SARVODAYA: June 2023

The Divine

» That which impels man to do the right thing is God. XXVI-571

» Undoubtedly, prayer requires a living faith in God. Successful satyagraha is inconceivable without that faith. T-7-95

» The art of dying bravely and with honour does not need any special training, save a living faith in God. MM-302

» The eternal duel between Ormuzd and Ahriman, God and Satan, is raging in my breast, which is one among their billion battlefields. XXV-450

» The idol in the temple is not God. But since God resides in every atom, He resides in that idol too. T-3-219

» The knowledge of the omnipresence of God also means respect for the lives even of those who may be called opponents. MM-114

» The Law and the Lawgiver are one. T-2-313

» The Law is God. Anything attributed to Him is not a mere attribute. He is Truth, Love, Law and a million things that human ingenuity can name. T-3-250

» The Law which governs all life is God. T-2-313

» The nonviolent man automatically becomes a servant of God. T-4-257

» The power we call God defies description. TIG-45

» There are innumerable definitions of God because His manifestations are innumerable. MM-42

» There can be in the eyes of God no distinction between man and man, even as there is no distinction between animal and animal. T-3-335

» There is only one God for us all, whether we find him through the Koran, the Zend-Avesta, The Tolmud, or the Gita. T-2-69

» There is no greater spellbinder of peace than the name of God. T-7-41

» The sky may be overcast today with clouds, but a fervent prayer to God is enough to dispel them. T-4-29

» The sum of all that lives is God. XXVI-571

» 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. TIG-92

» The sum total of karma is God. XXVI-571

» The truth is that God is the force. He is the essence of life. He is pure and undefiled consciousness. He is eternal. TIG-84

» The turning of the charkha in a lifeless way will be like the turning of the beads of the rosary with a wandering mind turned away from God. T-5-242

» The Vedas are as indefinable as God and Hinduism. T-3-181

» This belief in God has to be based on faith which transcends reason. MM-54

» This feeling of helplessness in us has arisen from our deliberate dismissal of God from our common affairs. XX-137

» Though God may be Love, God is Truth above all. T-3-144

» Though philosophical Hinduism has no other god but God, it cannot be denied that practical Hinduism is not so emphatically uncompromising as Islam. T-2-341

» To a people famishing and idle, the only acceptable form in which God can dare appear is work and promise of food as wages. T-2-63

» To bear all kinds of tortures without a murmur of resentment is not possible for a human being without the strength that comes from God. T-5-93

» To reject the necessity of temples is to reject the necessity of God, religion and earthly existence. T-3-195

» To say that a single human being, because of his birth, becomes an untouchable, unapproachable or invisible is to deny God. XXVI-373

» Truth is God, and Truth overrides all our plans. The whole Truth is only embodied within the heart of Great Power–Truth. T-7-363

» Truth is the right designation of God. TIG-21

» Waiting on God means increasing purity. XXVI-515

» We do not know the laws of God, nor their working. T-3-250

» What is impossible with man is child’s play with God. T-3-137

» When you want to find Truth as God, the only inevitable means is love, that is, nonviolence. T-3-144

» When we fear God, then we shall fear no man, however high-placed he may be. MM-308

» Where love is, there God is also. MM-418

» Who is there in the world who can insult the God in the image? T-2-261

» Without living Truth, God is nowhere. T-8-270

» Without an unreserved surrender to His grace, complete mastery over thoughts is impossible. MM-276

» You are not going to know the meaning of God or prayer unless you reduce yourself to a cipher. T-5-149

» You will find that God is always by the side of the fearless. T-7-273

» You will not pit one word of God against another word of God. T-4-138

» Seeing God face to face is to feel that He is enthroned in our hearts even as a child feels a mother’s affection without needing any demonstration. TIG-92

» Shraddha means self–confidence and self–confidence means faith in God. XXV-88

» Surely, conscience is but a poor and laborious paraphrase of the simple combination of three letters called God. XXVI-224

» Surely, conversion is a matter between man and his Maker who alone knows His creatures’ hearts. T-4-79

» Imperialism is a negation of God. It does ungodly acts in the name of God. XXV-19

» Man can only conceive God within the limitation of his own mind. TIG-45

» Man can only describe God in his own poor language. TIG-45

» Man in the flesh is essentially imperfect. He may be described as being made in the image of God but is far from being God. T-7-73

» Man should earnestly desire the well – being of all God’s creations and pray that we may have the strength to do so. MM-434

» No man has ever been able to describe God fully. The same holds true of ahimsa. T-7-73

» The man who eats to live, who is friends with the five powers – earth, water, ether, sun and air – who is a servant of God, the Creator of all these, ought not to fall ill. MM-394

» The man who fears man falls from the estate of man. Fear God alone. T-2-302

» When a man fasts, it is not the gallons of water he drinks that sustains him, but God. T-8-108

» When a man wants to make up with his Maker, he does not consult a third party. T-2-150

» A man cannot serve God and Mammon, nor be "temperate and furious’ at the same time. MM-137

» A man of faith does not bargain or stipulate with God. XXV-88

» A man of God never strives after untruth and therefore he can never lose hope. XXV-188

» A man who is intentionally unarmed relies upon the Unseen Force called God by poets, but called the Unknown by scientists. MM-115

» A man with a grain of faith in God never loses hope, because he ever believes in the ultimate triumph of Truth. XXV-188

» A man who throws himself on God ceases to fear man. T-2-369

» A person who believes in nonviolence believes in a living God. He cannot accept defeat. T-5-16

» Of all the myriads of God, Daridranarayana is the most sacred inasmuch as it represents the untold millions of the poor people as distinguished from the few rich people. T-2-377

» One is ever young in the presence of the God of Truth, or Truth which is God. T-5-71

» Often does good come out of evil. But that is God’s, not man’s plan. TIG-141

» Our prayer is a heart search. It is a reminder to ourselves that we are helpless without His support. TIG-44

» Outward appearance is nothing to Him if it is not an expression of the inner. T-7-50

» Prayer is an impossibility without a living faith in the presence of God within. TIG-55

» Punishment is God’s. He alone is the infallible Judge. T-4-299

» Rama, Allah and God are to me convertible terms. XXVI-28

» Religion all the world over offeres God as the solace and comfort for all in agony. T-2-212

» Religion is entirely a personal matter. Each one could approach his Creator as he liked. T-8-51

» Satyagraha is search for Truth, and God is Truth. XXV-489

» Search for Truth is search for God. Truth is God. God is because Truth is. XXV-489

A Journey in Third Class

At the conclusion of the Satyagraha struggle in 1914, I received Gokhale's instruction to return home via London. So in July Kasturbai, Kallenbach and I sailed for England.

During Satyagraha I had begun traveling third class. I therefore took third class passages for this voyage. But there was a good deal of difference between third class accommodation on the boat on this route and that provided on Indian coastal boats or railway trains. There is hardly sufficient sitting, much less sleeping, accommodation in the Indian service, and little cleanliness. During the voyage to London, on the other hand, there was enough room and cleanliness, and the steamship company had provided special facilities for us. The company had provided reserved closet accommodation for us, and as we were fruitarians, the steward had orders to supply us with fruits and nuts. As a rule third class passengers get little fruit or nuts. These facilities made our eighteen days on the boat quite comfortable.

Some of the incidents during the voyage are well worth recording. Mr. Kallenbach was very fond of binoculars, and had one or two costly pairs. We had daily discussions over one of these. I tried to impress on him that this possession was not in keeping with the ideal of simplicity that we aspired to reach. Our discussions came to a head one day, as we were standing near the porthole of our cabin.

'Rather than allow these to be a bone of contention between us, why not throw them into the sea and be done with them?' said I.

'Certainly throw the wretched things away,' said Mr. Kallenbach.

'I mean it,' said I.

'So do I,' quickly came the reply.

And forthwith I flung them into the sea. They were worth some £7, but their value lay less in their price than in Mr. Kallenbach's infatuation for them. However, having got rid of them, he never regretted it.

This is but one out of the many incidents that happened between Mr. Kallenbach and me.

Every day we had to learn something new in this way, for both of us were trying to tread the path of Truth. In the march towards Truth, anger, selfishness, hatred, etc., naturally give way, for otherwise Truth would be impossible to attain. A man who is swayed by passions may have good enough intentions, may be truthful in word, but he will never find the Truth. A successful search for Truth means complete deliverance from the dual throng such as of love and hate, happiness and misery.

Not much time had elapsed since my fast when we started on our voyage. I had not regained my normal strength. I used to stroll on deck to get a little exercise, so as to revive my appetite and digest what I ate. But even this exercise was beyond me, causing me pain in the calves, so much so that on reaching London I found that I was worse rather than better. There I came to know Dr. Jivraj Mehta. I gave him the history of my fast and subsequent pain, and he said, 'If you do not take complete rest for a few days, there is a fear of your legs going out of use.'

It was then that I learned that a man emerging from a long fast should not be in a hurry to regain lost strength, and should also put a curb on his appetite. More caution and perhaps more restraint are necessary in breaking a fast than in keeping it.

In Madeira we heard that the great War might break out at any moment. As we entered the English Channel, we received the news of its actual outbreak. We were stopped for some time. It was a difficult business to tow the boat through the submarine mines which had been laid throughout the Channel, and it took about two days to reach Southampton.

War was declared on the 4th of August. We reached London on the 6th.

Participatory Learning

It was at Tolstoy Farm that Mr. Kallenbach drew my attention to a problem that had never before struck me. As I have already said, some of the boys at the Farm were bad and unruly. There were loafers, too, amongst them. With these my three boys came in daily contact, as also did other children of the same type as my own sons. This troubled Mr. Kallenbach, but his attention was centred on the impropriety of keeping my boys with these unruly youngsters.

One day he spoke out: 'Your way of mixing your own boys with the bad ones does not appeal to me. It can have only one result. They will become demoralized through this bad company.'

I do not remember whether the question puzzled me at the moment, but I recollect what I said to him:

'How can I distinguish between my boys and the loafers? I am equally responsible for both. The youngsters have come because I invited them. If I were to dismiss them with some money, they would immediately run off to Johannesburg and fall back into their old ways. To tell you the truth, it is quite likely that they and their guardians believe that, by having come here, they have laid me under an obligation. That they have to put up with a good deal of inconvenience here, you and I know very well. But my duty is clear. I must have them here, and therefore my boys also must needs live with them. And surely you do not want me to teach my boys to feel from today that they are superior to other boys. To put that sense of superiority into their heads would be to lead them astray. This association with other boys will be a good discipline for them. They will, of their own accord, learn to discriminate between good and evil. Why should we not believe that, if there is really anything good in them, it is bound to react on their companions? However that may be, I cannot help keeping them here, and if that means some risk, we must run it.'

Mr. Kallenbach shook his head.

The result, I think, cannot be said to have been bad. I do not consider my sons were any the worse for the experiment. On the contrary I can see that they gained something. If there was the slightest trace of superiority in them, it was destroyed and they learnt to mix with all kinds of children. They were tested and disciplined.

This and similar experiments have shown me that, if good children are taught together with bad ones and thrown into their company, they will lose nothing, provided the experiment is conducted under the watchful care of their parents and guardians.

Children wrapped up in cotton wool are not always proof against all temptation or contamination. It is true, however, that when boys and girls of all kinds of upbringing are kept and taught together, the parents and the teachers are put to the severest test. They have constantly to be on the alert.

Training

It was seen in the last chapter how we provided for the physical training on Tolstoy Farm, and incidentally for the vocational. Though this was hardly done in a way to satisfy me, it may be claimed to have been more or less successful.

Literary training, however, was a more difficult matter. I had neither the resources nor the literary equipment necessary; and I had not the time I would have wished to devote to the subject. The physical work that I was doing used to leave me thoroughly exhausted at the end of the day, and I used to have the classes just when I was most in need of some rest. Instead, therefore, of my being fresh for the class, I could with the greatest difficulty keep myself awake. The mornings had to be devoted to work on the farm and domestic duties, so the school hours had to be kept after the midday meal. There was no other time suitable for the school.

We gave three periods at the most to literary training. Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati and Urdu were all taught, and tuition was given through the vernaculars of the boys. English was taught as well. It was also necessary to acquaint the Gujarati Hindu children with a little Samskrit, and to teach all the children elementary history, geography and arithmetic.

I had undertaken to teach Tamil and Urdu. The little Tamil I knew was acquired during voyages and in jail. I had not got beyond Pope's excellent Tamil handbook. My knowledge of the Urdu script was all that I had acquired on a single voyage, and my knowledge of the language was confined to the familiar Persian and Arabic words that I had learnt from contact with Musalman friends. Of Samskrit I knew no more than I had learnt at the high school, even my Gujarati was no better than that which one acquires at the school.

Such was the capital with which I had to carry on. In poverty of literary equipment my colleagues went one better than I. But my love for the languages of my country, my confidence in my capacity as a teacher, as also the ignorance of my pupils, and more than that, their generosity, stood me in good stead.

The Tamil boys were all born in South Africa, and therefore knew very little Tamil, and did not know the script at all. So I had to teach them the script and the rudiments of grammar. That was easy enough. My pupils knew that they could any day beat me in Tamil conversation, and when Tamilians, not knowing English, came to see me, they became my interpreters. I got along merrily, because I never attempted to disguise my ignorance from my pupils. In all respects I showed myself to them exactly as I really was. Therefore in spite of my colossal ignorance of the language I never lost their love and respect. It was comparatively easier to teach the Musalman boys Urdu. They knew the script. I had simply to stimulate in them an interest in reading and to improve their handwriting.

These youngsters were for the most part unlettered and unschooled. But I found in the course of my work that I had very little to teach them, beyond weaning them from their laziness, and supervising their studies. As I was content with this, I could pull on with boys of different ages and learning different subjects in one and the same class room.

Of text-books, about which we hear so much, I never felt the want. I do not even remember having made much use of the books that were available. I did not find it at all necessary to load the boys with quantities of books. I have always felt that the true text-book for the pupil is his teacher. I remember very little that my teachers taught me from books, but I have even now a clear recollection of the things they taught me independently of books.

Children take in much more and with less labour through their ears than through their eyes. I do not remember having read any book from cover to cover with my boys. But I gave them, in my own language, all that I had digested from my reading of various books, and I dare say they are still carrying a recollection of it in their minds. It was laborious for them to remember what they learnt from books, but what I imparted to them by word of mouth, they could repeat with the greatest ease. Reading was a task for them, but listening to me was a pleasure, when I did not bore them by failure to make my subject interesting. And from the questions that my talks prompted them to put, I had a measure of their power of understanding.

Non-co-operation

» Non-co-operation is the quickest method of creating public opinion. MM-344

» Non-co-operation means refusal both to help the sinner in his sin and not to accept any help or gift from him till he has repented. XX-34

» Non-co-operation is protest against an unwitting and unwilling participation in evil. MM-179

» Non-co-operation is an attempt to awaken the masses to a sense of their dignity and power.MM-179

» Non-co-operation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it demands respect for positive views. T-2-11

» Non-co-operation is a movement intended to invite Englishmen to co-operate with us on honourable terms or retire from our land. T-2-40

» Non-co-operation is a nation’s determination to improve. T-2-27

» Nonviolent non-co-operation with evil means co-operation with all that is good. T-7-157

» Non-co-operation means nothing less than training in self-sacrifice. T-2-25

» Non-co-operation with evil is as much a duty as co-operation with good. T-2-45

» Non-co-operation in itself is unnatural, vicious and sinful. T-2-149

» Non-co-operation is the nation’s notice that it is no longer satisfied to be in tutelage. T-2-46

» Non-co-operation intended to pave the way to real honourable and voluntary co-operation based on mutual respect and trust. XX-162

» Non-co-operation in the political field is an extension of the doctrine as it is practised in the domestic field. XX-61

» Non-co-operation enables us to show that in everything that matters we can be independent of the Government. XX-131

» When freedom is in jeopardy, non-co-operation may be a duty and prison may be a palace. XXV-393

» It is nonviolent non-co-operation which evokes the highest spirit of self-sacrifice that will wean one from the error of one’s ways. XXV-392

» The primary object of non-co-operation is nowhere stated to be paralysis of the Government. The primary object is self-purification. XX-17

» The Bhagavadgita is a gospel of non-co-operation between the forces of darkness and those of light.MM-179

» The avowed policy of non-co-operation has been not to make political use of the disputes between labour and capital. XX-17

» Real non-co-operation is non-co-operation with evil and not with the evil-doer. T-2-200

» At times, non-co-operation becomes as much a duty as co-operation. T-5-276

» Total nonviolent non-co-operation becomes as much a duty so co-operation. T-7-149

» Our peaceful non-co-operation must needs be constructive, not destructive. XXV-139

» Our non-co-operation is with the system the English have established in India, with the material civilization and its attendant greed and exploitation of the weak.T-2-64

» The nation’s non-co-operation is an invitation to the Government to co-operate with it on its own terms, as is every nation’s right and every good government’s duty. T-2-46

» I isolate this non-co-operation from Sinn Feinism, for it is so conceived as to be incapable of being offered side by side with violence. T-2-6

» Non-co-operation is not a movement of drag, bluster or bluff. T-2-34

» Non-co-operation is not a hymn of hate. T-2-200

» Non-co-operation in an angry atmosphere is an impossibility. T-2-12

» My faith in non-co-operation is as bright as ever. XXV-336

» Behind my non-co-operation there is always the keenest desire to co-operate on the slightest pretext even with the worst opponents. MM-183

» I was a co-operator too in the sense that I non-co-operated for co-operation, and even then I said that if I could carry the country forward by co-operation I should co-operate. T-4-155

» In the very act of my non-co-operation, I am seeking their co-operation in my campaign. T-3-196

» My modesty has prevented me from declaring from the house top that the message of non-co-operation, nonviolence and swadeshi is a message to the world. T-2-64

» My non-co-operation is a token of my earnest longing for real heart co-operation in the place of co-operation falsely so called. T-2-382

» Reasoned and willing obedience to the laws of the State is the first lesson in non-co-operation.XXV-560

» I retain the opinion that council entry is inconsistent with non-co-operation as I conceive it. T-2-128

» I invite even the school of violence to give this peaceful non-co-operation a trial. T-2-6

» Nonviolent non-co-operation, I am convinced, is a sacred duty at times. T-2-149

» Nonviolent non-co-operators can only succeed when they have succeeded in attaining control over the hooligans of India. T-2-83

» Non-co-operators will make a serious mistake if they seek to convert people to their creed by violence.XX-110

» It is the duty of a non-co-operator to preach disaffection towards the existing order of things. Non-co-operators are but giving disciplined expression to a nation's outraged feelings. XX-128

» We must treat arrest as the normal condition of the life of a non-co-operator. T-2-52

» Though a non-co-operator, I shall gladly subscribe to a bill to make it criminal for anybody to call me mahatma and to touch my feet. T-2-257

» Nonviolent non-co-operation is the only alternative to anarchy and worse. T-2-149

» Nonviolence is the rock on which the whole structure of non-co-operation is built. T-2-42

» Nonviolence implies voluntary submission to the penalty for non-co-operation with evil. T-2-100

» For satyagraha and its offshoots, non-co-operation and civil resistance, are nothing but new names for the law of suffering. T-2-5

» Non-co-operation and civil disobedience are but different branches of the same tree called satyagraha. XXV-489

Nationalism

» No nation being under another nation can accept gifts, and kick at the responsibility attached to those gifts, imposed by the conquering nation. T-2-13

» That nation is great which rests its head upon death as its pillow. X-51

» No nation keeps another in subjection without herself turning into a subject nation.T-2-139

» Nations are not formed in a day, the formation requires years. X-12

» No country can become a nation by producing a race of imitators. EWE-9

» Freedom of a nation cannot be won by solitary acts of heroism though they may be of the true type, never by heroism so called. T-2-333

» Repression does for a true man or a nation what fire does for gold. XXV-487

» When two nations are fighting, the duty of a votary of Ahimsa is to stop the war. TIG-40

» A nation that is unfit to fight cannot, from experience, prove the virtue of not fighting. XIV-463

» I have recognized that the nation has the right, if it so wills, to vindicate her freedom even by actual violence.XXV-336

» Non-co-operation is the nation’s notice that it is no longer satisfied to be in tutelage. T-2-46

» Many persons claiming different faiths make us one and an indivisible nation. T-8-65

» India’s coming to her own will mean every nation doing likewise. T-2-327

» A society or a nation constructed nonviolently must be able to withstand attack upon its structure from without or within. T-6-27

» If every component part of the nation claims the right of self-determination for itself, there is no one nation and there is no independence. T-5-272

» The very essence of democracy is that every person represents all the varied interests which compose the nation. T-5-75

» We are too near the scene of tragedy to realize that this canker or untouchability has traveled far beyond its prescribed limits and has sapped the very foundation of the whole nation. T-3-182

» My national service is part of my training for freeing my soul from the bondage of the flesh. MM-13

» The spinning wheel means national consciousness and a contribution by every individual to definite constructive national work. XXVI-49

» A national spirit is necessary for national existence. A flag is a material aid to the development of such a spirit. XXVI-544

» Between the two, the nationalist and the imperialist, there is no meeting ground. T-5-238

» Nationalism, like virtue, has its own reward. T-8-98

» National education to be truly national must reflect the national condition for the time being. XXVI-275

» I do regard spinning and weaving as a necessary part of any national system of education. XXVI-275

» Indian nationalism is not exclusive, nor aggressive, nor destructive.T-2-64

» My nationalism, fierce though it is, is not exclusive, is not devised to harm any nation or individual. T-3-72

» My nationalism is as broad as my Swadeshi. I want India’s rise so that the whole world may benefit. XXVI-279

» My love of nationalism is that my country may become free, that if need be the whole of the country may die so that the human race may live. T-2-200

» Nonviolent nationalism is a necessary condition of corporate or civilized life. XXVI-369

» Violent nationalism, otherwise known as imperialism, is a curse. XXV-369

» Hatred is not essential for nationalism. Race hatred will kill the real national spirit. T-2-200