Spiritual Development Guides, Gurus and God-Beings 
|
Welcome! Click on me and I will take you to one of the Life Guides. May they be greatly beneficial for you.  Random Guide/Guru/GodBeing
|
|
Contents |
Preface 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40: 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 |
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda
Chapter 44: With Mahatma Gandhi at Wardha"Welcome to Wardha!" Mahadev Desai, secretary to Mahatma Gandhi, greeted Miss Bletch, Mr. Wright, and myself with these cordial words and the gift of wreaths of khaddar (homespun cotton). Our little group had just dismounted at the Wardha station on an early morning in August, glad to leave the dust and heat of the train. Consigning our luggage to a bullock cart, we entered an open motor car with Mr. Desai and his companions, Babasaheb Deshmukh and Dr. Pingale. A short drive over the muddy country roads brought us to Maganvadi, the ashram of India's political saint.
Mr. Desai led us at once to the writing room where, cross-legged, sat Mahatma Gandhi. Pen in one hand and a scrap of paper in the other, on his face a vast, winning, warm-hearted smile!
"Welcome!" he scribbled in Hindi; it was a Monday, his weekly day of silence.
Though this was our first meeting, we beamed on each other affectionately. In 1925 Mahatma Gandhi had honored the Ranchi school by a visit, and had inscribed in its guest-book a gracious tribute.
The
tiny 100-pound saint radiated physical, mental, and spiritual health.
His soft brown eyes shone with intelligence, sincerity, and discrimination;
this statesman has matched wits and emerged the victor in a thousand
legal, social, and political battles. No other leader in the world
has attained the secure niche in the hearts of his people that Gandhi
occupies for India's unlettered millions. Their spontaneous tribute
is his famous titleMahatma, "great soul."1
For them alone Gandhi confines his attire to the widely-cartooned
loincloth, symbol of his oneness with the downtrodden masses who
can afford no more.
"The ashram
residents are wholly at your disposal; please call on them for any
service." With characteristic courtesy, the Mahatma handed
me this hastily-written note as Mr. Desai led our party from the
writing room toward the guest house.
Our guide led
us through orchards and flowering fields to a tile-roofed building
with latticed windows. A front-yard well, twenty-five feet across,
was used, Mr. Desai said, for watering stock; near-by stood a revolving
cement wheel for threshing rice. Each of our small bedrooms proved
to contain only the irreducible minimuma bed, handmade
of rope. The whitewashed kitchen boasted a faucet in one corner
and a fire pit for cooking in another. Simple Arcadian sounds reached
our earsthe cries of crows and sparrows, the lowing of cattle,
and the rap of chisels being used to chip stones.
Observing
Mr. Wright's travel diary, Mr. Desai opened a page and wrote on
it a list of Satyagraha2
vows
taken by all the Mahatma's strict followers (satyagrahis): "Nonviolence;
Truth; Non-Stealing; Celibacy; Non-Possession; Body-Labor; Control
of the Palate; Fearlessness; Equal Respect for all Religions;
Swadeshi (use of home manufactures); Freedom from Untouchability.
These eleven should be observed as vows in a spirit of humility."
Two
hours after our arrival my companions and I were summoned to lunch.
The Mahatma was already seated under the arcade of the ashram porch,
across the courtyard from his study. About twenty-five barefooted
satyagrahis were squatting before brass cups and plates. A community
chorus of prayer; then a meal served from large brass pots containing
chapatis (whole-wheat unleavened bread) sprinkled with ghee;
talsari (boiled and diced vegetables), and a lemon jam.
The
Mahatma ate chapatis, boiled beets, some raw vegetables,
and oranges. On the side of his plate was a large lump of very bitter
neem leaves, a notable blood cleanser. With his spoon he
separated a portion and placed it on my dish. I bolted it down with
water, remembering childhood days when Mother had forced me to swallow
the disagreeable dose. Gandhi, however, bit by bit was eating the
neem paste with as much relish as if it had been a delicious
sweetmeat.
The afternoon brought an opportunity for a chat with Gandhi's noted
disciple, daughter of an English admiral, Miss Madeleine Slade,
now called Mirabai.3
Her strong,
calm face lit with enthusiasm as she told me, in flawless Hindi,
of her daily activities.
We
discussed America for awhile. "I am always pleased and amazed,"
she said, "to see the deep interest in spiritual subjects exhibited
by the many Americans who visit India."4
Mirabai's
hands were soon busy at the charka (spinning wheel), omnipresent
in all the ashram rooms and, indeed, due to the Mahatma, omnipresent
throughout rural India.
Our
trio enjoyed a six o'clock supper as guests of Babasaheb Deshmukh.
The 7:00 P.M. prayer hour found us back at the Maganvadi
ashram, climbing to the roof where thirty satyagrahis were
grouped in a semicircle around Gandhi. He was squatting on a straw
mat, an ancient pocket watch propped up before him. The fading sun
cast a last gleam over the palms and banyans; the hum of night and
the crickets had started. The atmosphere was serenity itself; I
was enraptured.
A
solemn chant led by Mr. Desai, with responses from the group; then
a Gita reading. The Mahatma motioned to me to give the concluding
prayer. Such divine unison of thought and aspiration! A memory forever:
the Wardha roof top meditation under the early stars.
I agreed wholeheartedly.5
The Mahatma
questioned me about America and Europe; we discussed India and world
conditions.
"The
Wardha mosquitoes don't know a thing about ahimsa,6
Swamiji!" he said, laughing.
The
following morning our little group breakfasted early on a tasty
wheat porridge with molasses and milk. At ten-thirty we were called
to the ashram porch for lunch with Gandhi and the satyagrahis.
Today the menu included brown rice, a new selection of vegetables,
and cardamom seeds.
Three
daily rituals are enjoined on the orthodox Hindu. One is Bhuta
Yajna, an offering of food to the animal kingdom. This ceremony
symbolizes man's realization of his obligations to less evolved
forms of creation, instinctively tied to bodily identifications
which also corrode human life, but lacking in that quality of liberating
reason which is peculiar to humanity. Bhuta Yajna thus reinforces
man's readiness to succor the weak, as he in turn is comforted by
countless solicitudes of higher unseen beings. Man is also under
bond for rejuvenating gifts of nature, prodigal in earth, sea, and
sky. The evolutionary barrier of incommunicability among nature,
animals, man, and astral angels is thus overcome by offices of silent
love.
The
other two daily yajnas are Pitri and Nri. Pitri
Yajna is an offering of oblations to ancestors, as a symbol
of man's acknowledgment of his debt to the past, essence of whose
wisdom illumines humanity today. Nri Yajna is an offering
of food to strangers or the poor, symbol of the present responsibilities
of man, his duties to contemporaries.
In
the early afternoon I fulfilled a neighborly Nri Yajna by
a visit to Gandhi's ashram for little girls. Mr. Wright accompanied
me on the ten-minute drive. Tiny young flowerlike faces atop the
long-stemmed colorful saris! At the end of a brief talk in
Hindi7
which I was giving outdoors, the skies unloosed a sudden downpour.
Laughing, Mr. Wright and I climbed aboard the car and sped back
to Maganvadi amidst sheets of driving silver. Such tropical
intensity and splash!
The
Mahatma's remarkable wife, Kasturabai, did not object when he failed
to set aside any part of his wealth for the use of herself and their
children. Married in early youth, Gandhi and his wife took the vow
of celibacy after the birth of several sons.8
A tranquil heroine in the intense drama that has been their life
together, Kasturabai has followed her husband to prison, shared
his three-week fasts, and fully borne her share of his endless responsibilities.
She has paid Gandhi the following tribute: I
thank you for having had the privilege of being your lifelong companion
and helpmate. I thank you for the most perfect marriage in the world,
based on brahmacharya (self-control) and not on sex. I thank
you for having considered me your equal in your life work for India.
I thank you for not being one of those husbands who spend their
time in gambling, racing, women, wine, and song, tiring of their
wives and children as the little boy quickly tires of his childhood
toys. How thankful I am that you were not one of those husbands
who devote their time to growing rich on the exploitation of the
labor of others.
"Mrs.
Gandhi considers the Mahatma not as her husband but as her guru,
one who has the right to discipline her for even insignificant errors,"
I had pointed out. "Sometime after Kasturabai had been publicly
rebuked, Gandhi was sentenced to prison on a political charge. As
he was calmly bidding farewell to his wife, she fell at his feet.
'Master,' she said humbly, 'if I have ever offended you, please
forgive me.'"9
"Mahatmaji,"
I said as I squatted beside him on the uncushioned mat, "please
tell me your definition of ahimsa."
"Yes,
diet is important in the Satyagraha movementas everywhere
else," he said with a chuckle. "Because I advocate complete
continence for satyagrahis, I am always trying to find out
the best diet for the celibate. One must conquer the palate before
he can control the procreative instinct. Semi-starvation or unbalanced
diets are not the answer. After overcoming the inward greed
for food, a satyagrahi must continue to follow a rational
vegetarian diet with all necessary vitamins, minerals, calories,
and so forth. By inward and outward wisdom in regard to eating,
the satyagrahi's sexual fluid is easily turned into vital
energy for the whole body."
Gandhi's
face lit with interest. "I wonder if they would grow in Wardha?
The satyagrahis would appreciate a new food."
"I
will be sure to send some avocado plants from Los Angeles to Wardha."10
I added, "Eggs
are a high-protein food; are they forbidden to satyagrahis?"
On
the previous night Gandhi had expressed a wish to receive the
Kriya Yoga of Lahiri Mahasaya. I was touched by the Mahatma's
open-mindedness and spirit of inquiry. He is childlike in his divine
quest, revealing that pure receptivity which Jesus praised in children,
". . . of such is the kingdom of heaven."
The
hour for my promised instruction had arrived; several satyagrahis
now entered the roomMr. Desai, Dr. Pingale, and a few others who
desired the Kriya technique.
I first taught the little class the physical Yogoda exercises.
The body is visualized as divided into twenty parts; the will directs
energy in turn to each section. Soon everyone was vibrating before
me like a human motor. It was easy to observe the rippling effect
on Gandhi's twenty body parts, at all times completely exposed to
view! Though very thin, he is not unpleasingly so; the skin of his
body is smooth and unwrinkled.
Later
I initiated the group into the liberating technique of Kriya
Yoga.
The
Mahatma has reverently studied all world religions. The Jain scriptures,
the Biblical New Testament, and the sociological writings of Tolstoy11
are the three
main sources of Gandhi's nonviolent convictions.
He has stated his credo thus: I
believe the Bible, the Koran, and the Zend-Avesta12
to be
as divinely inspired as the Vedas. I believe in the institution
of Gurus, but in this age millions must go without a Guru, because
it is a rare thing to find a combination of perfect purity and perfect
learning. But one need not despair of ever knowing the truth of
one's religion, because the fundamentals of Hinduism as of every
great religion are unchangeable, and easily understood.
I
believe like every Hindu in God and His oneness, in rebirth and
salvation. . . . I can no more describe my feeling for Hinduism
than for my own wife. She moves me as no other woman in the world
can. Not that she has no faults; I daresay she has many more than
I see myself. But the feeling of an indissoluble bond is there.
Even so I feel for and about Hinduism with all its faults and limitations.
Nothing delights me so much as the music of the Gita, or
the Ramayana by Tulsidas. When I fancied I was taking my
last breath, the Gita was my solace.
Hinduism
is not an exclusive religion. In it there is room for the worship
of all the prophets of the world.13
It is not a missionary religion in the ordinary sense of the
term. It has no doubt absorbed many tribes in its fold, but this
absorption has been of an evolutionary, imperceptible character.
Hinduism tells each man to worship God according to his own faith
or dharma,14
and so lives
at peace with all religions.
Of
Christ, Gandhi has written: "I am sure that if He were living
here now among men, He would bless the lives of many who perhaps
have never even heard His name . . . just as it is written: 'Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord . . . but he that doeth
the will of my Father.'15
In the lesson of His own life, Jesus gave humanity the magnificent
purpose and the single objective toward which we all ought to aspire.
I believe that He belongs not solely to Christianity, but to the
entire world, to all lands and races."
Night
was still lingering when I rose at 5:00 A.M. Village life was already
stirring; first a bullock cart by the ashram gates, then a peasant
with his huge burden balanced precariously on his head. After breakfast
our trio sought out Gandhi for farewell pronams. The saint
rises at four o'clock for his morning prayer.
War
and crime never pay. The billions of dollars that went up in the
smoke of explosive nothingness would have been sufficient to have
made a new world, one almost free from disease and completely free
from poverty. Not an earth of fear, chaos, famine, pestilence, the
danse macabre, but one broad land of peace, of prosperity, and
of widening knowledge.
"One
should forgive, under any injury," says the Mahabharata.
"It hath been said that the continuation of species is due
to man's being forgiving. Forgiveness is holiness; by forgiveness
the universe is held together. Forgiveness is the might of the mighty;
forgiveness is sacrifice; forgiveness is quiet of mind. Forgiveness
and gentleness are the qualities of the self-possessed. They represent
eternal virtue."
Epics
shall someday be written on the Indian satyagrahis who withstood
hate with love, violence with nonviolence, who allowed themselves
to be mercilessly slaughtered rather than retaliate. The result
on certain historic occasions was that the armed opponents threw
down their guns and fled, shamed, shaken to their depths by the
sight of men who valued the life of another above their own.
"I
would wait, if need be for ages," Gandhi says, "rather
than seek the freedom of my country through bloody means."
Never does the Mahatma forget the majestic warning: "All they
that take the sword shall perish with the sword."16
Gandhi has written: I
call myself a nationalist, but my nationalism is as broad as the
universe. It includes in its sweep all the nations of the earth.17
My nationalism
includes the well-being of the whole world. I do not want my India
to rise on the ashes of other nations. I do not want India to exploit
a single human being. I want India to be strong in order that she
can infect the other nations also with her strength. Not so with
a single nation in Europe today; they do not give strength to the
others.
By
the Mahatma's training of thousands of true satyagrahis (those
who have taken the eleven rigorous vows mentioned in the first part
of this chapter), who in turn spread the message; by patiently educating
the Indian masses to understand the spiritual and eventually material
benefits of nonviolence; by arming his people with nonviolent weaponsnon-cooperation
with injustice, the willingness to endure indignities, prison, death
itself rather than resort to arms; by enlisting world sympathy through
countless examples of heroic martyrdom among satyagrahis,
Gandhi has dramatically portrayed the practical nature of nonviolence,
its solemn power to settle disputes without war.
The
Mahatma is indeed a "great soul," but it was illiterate
millions who had the discernment to bestow the title. This gentle
prophet is honored in his own land. The lowly peasant has been able
to rise to Gandhi's high challenge. The Mahatma wholeheartedly believes
in the inherent nobility of man. The inevitable failures have never
disillusioned him. "Even if the opponent plays him false twenty
times," he writes, "the satyagrahi is ready to
trust him the twenty-first time, for an implicit trust in human
nature is the very essence of the creed."18
"It
is curious how we delude ourselves, fancying that the body can be
improved, but that it is impossible to evoke the hidden powers of
the soul," Gandhi replied. "I am engaged in trying to
show that if I have any of those powers, I am as frail a mortal
as any of us and that I never had anything extraordinary about me
nor have I now. I am a simple individual liable to err like any
other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have enough humility
to confess my errors and to retrace my steps. I own that I have
an immovable faith in God and His goodness, and an unconsumable
passion for truth and love. But is that not what every person has
latent in him? If we are to make progress, we must
not repeat history but make new history. We must add to the inheritance
left by our ancestors. If we may make new discoveries and inventions
in the phenomenal world, must we declare our bankruptcy in the spiritual
domain? Is it impossible to multiply the exceptions so as to make
them the rule? Must man always be brute first and man after, if
at all?"19
"I
am fighting for nothing less than world peace," Gandhi has
declared. "If the Indian movement is carried to success on
a nonviolent Satyagraha basis, it will give a new meaning
to patriotism and, if I may say so in all humility, to life itself."
Before
the West dismisses Gandhi's program as one of an impractical dreamer,
let it first reflect on a definition of Satyagraha by the
Master of Galilee:
"Ye
have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth: but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil:20
but whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."
MAHATMA GANDHI'S HANDWRITING IN HINDI
Mahatma Gandhi visited my high school with yoga training at Ranchi.
He graciously wrote the above lines in the Ranchi guest-book. The
translation is: (Signed)
MOHANDAS GANDHI
(Gandhi himself
signed this page on the following day, giving the date alsoAugust
27, 1935.)
In this trifling
incident I noted the Mahatma's ability to detach his mind from the
senses at will. I recalled the famous appendectomy performed on
him some years ago. Refusing anesthetics, the saint had chatted
cheerfully with his disciples throughout the operation,
his infectious smile revealing his unawareness of pain.
"Rural
reconstruction work is rewarding! A group of us go every morning
at five o'clock to serve the near-by villagers and teach them simple
hygiene. We make it a point to clean their latrines and their mud-thatched
huts. The villagers are illiterate; they cannot be educated except
by example!" She laughed gaily.
I looked in
admiration at this highborn Englishwoman whose true Christian humility
enables her to do the scavengering work usually performed only by
"untouchables."
"I came
to India in 1925," she told me. "In this land I feel that
I have 'come back home.' Now I would never be willing to return
to my old life and old interests."
Gandhi has sound
economic and cultural reasons for encouraging the revival of cottage
industries, but he does not counsel a fanatical repudiation of all
modern progress. Machinery, trains, automobiles, the telegraph have
played important parts in his own colossal life! Fifty years of
public service, in prison and out, wrestling daily with practical
details and harsh realities in the political world, have only increased
his balance, open-mindedness, sanity, and humorous appreciation
of the quaint human spectacle.
Punctually at
eight o'clock Gandhi ended his silence. The herculean labors of
his life require him to apportion his time minutely.
"Welcome,
Swamiji!" The Mahatma's greeting this time was not via paper.
We had just descended from the roof to his writing room, simply
furnished with square mats (no chairs), a low desk with books, papers,
and a few ordinary pens (not fountain pens); a nondescript clock
ticked in a corner. An all-pervasive aura of peace and devotion.
Gandhi was bestowing one of his captivating, cavernous, almost toothless
smiles.
"Years
ago," he explained, "I started my weekly observance of
a day of silence as a means for gaining time to look after my correspondence.
But now those twenty-four hours have become a vital spiritual need.
A periodical decree of silence is not a torture but a blessing."
"Mahadev,"
Gandhi said as Mr. Desai entered the room, "please make arrangements
at Town Hall for Swamiji to speak there on yoga tomorrow night."
As
I was bidding the Mahatma good night, he considerately handed me
a bottle of citronella oil.
Noon found
me strolling about the ashram grounds, on to the grazing land of
a few imperturbable cows. The protection of cows is a passion with
Gandhi.
"The cow
to me means the entire sub-human world, extending man's sympathies
beyond his own species," the Mahatma has explained. "Man
through the cow is enjoined to realize his identity with all that
lives. Why the ancient rishis selected the cow for apotheosis is
obvious to me. The cow in India was the best comparison; she was
the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she also made
agriculture possible. The cow is a poem of pity; one reads pity
in the gentle animal. She is the second mother to millions of mankind.
Protection of the cow means protection of the whole dumb creation
of God. The appeal of the lower order of creation is all the more
forceful because it is speechless."
Reentering the
guest house I was struck anew by the stark simplicity and evidences
of self-sacrifice which are everywhere present. The Gandhi vow of
non-possession came early in his married life. Renouncing an extensive
legal practice which had been yielding him an annual income of more
than $20,000, the Mahatma dispersed all his wealth to the poor.
Sri Yukteswar
used to poke gentle fun at the commonly inadequate conceptions of
renunciation.
"A beggar
cannot renounce wealth," Master would say. "If a man laments:
'My business has failed; my wife has left me; I will renounce all
and enter a monastery,' to what worldly sacrifice is he referring?
He did not renounce wealth and love; they renounced him!"
Saints like
Gandhi, on the other hand, have made not only tangible material
sacrifices, but also the more difficult renunciation of selfish
motive and private goal, merging their inmost being in the stream
of humanity as a whole.
How thankful
I am that you put God and country before bribes, that you had the
courage of your convictions and a complete and implicit faith in
God. How thankful I am for a husband that put God and his country
before me. I am grateful to you for your tolerance of me and my
shortcomings of youth, when I grumbled and rebelled against the
change you made in our mode of living, from so much to so little.
As a young child,
I lived in your parents' home; your mother was a great and good
woman; she trained me, taught me how to be a brave, courageous wife
and how to keep the love and respect of her son, my future husband.
As the years passed and you became India's most beloved leader,
I had none of the fears that beset the wife who may be cast aside
when her husband has climbed the ladder of success, as so often
happens in other countries. I knew that death would still find us
husband and wife.
For years Kasturabai
performed the duties of treasurer of the public funds which the
idolized Mahatma is able to raise by the millions. There are many
humorous stories in Indian homes to the effect that husbands are
nervous about their wives' wearing any jewelry to a Gandhi meeting;
the Mahatma's magical tongue, pleading for the downtrodden, charms
the gold bracelets and diamond necklaces right off the arms and
necks of the wealthy into the collection basket!
One day the
public treasurer, Kasturabai, could not account for a disbursement
of four rupees. Gandhi duly published an auditing in which he inexorably
pointed out his wife's four rupee discrepancy.
I had often
told this story before classes of my American students. One evening
a woman in the hall had given an outraged gasp.
"Mahatma
or no Mahatma," she had cried, "if he were my husband
I would have given him a black eye for such an unnecessary public
insult!"
After some good-humored
banter had passed between us on the subject of American wives and
Hindu wives, I had gone on to a fuller explanation.
At three o'clock
that afternoon in Wardha, I betook myself, by previous appointment,
to the writing room of the saint who had been able to make an unflinching
disciple out of his own wiferare miracle! Gandhi looked up with
his unforgettable smile.
"The avoidance
of harm to any living creature in thought or deed."
"Beautiful
ideal! But the world will always ask: May one not kill a cobra to
protect a child, or one's self?"
"I could
not kill a cobra without violating two of my vowsfearlessness,
and non-killing. I would rather try inwardly to calm the snake by
vibrations of love. I cannot possibly lower my standards to suit
my circumstances." With his amazing candor, Gandhi added, "I
must confess that I could not carry on this conversation were I
faced by a cobra!"
I remarked on
several very recent Western books on diet which lay on his desk.
The Mahatma
and I compared our knowledge of good meat-substitutes. "The
avocado is excellent," I said. "There are numerous avocado
groves near my center in California."
"Not unfertilized
eggs." The Mahatma laughed reminiscently. "For years I
would not countenance their use; even now I personally do not eat
them. One of my daughters-in-law was once dying of malnutrition;
her doctor insisted on eggs. I would not agree, and advised him
to give her some egg-substitute.
"'Gandhiji,'
the doctor said, 'unfertilized eggs contain no life sperm; no killing
is involved.'
"I then
gladly gave permission for my daughter-in-law to eat eggs; she was
soon restored to health."
On my last evening
in Wardha I addressed the meeting which had been called by Mr. Desai
in Town Hall. The room was thronged to the window sills with about
400 people assembled to hear the talk on yoga. I spoke first in
Hindi, then in English. Our little group returned to the ashram
in time for a good-night glimpse of Gandhi, enfolded in peace and
correspondence.
"Mahatmaji,
good-by!" I knelt to touch his feet. "India is safe in
your keeping!"
Years have rolled
by since the Wardha idyl; the earth, oceans, and skies have darkened
with a world at war. Alone among great leaders, Gandhi has offered
a practical nonviolent alternative to armed might. To redress grievances
and remove injustices, the Mahatma has employed nonviolent means
which again and again have proved their effectiveness. He states
his doctrine in these words:
I have found
that life persists in the midst of destruction. Therefore there
must be a higher law than that of destruction. Only under that law
would well-ordered society be intelligible and life worth living.
If that is the
law of life we must work it out in daily existence. Wherever there
are wars, wherever we are confronted with an opponent, conquer by
love. I have found that the certain law of love has answered in
my own life as the law of destruction has never done.
In India we
have had an ocular demonstration of the operation of this law on
the widest scale possible. I don't claim that nonviolence has penetrated
the 360,000,000 people in India, but I do claim it has penetrated
deeper than any other doctrine in an incredibly short time.
It takes a fairly
strenuous course of training to attain a mental state of nonviolence.
It is a disciplined life, like the life of a soldier. The perfect
state is reached only when the mind, body, and speech are in proper
coordination. Every problem would lend itself to solution if we
determined to make the law of truth and nonviolence the law of life.
Just as a scientist
will work wonders out of various applications of the laws of nature,
a man who applies the laws of love with scientific precision can
work greater wonders. Nonviolence is infinitely more wonderful and
subtle than forces of nature like, for instance, electricity. The
law of love is a far greater science than any modern science.
Consulting history,
one may reasonably state that the problems of mankind have not been
solved by the use of brute force. World War I produced a world-chilling
snowball of war karma that swelled into World War II. Only the warmth
of brotherhood can melt the present colossal snowball of war karma
which may otherwise grow into World War III. This unholy trinity
will banish forever the possibility of World War IV by a finality
of atomic bombs. Use of jungle logic instead of human reason in
settling disputes will restore the earth to a jungle. If brothers
not in life, then brothers in violent death.
The nonviolent
voice of Gandhi appeals to man's highest conscience. Let nations
ally themselves no longer with death, but with life; not with destruction,
but with construction; not with the Annihilator, but with the Creator.
Nonviolence
is the natural outgrowth of the law of forgiveness and love. "If
loss of life becomes necessary in a righteous battle," Gandhi
proclaims, "one should be prepared, like Jesus, to shed his
own, not others', blood. Eventually there will be less blood spilt
in the world."
President Wilson
mentioned his beautiful fourteen points, but said: "After all,
if this endeavor of ours to arrive at peace fails, we have our armaments
to fall back upon." I want to reverse that position, and I
say: "Our armaments have failed already. Let us now be in search
of something new; let us try the force of love and God which is
truth." When we have got that, we shall want nothing else.
Gandhi has already
won through nonviolent means a greater number of political concessions
for his land than have ever been won by any leader of any country
except through bullets. Nonviolent methods for eradication of all
wrongs and evils have been strikingly applied not only in the political
arena but in the delicate and complicated field of Indian social
reform. Gandhi and his followers have removed many longstanding
feuds between Hindus and Mohammedans; hundreds of thousands of Moslems
look to the Mahatma as their leader. The untouchables have found
in him their fearless and triumphant champion. "If there be
a rebirth in store for me," Gandhi wrote, "I wish to be
born a pariah in the midst of pariahs, because thereby I would be
able to render them more effective service."
"Mahatmaji,
you are an exceptional man. You must not expect the world to act
as you do." A critic once made this observation.
Americans may
well remember with pride the successful nonviolent experiment of
William Penn in founding his 17th century colony in Pennsylvania.
There were "no forts, no soldiers, no militia, even no arms."
Amidst the savage frontier wars and the butcheries that went on
between the new settlers and the Red Indians, the Quakers of Pennsylvania
alone remained unmolested. "Others were slain; others were
massacred; but they were safe. Not a Quaker woman suffered assault;
not a Quaker child was slain, not a Quaker man was tortured."
When the Quakers were finally forced to give up the government of
the state, "war broke out, and some Pennsylvanians were killed.
But only three Quakers were killed, three who had so far fallen
from their faith as to carry weapons of defence."
"Resort
to force in the Great War (I) failed to bring tranquillity,"
Franklin D. Roosevelt has pointed out. "Victory and defeat
were alike sterile. That lesson the world should have learned."
"The more
weapons of violence, the more misery to mankind," Lao-tzu taught.
"The triumph of violence ends in a festival of mourning."
Gandhi's epoch
has extended, with the beautiful precision of cosmic timing, into
a century already desolated and devastated by two World Wars. A
divine handwriting appears on the granite wall of his life: a warning
against the further shedding of blood among brothers.
"This institution has deeply impressed my mind. I cherish high hopes
that this school will encourage the further practical use of the
spinning wheel."
September 17, 1925
A
national flag for India was designed in 1921 by Gandhi. The stripes
are saffron, white and green; the charka (spinning wheel)
in the center is dark blue.
"The charka symbolizes energy," he wrote, "and reminds us
that during the past eras of prosperity in India's history, hand
spinning and other domestic crafts were prominent."
1
His family name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He never refers to
himself as "Mahatma."
Back to text
2
The literal translation from Sanskrit is "holding to truth."
Satyagraha is the famous nonviolence movement led by Gandhi.
Back to text
3
False and alas! malicious reports were recently circulated that
Miss Slade has severed all her ties with Gandhi and forsaken her
vows. Miss Slade, the Mahatma's Satyagraha disciple for twenty years,
issued a signed statement to the United Press, dated Dec. 29, 1945,
in which she explained that a series of baseless rumors arose after
she had departed, with Gandhi's blessings, for a small site in northeastern
India near the Himalayas, for the purpose of founding there her
now-flourishing Kisan Ashram (center for medical and agricultural
aid to peasant farmers). Mahatma Gandhi plans to visit the new ashram
during 1946.
Back to text
4
Miss Slade reminded me of another distinguished Western woman, Miss
Margaret Woodrow Wilson, eldest daughter of America's great president.
I met her in New York; she was intensely interested in India. Later
she went to Pondicherry, where she spent the last five years of
her life, happily pursuing a path of discipline at the feet of Sri
Aurobindo Ghosh. This sage never speaks; he silently greets his
disciples on three annual occasions only.
Back to text
5
For years in America I had been observing periods of silence, to
the consternation of callers and secretaries.
Back to text
6
Harmlessness; nonviolence; the foundation rock of Gandhi's creed.
He was born into a family of strict Jains, who revere ahimsa as
the root-virtue. Jainism, a sect of Hinduism, was founded in the
6th century B.C. by Mahavira, a contemporary of Buddha. Mahavira
means "great hero"; may he look down the centuries on
his heroic son Gandhi!
Back to text
7
Hindi is the lingua franca for the whole of India. An Indo-Aryan
language based largely on Sanskrit roots, Hindi is the chief vernacular
of northern India. The main dialect of Western Hindi is Hindustani,
written both in the Devanagari (Sanskrit) characters and in Arabic
characters. Its subdialect, Urdu, is spoken by Moslems.
Back to text
8
Gandhi has described his life with a devastating candor in The Story
of my Experiments with Truth (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Press, 1927-29,
2 vol.) This autobiography has been summarized in Mahatma Gandhi,
His Own Story, edited by C. F. Andrews, with an introduction by
John Haynes Holmes (New York: Macmillan Co., 1930).
Many autobiographies
replete with famous names and colorful events are almost completely
silent on any phase of inner analysis or development. One lays down
each of these books with a certain dissatisfaction, as though saying:
"Here is a man who knew many notable persons, but who never
knew himself." This reaction is impossible with Gandhi's autobiography;
he exposes his faults and subterfuges with an impersonal devotion
to truth rare in annals of any age.
Back to text
9
Kasturabai Gandhi died in imprisonment at Poona on February 22,
1944. The usually unemotional Gandhi wept silently. Shortly after
her admirers had suggested a Memorial Fund in her honor, 125 lacs
of rupees (nearly four million dollars) poured in from all over
India. Gandhi has arranged that the fund be used for village welfare
work among women and children. He reports his activities in his
English weekly, Harijan.
Back to text
10
I sent a shipment to Wardha, soon after my return to America. The
plants, alas! died on the way, unable to withstand the rigors of
the long ocean transportation.
Back to text
11
Thoreau, Ruskin, and Mazzini are three other Western writers whose
sociological views Gandhi has studied carefully.
Back to text
12
The sacred scripture given to Persia about 1000 B.C. by Zoroaster.
Back to text
13
The unique feature of Hinduism among the world religions is that
it derives not from a single great founder but from the impersonal
Vedic scriptures. Hinduism thus gives scope for worshipful incorporation
into its fold of prophets of all ages and all lands. The Vedic scriptures
regulate not only devotional practices but all important social
customs, in an effort to bring man's every action into harmony with
divine law.
Back to text
14
A comprehensive Sanskrit word for law; conformity to law or natural
righteousness; duty as inherent in the circumstances in which a
man finds himself at any given time. The scriptures define dharma
as "the natural universal laws whose observance enables man
to save himself from degradation and suffering."
Back to text
15
Matthew 7:21.
Back to text
16
Matthew 26:52.
Back to text
17
"Let not a man glory in this, that he love his country;
Let him rather glory in this, that he love his kind."-Persian
proverb.
Back to text
18
"Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother
sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith
unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy
times seven."-Matthew 18:21-22.
Back to text
19
Charles P. Steinmetz, the great electrical engineer, was once asked
by Mr. Roger W. Babson: "What line of research will see the
greatest development during the next fifty years?" "I
think the greatest discovery will be made along spiritual lines,"
Steinmetz replied. "Here is a force which history clearly teaches
has been the greatest power in the development of men. Yet we have
merely been playing with it and have never seriously studied it
as we have the physical forces. Someday people will learn that material
things do not bring happiness and are of little use in making men
and women creative and powerful. Then the scientists of the world
will turn their laboratories over to the study of God and prayer
and the spiritual forces which as yet have hardly been scratched.
When this day comes, the world will see more advancement in one
generation than it has seen in the past four."
Back to text
20
That is, resist not evil with evil. (Matthew 5:38-39)
Back to text
Contents |
Preface
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
32 |
33 |
34 |
35 |
36 |
37 |
38 |
39 |
40:
41 |
42 |
43 |
44 |
45 |
46 |
47 |
48
You are here: Home Spiritual Development Guides, Gurus and God-Beings