Woman
is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacities.
She has the right to participate in the minutest details
in the activities of man, and she has an equal right of
freedom and liberty with him.
Hatred
ever kills, love never dies such is the vast difference between the
two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained
by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred.
Fear
of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour
is want of religious faith.
There
are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all,
i.e. the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many
a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family,
from the state to which you may belong, from all that you have held
as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being.
Insistence
on truth can come into play when one party practises untruth or injustice.
Only then can love be tested. True friendship is put to the test only
when one party disregards the obligation of friendship.
The
test of friendship is assistance in adversity, and that too, unconditional
assistance. Co-operation which needs consideration is a commercial contract
and not friendship. Conditional co-operation is like adulterated cement
which does not bind.
It
may be long before the law of love will be recognised in international
affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts
of one people from those of another.
A
vow is a purely
religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken
only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness.
Religion
is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment
of one's own religion.
Non-cooperation
is an attempt to awaken the masses, to a sense of their dignity and
power. This can only be done by enabling them to realize that they need
not fear brute force, if they would but know the soul within.
Whenever
I see an erring man, I say to myself I have also erred; when I see a
lustful man I say to myself, so was I once; and in this way I feel kinship
with everyone in the world and feel that I cannot be happy without the
humblest of us being happy.
To
forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid
knowledge that the one that must be loved is not a friend. There is
no merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend.
The
moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does
becomes tainted.
Are
creeds such simple things like the clothes which a man can change at
will and put on at will? Creeds are such for which people live for ages
and ages.
I
have but shadowed forth my intense longing to lose myself in the Eternal
and become merely a lump of clay in the Potter's divine hands so that
my service may become more certain because uninterrupted by the baser
self in me.
An
error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor
does truth become error because nobody will see it.
Suffering
cheerfully endured, ceases to be suffering and is transmuted into an
ineffable joy.
As
soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is
no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance,cannot
be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.
Even
as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come
from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything
in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Non-cooperation
is directed not against men but against measures. It is not
directed against the Governors, but against the system they
administer. The roots of non-cooperation lie not in hatred but
in justice, if not in love.
I do
not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be
stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house
as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.
I refuse to live in other people's houses as an interloper, a beggar
or a slave.
Measures
must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are
after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.
I will
far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less
than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation, woman, the object
of our lust.
The
spirit of non-violence necessarily leads to humility. Non-violence means
reliance on God, the rock of ages. If we would seek his aid, we must
approach Him with a humble and contrite heart.
Abstract
truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who represent
it, by proving their readiness to die for it.
There
is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court
of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.
Non-cooperation
is beyond the reach of the bayonet. It has found an abiding
place in the Indian heart. Workers like me will go when the
hour has struck, but non-cooperation will remain.
Intolerance
is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth
of a true democratic spirit.
This
campaign of non-cooperation has no reference to diplomacy, secret or
open. The only diplomacy it admits of is the statement and pursuance
of truth at any cost.
God
is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there
be no public support. It is self-sustained.
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.
The
only virtue I want to claim is truth and non-violence. I lay no claim
to superhuman powers. I want none. I wear the same corruptible flesh
that the weakest of my fellow beings wears, and am therefore as liable
to err as any. My services have many limitations, but God has upto now
blessed them in spite of the imperfections.
The
human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still
small voice of conscience.
If
we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy we cannot afford to
be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause.
When
I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul
expands in the worship of the creator.
Violent
means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world
and to India herself.
Religion
is more than life. Remember that his own religion is the truest to every
man even if it stands low in the scales of philosophical comparison.
In
nature there is fundamental unity running through all the diversity
we see about us. Religions are given to mankind so as to accelerate
the process of realisation of fundamental unity.
However
much I may sympathise with and admire worthy motives, I am an uncompromising
opponent of violent methods even to serve the noblest of causes.
Birth
and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects
of the same state. There is as little reason to deplore the one as there
is to be pleased over the other.
For
me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.
Experience
convinces me that permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth
& violence. Even if my belief is a fond delusion, it will be admitted
that it is a fascinating delusion.
I
do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care
of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.
Indeed
one's faith in one's plans and methods is truly tested when the horizon
before one is the blackest.
It
is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion
as you subdue the flesh.
My
trust is solely in god. And I trust men only because I trust God.
If I had no God to rely upon, I should be like Timon, a hater of my
species.
One's
own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker
and no one else's.
My
religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence
is the means of realising Him.
It
is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then
to crawl on one's belly, in order to be able to save one's head.
Better
far than cowardice is killing and being killed in battle.
Imitation
is the sincerest flattery.
Let
no one charge me with ever having abused or encouraged weakness or
surrendered on matters of principle. But I have said, as I say again,
that every trifle must not be dignified into a principle.
Violent
men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to
a point.
Justice
that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.
I am
but a poor struggling soul yearning to be wholly good, wholly truthful
and wholly non-violent in thought, word and deed, but ever failing
to reach the ideal which I know to be true. It is a painful climb,
but the pain of it is a positive pleasure to me. Each step upwards
makes me feel stronger and fit for the next.
Moral
authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes
without seeking and is retained without effort.
Self-respect
knows no considerations.
Power
is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the
other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more
effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.
A
religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help
to solve them is no religion.
There
is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.
No
sacrifice is worth the name unless it is a joy. Sacrifice and a long
face go ill together. Sacrifice is 'making sacred'. He must be a poor
specimen of humanity who is in need of sympathy for his sacrifice.
That
service is the nobelest which is rendered for its own sake.
Every
formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to
the acid test of reason and universal assent.
God
tries his votaries through and through but never beyond endurance.
He gives them strength enough to go through the ordeal he prescribes
for them.
Love
never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents never
revenges itself.
I
claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow
mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my
errors and to retrace my steps.
Truth
is by nature self-evident, as soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance
that surround it, it shines clear.
Adaptability
is not imitation. It means power of resistance and
assimilation.
Man
has reason, discrimination and free-will such as it is. The brute
has no such thing. It is not a free agent, and knows no distinction
between virtue and vice, good and evil. Man, being a free agent, knows
these distinctions, and when he follows his higher nature, shows himself
far superior to the brute, but when he follows his baser nature can
show himself lower then the brute.
Anger
is the enemy of Ahimsa(Non-violence) and pride is a monster that swallows
it up.
A
principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings
like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits
of its compromise in practice.
It
is easy enough to say, 'I do not believe in God.' For God permits
all things to be said of Him with impunity. He looks at our acts.
And any breach of His Law carries with it not its vindictive, but
its purifying, compelling punishment.
He
who trifles with truth cuts at the root of Ahimsa. He who is angry
is guilty of Himsa.
Human
society is a ceaseless growth, an unfoldment in terms of spirituality.
If
patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And
a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.
Though
we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us
all.
I have
found by experience that man makes his plans to be often upset by
God, but, at the same time, where the ultimate goal is the search
of truth, no matter how a man's plans are frustrated the issue is
never injurious and often better then anticipated.
A
'no' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a
'yes' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
Friendship
that insists upon agreement on all matters is notworth the name. Friendship
to be real must ever sustain the weight of honest differences, however
sharp they be.
A
clean confession, combined with a promise never to commit thesin again,
when offered before one who has the right to receiveit, is the purest
type of repentance.
Purity
of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up
a sound education.
Perfection
is the exclusive attribute of God, and it is indescribable, untranslatable.
I do believe that it is possible for human beings to become perfect.
It is necessary for all of us to aspire after that perfection but
when that blessed state is attained, it becomes indescribable, indefinable.
What
is true of the individual will be to-morrow true of the whole nation
if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.
Service
which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served.
But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before
service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.
It
has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured
by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
The
spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition
of forms. It requires change of heart.
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.
Let
us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one
lust for martyrdom.
A
True soldier does not argue as he marches, how success is going to
be ultimately achieved. But he is confident that if he only plays
his humble part well, somehow or other the battle will be won. It
is in that spirit that every one of us should act. It is not given
to us to know the future. But it is given to everyone of us to know
how to do our own part well.
If
co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain
conditions is equally a duty.
Of
all the animal creation of God, man is the only animal who has been
created in order that he may know his Maker. Man's aim in life is
not therefore to add from day to day to his material prospects and
to his material possessions, but his predominant calling is, from
day to day to come nearer to his own Maker.
Spiritual
relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship
divorced from spiritual is body without soul.
Man
and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call
forth approbation, and a wicked deed dis-approbation, the doer of
the deed, whether good or wicked always deserves respect or pity as
the case may be. Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which
though easy enough to understand is rarely practised, and that is
why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.
All
the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects,
unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth.
Morality
is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.
Mankind
is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends from time
to time. We require drums to be beaten into our ears, before we should
wake from our trance and hear the warning and see that to lose oneself
in all, is the only way to find oneself.
I do
not want any patronage, as I do not give any. I am a lover of my own
liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply want
to please my own conscience, which is God.
Real
suffering, bravely borne, melts even a heart of stone. Such is the
potency of suffering. And there lies the key to Satyagraha.
But
for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac.
There
is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing
everything and every being that exists or lives. It is no blind law;
for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings.
The
first condition of humaneness is a little humility and a little diffidence
about the correctness of one's conduct and a little receptiveness.
Where
love is, there God is also.
We
are merely the instruments of the Almighty's will and therefore ignorant
of what helps us forward and what acts as an impediment. We must thus
rest satisfied with the knowledge only of the means and if these are
pure, we can fearlessly leave the end to take care of itself.
There
will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything
great and enduring, and that discipline will not come by mere academic
argument and appeal to reason and logic. Discipline is learnt in the
school of adversity
Non-violence
is not a quality to be evolved or expressed to order. It is an inward
growth depending for sustenance upon intense individual effort.
Constant
development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain
his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false
position.
I believe
that cunning is not only morally wrong but also politically inexpedient,
and have therefore always discountenanced its use even from the practical
standpoint.
When
anything assumes the strength of a creed, it becomes self-sustained
and derives the needed support from within.
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
recreates. That informing power or spirit is God. And since nothing
else I see merely through the senses can or will persist, He alone
is.
Non-violence
and cowardice are contradictory terms. Non-violence is the greatest
virtue, cowardice the greatest vice. Non-violence springs from love,
cowardice from hate. Non-violence always suffers, cowardice would
always inflict suffering. Perfect non-violence is the highest bravery.
Non-violent conduct is never demoralising, cowardice always is.
Each
one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be
unaffected by outside circumstances.
It
is man's social nature which distinguishes him from the brute creation.
If it is his privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to
be inter-dependent. Only an arrogant man will claim to be independent
of everybody else and be self-contained.
Healthy
discontent is the prelude to progress.
Manliness
consists not in bluff, bravado or lordliness. It consists in daring
to do the right and facing consequences whether it is in matters social,
political or other. It consists in deeds, not in words.
Commonsense
is the realised sense of proportion.
Golden
fetters are no less galling to a self-respecting man theniron ones;
the sting lies in the fetters, not in the metal.
It
would conduce to national progress and save a great deal of time and
trouble if we cultivated the habit of never supporting the resolutions
either by speaking or voting for them if we had not either the intention
or the ability to carry them out.
Breach
of promise is a base surrender of truth.
Intellect
takes us along in the battle of life to a certain limit, but at the
crucial moment it fails us. Faith transcends reason. It is when the
horizon is the darkest and human reason is beaten down to the ground
that faith shines brightest and comes to our rescue.
I
reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is
in conflict with morality.
Gentleness,
self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one
race or religion.
Each
one prays to God according to his own light.
The
world is touched by sacrifice. It does not then discriminate about
the merits of a cause. Not so God - He is all seeing. He insists on
the purity of the cause and on adequate sacrifice thereof.
Breach
of promise is no less an act of insolvency than a refusal to pay one's
debt.
Prayer
is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission
of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without
words than words without a heart.
The
law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective
it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.
Man
becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare
of his fellow-men.
We
may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the
meeting of hearts?
There
should be truth in thought, truth in speech, and truth in action.
To the man who has realised this truth in perfection, nothing else
remains to be known because all knowledge is necessarily included
in it.
I
would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not
based on brute force.
I saw
that nations like individuals could only be made through the agony
of the Cross and in no other way. Joy comes not out of infliction
of pain on others but out of pain voluntarily borne by oneself.
An
ounce of practice is worth more then tons of preaching.
Courage
has never been known to be a matter of muscle; it is a matter of the
heart. The toughest muscle has been known to tremble before an imaginary
fear. It was the heart that set the muscle atrembling.
To
me art in order to be truly great must, like the beauty of Nature,
be universal in its appeal. It must be simple in its presentation
and direct in its expression, like the language of Nature.
God
sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.
When
restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.
Suffering
has its well-defined limits. Suffering can be both wise and unwise,
and when the limit is reached, to prolong it would be not unwise but
the height of folly.
Have
I not gazed at the marvellous mystery of the starry vault, hardly
ever tiring of the great panorama?
I have
worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service
and sacrifice.
Proved
right should be capable of being vindicated by right means as against
the rude i.e. sanguinary means. Man may and should shed his own blood
for establishing what he considers to be his right. He may not shed
the blood of his opponent who disputes his 'right'.
I
look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself,
I won't presume to probe into the faults of others.
Everyone
who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.
I
have been a willing slave to this most exacting Master fr more then
half a century. His voice has been increasingly audible as years 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.
A
certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary, but above
a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help. Therefore
the ideal of creating an unlimited number of wants and satisfying
them seems to be a delusion and a snare.
Evil
is, good or truth misplaced.
There
is no human institution but has its dangers. The greater the institution,
the greater the chances of abuse. Democracy is a great institution
and therefore it is liable to be greatly abused. The remedy therefore
is not avoidance of democracy but reduction of the possibility of
abuse to a minimum.
Man
can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless service with
which nature has endowed her.
I
believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world.
My
life is one indivisible whole, and all my activities run intoone another,
and they all have their rise in my insatiable love of mankind.
I need
no inspiration other then Nature's. She has never failed me yet. She
mystifies me, bewilders me, sends me into ecstasies. Besides God's
handiwork, does not man's fade into insignificance?
The
real ornament of woman is her character, her purity.
To
deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary
amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation
of the soul the dweller in the body.
Humility
cannot be an observance by itself. For, it does not lend itself to
being deliberately practised. It is, however, an indispensable test
of 'Ahimsa.' For one who has 'Ahimsa' in him it becomes part of his
very nature.
God,
as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to
every one of us.
Non-violence
is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than
the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.
Destruction
is not the law of humans. Man lives freely only by his readiness to
die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.
Every murder or other injury, no matter for what cause, committed
or inflicted on another is a crime against humanity.
The
main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly.
The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.
Unwearied
ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith
into a rich infallible experience.
Manliness
consists in making circumstances subserve to ourselves.
Those
who will not heed themselves perish. To understand this principle
is not to be impatient, not to reproach fate, not to blame others.
He who understands the doctrine of self-help blames himself for failure.
Surely
conversion is a matter between man and his Maker who alone knows his
creatures' hearts. A conversion without a clean heart is, in my opinion,
a denial of God and Religion. Conversion without cleanliness of heart
can only be a matter of sorrow, not joy, to a godly person.
I
have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what
I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the
same hope and faith. Work without faith is like an attempt to reach
the bottom of a bottomless pit.
Ill-digested
principles are, if anything, worse than ill-digested food, for the
latter harms the body and there is cure for it, whereas the former
ruins the soul and there is no cure for it.
The
essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.
Restraint
never ruins one's health. What ruins it,is not restraint but outward
suppression. A really self-restrained person grows every day from
strength to strength and from peace to more peace. The very first
step in self-restraint is the restraint of thoughts.
We
should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that
if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging
in it will soon weary of it and stop.
True
religion is not a narrow dogma. It is not external observance. It
is faith in God and living in the presence of God. It means faith
in a future life, in truth and Ahimsa. There prevails today a sort
of apathy towards these things of the Spirit.
Only
he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has
fear of God.
A small
body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their
mission can alter the course of history.
I may
live without air and water, but not without Him. You may pluck out
my eyes, but that cannot kill me. You may chop off my nose but that
will not kill me. But blast my belief in God, and I am dead.
Man's
nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been know to yield
to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.
Freedom
is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a
man not pay for living ?
I know,
to banish anger altogether from one's breast is a difficult task.
It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done
only by God's grace.
Everyone
has faith in God though everyone does not know it. For everyone has
faith in himself and that multiplied to the nth degree is God. The
sum total of all that lives is God. We may not be God, but we are
of God, even as a little drop of water is of the ocean.
There
is no one without faults, not even men of God. They are men of God
not because they are faultless, but because they know their own faults,
they strive against them, they do not hide them, and are ever ready
to correct themselves.
Non-violence
and cowardice go ill together. I can imagine a fully armed man to
be at heart a coward. Possession of arms implies an element of fear,
if not cowardice. But true non-violence is an impossibility without
the possession of unadulterated fearlessness.
Providence
has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results,
we can only strive.
The
hardest metal yields to sufficient heat. Even so must the hardest
heart melt before sufficiency of the heat of non- violence. And there
is no limit to the capacity of non-violence to generate heat.
Rights
accrue automatically to him who duly performs his duties. In fact
the right to perform one's duties is the only right that is worth
living for and dying for. It covers all legitimate rights. All the
rest is grab under one guise or another and contains in it seed of
Himsa.
It
is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may. We are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of
us. This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will
take in good heart whatever they might have to say.
Far
more indispensable then food for the physical body is spiritual nourishment
for the soul. One can do without food for a considerable time, but
a man of the spirit cannot exist for a single second without spiritual
nourishment.
A
dissolute character is more dissolute in thought than in deed. And
the same is true of violence. Our violence in word and deed is but
a feeble echo of the surging violence of thought in us.
Democracy
must in essence, therefore, mean the art and science of mobilising
the entire physical, economic and spiritual resources of all the various
sections of the people in the service of the common good of all.
A
principle is a principle. and in no case can it be watered down because
of our incapacity to live it in practice. We have to strive to achieve
it, and the striving should be conscious, deliberate and hard.
A
nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of itspeople.
Who
am I? I have no strength save what God gives me. I have no authority
over my countrymen save the pure moral. If He holds me to be a pure
instrument for the spread of non-violence in place of the awful violence
now ruling the earth, He will give me the strength and show me the
way. My greatest weapon is mute prayer. The cause of peace is therefore,
in God's good hands.
I want
to see India free in my life-time. But God may not consider me fit
enough to see the dream of my life fulfilled. Then I shall quarrel,
not with Him but with myself.
All
compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and
take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender.
For it is all give and no take.
Between
husband and wife there should be no secrets from one another. I have
a very high opinion of the marriage tie. I hold that husband and wife
merge in each other. They are one in two or two in one.
It
is foolish to think that by fleeing one can trick the dread god of
death. Let us treat him as a beneficent angel rather than a dread
god. We must face and welcome him whenever he comes.
It
is the law of love that rules mankind. Had violence, i.e. hate, ruled
us we should have become extinct long ago. And yet, the tragedy of
it is that the so-called civilized men and nations conduct themselves
as if the basis of society was violence.
The
badge of the violent is his weapon, spear, sword or rifle. God is
the shield of the non-violent.
It
is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be
reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
It
is through truth non-violence that I can have some glimpseof God.
Truth non-violence are my God. They are the obverse and reverse of
the same coin.
Before
the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but
by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.
Morality
which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much
to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.
An
opponent is entitled to the same regard for his principles as we would
expect others to have for ours. Non-violence demands that we should
seek every opportunity to win over opponents.
Glory
lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it.
Just
as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so
do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and
great the latter may be.
No
religion which is narrow and which cannot satisfy the test of reason,
will survive the coming reconstruction of society in which the values
will have changed and character, not possession of wealth, title or
birth will be the test of merit.
How
can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the
master's bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even
kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately,
therefore, it is I who am the victor and not he, for he has failed
in getting me to do what he wanted done.
Non-violence
requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.
Man
falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking
the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man's happiness really
lies in contentment.
Power
invariably elects to go into the hands of the strong. That strength
may be physical or of the heart or, if we do not fight shy of the
word, of the spirit. Strength of the heart connotes soul-force. Let
it be remembered that physical force is transitory, even as the body
is transitory. But the power of the spirit is permanent even as the
spirit is everlasting.
Truth
quenches untruth, love quenches anger, self-suffering quenches violence.
This eternal rule is a rule not for saints only but for all.
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, and that this defence prevails,
though the world be against the individual resister.
Confession
of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the
surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.
I worship
God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after
Him. I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit
of this quest. Even if the sacrifice demanded my very life, I hope
I may be prepared to give it.
We
do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing.
We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books
for all to study.
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.
He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work.
He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider to our business. He is part of it.
We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.