The Essential Gandhi

These are quotes from the book "Essential Gandhi" which i just finished reading.  It took me a while to get through this book because of all the journaling it made me do.  If you want to have one book force you to rethink how you see the world around you and the world you never come in contact with, then read this book!  Actually, read anything by Gandhi and i promise it will force you to think about things you have never thought about before.  He had a amazing way of putting his beliefs into practice, that which rarely is attained by most human beings.  Gandhi more than anyone else, has made me contemplate the way i think, the way i say things, the way i spend my time, and the way i think of others.  Very inspirational.  Here are just a select few quotes i have picked from this one book......

"There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything, I feel it though I do not see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses. But it is possible to reason out the existence of God to a limited extent. Even in ordinary affairs we know that people do not know who rules or why and how He rules and yet they know that there is a power that certainly rules. In my tour last year in Mysore I met many poor villagers and I found upon inquiry that they did not know who ruled Mysore. They simply said some God ruled it. If the knowledge of these poor people was so limited about their ruler I who am infinitely lesser in respect to God than they to their ruler need not be surprised if I do not realize the presence of God - the King of Kings. Nevertheless, I do feel, as the poor villagers felt about Mysore, that there is orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is not a blind law, for no blind law can govern the conduct of living being and thanks to the marvelous researches of Sir J. C. Bose it can now be proved that even matter is life. That law then which governs all life is God. Law and the law-giver are one. I may not deny the law or the law-giver because I know so little about it or Him. Just as my denial or ignorance of the existence of an earthly power will avail me nothing even so my denial of God and His law will not liberate me from its operation, whereas humble and mute acceptance of divine authority makes life's journey easier even as the acceptance of earthly rule makes life under it easier. 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 of spirit is God, and since nothing else that 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, and light. He is love. He is the supreme Good. 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.”

“(The temple) never appealed to me.  I did not like its glitter and pomp…”

“Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man and silence is necessary in order to surmount it.  “

Gandhi speaking of nursing…”Such service can have no meaning unless one takes pleasure in it.”  When it is done for show or for fear of public opinion it stunts the man and crushes his spirit.  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.”

“…Men, in the selfishness that blinds their reason, may think to score by injustice and oppression.”

“Only he who has mastered the art of obedience to law knows the art of disobedience to law”

“…..I do want to attain Moksha (Salvation, merging with God).  I do not want to be reborn.  But if I have to be reborn, I should be born an untouchable so that I may share their sorrows, sufferings and the affronts leveled at them in order that I may endeavor to free myself and them from that miserable condition….”

“…..I must refuse to insult the naked by giving them clothes they do not need instead of giving them work which they sorely need.  I will not commit the sin of becoming their patron but on learning that I had assisted in impoverishing them I would give them a privileged position and give them neither crumbs nor cast-off clothing but the best of my food and clothes and associate myself with them in work. “

“…..I am proud to think that I have numerous readers among farmers and workers.  They make India.  Their poverty is India’s curse and crime.  Their prosperity alone can make India a fit country to live in…..”

“Pure motives can never justify impure or violent actions.”

“The spirit of punishment is a sign of weakness..”

“…..We must have the liberty to do evil before we learn to do good.”

“In India it must be held to be a crime to spend money on dinner and marriage parties…and other luxuries so long as millions of people are starving.  We would not have a feast in a family if a member was about to die of starvation.”

“If India makes violence her creed and I have survived I would not care to live in India.  She will cease to evoke any pride in  me….”

“Every good deed is its own advertisement”

“…To surrender is not to confer favor.  Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.  What a lover gives transcends justice.  And yet it is always less than he wishes to give because he is anxious to give more and frets that he has nothing left…”

“Love never claims, it ever gives.”

“A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes.”

“The law of love governs the world.  Life persists in the face of death.  The universe continues in spite of destruction incessantly going on.  Truth triumphs over untruth.  Love conquers hate”

“If I love merely Hindus and Moslems because their ways are on the whole pleasing to me, I shall soon begin to hate them when their ways displease me, as they may well do any moment.  A love that is based on the goodness of those whom you love is a mercenary affair.”

“We must measure people with their own measure and see how far they come up to it.”

“I remain loyal to an institution so long as that institution conduces to my growth, to the growth of the nation.”

“If I have to make the choice between counting beads or turning the wheel, I would certainly decide in favor of the wheel, making it my rosary, so long as I found poverty and starvation stalking the land…”

“No man of God can consider another man as inferior to himself.  He must consider every man as his blood brother.  It is the cardinal principal of every religion.

“It is not enough for you to hold the belief passively that untouchability is a crime.  He who is a passive spectator of crime is really, and in law, an active participator in it…(without action).”

(Gandhi went to Buckingham Palace to have tea with King George V and Queen Mary.  On the eve of the event, all England was agog over what he would wear.  He wore a loincloth, sandals, a shawl and his dangling watch.  Later someone asked Gandhi whether he had had enough on.  “The King, (Gandhi replied) had enough on for both of us”

“….The word “criminal” should be taboo from our dictionary.  Or we are all criminals.  ‘Those of you that are without sin cast the first stone.’…..As a jailer once said, all are criminals in secret…Let them therefore be good companions.  I know this is easier said than done.”

“….There is a need for reform in the administration of prisons.  A prison should be a house of correction and not punishment.  (why?)  should a forger have fetters on his legs in prison?  The fetters will not improve his character.”

“ ‘Harijans’---children of God, which is the name Gandhi gave to the sixty million untouchables.”

“There is no inherent merit in mortification of the flesh”

“…..My trust is solely in God.  And I trust men only because I trust God.”

“Blind adoration in the age of action is perfectly valueless, is often embarrassing and equally, often painful.”

“I can truthfully say I am slow to see the blemishes of fellow beings, being myself full of them and therefore being in need of their charity.  I have learnt not to judge any one harshly and to make allowances for defects that I may detect.”

“This is enough for the man who is true to himself:  Do not undertake anything beyond your capacity and at the same time do not harbor the wish to do less than you can.  One who takes up tasks beyond his powers is proud and attached; on the other hand one who does less than he can is a thief.  If we keep a time-table we can save ourselves from this last mentioned sin indulged in even unconsciously…”

“If I had no sense of humor I should long ago have committed suicide.”

“It is nonsense for you to talk of old age so long as you outrun young men in the race for service and in the midst of anxious times fill rooms with your laughter and inspire youth with hope when they are on the brink of despair.”

“My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my success and my talents….Why should He have chosen me, an imperfect instrument, for such a mighty experiment?  I think he deliberately did so. He had to serve the poor dumb ignorant millions.  A perfect man might have been their despair.  When they found that one with their failings was marching on towards Ahimsa (the practice of love) they too had confidence in their own capacity.”

“All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family

"All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul."

"It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business."

“Brute force will avail against brute force only when it is proved that darkness can dispel darkness.”

“…Physical Force is wrongly considered to be used to protect the weak.  As a matter of fact, it still further weakens the weak, it makes them dependent upon their so called defenders or protectors…”
“Man and his deed are two distinct things.  Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked, always deserves respect or pity, as the case may be.  ‘Hate the sin not the sinner’ is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.”

“Moksha (salvation, merging with God)”

“It is a million times better to appear untrue before the world than to be untrue to ourselves.”
“…A government that is evil has no room for good men and women except in its prisons.”

“…I cannot possibly go wrong so long as I do not harm other nations in the act of serving my country.”

“If man, no matter what pigment he wears, will realize his status, he will discover that it is possible for him to stand erect before a whole world in opposition.”

“Man does not live by bread alone.  Many prefer self-respect to food.”

“I can no more teach non-violence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes.  Non-violence is the summit of bravery.”

“I object to violence because, when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.”

“It is nobler to try to change their spirit than to take their lives.”
“A man who is truthful will not believe charges even against his foes.  He will, however, try to understand the viewpoints of his opponents of serving his opponents.”
“Power is of two kinds.  One is obtained by fear of punishment, and the other by arts of love.  Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.”