Product Description

At the age of nine, Satish Kumar renounced the world and became a wandering Jain monk. Leaving the monkhood when 18, he joined Vinoba Bhave's campaign for land reform, working to turn Gandhi's vision of a renewed India and a peaceful world into reality. He undertook an 8000-mile peace pilgrimage, walking from India to America without any money, through deserts, mountains, storms and snow. Since 1973 he has lived in Britain, taking on the editorship of "Resurgence" magazine, and becoming the guiding light behind a number of ecological, spiritual and educational ventures. Written with simplicity, this is an account of an extraordinary life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32519 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

David Nicholson-Lord, The Independent
"Describes episodes in the author's life which may people would dismiss as fable were they not true."

Victor Papanek, author of Design for the Real world
"If there is any single book which exudes both wisdom and tranquillity, then it is your autobiography."

Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul
"One of the few life-changing books I have ever read. I wish everyone would read it."

Customer Reviews

A book of passion, determination and humility
'No Destination' has left more of a lasting impression on me than any other book I have read for years. Satish Kumar draws an incredibly vivid, beautiful and uplifting picture of his life, and life going on around him, often describing a fascinating and alien culture, but celebrating the universality of the human spirit. It is a song for peace and the story of an incredible man.

A journey of a pacifist's pilgrimages across the world
Starting with his birth and ending in 1991, 'No Destination' is the autobiography of Satish Kumar, the campaigner reknowned for his epic pilgrimages in the name of peace. The book details his journeys and his life between these walks. It examines the influences on his life, from becoming a monk at 9 years old, to setting up a college to promote ecology and spirituality. At 287 pages long it is not always an easy read, at times the journeys feel like a list of place names, and at other times his life seems very distant from our western daily routines. Though, this is a book which can be picked up and put down at your leisure and should therefore, with slower reading, give clearer indications as to why Satish Kumar undertakes these challenges and also why he makes life decisions that are perhaps alien to some of us. His life is indeed extraordinary and for readers who enjoy journeys of self-exploration, this book must be at the top of reading lists.

Not Bad
I came to this book after watching Adam Graham-Brown's spellbinding and beautifully filmed documentary on Satish Kumar; Earth Pilgrim, A Year on Dartmoor. Desiring to know more about the subject, I soon learned about the story of the ''Peace Walk'' undertaken by Kumar and was intrigued by the idea of walking across continents without any means of support, for whatever the cause it might be. Surely an astounding story is there to be read. In this I was sadly disappointed, both in the detail and the omissions. It was far too brief, whole countries rushed past in short paragraphs, and poor old Belgium didn't even get its own sentence. It gave a sense of a reluctance to tell this part of his story - or forgetfulness, perhaps; it was a while ago.

What came before the walk, his childhood in India, life with the Jains, and following Ghandiism, was fascinating and interesting. However, after the walk the story develops into a mixed bag of banal living in the west: business endeavours, house-hunting, family-raising, schooling, seasoned by a slightly incongruous, though thankfully brief, spell of adulterous sex-farce. Honesty all well and good but this was putting me off somewhat. Still, I persevered.

I'm glad I did. The pearl in this book is the longer account of his pilgrimage to Iona to mark his fiftieth. Taking in the length and breadth of Britain, he does this in the spirit of his earlier walk: on foot, mostly, and relying entirely on the goodwill of his friends and his magazine readership. It is brilliantly described and, unlike the earlier walk, I sensed he wanted to tell this story in full. I also felt I learned more about the man in this chapter than in the rest of the book. At the end of the second walk he mentions undertaking two further pilgrimages though gives us nothing about them. This is a shame as I feel, if these had been told as half as well as Iona, the three together would have made an excellent book on their own.

The book ends with an interesting and enlightening interpretation of Ghandi's tenets which Kumar follows and would like others to appreciate. This is the ''life changing'' bit they warn you about, I expect, and what better place to finish (although having said that, this could be a book I'd selectively revisit).