We live in a time of disruptions which can make individuals feel helpless and irrelevant. Nothing manifests this more than the global unravelling of democracy and the rapid acceleration of ecological collapse. But, could it be that little-known inspirational individuals are more than just fleeting fireflies amid the darkness?
This question uniquely came alive in the last few weeks following the death of Stephan Harding, a British zoologist and teacher of ecology at Schumacher College in Devon, United Kingdom (UK). At first, there was just the expected sharing of grief and loss among old friends and colleagues. And then, as a WhatsApp group was formed, there was an outpouring of stories about how one man had inspired thousands of students — gifting them the ability to both see and feel reality more deeply. And, more importantly, in ways that left them feeling empowered as individuals and in collectives.
Ironically, just days before Stephan’s death, the Dartington Hall Trust announced the closure of Schumacher College. Over the last three decades, this college has become a beacon for the global community of activists, scientists and philosophers who seek solutions for what they see as civilisational challenges.
This particular story began with an American-British couple who were inspired by Rabindranath Tagore. Dorthy Elmhirst was an American heiress and her husband Leonard Elmhirst, a British agronomist had worked closely with Tagore at Shantiniketan for many years. In 1925, the Elmhirsts bought a run-down estate in Devon and created the Dartington Hall Trust for the purpose of experimenting with both agricultural systems and more humane, creative forms of education.
In the early 1990s as governments globally were slowly waking up to the reality of the environmental crisis, the Dartington Trust founded Schumacher College. The college went on to explore present, and possible futures, with inspiration from visionaries past and present — such as Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EF Schumacher, Arne Naess, James Lovelock, and many others.
Stephan arrived at Schumacher College in its early days, went on to become its core energy and built up a community of fellow travellers that spanned the globe. It came as no surprise that one tribute, by two of his students, opened with a translation of the Gayatri Mantra which Stephan had learnt from Satish Kumar, the Indian-born director of programmes at Schumacher College.
Stephan saw a commonality between the Gayatri and Gaia. James Lovelock, a scientist and environmentalist, had developed the Gaia hypothesis in the late 1970s while working for NASA. The Gaia formulation is essentially that both living organisms and non-living features on Earth work in tandem to maintain the conditions that support life in all its myriad forms. Stephan’s writings and his role as a teacher breathed life into the concept of Gaia in ways that shaped work on the ground through the graduates of the College.
“Gayatri” has several meanings, one of them is the supreme consciousness. And Gaia is the Greek word for the vast and mysterious primordial intelligence that steadily gives birth to all that exists. As his students, Chaitali Chaudari and Sarah Hawkins, wrote in a tribute, Stephan’s life was dedicated to an intimate and empathic understanding of, “the great nourishing subjectivity — at once both spiritual and material — that sustains all that is”.
It could be argued that such sensitivity can have no place in the corridors of formal power, be it a corporation or a nation-State. This certainly seems true after the American election result which, it is feared, could catastrophically undermine efforts to stem the climate crisis.
But it is also true that history is crowded with stories of individuals with guts and creativity who disrupted formal power. Thus the immeasurable significance of a teacher whose “wisdom, wit, and wonder opened his students’ hearts and minds to the music of Gaia”.
Stephan was the author of several books but for students and friends, he was most famous for the “Deep Time Walks” he led. Students would ask him that if the sun is going to explode in 500 million years, and with it our home planet, then what is the point of all our efforts to save Mother Earth? Stephan’s answer was that whatever we do on Earth will resonate forever throughout the entire universe.
The key factor here is the intensity of awareness and intent rather than scale. Is it our intent to control and dominate or to let be and nurture? As yet another student has said, Stephan “was like an expert gardener, who prepares the soil and removes weeds, knowing that the plants will grow because of the energy of the seeds, producing each its appropriate flowers and fruits”.
Stephan Harding’s work had a global resonance because he was not alone. He was inspired and energised by countless fellow travellers, past and present. And, he, in turn, became an inspiration for a dispersed community spread across the world.
The discrete inspirational individual, seen alone, may seem like a fleeting firefly — beautiful but negligible in the larger scheme of things. But when you recognise the living links between such uncounted individuals there is a persistent glow. In a time when darkness seems to preponderate, this glow is akin to both lighthouse and lodestar.
Rajni Bakshi is the founder of the YouTube channel ‘Ahimsa Conversations’.The views expressed are personal
