In 1958, A. T. “Ari” Ariyaratne was a young professor of biology at the national university in Sri Lanka. He could have kept teaching and lived a comfortable life as a man of science and a member of the national intelligentsia ensconced in the highest social circles of the country. However, he was also a deeply spiritual man who clearly saw the needs of Sri Lanka’s villagers and peasants. He believed that, given the opportunity, they could define and achieve their own goals for their communities.

He organized a group of high school students to go to a rural community of the lowest caste for a two-week work camp so the students, he said, might “understand and experience the true state of affairs that prevailed in the rural and poor areas, and develop a love for their people, utilizing the education they received to find ways of building a more just and happy life for them.” The students lived with the local peasants, participated in discussions of village needs and worked side by side with them to plan and build latrines.

Other schools soon organized work camps, and within a year Dr. Ariyaratne founded the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement. Based on Ghandian principles of truth, non-violence and self-sacrifice, the movement connects self-awakening with community empowerment through a sharing of one’s time, thought and energy.

Since then, Dr. Ariyaratne and the Sarvodaya Movement have built a vital and widespread organization despite years of harassment, intimidation and death threats. At one point, he learned that local warlords had put out a contract for his assassination. Presenting himself at the camp of the thugs who had been hired to kill him, he pointed out to the would-be assassins that killing him in the village would result in more injuries and deaths. They were so startled that they sat down and talked with him for two hours. By the end of that conversation, they had signed on to be Sarvodaya’s security force.

This is just one example of the charisma, conviction and negotiating skill that have led people to compare him to Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Jimmy Carter. However, he is definitely his own man, driven by his belief in the power of building community self-reliance through rural development, cooperative education and spiritual awakening.

Sarvodaya’s three million members have translated that belief into action by engaging residents of almost 15,000 villages in deciding together what is important to their common welfare. Then they work side by side, transcending their differences to achieve their goal. Children and elders, men and women, Buddhists and Muslims, Hindus and Christians, rich and poor shovel and carry dirt, sing together and learn about organizing their efforts to benefit the community.

In village after village where poverty and hopelessness ruled, A.T. Ariyaratne and the Sarvodaya movement have engaged people to live by the motto “We build the road and the road builds us.” He is one man who has made a difference for millions of people by taking significant personal risks to act on his beliefs.