People are divided racially, religiously, politically, economically, and this division is fragmentation. This is what is happening; and the responsibility of the educator is really very great. He is concerned in all these schools to bring about a good human being who has a feeling of global relationship, who is not nationalistic, regional, separate, religiously clinging to old, dead traditions, which really have no value at all. The responsibility of the educator becomes more and more serious, more and more committed, more and more concerned with the education of his students.

What is education doing actually? Is it really helping mankind, our children, to become more concerned, more gentle and generous? The educator has to help the student to find out his relationship to the actual world in which all things are taking place; and also to the world of nature, to the desert, the jungle or the few trees that surround him, and to the animals of the world. (Animals, fortunately, are not nationalistic; they hunt only to survive.) If the educator and the student lose their relationship to nature, to the trees, to the rolling sea, each will certainly lose his relationship with humanity.

There is a great deal of talk about and endeavour to protect nature, flora and fauna and to clean polluted rivers and lakes … Nature is part of our life. We grew out of the seed, the earth and we are part of all that, but we are rapidly losing the sense that we are animals like the others. You must have that sense of communion with nature around you. If you hurt nature, you are hurting yourself.

Have you ever woken up in the morning and looked out of the window, or gone out and looked at the trees and the spring dawn? Live with it. Listen to all the sounds, to the whisper, the slight breeze among the leaves. See the light on a leaf and watch the sun coming over the hill, over the meadow; and the dry river, or sheep grazing across the hill. Watch them; look at them with a sense of affection. When you have such communion with nature, then your relationship with another person becomes simple, clear, without conflict.

This is one of the responsibilities of the educator, not merely to teach mathematics or how to use a computer. It is far more important to have communion with other human beings who suffer, struggle and have great pain and the sorrow of poverty – and also with rich people. If the educator is concerned with this, he is helping the student to become sensitive to other people’s sorrows, struggles, anxieties and worries. It should be the responsibility of the teacher to educate children to have such communion with the world. The world may be too large, but the world is where he is; that is his world. And this brings about a natural consideration, affection for others, courtesy and behaviour that is not rough, cruel, or vulgar.

The educator should talk about all these things – not just verbally, he must feel the world, the world of nature and the world of man. They are interrelated. When man destroys nature, he is destroying himself. When he kills another, he is killing himself. The enemy is not the other, but you. To live in such harmony with nature, with the world, naturally brings about a different world.