and i are all potentially who we are and we can become who we are every acorn has potential to be an oak tree and all of us are potentially an acorn to be an oak tree All the great leaders you think about, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King. I had a great privilege of meeting Martin Luther King. That was wonderful in my life. And he was a very humble leader, actually. He was very humble. Very articulate, but very humble. And when I completed my walk around the world, two and a half years of journey, I wrote to Martin Luther King and said, Dr. King, I heard your speech. I had a dream. Now, you know, all of us can have a dream. Not only at night. And they're also very important. Remember your dreams at night. They are very important. But also you can dream in the daytime. Nobody is barred. from dreaming. Martin Luther King was not the only one. John Lennon sang, I'm not the only one. I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. So, to be a leader, you have to be a dreamer. And you all can dream. That's very simple. So just start to say, I'm going to be a dreamer. then you'll be a leader. So Marshall King said, I have a dream. And I said, you have a dream, big dream about the world, but I have a small dream. And my dream is to meet you. I wrote to him jokingly. And he was very kind. And he wrote to me straight back and said, yes, I heard you and your friend coming from India all the way walking. And my great inspiration is Mahatma Gandhi. And so, please come and meet me. I'll be delighted to meet you. And so we went to see him. Very humble man. And there was a picture of, like we have a picture of Tagore here. He had a picture of Mahatma Gandhi in his room. And we talked. And what is the, what was his main quality? Apart from being a dreamer. And this is what I would like you to take away in tonight's teaming. I am going to be a dreamer, Sadiq has told me. I'm going to be a dreamer. That's the first thing you have to do. Then the second thing, a leader is an activist. And all of us can be an activist. To be an activist, you have to be an optimist. You have to have great hope, active hope. Activist is active hope. Things won't just turn up. You have to act to bring about what you are dreaming. And so everybody is potentially an activist. What is an activist? Who is an activist? Anyone who is doing something for somebody else. If you are doing something just for yourself and stop there, then you are an activist, not an activist. If you are doing something for yourself, like you feed yourself this evening, so that I fed myself, so that I can speak to you. And I'm speaking to you and then I'll go to sleep. I'm resting for myself so that I can wake up and do some work tomorrow for the world. The moment you start to come out of yourself and do something for the world, in any form, you are an activist. There's a great cook, chef, Hugh Fernley Whittingstall. You know him, Hugh Fernley Whittingstall. He's a leader only by being a good chef. But what makes him a good chef? That he wants to cook and he wants to make the world and realize... that eating good food, cooking good food, growing good food. I know him quite well. He's a very great friend of Schumacher College. He has been here many times. I've been to his house. It's a beautiful garden. Grows all his vegetables and cooks. And has a restaurant. And he promotes it. Books about it and promotes. So you can be a cook, an activist. You don't always have to be a member of Extinction Rebellion and stand in Trafalgar Square or the White Hall or in front of the White House or the Kremlin to be an activist. You can be a great gardener and you can be an activist. There's a very famous gardener in Britain called Monty Don and he's an organic gardener. and he was president of the soil association and he came to shumacher college he's a good friend of ours and he just loves gardening and he teaches gardening and promotes gardening says you are a gardener okay you are not a gardener start today never too late that's what he said and what i said to my young people at shumacher college i said you want to get married And if your boyfriend says, I want to marry you, ask him, are you a gardener? Marry a gardener. Marry a gardener wife or husband, the great blessing. And so being a great gardener, you can be an activist. So being a senior, you can be an activist. John Lennon, John Byers, many, many other people. They were singers. And through their songs, they inspired people. You can give painter. Picasso painted Guernica, the horrors of war. And that painting was in the United Nations for many years. Now that has come back to Spain. And now it's in Madrid. Just one great painting has inspired many people. You can do anything you like. As long as you are offering it for the world. That's a leader. There's somebody who is giving something for the world, for the service of the world. Leader is a servant leader. Mahatma Gandhi was a servant of India. Martin Luther King was a servant of the black people in America. And he was an embodiment of love. When I met him, I was so inspired, so impressed. I met many people, but Martin Luther King was something special. He has not a trace of hatred in him. He said, white people are my brothers and sisters. I'm not against white people. And practicing racism is bad for the white people as it is bad for the black people. And he said, even if the black people practice racism, I will be against that. So embodiment of love. Radical love. That's quite amazing. And so, each and every one of us have that potential to be a dreamer, to do something for the world, as a gardener, as a cook, as a writer, as a painter, as a dancer. If you dance for the world, then you are an activist. Joan Baez, the singer, I met her too. It was a great privilege to meet her. So there are many, many examples you can see. So just consider yourself that I am a leader. And to be a leader, you don't have to be famous. You don't have to be in the newspapers or radio or television. You can be a humble servant leader, just serving the world in your own way, very humble way, and finding joy in that, pleasure in that. And the second quality of a leader is freedom from fear. A leader is not afraid. He is not afraid of problems. Leader is not afraid of difficulties. Leader is not afraid of obstacles. A leader welcomes difficulties. The moment you let go of fear and welcome difficulty, as Mahatma Gandhi did. When he was going to be put in jail and he was asked by the by the judge in the in court to say, are you guilty? I said yes. I'm guilty of breaking the unjust, unfair, wrong kind of British law. So I'm going to send you to jail. Yes, sir. I'm prepared to go to jail. I'll go to jail as a bridegroom goes to wedding chamber. Can you imagine the answer? I'm very happy to go to jail. Judge was ashamed to send him to jail. He said, okay. I hope my government, his majesty's government, will release you soon. But today I have to send you to jail. He said, no, no, please don't worry about releasing me from prison. I'm quite happy to be in prison. I want to bring the end to your unjust law of ruling India. And I want you to go home. Then I will be okay. Then I'll be free. So if you want to be a leader, do not shy away from difficulties and problems and hardship. On the contrary, welcome difficulties. Welcome hardship. Welcome challenges. When I was going to walk around the world, he was protesting against the bomb, nuclear bomb. And he was in jail for seven days. And when I read that Burton Russell, Nobel Prize winning, member of the House of Lords, at age 90, is going to jail for peace in the world. I said to my friend who was with me in a coffee house, I said, and what are we doing, young man? Sitting here drinking coffee. Let's do something. That was inspiration. That was inspiration, a small inspiration to be a peace leader. And so we decided to walk. He said, anybody can fly. That's too easy. Anybody can go by car or train. Too easy. We are going to walk. So choose a difficult path. Don't choose an easy path. And they said, but even walking is easy. Walking is easy. We are going to walk without any money. Actually it was our teacher who said to us, go without any money. And we said we are going to remain vegetarians. That was also our teacher's advice. And we agreed to that. So walking without money, vegetarian food in the 60s. Being a vegetarian was not as easy as it is today. When I said to people in Europe, when I came to Europe, I said I'm vegetarian. They said, what do you eat? We give you chicken. I said, chicken is meat. He said, no, no, chicken is not meat. They didn't think that chicken was meat. Fish is not meat for them. So many days I just lived on bread and tea and maybe some grapes or something in Afghanistan or Iran or countries like that, Europe. And so that making that journey a little more difficult, two and a half years walking without a penny. And people gave us food. Sometimes we were hungry. But we said we are fasting. We are fasting. Opportunity to fast. Turn the difficulty into positive. Yes. That's the challenge. Turn the difficulty into positive. When you are hungry, it's a good opportunity to fast. And when you have no shelter, it's a good opportunity to sleep under the stars. And a million-star hotel out there. Who cares for five-star hotels? So if you are a leader, you want to be a leader, you don't want to choose just easy path. Oh, it's too difficult. It's too hard. The government is not listening to me. Business leaders are not listening to me. Media is not listening to me. Nobody is listening to me. How are we going to change it? It's more difficult. It's more difficult. It's not very hard. You are not going to be a leader. The moment I say, Nobody listens to me and yet I will speak. And I'll keep speaking. Until they listen. One person will listen, then two will listen, five will listen, then mine. So that's an activist, that's a leader. So you have to be selfless and fearless. And that requires courage. And you have already talked about courage, haven't you? So I won't talk much about courage. But courage is necessary. And the courage word comes from courage. French word, Latin word, courage. Courage means heart. And all of you have a heart. So you can't say, I don't have courage. You have a heart, so you have courage. You don't have to go to Marks and Spencer to buy courage. Or you don't have to get, you come from France. You don't have to go to Galerie Lafayette to buy courage. Courage is a French heart. So there you are. So all of you have heart, and therefore all of you have courage. Within your heart, given to you, every single human being, 8 billion of us, all have courage. But that's dormant. Sleeping. Heart is asleep. And so if you want to be a leader, wake up. Awaken your heart. Awaken your courage. And go for it. Whatever the difficulty, go for it. And success or failure is not your concern. A leader is not worried about success or failure. As a failure, okay. Failure is a springboard for success. No way for failure. Don't give up on failure. So no difficulty will stop you. And no failure will stop you. And no hardship will stop you. No obstacle will stop you. We'll keep going. And that's a courage. And that is everyone's prerogative. Leadership. Everyone's prerogative. So do not look. I'll wait for some great leader to emerge. Mahatma Gandhi or great Tagore. He was a great leader. So that's my kind of simple advice about leadership. And then Jenny asked me about the commons. And I think the idea of private ownership is a very new idea. When the Europeans went to America, the United States of America, the whole continent, United States of America and Mexico and Brazil and Peru and Chile and Argentina and all the countries from Canada to Argentina, all the countries. Indigenous people lived there. They were nomadic. They were hunters. They were gatherers. They were people of the land. They said, Mother Earth, Father Sky. That was their motto. Mother Earth, Father Sky. No ownership. And the Europeans went and said, government said, we need tax. How do we get tax? So we give you 100 acres. Now I'll give you a piece of paper. You own this land. And now you pay us tax. on the 100 acres of land. So government and people ownership came with new idea. In America, it's less than 500 years old. In India, there was no ownership of land. There's no ownership, only relationship. You move from ownership to relationship, have relationship with the land. I'm a child of the land. Land is my mother. Land is feeding me. I will cultivate the land. I'm a trustee. Ownership and trusteeship. I'm a trustee of the land. How can you say I own animals? How can you say? I mean, there was a time when we owned humans. There was ownership of humans. Slave trade. and lots of slaves went to america lots of slave trade in england too and many many africans the europeans went to africa and had slaves and so humans were used as slaves now that is coming to end but like we own humans we own land one day i hope that we will say that we don't own the land we are just children of the land and we are trustees of the land and we are here until we are here and when we die next generation will be looking after the land land will always be here and we are just passing through for 70 80 90 100 years and then we go What is 100 years in this universal kind of geological time scale? 100 years is like a little smaller than the blink of an eye. And that's all we are here. And we say, this is my land, this is my house, this is my woman, this is my man, this is my children, this is my money, this is my bank account, this is this, this is this. This is ownership. This is just a kind of ego, pride. Everything you have given to you is a gift. And whatever you have, you enjoy it, celebrate it, and take life good, and then share it. That's the idea of commons, ultimately. But also there are certain things in common we have, like health, health service. Now in America, if you are an American citizen, you have to have personal insurance. Now I think Obamacare did start something common, but health is common. Water should be common. We need to pay for water. It's very new. I mean, I don't think 50 years ago, do you remember childhood? Water was not bought. Water was available free. So water was free. The rain comes. from the ocean the clouds without any fossil fuel they transform water this they purify water and make salty water into sweet water the clouds do it for us they don't ask for any money and then they move without any fossil fuel i mean your cars and trains and planes need fossil fuel but clouds move around the world from the ocean to the mountains And during that time, they bring and deliver water to every field, every house, every office, every building, wherever you are, freely distributed. That's the commons. And now we say you have to pay for water. It's a kind of crazy idea for me that you have to pay for water. Water, food should be free. Nowadays people say, oh, it's too expensive. Food is too expensive. They are right. When I have 15 apple trees now, so many apples that I can't eat them. They are commons. So I put apples in the box and just by my front gate and I said, sign there, please help yourself. Gift from the trees. You go to apple tree, apple tree never asked you have you come with a visa card. It's free gift, commons. Nature is commons. We humans have imposed this idea that I own the land, I own the trees, this is my tree, this is my this, this is my that, and I'll make money. Nature is abundant. Nature is amazing. This is wonderful. Nature is gorgeous. And you know, in nature, I planted those trees that I have now, 15 apple trees, about 30 years ago. And I planted a seed. Can you imagine the seed of the apple tree? The smallest little bit. And you can't eat it because it's too bitter. But it has a tree in it. And you plant it with the soil and the rain and the sun and a little bit of fencing so that deer doesn't eat it. They just came. And now for 30 years, year after year after year. Hundreds of apples, each tree is producing. Can you imagine from that one seed, how many apples I'm getting? And last year, I made 200 bottles of apple juice. 200 bottles. Every day, I can drink a whole bottle, so much apple juice. And I have guests enjoying apple. Fresh, real apple juice. So, we have to learn from nature. Nature is our true teacher. we have forgotten that we think that i will learn from computers and youtube and this tube and that tube and and and but nature is a teacher nature is the real teacher nature is i mean tagore who in front of you there he started school in india shanti niketan and Deborah, my friend there, her ancestors, her fathers and grandfathers, they knew Tagore. Tagore stayed in her parents'house in Shanghai. And so we have a close connection through Tagore. And he's my mentor. And he stayed in this house. You can see the picture in that wall there. He and his colleague, a lady, came with him. And they stayed in this house. So it's a kind of Tagore house. And so Tagore started a school in India and he held classes under the trees, under the mango trees. And he said that I'm your human teacher but the mango tree is also your teacher. So learn from teacher, from nature, nature as teacher. So the idea of commons is this natural world. Who owns the Mount Kailash? Who owns Himalayas? Who owns Fujiyama? Who owns all the nature, forests? They are all nature's gift to us. So this idea that it's my forest and I can cut down the rainforest and plant the soya beans and export to China and make money, that's a very new idea. So I think if we want to create, co-create a natural world, we have to create a natural emerging future, just dream of a future where there is no ownership. We have more commons and we have everything is shared in nature. Everything is common. Lions don't say I own the land. Tigers don't say, elephants don't say, birds don't say I own the land. Thankful to the land. Thank you land for giving us food. We graze and take as much as we can and then leave the rest for the others. That kind of consciousness we need if we want to have a commons. So I think these two ideas of leadership and commons, we need leaders to create commons. And you are leaders to create commons. And so co-creating that emerging future where many more things are in common and we can all share. And as I said on my blessings on the food, I said that no need to go, anyone to go hungry in the world. Nature provides enough for everybody's need. Not a single person needs to be hungry. It's our human organization, human system, human economy, this kind of industrial economy that we have created, which is creating power and rich and on the one hand that billions and trillions and trillions of dollars are flushing around the world going and food, 30-40 percent of food is wasted and thrown away on landfills and people are hungry. And in a restaurant you pay 200 pounds for a dinner and the poor people can't get food. So it's a kind of human organization. It's not the fault of nature. So creating that commons, which is the nature's teaching and nature's gift, then we can have a beautiful world. And the world is beautiful. And I think we can celebrate the beauty of the world. And the world is a great gift. And we are very lucky to be born here. And we are very lucky to have these trees and these flowers. I live in North Devon, my home. And when I go to walking by the sea, along the coastline and in the valleys and all the blue bells and white bells and candles. and foxgloves and cow parsley. Ah, paradise. Paradise. This heaven is not behind the sky. Heaven is here. We live on it. But we have forgotten and we are making this place into hell and a Gaza war and Ukraine war and Afghanistan war and Vietnam war. poverty and nuclear weapons and all those things are totally unnecessary. We don't need them. Biden doesn't need nuclear weapons. Putin doesn't need nuclear weapons. Zelensky doesn't need to have NATO membership. If I can give Gaza their statehood, there's no problem. You can have your statehood. So what a problem. We can live together next to each other and there's plenty in the world to go around. So is there other... kind of consciousness and our meanness which has created the problems. If a generosity of spirit, a magnanimous spirit, then there's no problem in the world. And so you are the leader to create that emerging future and
