Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who represent it by proving their readiness to die for it. -YI,22-12-21, 424.
Does not but God Himself appears to different individuals in different
aspects? Still we know that He is one. But Truth is the right designation of
God. Hence there is nothing wrong in everyone following Truth According to his
lights. Indeed it is his duty to do so. Then if there is a mistake on the part
of anyone so following Truth, it will be automatically set right. For the quest
of Truth involves tapas - self-suffering, sometimes even unto death. There can
be no place in it for even a trace of self-interest. In such selfless search
for Truth nobody can lose his bearings for long. Directly he takes to the wrong
path he stumbles, and is thus redirected to the right path. - YM, 4.
Q. With regard to your Satyagraha doctrine, so far as I understand it, it involves the pursuit of Truth and in that
*Rebutting the charge that he was undemocratic, Gandhiji once wrote:
‘I have never been able to subscribe to the charge of obstinacy or autocracy.
On the contrary, I pride myself on my yielding nature in non-vital matters. I
detest autocracy. Valuing my freedom and independence I equally cherish them
for others. I have no desire to carry a single soul with me if I cannot appeal
to his or her reason. My unconventionality I carry to the point of rejecting
the divinity of the oldest Shastras if they cannot convince my reason. But I
have found by experience that, if I wish to live in society and still retain my
independence, I must limit the points of utter independence to matters of first
rate importance. In all others which do not involve a departure from one's
personal religion or moral code, one must yield to the majority. - YI, 14-7-20
(from Ganesan's edition Vol. I, p. 207).
Pursuit you invite suffering on yourself and do not cause violence to
anybody else.
Q. However honestly a man may strive in his search for Truth, his notions of Truth may be different from the notions of others. Who then is to determine the Truth?
A. The individual himself would determine that
Q. Different individuals would have different views a to Truth. World
that not lead to confusion?
A. I do not think so.
Q. Honestly striving after Truth is different in every case?
A. That is why the nonviolence part was a necessary corollary. Without
that there would be confusion and worse. - Tagore,29
Courtesy towards opponents and eagerness to understand their
view-point is the ABC of nonviolence. - HS, 20-7-44
The very insistence on. Truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty
of compromise. It has often meant endangering my life and incurring the
displeasure of friends. But Truth is hard as adamant and tender as a blossom.
-Auto, i84.
Propagation of Truth
Q. Should we not confine our pursuit of Truth to ourselves and not
press it upon the world, because we know that it is ultimately limited in
character?
A . You cannot so circumscribe Truth even if you try. Every expression
of Truth has in it the seeds of propagation, even as the sun cannot hide its
light. - MR, 1935, 413.
Spiritual experiences are shared by us whether we wish it or not - by
our lives. Not by our speech, which is a most imperfect vehicle of experience.
Spiritual experiences are deeper even than thought. - Sabarmati, 1928, 19.
His Conception of the Law of life
I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing,
ever dying, there is underlying all that change a living power that is
changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves and re-creates.
That informing power or spirit is God. And since nothing else I see merely
through the senses can or will persist, He alone is.
And is this power benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely
benevolent, for I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the
midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence
I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is Love. He is the supreme Good. -
YI, 11-10-28, 340.
Though there is repulsion enough in Nature, she lives by attraction.
Mutual love enables Nature to persist. Man does not live by destruction.
Self-love compels regard for others. Nations cohere because there is mutual
regard among individuals composing them. Some day we must extend the national
law to the universe, even as we have extended the family law to form nations -
a larger family. - YI, 2-3-22, 130.
The fact that there are so many men still alive in the world shows
that it is based not on the force of arms but on the force of truth or love.
Therefore, the greatest and most unimpeachable evidence of the success of this
force is to be found in the fact that, in spite of the wars of the world, it
still lives on.
Thousands, indeed tens of thousands, depend for their existence on a
very active working of this force. Little quarrels of millions of families in
their daily lives disappear before the exercise of this force. Hundreds of
nations live in peace. History dies not and cannot take note of this fact.
History is really a record of every interruption of the even working of the
force of love or of the soul. Two brothers quarrel; one of them repents and
re-awakens the love that was lying dormant in him; the two again begin to live
in peace; nobody takes note of this. But if the two brothers, through the
intervention of solicitors or some other reason take up arms or go to law -
which is another form of the exhibition of brute force,their doings would be
immediately noticed in the press, they would be the talk of their neighbours
and would probably go down to history. And what is true of families and
communities is true of nations. There is no reason to believe that there is one
law for families and another for nations. History, then, is a record of an
interruption of the course of nature. Soul-force, being natural, is not noted
in history. -IHR, 45.
His Philosophy of History
I believe that the sum total of the energy of mankind is not to bring
us down but to lift us up, and that is the result of the definite, if
unconscious, working of the law of love. - YI, 12-.11-31, 355
Human society is a ceaseless growth, an unfoldment in terms of
spirituality. -YI,16-9-26, 324.
If we turn our eyes to the time of which history has any record down
to our own time, we shall find that man has been steadily progressing towards
ahimsa. Our remote ancestors were cannibals. Then came a time when they were
fed up with cannibalism and they began to live on chase. Next came a stage when
man was ashamed of leading the life of a wandering hunter. He therefore took to
agriculture and depended principally on mother earth for his food. Thus from
being a nomad he settled down to civilized stable life, founded villages and
towns, and from member of a family he became member of a community and a
nation. All these are signs of progressive ahimsa and diminishing Himsa. Had it
been otherwise, the human species should have been extinct by now, even as many
of the lower species have disappeared.
Prophets and avatars have also taught the lesson of ahimsa more or
less. Not one of them has professed to teach Himsa. And how should it be
otherwise? Himsa does not need to be taught. Man as animal is violent, but as
Spirit is nonviolent. The moment he awakes to the Spirit within, he cannot
remain violent. Either he progresses towards ahimsa or rushes to his doom. That
is why the prophets and avatars have taught the lessons of truth, harmony,
brotherhood, justice, etc. - all attributes of ahimsa.
And yet violence seems to persist, even to the extent of thinking
people like the correspondent regarding it as the final weapon. But as I have
shown history and experience are against him.
If we believe that mankind has steadily progressed towards ahimsa, it
follows that it has to progress towards it still further. Nothing in this world
is static, everything is kinetic. If there id no progression, then there is
inevitable retrogression. No one can remain without the eternal cycle, unless
it be God Himself. - H, 11-8-40, 245.
Consequence of the Recognition of that Law
I have found that life persists in the midst of destruction and therefore
there must be a higher law than that of destruction. Only under that law would
a well-ordered society be intelligible and life worth living. And if that is
the law of life, we have to work it out in daily life. Whenever there are jars,
wherever you are confronted with an opponent conquer him with love -in this
crude manner I have worked it out in my life. That does not mean that all my
difficulties are solved. Only I have found that this law of love has answered
as the law of destruction has never done.
It is not that I am incapable of anger, for instance, but I succeed on
almost all occasions to keep my feelings under control. Whatever may be the
result, there is always fin me conscious struggle for following the law of
non-violence deliberately and ceaselessly. Such a struggle leaves one stronger
for fit. The more I work at this law, the more I feel the delight in life, the
delight in the scheme of the universe. It gives me a peace and a meaning of the
mysteries of nature that I have no power to describe. -YI, 1-10-31, 286.
When an appeal to man is made to copy or study nature, he is not
invited to follow what the reptiles do or even the king of the forest does. He
has to study man's nature at its best, i.e. I presume his regenerate nature,
whatever it may be. Perhaps it requires considerable effort to know what
regenerate nature is. -H, 4-4-36,. 61
Q. Why can't see that whilst there is possession it must be defended
against all odds? Therefore your insistence that violence should be eschewed in
all circumstances is utterly unworkable and absurd. I think nonviolence is
possible only for select individuals.
A. This question has been answered often enough in some form or other
in these columns as also in those of Young India. But it is an evergreen. I
must answer it as often as it is put especially when it comes from an earnest
seeker as this one does. I claim that even now, though the social structure is
not based on a conscious acceptance of nonviolence, all the world over mankind
lives and men retain their possessions on the sufferance of one another. If
they had not done so, only the fewest and the most ferocious would have
survived. But such is not the case. Families are bound together by ties of
love, and so are groups in the so-called civilized society called nations. Only
they do not recognize the supremacy of the law of nonviolence. It follows,
therefore, that they have not investigated its vast possibilities. Hitherto out
of sheer inertia, shall I say, we have taken it for granted that complete
nonviolence is possible only for the few who take the vow of non-possession and
the allied abstinences. Whilst it is true that the votaries alone can carry on
research work and declare from time to time the new possibilities of the great
eternal law governing man, if it is a law, it must hold good for all. The many
failures we see are not of the law but of the followers, many of whom do not
even know that they are under that law willy nilly. When a mother dies for her
child she unknowingly obeys the law. I have been pleading for the past fifty
years for a conscious acceptance of the law and its zealous practice even in
the face of failures. Fifty years work has shown marvelous results and
strengthened my faith. I do claim that by constant practice we shall come to a
state of things when lawful possession will command universal and voluntary
respect. No doubt such possession will not be tainted. It will not be an
insolent demonstration of the inequalities that surround us everywhere. Nor
need the problem of unjust and unlawful possessions appall the votary of
nonviolence. He has at his disposal the nonviolent weapon of satyagraha and
non-co-operation which hitherto has been found to be a complete substitute of
violence whenever it has been applied honestly in sufficient measure. I have
never claimed to present the complete science of nonviolence. It does not lend
itself to such treatment. So far as I know no single physical science does not
even the very exact science of mathematics. I am but a seeker and I have fellow
seekers like the questioner whom I invite to accompany me in the very difficult
but equally fascinating search. -H,22-2-42, 48.
Life is Unity
I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into
watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and
react upon one another. - YI,2-3-22,131.
I do not believe that the spiritual law works on a field of its own.
On the contrary, it expresses itself only through the ordinary activities of
life. It thus affects the economic, the social and the political fields. - YI,
-3-9-25, 304.
Several correspondents had complained to him that he was utilizing his
prayer meetings for the propagation of his favourite political ideas. But the
speaker never suffered from any feeling of guilt on that account. Human life
being and undivided whole, no line could ever be drawn between its different
compartments, nor between ethics and politics. A trader who earned his wealth
by deception only succeeded in deceiving himself when he thought that his sins could
be washed away by spending some amount of his ill-gotten gains on so-called
religious purposes. One's everyday life was never capable of being separated
from his spiritual being. Both acted and reacted upon one another. - H,
30-3-47,85.
Service to God and Man
87. Man's ultimate aim is the realization of God, and all his
activities, social, political, religious, have to be guided by the ultimate him
aim of the vision of God. The immediate service of all human beings becomes a
necessary part of the endeavour, simply because the only way to find God is to
see Him in His creation and be one with it. This can only be done by service of
all. I am a part and parcel of the whole, and I cannot find Him apart from the
rest of humanity. My countrymen are my nearest neighbours. They have become so
helpless, so resource less, so inert that I must concentrate myself on serving
them. If I could persuade myself that I should find Him in a Himalayan cave I
would proceed there immediately. But I know that I cannot find Him apart from
humanity. - H, 29-8-36, 226.
My creed is service of God and therefore of humanity. - YI, 23-I0-24,
350.
To serve without desire is to favour not others, but ourselves, even
as in discharging a debt we serve only ourselves, lighten our burden and
fulfill our duty. Again, not only the good, but all of us are bound to place
our resources at the disposal of humanity. The duty of renunciation
differentiates mankind from the beast. - YM, 81.
Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the
welfare of his fellow-men. - ER, 56.
The Oneness of Man
I believe in absolute oneness of God and therefore also of humanity.
What though we have many bodies? We have but one soul. The rays of the sun are
many through refraction. But they have the same source. - YI, 25-9-24, 313.
I do not believe that an individual may gain spiritually and those
that surround him suffer. I believe in advaita. I believe in the essential
unity of man and for that matter of all that lives. Therefore I believe that if
one man gains spiritually, the whole world gains with him and, if one man
falls, the whole world falls to that extent. - YI, 4-I2-24, 398.
There is not a single virtue which aims at, or is content with, the
welfare of the individual alone. Conversely, there is not a single moral
offence which does not, directly or indirectly, affect many others besides the
actual offender. Hence, whether an individual is good or bad is not merely his
own concern, but really the concern of the whole community, nay of the whole
world. - ER, 55.
I subscribe to the belief or the philosophy that all life in its
essence is one, and that the humans are working consciously or unconsciously
towards the realization of that identity. This belief requires a living faith
in a living God who is the ultimate arbiter of our fate. Without Him not a
blade of grass moves. - GC,88.
Individualism
The individual is the supreme consideration. -YI, 13-11-24, 378.
I look upon an increase of the power of the state with the greatest
fear, because, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation,
it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality which lies at
the root of all progress. - MR, 1935, 413.
A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in
their mission can alter the course of history. - H,19-11-38, 343
Man above Institutions
Man and his deed are two distinct things. It is quite proper to resist
and attack a system, but to resist and attack its author is tantamount to
resisting and attacking oneself. For we are all tarred with the same brush, and
are children of one and the same Creator, and as such the divine powers within
us are infinite. To slight a single human being is to slight those divine
powers, and thus to harm not only that being but with him the whole world.
-Auto, 337.
I have discovered, that man is superior to the system he propounded.
And so I fell, that Englishmen as individuals, are infinitely better than the
system they have evolved as a corporation. -YI, 13-7-21,221. CF. 224.
Faith in Man
I refuse to suspect human nature. It will, is bound to respond to any
noble and friendly action. - YI, 4-8-20, Tagore, 559.
My proposal for British withdrawal is as much in Britain's interest as
India's. Your difficulty arises from your disinclination to believe that
Britain can never do justice voluntarily. My belief in the capacity of
nonviolence rejects the theory of permanent inelasticity of human nature. -H,
7-6-42, 177.
In the application of the method of nonviolence, one must believe in
the possibility of every person, however depraved, being reformed under humane
and skilled treatment - H, 22-2-42, 49.
When I was a little child, there used to be two blind performers in
Rajkot. One of them was a musician. When he played on his instrument, his
fingers swept the strings with an unerring instinct and everybody listened
spell-bound to his playing. Similarly there are chords in every human heart. If
we only know how to strike the right chord, we bring out the music. - H,
27-5-39, 136.
Reason and the Heart
Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit
to the test of reason and universal assent. -YI, 26-2-25-, 74.
Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when
it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as
bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be
God. I plead not for the suppression of reason, but for a due recognition of
that in us which sanctifies reason. -YI, 14-10-26, 359.
I have come to this fundamental conclusion that if you want something
really important to be done, you must not merely satisfy reason, you must move
the heart also. The appeal of reason is more to the head but the penetration of
the heart comes from suffering. It opens up the inner understanding in man. -
YI, 5-11-31, 341.
But He is no God who merely satisfies the intellect if He ever does.
God to be God must rule the heart and transform it. YI, 11-10-28, 340.
No room for Unintelligence any where
Man alone can worship God with knowledge and understanding. Where
devotion to God is void of understanding, there can be no true salvation, and
without salvation there can be no true happiness. GH, 129.
Truth and nonviolence are not for the dense. Pursuit of them is bound
to result in an all-round growth of the body, mind and heart. If this does not
follow, either truth and nonviolence are untrue or we are untrue, and since the
former is impossible, the latter will be the only conclusion.- H, 8-5-37, 98.
You must know that a true practice of ahimsa means also in one who
practices it the keenest intelligence and wide-awake conscience.- H, 8-9-40,
274.
Swaraj is for the awakened, not for the sleepy and the ignorant.- H,
28-1-39, 437.
In every branch of reform constant study giving one a mastery over
one's subject is necessary. Ignorance is at the root of failures, partial or
complete, of al reform movements whose merits are admitted, for every project
masquerading under the name of reform is not necessarily worthy of being so
designated.- H, 24-4-37, 84.
A handicraft plied merely mechanically can be as cramping to the mind
and soul as any other pursuit taken up mechanically. An unintelligent effort is
like a corpse from which the spirit has departed. - H, 3-7-37, 161.
Idealism
The virtue of an ideal consists in its boundlessness. But although
religious ideals must thus from their very nature remain unattainable by
imperfect human beings, although by virtue of their boundlessness they may seem
ever to recede farther and farther away from us, the nearer we go to them,
still they are closer to us than our very hands and feet because we are more
certain of their reality and truth than even our own physical being. This faith
in one's ideals constitutes true life, in fact, it is man's all in all. -YI,
22-11-28, 391.
The goal ever recedes from us. The greater the progress the greater
the recognition of our unworthiness. Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in
the attainment. Full effort is full victory. -YI, 9-3-22, 141.
We need not be afraid of ideals or of reducing them to practice to the
uttermost. -Nat, 355.
I was in the midst of a population which would not kill wild animals
that daily destroy their crops. Before the Sardar threw the whole of his
tremendous influence into the campaign of the destruction of rats and fleas,
the people of the Borsad Taluka had knot destroyed a single rat or flea. (These
were plague stricken - N.K.B.). But they could not resist the Sardar to whom
they owed much, and Dr. Bhaskar Patel was allowed to carry on wholesale
destruction of rats and fleas. I was in daily touch with what was going on in
Borsad.
The Sardar had invited me naturally to endorse what had been done. For
the work had still to continue, though henceforth with the people's own unaided
effort. Therefore, in order to emphasize my endorsement, I redeclared in the
clearest possible terms my implicit belief in ahimsa, i. e. sacredness and
kinship of all life.
But why this contradiction between belief and action? Contradiction is
undoubtedly there. Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after
perfection which is self-realization. The ideal must not be lowered because of
our weaknesses or imperfections. I am painfully conscious of both in me. The
silent cry goes out to Truth to help me to remove these weaknesses and
imperfections of mine. I own my fear of snakes, scorpions, lions, tigers,
plague stricken rats and fleas, even as I must own fear of evil-looking robbers
and murderers. I know that I ought not to fear any of them. But this is no
intellectual feat. It is a feat of the heart. It needs more than a heart of oak
to shed all fear except the fear of God. I could not in my weakness ask the
people of Borsad not to Kill deadly rats and fleas. But I knew that it was a
concession to human weakness.
Nevertheless there is that difference between a belief in ahimsa and a
belief in himsa which there is between north and south, life and death. One who
hooks his fortunes to ahimsa, the law of love, daily lessens the circle of
destruction and to that extent promotes life and love; he who swears by himsa,
the law of hate, daily widens the circle of destruction and to that extent
promotes death and hate. Though, before the people of Borsad, I endorsed the
destruction of rats and fleas, my own kith and kin, I preached to them without
adulteration the grand doctrine of the eternal Law of Love of all Life. Though
I may fail to carry it out to the full in this life, my faith in it shall
abide. Every failure brings me nearer the realization. - H, 22-6-35, 148.
The Age of Miracles
It is open to anyone to say that human nature has not been known to
rise to such height. But if we have made unexpected progress in physical
sciences, why may we do less in the science of the soul? - H, 14-5-38, 114.
In this age of wonders no one will say that a thing or idea is
worthless because it is new. To way it is impossible because it is difficult,
is again not in consonance with the spirit of the age. Things undreamt of are
daily being seen, the impossible is ever becoming possible. We are constantly
being astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of
violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible
discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence.- H, 25-8-40, 260.
Hatred can never yield Good
Brute force has been the ruling factor din the world for thousands of
years, and mankind has been reaping its bitter harvest all along, as he who
runs may read. There is little hope of anything good coming out of it in the
future. If light can come out of darkness, then alone can love emerge from
hatred. - SA, 289.
It is my firm conviction that nothing enduring can be built upon
violence. -YI, 15-11-28, 381.
Nonviolence
(1) Nonviolence implies as complete self-purification as is humanly
possible.(2) Man for man the strength of nonviolence is in exact proportion to
the ability, not the will, of the nonviolent person to inflict violence. (3)
Non-violence is without exception superior to violence, i. e., the power at the
disposal of a nonviolent person is always greater than he would have if he was
violent. (4) There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence. The end of
violence is surest defeat. (5) The ultimate end of nonviolence is surest
victory if such a term may be used of nonviolence. In reality where there is no
sense of defeat, there is no sense of victory. -H, 12-10-35, 276.
The only condition of a successful use of this force is a recognition
of the existence of the soul as apart from the body and its permanent nature.
And this recognition must amount to a living faith and not mere intellectual
grasp. -Nat, I66.
Consequences of Nonviolence
Q. Is love or nonviolence compatible with possession or exploitation
in any shape or from?A. Love and exclusive possession can never go together.
-MR, 1935, 412.
Military force is inconsistent with soul-force. Frightfulness,
exploitation of the weak, immoral gains, insatiable pursuit after enjoyments of
the flesh are utterly inconsistent with soul-force. - YI, 6-5-26, 164.
The principle of non-violence necessitates complete abstention from
exploitation in any form. - (27I)
Rural economy as I have conceived it eschews exploitation altogether,
and exploitation is the essence of violence. -H, 4-11-39, 331.
No man could be actively nonviolent and not rise against social
injustice no matter where it occurred. -H, 20-4-40, 97.
Nonviolence always Applicable and in all Spheres of Life129.
Non-violence is a universal principle and its operation is not limited by a
hostile environment. Indeed, its efficacy can be tested only when it acts in
the midst of and in spite of opposition. Our non-violence would be a hollow
thing and nothing worth, if it depended for its success on the goodwill of the
authorities. (Here, reference is made to the British Government in India). H,
12-11-38, 326.
Truth and non-violence are no cloistered virtues but applicable as
much in the forum and the legislatures and the market place. -H 8-37,98.
Some friends have told me that truth and nonviolence have no place in
politics and worldly affairs. I do not agree. I have no use for them as a means
of individual salvation. Their introduction and application in everyday life
has been my experiment all along. -ABP, 30-6-44.
We have to make truth and nonviolence, not matters for mere individual
practice but for practice by groups and communities and nations. That at any
rate is my dream. I shall live and die in trying to realize it. My faith helps
me to discover new truths every day. Ahimsa is the attribute of the soul, and
therefore, to be practiced by everybody in all the affairs of life. If it
cannot be practical in all departments, it has no practical value. H, 2-3-40,23
The Meaning of Non-resistance
Hitherto the word ‘revolution' has been connected with violence and
has as such been condemned by established authority. But the movement of
Non-co-operation, if it may be considered a revolution, is not an armed revolt;
it is an evolutionary revolution, it is a bloodless revolution. The movement is
a revolution of thought, of spirit. Non-co-operation is a process of
purification, and, as such it constitutes a revolution in one's ideas. Its
suppression, therefore, would amount to co-operation by coercion. Orders to
kill the movement will be orders to destroy, or interfere with, the
introduction of the spinning wheel, to prohibit the campaign of temperance, and
an incitement, therefore, to violence. For any attempt to compel people by
indirect methods to war foreign clothes, to patronize drink-shops would
certainly exasperate them. But our success will be assured when we stand even
this exasperation and incitement. We must not retort. Inaction on our part will
kill Government madness. For violence flourishes on response, either by
submission to the will of the violator, or by counter violence. My strong
advice to every worker is to segregate this evil Government by strict
non-co-operation, not even to talk or speak about it, but having recognized the
evil, to cease to pay homage to it by co-operation.-YI, 30-3-21, 97.
Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal
suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. When I refuse to do a thing
that is repugnant to my conscience, I use soul-force. For instance, the
Government of the day has passed a law, which is applicable to me. I do not
like it. If by using violence I force the Government to repeal the law, I am
employing what may be termed body-force. If I do not obey the law and accept
the penalty for is breach, I use soul-force. It involves sacrifice of self.
Everybody admits that sacrifice self is infinitely superior to sacrifice of
other. Moreover, if this kind of force is used in a cause that is just, only
the person using it suffers. He does not make others suffers for his mistakes.
Men have before now done many things which were subsequently found to have been
wrong. No man can claim that he is absolutely in the right or that a particular
thing is wrong because h thinks so, but it is wrong for him so long as that is
his deliberate judgment. It is therefore meet that he should not do that which
he knows to be wrong, and suffer the consequence whatever it may be. This is
the key to the use of soul-force. -IHR, 45.
The method of passive resistance adopted to combat the clearest and
safest, because, if the cause is not true, it is the resisters, and they alone,
who suffer. -Nat, 305.
That is the way of Satyagraha or the way of non-resistance top evil.
It is the aseptic method in which the physician allows the poison to work
itself out by setting in motion all the natural forces and letting them have
full play. * -H, 9-7-38, I73.
I accept the interpretation of ahimsa, namely, that it is not merely a
negative state of harmlessness but it is a positive state of love, of doing
good even to the evil-doer. But it does not mean helping the evil-doer to
continue the wrong or tolerating it by passive acquiescence. On the contrary,
love the active state of ahimsa, requires you to resist the wrongdoer by
dissociation yourself from him even though it may offend him or injure him
physically. -YI, 25-8-20, Tagore, 322.
In its negative form, it (ahimsa) means not injuring any living being
whether by body or mind. It may not, therefore, hurt the person of any
wrongdoer or bear any ill-will to him and so cause him mental suffering. The
statement does not cover suffering caused to the wrongdoer by natural acts of
mine which do not proceed from ill-will. It, therefore, does not prevent me
from withdrawing from his presence a child whom he, we shall imagine, is about
to strike. Indeed, the proper practice of ahimsa requires me to withdraw the
intended victim from the wrongdoer, if I am in any way the guardian of such a
child. It was therefore most proper for the passive resisters of South Africa
to have resisted the evil that the Union Government sought to do to them. They
bore no ill-will to it. They showed this by helping the Government whenever it
needed their help. "Their resistance Consisted of disobedience of the
orders of the Government even to the extent of suffering death at their
hands." Ahimsa requires deliberate self-suffering, not a deliberate injury
of the supposed wrongdoer. -Nat, 346 (from MR, Oct. 1916).
If a man abused him, it would never do for him to return the abuse. An
evil returned by another evil only succeeded in multiplying it, instead of
leading to its reduction. It was a universal law that violence would never be
quenched by superior violence but could only be quenched by non-violence or
non-resistance. But the true meaning of non-resistance had often been
misunderstood or even distorted. It never implied that a nonviolent man should
bend before the violence of an aggressor. While not returning the latter's
violence by violence, he should refuse to submit to the latter's illegitimate
demand even to the point of death. That was the true meaning of non-resistance.
- H, 30-3-47, 85.
Evolution and Revolution
Q. Have you studied history and noted the progress of nations? Have
you at all noted that progress is made by growth and gradual development; and
not by revolution and destruction? Do you ever notice how God works through
nature that the life of plants and animals grows by slow advance, by evolution,
not revolution? Do you ever watch the sky and the movement of the stars? The
suns and systems which continue through the ages can scarcely be seen to move
at all. To ascend a mountain the climber has to take slow and painful steps one
after another. To descend quickly he need only step over the precipice and he
is at the bottom in a few seconds. A. The nations have progressed both by
evolution and revolution. The one is as necessary as the other. Death, which is
an eternal verity, is revolution as birth and after is slow and steady
evolution. Death is as necessary for man's growth as life itself. God is the
greatest Revolutionist the world has ever known or will know. He seconds
deluges. He sends storms where a moment ago there was calm. He levels down
mountains which. He builds with exquisite care and infinite patience. I do
watch the sky and it fills me with awe and wonder. In the serene blue sky, both
of India and England, I have seen clouds gathering and bursting with a fury
which has struck me dumb. History is more a record of wonderful revolutions
than the so-called ordered progress no history more so than the English. And I
beg to inform the correspondent that I have seen people trudging slowly up
mountains and have also seen men shooting up the air through great heights.
-YI, 2-2-22, 78.
Inward Freedom and Outward Expression
The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact
proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment.
And if this is the correct view of freedom, our, chief energy must be
concentrated upon achieving reform from within. -YI, 1-11-28, 363.
The Devil succeeds only by receiving help from his fellows. He always
takes advantage of the weakest spots in our natures in order to gain mastery
over us. Even so does the Government retain control over us through our
weaknesses or vices. And if we could render ourselves proof against its
machinations, we must remove our weaknesses. It is for that reason that I have
called Non-co-operation a process of purification. As soon as that process is
completed, this Government must fall to pieces for want of the necessary
environment, Just as mosquitoes cease to haunt a place whose cesspools are
filled up and dried. YI, 19-1-21, 21.
The Nature of Swaraj and the Meaning of Freedom
The first step to Swaraj lies in the individual. The great truth: ‘As
with the individual so with the universe', is applicable here as elsewhere. -
Nat, 409.
Government over self is the truest Swaraj, it is synonymous with mocha
or salvation. - YI, 8-12-20, Tagore, 1099.
Swaraj of a people means the sum total of the Swaraj (self-rule) of
individuals. -H, 25-3-39, 64.
Self-government depends entirely upon our own internal strength, upon
our ability to fight against the heaviest odds. Indeed, self-government which
does not require that continuous striving to attain it and to sustain it, is
not worth the name. I have therefore endeavoured to show both in word and deed,
that political self-government-that is self-government for a large number of
men and women,-is no better than individual self-government. And therefore, it
is to be attained by precisely the same means that are required for individual
self-government or self-rule.
Evolution is always experimental. All progress is gained through
mistakes and their rectification. No good comes fully fashioned, out of God's
hand, but has to be carved out through repeated experiments and repeated
failures by ourselves. This is the law of individual growth. The same law
controls social and political evolution also. The right to err, which means the
freedom to try experiments, is the universal
condition of all progress. -Ganesh (1921), 245.
The End and The Means
They say ‘means are after all means'. I would say ‘means are after all
everything'. As the means so the end. Indeed the Creator has given us control
(and that too very limited) over means, non over the end. Realization of the
goal is in exact proportion to that of the means. The is a proposition that
admits of no exception. -YI, 17-7-24, 236.
The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree; and there is
just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is
between the seed and the tree. -IHR, 39.
One I said ‘In spinning wheel lies Swaraj', next I said ‘In
prohibition lies Swaraj'. In the same way I would say in cent per cent swadeshi
lies Swaraj lies Swaraj. Of course, it is like the blind men describing the
elephant. All of them are right and yet not wholly right. -H, 28-9-34, 259.
It seems that the attempt made to win Swaraj is Swaraj itself. The
faster we run towards it, the longer seems to be the distance to be traversed.
The same is the case with all ideals. -Nat, 685.
Though you l have emphasized the necessity of a clear statement of the
goal, but having once determined it, I have never attached importance to its
repetition. The clearest possible definition of the goal and its appreciation
would fail to take us there, if we do not know and utilize the means of
achieving it. I have, therefore, concerned myself principally with the
conservation of the means and their progressive use. I know if we can take care
of them attainment of the goal is assured, I feel too that our progress towards
the goal is assured. I feel too that our progress towards the goal will be in
exact proportion to the purity of our means.This method may appear to be long,
perhaps too long, but I am convinced that it is the shortest. - ABP, 17-9-33.
Rights and Duties
The true source of rights is duty. If we all discharge our duties,
rights will not be far to seek. If leaving duties unperformed we run after
rights, they will escape us like a will-o'-the-wisp. The more we pursue them,
the farther will they fly. The same teaching has been embodied by Krishna in
the immortal words: ‘Action alone is thine. Leave thou the fruit severely
alone.' Action is duty: fruit is the right. -YI. 8-1-25, 15.
The Greatest Good of All
A votary of ahimsa cannot subscribe to the utilitarian formula (of the
greatest god of the greatest number). He will strive for the greatest good of
all and die in the attempt to realize the ideal. He will therefore be willing
to die, so that the others may live. He will serve himself with the rest, by
himself dying. The greatest good of all inevitably includes the good of the
greatest number, and therefore, he and the utilitarian will converge in many
points in their career but there does come a time when they must part company,
and even work in opposite directions. The utilitarian to be logical will never
sacrifice himself. The absolutist will even sacrifice himself. - YI, 9-12-26,
432.
True Civilization and Self-restraint
Civilization, in the real sense of the term, consists not in the
multiplication, but in the deliberate and voluntary restriction of wants. This
alone promotes real happiness and contentment, and increases the capacity for
service. -YM, 36.
Q. But some comforts may be necessary even for man's spiritual
advancement. One could not advance himself by identifying himself with the
discomfort land squalor of the villager.A. A certain degree of physical harmony
and comfort is necessary, but above that level, it becomes a hindrance instead
of help. Therefore the ideal of creating an unlimited number of wants and
satisfying them seems to be a delusion and a snare. The satisfaction of one's
physical needs, even the intellectual needs of one's narrow self, must meet at
a point a dead stop, before it degenerates into physical and intellectual
voluptuousness. A man must arrange his physical and cultural circumstances so
that they may not hinder him in his service of humanity, on which all his
energies should be concentrated. - H, -29-8-36, 226.
As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, you should
deep it. If you were to give it up in a mood of self-sacrifice or out of a
stern sense of duty, you would continue to want it back, and that unsatisfied
want would make trouble for you. Only give up a thing when you want some other
condition so much that the thing no longer has any attraction for you or when
it seems to interfere with
that which is more greatly desired. -Vishva-Bharati Quarterly, New
Series II, part II, 46.
Economic Ideal
Ideas derived by Gandhi from Ruskin's Unto This Last in the year
1904:(1) That the good of the individual is contained in the good of all. (2)
That a lawyer's work has the same value as the barber's, inasmuch as all l have
the same right of earning their livelihood from their work. (3) That a life of
labour, i. E. the life of the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman is the
life worth living.-Auto, 365.
Every human being has a right to live, and therefore to find the
wherewithal to feed himself and where necessary, to clothe and house himself. -
Nat, 350 (273).
According to me the economic constitution of India and for the matter
of that of the world, should be such that no one under it should suffer from
want of food and clothing. In other words everybody should be able to get
sufficient work to enable him to make the two ends meet. And this ideal can be
universally realized only if the means of production of the elementary
necessaries of life remain in the control of the masses. These should be freely
available to all as God's air and water are or ought to be; they should not be
made a vehicle of traffic for the exploitation of others. Their monopolization
by any country, nation or group of persons would be unjust. The neglect of this
simple principle is the cause of the destitution that we witness today not only
in this unhappy land but in other parts of the world too. - YI, 15-11-28, 381.
Violence is no monopoly of any one party. I know Congressmen who are
neither socialists nor communists, but who are frankly devotees of the cult of
violence. Contrariwise, I know socialists and communists who will not hurt a
fly but who believe in the universal ownership of the instruments of
production, I rank myself as one among them. - H, 10-12-38, 366
Q. Is it possible to defend by nonviolence anything which can only be
gained by violence?A. It followed from what he had said above that what was
gained by violence could not only not be defended by non-violence, but the latter
required the abandonment of ill-gotten gains. Q. Is the accumulation of capital
possible except through violence whether open or tacit? A. Such accumulation by
private persons was impossible except through violent means, but accumulation
by the State in a nonviolent society, was not only possible, it was desirable
and inevitable.Q. Whether a man accumulates material or moral wealth, he does
so only through the help or co-operation of other members of society. Has he
then the moral right to use any of it mainly for personal advantage?
A. The answer was an emphatic no. - H, 16-2-47, 25 (Corrected with
reference to the original).
If they were to prefer death to dishonour, they had to have the heart
of a fakir, not the fakir of old who went about with a staff and a beggar's
bowl. That was time when there were rich and poor. Then there was room for
beggars. Society's thought had advanced since, though practice had not kept
pace with thought. The society of the future was to be a society in which there
was to be no distinction between rich and poor. Then there was room for
beggars. Society's thought had advanced since, though practice had not kept
pace with thought. The society of the future was to be a society in which there
was to be a society in which there was to be no distinction between rich and
poor, or colour and colour, or country and country. - H, 3-11-46, 388.
Economics and Morality
That economics is untrue which ignores or disregards moral values. The
extension of the law of non- violence in the domain of economics means nothing
less than the introduction of moral values as a factor to be considered in
regulating international commerce. -YI, 26-12-24, 421.
True economics never militates against the highest ethical standard,
just as all true ethics to be worth its name, must at the same time be also
good economics. An economics that inculcates Mammon worship, and enables the
strong to amass wealth at the expense of the weak, is a false and dismal
science. It spells death. True economics, on the other hand, stands for social
justice, it promotes the good of all equally including the weakest, and is
indispensable for decent life. - H, 9-I0-37, 292.
The Social Ideal
I want to bring about an equalization of status. The working classes
have all these centuries been isolated and relegated to a lower status. They
have been shudras, and the word has been interpreted to mean and inferior
status. I want to allow no differentiation between the son of a weaver, of an
agriculturist and of a schoolmaster. - H, 15-1-38, 416.
Political Ideal
To me political power is not an end but one of the means of enabling
people to better their condition in every department of life. Political power
means capacity to regulate national life through national representatives. If
national life becomes so perfect as to become self-regulated, no representation
becomes necessary. There is then a state of enlightened anarchy. In such a
state everyone is his own ruler. He rules himself in such a manner that he is
never a hindrance to his neighbours. In the ideal state therefore, there is no
political power because there is no State. But the ideal is never fully
realized in life. Hence the classical statement of Thoreau that that government
is best which governs the least.*-YI, 2-7-31, 162.
I look upon an increase in the power of the State with the greatest
fear, because, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation,
it dies the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality which lies at
the root of al progress. *The statement that I had derived my idea of Civil
Disobedience from the writings of Thoreau is wrong. The resistance to authority
in South Africa was well advanced before I got the essay of Thoreau on Civil
Disobedience. But the movement was then known as Passive Resistance. As it was
incomplete I had coined the word Satyagraha for the Gujarati readers. When I
saw the title of Thoreau's great essay, I began to use his phrase to explain
our struggle to the English readers. But I found that even Civil Disobedience
failed to convey the full meaning of the struggle. I, therefore, adopted the
phrase Civil Resistance. Nonviolence was always and integral part of our
struggle.- (Letter to Kodanda Rao, quoted in Incidents in Gandhiji's Life
edited by Chandrashankar Shukla,1949. P. 114-5).
The State represents violence in a concentrated and organized form.
The individual has a soul, but as the State is a soulless machine, it can never
be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence. It is my firm
conviction that if the State suppressed capitalism by violence, it will be
caught in the coils of violence itself and fail to develop nonviolence at any time.
What I would personally prefer, would be, not a centralization of power in the
hands of the State but an extension of the sense of trusteeship; as in my
opinion, the violence of private ownership is less injurious than the violence
of the State. However, if it is unavoidable, I would support a minimum of
State-owner-ship. What I disapprove of is an organization based on force which
a State is Voluntary organization there must be. - MR, 1935, 412.
Democracy
Let there be no manner of doubt that Swaraj established by nonviolent
means will be different in kind from the Swaraj that can be established by
armed rebellion. -YI, 2-3-22, 130.
Violent means will give violent Swaraj. That would be a menace to the
world and India herself. -YI, 17-7-24, 236.
I hold that democracy cannot be evolved by forcible methods. The
spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from with out. It has to come from
within. - Sita, 982.
I read Carlyle's History of the French Revolution while I was in
prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian
Revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these struggles were
fought with the weapon of violence, they failed to realize the democratic
ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by
nonviolence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own
master. -GC, 173.
I believe that true democracy can only be and outcome of nonviolence.
The structure of a world federation can be raised only on a foundation of
nonviolence, and violence will have to be totally given up in world affairs. -
GC, 175.
True National Independence
I live for India's freedom and would die for it, because it is part of
Truth. Only a free India can worship the true God. I work for India's freedom
because my swadeshi teaches me that being born in it and having inherited her
culture, I am fittest to serve her and she has a prior claim to my service. But
my patriotism is not exclusive; it is calculated not only not to hurt another
nation but to benefit all in the true sense of the word. India's freedom as
conceived by me can never be a menace to the world. - YI, 3-4-24, 109.
We want freedom for our country, but not at the expense or
exploitation of others, not so as to degrade other countries. I do not want the
freedom of India if it means the extinction of England or the disappearance of
Englishmen. I want the freedom of my country so that other countries may learn
something from my free country, so that the resources of my country might be
utilized for the benefit of mankind. Just as the cult of patriotism teaches us
today that the individual has to die for the district, the district for the
province, and province for the country, even so, a country has to be free in
order that it may die, if necessary, for the benefit of the world. My love
therefore of become free, that if need be, the whole country may die, so that
the human races may live. There is no room for race-hatred there. Let that be
our nationalism.- IV, 170.
The International Ideal
My religion has no geographical limits. If I have a living faith in
it, it will transcend my love for India herself. -YI, 11-8-20, Tagore, 714.
Isolated independence is not the goal of the world States. It is
voluntary interdependence.- YI, 17-7-24, 236.
There is no limit to extending our services to our neighbours across
State-made frontiers. God never made those frontiers.- YI, 31-12-31, 427.
Freedom of the Self and of the Nation
I do not realize that I am ‘staking a whole nation for
self-evolution'. For self-evolution is wholly consistent with a nation's
evolution. A nation cannot advance without the units of which it is composed
advancing, and conversely no individual can advance without the nation of which
he is a part also advancing. -YI, 26-3-31, 50.
The motto of the Gujarat Vidyapith is. It means: That is knowledge
which is designed for salvation. On the principle that the greater includes the
less, national independence or material freedom is included in the spiritual.
The knowledge gained in educational institutions must therefore at least teach
the way and lead to such freedom. -YI, 20-3-30, 100.
His Own Mission
I have not conceived my mission to be that of a knight-errant
wandering everywhere to deliver people from difficult situations. My humble
occupation has been to show people how they can solve their own difficulties.
-H, 28-6-42, 201.
My work will be finished if I succeed in carrying conviction to the
human family, that every man or woman, however weak in body, is the guardian of
his or her self-respect and liberty. This defense avails,though the whole world
may be against the individual resister. - HS, 6-8-44,
Character of His Leadership
You will see that my influence, great as it may appear to outsiders,
is strictly limited. I may have considerable influence to conduct a campaign
for redress of popular grievances because people are ready and need a helper.
But, I have no influence to direct people's energy in a channel in which they
have no interest. - H,26-7-42, 242.
Why Politics?
If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics
encircle us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no
matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake. - YI,
12-5-20, Tagore, 1069.
My work of social reform was in no way less or subordinate to
political work. The fact is, that when I saw that to a certain extent my social
work would be impossible without the help of p9olitical work, I took to the
latter and only to the extent that it helped the former. I must therefore
confess that work so social reform or self-purification of this nature is a hundred
times dearer to me than what is called purely political work.- YI, 6-8-31, 203.
My life is oneindivisible whole, and all my activities run into one
another, and they all have their rise in my insatiable love of mankind.- H,
2-3-34, 24.
A Practical Idealist
In dealing with living entities the dry syllogistic method leads not
only to bad logic but sometimes to fatal logic. For if you miss even a tiny
factor-and you never have control over all the factors that enter to be wrong.
Therefore, you never reach the final truth, you only reach an approximation;
and that too if you are extra careful in your dealings.- H, 14-8-37, 212.
For me, the law of complete love is the law of my being. Each time I
fail, my effort shall be all the more determined for my failure. But I am not
preaching that final law through the Congress or the Khilafat. I know that any
such attempt is foredoomed to failure. To expect a whole mass of men and women
to obey that law all at once is not to know its working. - YI, 9-3-22, 141.
I adhere to the opinion that I did will to present to the Congress
nonviolence as an expedient. I could not have done otherwise, if I was to
introduce it into politics. In South Africa too I introduced it as an
expedient. It was successful there because resisters were a small number in a
compact area and therefore easily controlled. Here we had numberless persons
scattered over a huge country. The result was that they could not be easily
controlled or trained. And yet it is a marvel the way they have responded. They
might have responded much better and shown far better results. But I have no
sense of disappointment in me over the results obtained. If I had started with
men who accepted nonviolence as a creed, I might have ended with myself.
Imperfect as I am, I started with imperfect men and women and sailed on an
uncharted ocean. Thank God, that though the boat has not reached its haven, it
has proved fairly storm-proof. - H, 12-4-42, 116.
God has blessed me with the mission to place nonviolence before the
nation for adoption. For better or for worse the Congress, admittedly the most
popular and powerful organization, has consistently and to the best of its
ability tried to act up to it. I hope the learned critic does not wish to
suggest that as the Congress did not accept my position, I should have
dissociated myself entirely from the Congress and refused to guide it. My
association enables the Congress to pursue the technique of corporate
non-violent action.- H, 2-12-39, 357.
I would not serve the cause of nonviolence, if I deserted my best
co-workers because they could not follow me in an extended application of nonviolence.
I therefore remain with them in the faith that their departure from the
nonviolent method will be confined to the narrowest field and will be
temporary.- H, 30-9-39, 289.
Personal
I lay claim to nothing exclusively divine in me. I do not claim
prophetship. I am but a humble seeker after Truth and bent upon finding It. I
count no sacrifice too great for the sake of seeing God face to face. The whole
of my activity whether it may be called social, political, humanitarian or
ethical is directed to that end. And as I know that God is found more often in
the lowliest of His creatures than in the high and mighty, I am struggling to
reach the status of these. I cannot do so without their service. Hence my
passion for the service of the suppressed classes. And as I cannot render this
service without entering politics, I find myself in them. Thus I am no master,
I am but a struggling, erring, humble servant of India and there through, of
humanity.- YI, 11-9-24, 298.
I claim no perfection for myself. But I do claim to be a passionate
seeker after Truth, which is but another name for God. In the course of that
search the discovery of nonviolence came to me. I its spread is my life
mission. I have no interest in living except for the prosecution of that
mission. - H, 6-7-40, 185.
I have been a willing slave to this most exacting Master for more than
half a century. l His voice has been increasingly audible as year as have
rolled by. He has never forsaken me even in my darkest hour. He has saved me
often against myself and left me not a vestige of independence. The greater the
surrender to Him, the greater has been my joy.- H, 6-5-33, 4.
Q. Are you happy?Ah! I can answer that question. I am perfectly happy.
Q. More happy than you were outside the village?
A. I cannot say, for my happiness is not dependent on external
circumstances. - H, 8-8-36, 201.