The author states that the Earth University located at Navdanya farm was inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s ideas expressed in his essay ‘Tapovan’ (Forest of Purity). Tagore says that India’s best ideas have come from the forests where the man was in communion with trees and rivers and lakes, away from the crowds. The peace of the forest has helped the intellectual evolution of man and the culture of the forest has fueled the culture of Indian society.
The culture that has arisen from the forest has been influenced by the diverse processes of renewal of life, which are always at play in the forest, varying from species to species, from season to season, insight and sound and smell. The unifying principle of life in diversity, of democratic pluralism, thus became the principle of Indian civilization
