Andrew Macnab

Thinking about the discussion of activism that's been going on. In his way, I think a hermit like Kitchener (link no longer active) is an activist as much as anyone. He stirs people's imagination, and shows a way of being true. He's the person Ramana Maharshi was talking about when he said that a solitary hermit does as much to save the world as the most socially engaged. I don't think it's necessarily more difficult in the regular world, just different difficulties. It's a matter of being as you are, whether that's a hermit or a householder or whatever. There's a sense of being in solitude anywhere, the witness of all this, and if you are settled into that sense, then it doesn't matter.