"If we remove ourselves from the world, we are pretending that we can follow our own individual enlightenment and let the rest of the world go to hell, so to speak"

This quote by Satish Kumar speaks with the idea that we can not separate ourselves from the world and its problems. He suggests that if we try to do so, we are basically pretending that we can discover our own individual enlightenment while neglecting the suffering of others. He suggests that this is not a feasible option, as it is impossible to be truly enlightened while neglecting the suffering of others. He suggests that we must be actively engaged in the world and its problems in order to genuinely discover knowledge. He suggests that we must be willing to take duty for the world and its issues, and that we can not merely overlook them and anticipate to find our own private knowledge. In essence, he is recommending that we must be actively participated in the world in order to discover true knowledge.