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Mohandas
Karamchand
Gandhi
Gandhi
was an Indian nationalist leader, who established his country's
freedom through a nonviolent revolution. Also known as Mahatma
Gandhi, he was born in Porbandar on October 2, 1869, and educated
in law at University College, London. In 1891, after having been
admitted to the British bar, Gandhi returned to India. Two
years later an Indian firm with interests in South Africa retained
him as legal adviser in its office in Durban. Arriving in
Durban, Gandhi found himself treated as a member of an inferior
race. He was appalled at the widespread denial of civil
liberties and political rights to Indian immigrants to South
Africa. He threw himself into the struggle for elementary
rights for Indians. |
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thinkers home
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Happiness is when what you
think, what
you say, and what you do are in harmony.
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Faith
is not something to grasp; it is a state to grow into. |
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Faith
is the function of the heart. |
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Prayer is
not an old woman's idle amusement.
Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of
action. |
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not asking. It is a longing of the soul. |
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If I
had no sense of humor, I should long ago have committed suicide.
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Nonviolence
is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of
my creed. |
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It
is difficult but not impossible to conduct strictly honest business. . .
. What
is true is that honesty is incompatible with the amassing of a
large fortune. |
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It is
better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts,
than to put on
the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence. |
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There
is a sufficiency in the world for man's need
but not for man's greed. |
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| There's more
to life than increasing its speed. |
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God
is the hardest taskmaster I have known on this earth, and he
tries you
through and through. And when you find that your faith is
failing
or your body is failing you, and you are sinking, he comes
to your
assistance somehow or other and proves to you that you must
not lose
your faith and that he is always at your beck and call,
but on his
terms, not on your terms. So I have found. I cannot really
recall a single instance when, at the eleventh hour, he has forsaken me. |
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Let then our first act
every morning be
to make the following resolve for the day:
I shall not fear anyone on earth.
I shall fear only God.
I shall not bear ill will toward anyone.
I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.
I shall conquer untruth by truth.
And in resisting untruth I shall put up with all suffering. |
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I
have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson
to conserve
my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy,
even so our
anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the
world. |
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I
am not a visionary. I claim to be a practical idealist. The
religion of non-violence
is not meant merely for the rishis [holy men]
and saints. It is meant for the common
people as well.
Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the
brute.
The spirit lies dormant in the brute and he knows no law
but that of physical might.
The dignity of man requires obedience
to a higher law--the strength of the spirit. . . .
Non-violence in its
dynamic condition means conscious suffering. It does not mean
meek
submission to the will of the evil-doer, but it means the pitting of
one's whole
soul against the will of the tyrant. Working under
this law of our being, it is possible
for a single individual to defy
the whole might of an unjust empire to save his honor,
his religion, his
soul and lay the foundation for that empire's fall or regeneration. |
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