The propagation of truth and
non-violence can be done less by books than by actually living those
principles. Life truly lived is more than books.
After long study and experience,
I have come to the conclusion that (1) all religions are true; (2) all
religions have some error in them; (3) all religions are almost as dear to me
as my own Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to me as
one's own close relatives. My own veneration for other faiths is the same as
that for my own faith.
If we exist, if our parents and
their parents have existed, then it is proper to believe in the Parent of the
whole creation. If He is not we are nowhere. He is one and yet many; He is
smaller than an atom, and bigger than the Himalayas. He is contained even in a
drop of the ocean, and yet not even the seven seas can compass Him. Reason is
powerless to know Him. He is beyond the reach or grasp of reason. But I need
not labour the point. Faith is essential in this matter. My logic can make and
unmake innumerable hypotheses. An atheist might floor me in a debate. But my
faith runs so very much faster than my reason that I can challenge the whole
world and say, 'God is, was and ever shall be.'
But those who want to deny His
existence are at liberty to do so. He is merciful and compassionate. He is not
an earthly king needing an army to make us accept His sway. He allows us
freedom, and yet His compassion commands obedience to His will. But if any one
of us disdain to bow to His will, He says * 'So be it. My sun will shine no
less for thee, my clouds will rain no less for thee. I need not force thee to
accept my sway.' Of such a God let the ignorant dispute the existence. I am one
of the millions of wise men who believe in Him and am never tired of bowing to
Him and singing His glory.
Young India, 21-1-'26. pp. 30-31
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 than God,
than they than 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
beings, 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. Even as my denial or ignorance of the
existence of an earthly power will avail me nothing, so will not my denial of
God and His Law 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 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. 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.
He must express Himself in even the smallest act of His votary. This can only
be done through a definite realization more real than the five senses can ever
produce. Sense perceptions can be, often are, false and deceptive, however real
they may appear to us. Where there is realization outside the senses it is
infallible. It is proved not by extraneous evidence but in the transformed
conduct and character of those who have felt the real presence of God within.
Such testimony is to be found in
the experience of an unbroken line of prophets and sages in all countries and
climes. To reject this evidence is to deny oneself.
This realization is preceded by
an immovable faith. He who would in his own person test the fact of God's
presence can do so by a living faith. And since faith itself cannot be proved
by extraneous evidence, the safest course is to believe in the moral government
of the world and therefore in the supremacy of the moral law, the law of Truth
and Love. Exercise of faith will be the safest where there is a clear
determination summarily to reject all that is contrary to Truth and Love.
I cannot account for the
existence of evil by any rational method. To want to do is to be coequal with
God. I am therefore humble enough to recognize evil as such. And I call God
long suffering and patient precisely because He permits evil in the world. I
know that He has no evil. He is the author of it and yet untouched by it.
I know too that I shall never
know God if I do not wrestle with and against evil even at the cost of life
itself. I am fortified in the belief by my own humble and limited experience.
The purer I try to become, the nearer I feel to be to God. How much more should
I be, when my faith is not a mere apology as it is today but has become as
immovable as the Himalayas and as white and bright as the snows on their peaks?
Meanwhile I invite the correspondent to pray with Newman who sang from
experience Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on;
The night is dark and I am far
from home, Lead Thou me on;
Keep Thou my feet, I do not ask
to see
The distant scene; one step
enough for me.
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.
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.
Divine Omnipresence
I do not regard God as a person.
Truth for me is God, and God's Law and God are not different things or facts,
in the sense that an earthly king and his law are different. Because God is an
Idea, Law Himself. Therefore, it is impossible to conceive God as breaking the
Law. He, therefore, does not rule our actions and withdraw Himself. When we say
He rules our actions, we are simply using human language and we try to limit
Him. Otherwise, He and His Law abide everywhere and govern everything.
Therefore I do not think that He answers in every detail every request of ours,
but there is no doubt that He rules our actions, and I literally believe that
not a blade of grass grows or moves without His will. The free will we enjoy is
less than that of a passenger on a crowded deck.
"Do you feel a sense of
freedom in your communion with God?"
I do. I do not feel cramped as I
would on a boat full of passengers. Although I know that my freedom is less
than that of a passenger, I appreciate that freedom as I have imbibed through
and through the central teaching of the Gita that man is the maker of his own
destiny in the sense that he has freedom of choice as to the manner in which he
uses that freedom. But he is no controller of results. The moment he thinks he
is, he comes to grief.
Perfection is the attribute of
the Almighty, and yet what a great democrat He is! What an amount of wrong and
humbug He suffers on our part! He even suffers us, insignificant creatures of
His, to question His very existence, though He is in every atom about us,
around us and within us. But He has reserved to Himself the right of becoming
manifest to whomsoever He chooses. He is a Being without hands and feet and
other organs, yet he can see Him to whom He chooses to reveal Himself. In a strictly scientific sense God is at the
bottom of both good and evil. He directs the assassin's dagger no less than the
surgeon's knife. But all that good and evil are, for human purposes, from each
other distinct and incompatible, being symbolical of light and darkness, God
and Satan. The laws of Nature are changeless,
unchangeable, and there are no miracles in the sense of infringement or
interruption of Nature's laws. But we, limited beings, fancy all kinds of
things and impute our limitations to God.
To me God is Truth and Love; God
is ethics and morality; God is fearlessness. God is the source of Light and
Life and yet He is above and beyond all these. God is conscience. He is even
the atheism of the atheist. For in His boundless love God permits the atheist
to live. He is the searcher of hearts. He transcends speech and reason. He
knows us and our hearts better than we do ourselves. He does not take us at our
word for He knows that we often do not mean it, some knowingly and others
unknowingly. He is a personal God to those who need His personal presence. He
is embodied to those who need His touch. He is the purest essence. He simply is
to those who have faith. He is all things to all men. He is in us and yet above
and beyond us. One may banish the word 'God', but one has no power to banish
the Thing itself. And surely conscience is but a poor and laborious paraphrase
of the simple combination of three letters called God. He cannot cease to be
because hideous immoralities or inhuman brutalities are committed in His name.
He is long suffering. He is patient but He is also terrible.. He is the most
exacting personage in the world and the world to come. He metes out the same
measure to us as we mete out to our neighbours - men and brutes. With Him
ignorance is no excuse. And withal He is ever forgiving for He always gives us
the chance to repent. He is the greatest democrat the world knows, for He
leaves us 'unfettered' to make our own choice between evil and good. He is the
greatest tyrant ever known, for He often dashes the cup from our lips and under
cover of free will leaves us a margin so wholly inadequate as to provide only
mirth for Himself at our expense, therefore it is that Hinduism calls it all
His sport - Lila, or calls it all an illusion - Maya. We are not, He alone Is.
And if we will be, we must eternally sing His praise and do His will. Let us
dance to the tune of His bansi (flute), and all would be well.
[Replying to a question asked of
him at a meeting in Switzerland on his way back from the Round Table Conference
in London, Gandhiji said:]
You have asked me why I consider
that God is Truth. In my early youth I was taught to repeat what in Hindu
scriptures are known as one thousand names of God. But these one thousand names
of God were by no means exhaustive. We believe - and I think it is the truth -
that God has as many names as there are creatures and, therefore, we also say
that God is nameless and since God has many forms we also consider Him
formless, and since He speaks to us through many tongues we consider Him to be
speechless and so on. And so when I came to study Islam I found that Islam too
had many names for God. I would say with those who say God is Love, God is
Love. But deep down in me used to say that though God may be Love, God is
Truth, above all. If it is possible for the human tongue to give the fullest
description of God, I have come to the conclusion that for myself, God is
Truth. But two years ago I went a step further and said that Truth is God. You
will see the fine distinction between the two statements, viz., that God is
Truth and Truth is God. And I came to that conclusion after a continuous and
relentless search after Truth which began nearly fifty years ago. I then found
that the nearest approach to Truth was through Love. But I also found that love
has many meanings in the English language at least and that human love in the
sense of passion could become a degrading thing also. I found too that love in
the sense of Ahimsa had only a limited number of votaries in the world. But I
never found a double meaning in connection with truth and even atheists had not
demurred to the necessity or power of truth. But in their passion for
discovering truth the atheists have not hesitated to deny the very existence of
God-from their own point of view rightly. And it was because of this reasoning
that I saw that rather than say that God is Truth I should say that Truth is
God. I recall the name of Charles Bradlaugh who delighted to call himself an
atheist but knowing as I do something of him, I would never regard him as an
atheist. I would call him a God-fearing man, though I know that he would reject
the claim. His face would redden if I would say " Mr Bradlaugh, you are a
truth-fearing man, and so a God-fearing man. " I would automatically
disarm his criticism by saying that Truth is God, as have I disarmed criticisms
of many a young man. Add to this the great difficulty that millions have taken
the name of God and in His name committed nameless atrocities. Not that
scientists very often do not commit cruelties in the name of Truth. I know how
in the name of truth and science inhuman cruelties are perpetrated on animals
when men perform vivisection. There are thus a number of difficulties in the
way, no matter how you describe God. But the human mind is a limited thing, and
you have to labour under limitations when you think of a being or entity who is
beyond the power of man to grasp.
And then we have another thing in
Hindu philosophy, viz., God alone is and nothing else exists, and the same
truth you find emphasized and exemplified in the Kalma of Islam. There you find
it clearly stated that God alone is and nothing else exists. In fact the
Sanskrit word for Truth is a word which literally means that which exists -
Sat. For these and several other reasons that I can give you I have come to the
conclusion that the definition, 'Truth is God', gives me the greatest
satisfaction. And when you want to find truth as God the only inevitable means
is Love, i.e., non-violence, and since I believe that ultimately the means and
the end are convertible terms, I should not hesitate to say that God is Love.
'What then is Truth?'
A difficult question, (said
Gandhiji), but I have solved it for myself by saying that it is what the voice
within tells you. How, then, you ask, do different people think of different
and contrary truths? Well, seeing that the human mind works through innumerable
media and that the evolution of the human mind is not the same for all, it
follows that what may be truth for one may be untruth for another, and hence
those who have made these experiments have come to the conclusion that there
are certain conditions to be observed in making those experiments. Just as for
conducting scientific experiments there is an indispensable scientific course
of instruction, in the same way strict preliminary discipline is necessary to
qualify a person to make experiments in the spiritual realm. Everyone should,
therefore, realize his limitations before he speaks of his Inner Voice.
Therefore we have the belief based upon experience, that those who would make
individual search after truth as God, must go through several vows, as for
instance, the vow of truth, the vow of Brahmacharya (purity) - for you cannot
possibly divide your love for Truth and God with anything else, the vow of
nonviolence, of poverty and non-possession. Unless you impose on yourselves the
five vows you may not embark on the experiment at all. There are several other
conditions prescribed, but I must not take you through all of them. Suffice it
to say that those who have made these experiments know that it is not proper
for everyone to claim to hear the voice of conscience, and it is because we
have at the present moment everybody claiming the right of conscience without
going through any discipline whatsoever and there is so much untruth being
delivered to a bewildered world, all that I can, in true humility, present to
you is that truth is not to be found by anybody who has not got an abundant
sense of humility. If you would swing on the bosom of the ocean of Truth you
must reduce yourself to a zero. Further than this I cannot go along this
fascinating path.
There are innumerable definitions
of God, because His manifestations are innumerable. They overwhelm me with
wonder and awe and for a moment stun me. But 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 be my very life, I hope I may be prepared to give it. But as long as I
have not realized this Absolute Truth, so long must I hold by the relative truth
as I have conceived it. That relative truth must, meanwhile, be my beacon, my
shield and buckler. Though this path is straight and narrow and sharp as the
razor's edge, for me has it been the quickest and easiest. Even my Himalayan
blunders have seemed trifling to me because I have kept strictly to this path.
For the path has saved me from coming to grief, and I have gone forward
according to my light. Often in my progress I have had faint glimpses of the
Absolute Truth, God, and daily the conviction is growing upon me that He alone
is real and all else is unreal.
The further conviction has been
growing upon me that whatever is possible for me is possible even for a child,
and I have sound reasons for saying so. The instruments for the quest of Truth
are as simple as they are difficult. They may appear quite impossible to an
arrogant person, and quite possible to an innocent child. The seeker after
Truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its
feet, but the seeker after Truth should so humble himself that even the dust
could crush him.
Let hundreds like me perish, but
let Truth prevail.
I am surer of His existence than
of the fact that you and I are sitting in this room. Then I can also testify
that 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. Bu' blast my belief in God, and I am dead. You may call this a
superstition, but I confess it is a superstition that I hug, even as I used to
do the name of Rama in my childhood when there was any cause of danger or
alarm.
I learnt to rely consciously upon
God before I was fifteen years old.
When I admire the wonder of a
sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator. I
try to see Him and His mercies in all these creations.
What I want to achieve, what I
have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years, is
self-realization, to see God face to face, to attain Moksha1. I live and move
and have my being in pursuit of this goal. All that I do by way of speaking and
writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to this same
end.
It is an unbroken torture to me
that I am still so far from Him, who, as I fully know, governs every breath of
my life, and whose offspring I am. I know that it is the evil passions within that
keep me so far from Him, and yet I cannot get away from them.
I must go with God as my only
guide. He is a jealous Lord. He will allow no one to share His authority. One
has, therefore, to appear before Him in all one's weakness, empty-handed and in
a spirit of full surrender, and then He enables you-, to stand before a whole
world and protects you from all harm.
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.
Do not seek to protect me. The
Most High is always there to protect us all. You may be sure that when my time
is up, no one, not even the most renowned in the world, can stand between Him
and me.
God saves me so long as He wants
me in this body. The moment His wants are satisfied, no precautions on my part
will save me.
God is the hardest taskmaster I
have known on 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.
He (a votary of the Gita) takes
note of things as they happen and reacts naturally to them, fulfilling his part
as if propelled by the great Mechanic, even as a piece of machine in good order
responds automatically to the call of the machinist. It is the most difficult
thing for an intelligent being to be like a machine. And yet, if one is to
become a zero, that is precisely what one desiring perfection has to become.
The vital difference between the machine and the man is that the machine is
inert, the man is all life and consciously becomes like a machine in the hands
of the Master Mechanic. Krishna says in so many words that God moves all beings
as if they were parts of a machine.
I have been a willing slave to
this most exacting Master for more than 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. God is with us and looks after us as if He
had no other care besides. How this happens I do not know. That it does happen
I do know. Those who have faith have all their cares lifted from off their
shoulders. Defeat cannot dishearten me. It can only
chasten me. I know that God will guide me. There is not a moment when I do not feel that
presence of a Witness whose eye misses nothing and with whom I strive to keep
in tune. I cannot recall a moment in my
life when I had a sense of desertion by God. If I did not feel the presence of God within
me, I see so much of misery and disappointment every day that I would be a
raving maniac and my destination would be the Hooghli.
As days pass I feel this Living
Presence in every fibre of my veins. Without that feeling I should be demented.
There are so many things that are calculated to disturb my peace of mind. So
many events happen that would, without the realization of that Presence, shake
me to the very foundation. But they pass me by leaving me practically
untouched.
I believe it to be possible for
every human being to attain that blessed and indescribable sinless state in
which he feels within himself the presence of God to the exclusion of
everything else.
Deeper Consent
My claim to hear the Voice of God
is no new claim. Unfortunately there is no way that I know of proving the claim
except through results.
The first question that has puzzled many is about the Voice of God. What was
it? What did I here? Was there any person I saw? If not, how was the Voice
conveyed to me? These are pertinent questions. For me the Voice of God, of Conscience,
of Truth or the Inner Voice or 'the still small Voice' mean one and the same
thing. I saw no form. I have never tried, for I have always believed God to be
without form. But what I did hear was like a Voice from afar and yet quite
near... It was as unmistakable as some human voice definitely speaking to me,
and irresistible. I was not dreaming at the time I heard the Voice. The hearing
of the Voice was preceded by a terrific struggle within me. Suddenly the Voice
came upon me. I listened, made certain that it was the Voice, and the struggle
ceased. I was calm. The determination was made accordingly, the date and the
hour of the fast were fixed. Joy came over me. This was between 11 and 12
midnight. I felt refreshed and began to write the note about it which the
reader must have seen.
Could I give any further evidence
that it was truly the Voice that I heard and that it was not an echo of my own
heated imagination? I have no further evidence to convince the sceptic. He is
free to say that it was all self- delusion or hallucination. It may well have
been so. I can offer no proof to the contrary. But I can say this that not the
unanimous verdict of the whole world against me could shake me from the belief
that what I heard was the true Voice of God.
But some think that God Himself
is a creation of our own imagination. If that view holds good, then nothing is
real, everything is of our own imagination. Even so, whilst my imagination
dominates me, I can only act under its spell. Realest things are only
relatively so. For me the Voice was more real than my own existence. It has
never failed me, and for that matter, anyone else.
And every one who wills can hear
the Voice. It is within every one. But like everything else, it requires
previous and definite preparation. I shall lose my usefulness the moment I
stifle the 'still small Voice within'.
Nobody has to my knowledge
questioned the possibility of the Inner Voice speaking to some, and it is a
gain to the world even if one person's claim to speak under the authority of
the Inner Voice can be really sustained. Many may make the claim, but not all
will be able to substantiate it. But it cannot and ought not to be suppressed
for the sake of preventing false claimants. There is no danger whatsoever if
many people could truthfully represent the Inner Voice. But, unfortunately,
there is no remedy against hypocrisy. Virtue must not be suppressed because
many will feign it. Men have always been found throughout the world claiming to
speak for the Inner Voice. But no harm has yet overtaken the world through
their short-lived activities. Before one is able to listen to that Voice, one
has to go through a long and fairly severe course of training, and when it is
the Inner Voice that speaks, it is unmistakable. The world cannot be
successfully fooled for all time. There is, therefore, no danger of anarchy setting
in because a humble man like me will not be suppressed and will dare to claim
the authority of the Inner Voice, when he believes that he has heard it.
Man is a fallible being. He can
never be sure of his steps. What he may .regard as answer to prayer may be an
echo of his pride. For infallible guidance man has to have a perfectly innocent
heart incapable of evil. I can lay no such claim. Mine is a struggling,
striving, erring, imperfect soul.
Having made a ceaseless effort to
attain self-purification, I have developed some little capacity to hear
correctly and clearly the 'still small Voice within. My firm belief is that He reveals Himself
daily to every human being, but we shut our ears to the 'still small Voice'.
Non-violence is an active force
of the highest order. It is soul-force or the power of Godhead within us. We become
Godlike to the extent we realize non-violence.
Scientists tell us that without the presence of the cohesive force amongst the
atoms that comprise this globe of ours, it would crumble to pieces and we would
cease to exist; and even as there is cohesive force in blind matter, so must
there be in all things animate, and the name for that cohesive force among
animate beings is Love. We notice it between father and son, between brother
and sister, friend and friend. But we have to learn to use that force among all
that lives, and in the use of it consists our knowledge of God.
Man's highest endeavour lies in trying to find God, said Gandhiji. He cannot be
found in temples or idols or places of worship built by man's hands, nor can He
be found by abstinences. God can be found only through love, not earthly, but
divine.
I claim that even now, though the
social structure is not based on a conscious acceptance of non-violence, 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 non-violence.
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 non-violence 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 the 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 marvellous results and strengthened my faith.
I have suggested in these columns
that woman is the incarnation of Ahimsa. Ahimsa means infinite love, which
again means infinite capacity for suffering. Who but woman, the mother of man,
shows this capacity in the largest measure? She shows it as she carries the
infant and feeds it during nine months and derives joy in the suffering
involved. What can beat the suffering caused by the pangs of labour? But she
forgets them in the joy of creation. Who again suffers daily so that her babe
may wax from day to day ? Let her transfer that love to the whole of humanity,
let her forget that she ever was or can be the object of man's lust. And she
will occupy her proud position by the side of man as his mother, maker and
silent leader. It is given to her to teach the art of peace to the warring
world thirsting for that nectar.
Serving Humanity
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 resourceless, 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. God
having cast my lot in midst of the people of India, I should be untrue to my
Maker if I failed to serve them. If I do not know how to serve them I shall
never know how to serve humanity.
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.
If I am to identify myself with the grief of the least in India, aye, if I have
the power, the least in the world,, let me identify myself with the sins of the
little ones who are under my care. And so doing in all humility, I hope someday
to see God-Truth-face to face.
I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes
too much with you, try the following expedient: Recall the face of the poorest
and the most helpless man whom you have seen and ask yourself, if the step you
contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he be able to gain anything
by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other
words will it lead to Swaraj or self-rule for the hungry and also spiritually
starved millions of our countrymen?
Then you will find your doubts
and yourself melting away.
While he was engaged with
Mahatmaji, a young American missionary asked him what religion he professed and
what shape the future religion of India was likely to assume.
His reply was very brief.
Pointing to the two sick persons in the room, he said 'To serve is my religion.
I do not worry about the future.'
Religion is service of the
helpless. God manifests Himself to us in the form of the helpless and the
stricken.
I have certainly regarded
spinning superior to the practice of denominational religions. But that does
not mean that the latter should be given up. I only mean that a Dharma which
has to be observed by the followers of all religions transcends them, and hence
I say that a Brahmana is a better Brahmana, a Mussalman a better Mussalman, a
Vaishnava a better Vaishnava, if he turns the (spinning) wheel in the spirit of
service.
If it was possible for me to turn
the wheel in my bed and if I felt that it would help me in concentrating my
mind on God, I would certainly leave the rosary aside and turn the wheel. If I
am strong enough to turn the wheel, and I have to make a choice between
counting beads or turning the wheel, I would certainly decide in favour of the
wheel, making it my rosary, so long as I found poverty and starvation stalking
the land. I do look forward to a time when even repeating the name of Rama will
become a hindrance. When I have realized that Rama transcends even speech, I
shall have no need to repeat the name. The spinning wheel, the rosary and the
Ramanama are the same to me. They sub serve the same end, they teach me the
religion of service. I cannot practise Ahimsa without practising the religion
of service, and I cannot find the truth without practising the religion of
Ahimsa. And there is no religion other than truth.
Hand-spinning does not, it is not
intended that it should, compete with, in order to displace, any existing type
of industry; it does not aim at withdrawing a single able-bodied person, who
can otherwise find a remunerative occupation from his work. The sole claim
advanced on its behalf is that it alone offers an immediate, practicable, and
permanent solution of that problem of problems that confronts India, viz., the
enforced idleness for nearly six months in the year of an overwhelming majority
of India's population, owing to lack of a suitable supplementary occupation to
agriculture and the chronic starvation of the masses that results there from.
We should be ashamed of resting,
or having a square meal, so long as there is one able-bodied man or woman
without work or food.
Imagine, therefore, what a
calamity it must be to have 300 million unemployed, several millions becoming
degraded every day for want of employment, devoid of self-respect, devoid of
faith in God. I may as well place before the dog over there the message of God
as before those hungry millions who have no lustre in their eyes and whose only
God is their bread. I can take before them a message of God only by taking the
message of sacred work before them. It is good enough to talk of God whilst we
are sitting here after a nice breakfast and looking forward to a nicer
luncheon, but how am I to talk of God to the millions who have to go without
two meals a day ? To them God can only appear as bread and butter.
Self-realization I hold to be
impossible without service of an identification with the poorest.
Renunciation
The human body is meant solely
for service, never for indulgence. The secret of happy life lies in
renunciation. Renunciation is life. Indulgence spells death. Therefore,
everyone has a right and should desire to live 125 years while performing
service without an eye on result. Such life must be wholly and solely dedicated
to service. Renunciation made for the sake of such service is an ineffable joy
of which none can deprive one, because that nectar springs from within and
sustains life. In this there can be no room for worry or impatience. Without
this joy, long life is impossible and would not be worth-while even if
possible.
This body, therefore, has been
given us, only in order that we may serve all creation with it.
And even as a bond slave receives
food, clothing and so on from the master whom he serves, so should we
gratefully accept such gifts as may be assigned to us by the Lord of the
universe. What we receive must be called a gift; for as debtors we are entitled
to no consideration for the discharge of our obligations. Therefore we may not
blame the Master, if we fail to get it. Our body is His to be cherished or cast
away according to His will. This is not a matter for complaint or even pity; on
the contrary, it is natural and even a pleasant and desirable state, if only we
realize our proper place in God's scheme. We do ' indeed need strong faith, if
we would experience this supreme bliss. "Do not worry in the least about
yourself, leave all worry to God,"-this appears to be the commandment in
all religions.
This need not frighten any one.
He who devotes himself to service with a clear conscience will day by day grasp
the necessity for it in greater measure, and will continually grow richer in
faith. The path of service can hardly be trodden by one, who is not prepared to
renounce self-interest, and to recognize the conditions of his birth.
Consciously or unconsciously every one of us does render some service or other.
If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for
service will steadily grow stronger, and will make not only for our own
happiness, but that of the world at large.
Again, not only the good, but all
of us are bound to place our resources at the disposal of humanity. And if such
is the law, as evidently it is, indulgence ceases to hold a place in life and
gives way to renunciation. The duty of renunciation differentiates mankind from
the beast.
Some object that life thus
understood becomes dull and devoid of art, and leaves no room for the
householder. But renunciation here does not mean abandoning the world and
retiring into the forest. The spirit of renunciation should rule all the
activities of life. A householder does not cease to be one if he regards life
as a duty rather than as an indulgence. A merchant, who operates in the
sacrificial spirit, will have crores passing through his hands, but he will
therefore not cheat or speculate, will lead a simple life, will not injure a
living soul and will lose millions rather than harm anybody. Let no one run
away with the idea that this type of merchant exists only in my imagination.
Fortunately for the world, it does exist in the West as well as i the East. It
is true, such merchants may be counted on one's fingers' ends, but the type
ceases to be imaginary, as soon as even one living specimen can be found to
answer to it. No doubt these sacrificers obtain their livelihood by their work.
But livelihood is not their objective, but only a by-product of their vocation.
A life of sacrifice is the pinnacle of art, and is full of true joy.
One who would serve will not
waste a thought upon his own comforts, which he leaves to be attended to or
neglected by his Master on high. He will not therefore encumber himself with
everything that comes his way; he will take only what he strictly needs and
leave the rest. He will be calm, free from anger and unruffled in mind even if
he finds himself inconvenienced. His service, like virtue, is its own reward,
and he will rest content with it.
Voluntary service of others
demands the best of which one is capable, and must take precedence over service
of self. In fact, the pure devotee consecrates himself to the service of
humanity without any reservation whatever.
Sacrifices may be of many kinds.
One of them may well be bread labour. If all laboured for their bread and no
more, then there would be enough food and enough leisure for all. Then there
would be no cry of over-population, no disease and no such misery as we see
around. Such labour will be the highest form of sacrifice. Men will no doubt do
many other things either through their bodies or through their minds, but all
this will be labour of love for the common good. There will then be no rich and
no poor, none high and none low, no touchable and no untouchable.
This may be unattainable ideal.
But we need not, therefore, cease to strive for it. Even if without fulfilling
the whole law of sacrifice, that is, the law of our being, we performed
physical labour enough for our daily bread, we should go a long way towards the
ideal.
If we did so, our wants would be
minimized, our food would be simple. We should then eat to live, not live to
eat. Let anyone who doubts the accuracy of this proposition try to sweat for
his bread, he will derive the greatest relish from the production of his
labour, improve his health and discover that many things he took were superfluities.
May not men earn their bread by
intellectual labour ? No. The needs of the body must be supplied by the body.
'Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's' perhaps applies- here well.
Mere mental, that is,
intellectual labour is for the soul and is its own satisfaction. It should
never demand payment. In the ideal state, doctors, lawyers and the like will
work solely for the benefit of society, not for self. Obedience to law of bread
labour will bring about a silent revolution in the structure of society. Men's
triumph will consist in substituting the struggle for existence by the struggle
for mutual service. The law of the brute will be replaced by the law of man.
In India there is a particular
type of man who delights in having as few needs as possible. He carries with
him only a little flour and a pinch of salt and chillies tied in his napkin. He
has a lota and a string to draw water from the well. He needs nothing else. He
walks on foot covering 10-12 miles a day. He makes the dough in his napkin,
collects a few twigs to make a fire and bakes his dough on the embers. It is
called bati. Its relish does not lie in itself but in the appetite that honest
toil and contentment of mind give. Such a man has God as his companion and
friend and feels richer than any king or emperor. God is not the friend of
those who inwardly covet other's riches. Everyone can copy this example and
enjoy ineffable peace and happiness himself and radiate it to others. On the
other hand, if one hankers after riches, one has to resort to exploitation, by
whatever name it may be called. Even then the crores cannot become
millionaires. True happiness lies in contentment and companionship with God
only.
The true connotation of humility
is self-effacement. Self-effacement is moksha. (salvation). Service without
humility is selfishness and egotism.
When self-satisfaction creeps
over a man, he has ceased to grow and therefore has become unfit for freedom.
He who offers a little sacrifice from a lowly and religious spirit quickly
realizes the littleness of it. Once on the path of sacrifice, we find out the
measure of our selfishness and must continually wish to give more and not be
satisfied till there is a complete self-surrender.
Not until we have reduced
ourselves to nothingness can we conquer the evil in Us. God demands nothing
less than complete self-surrender as the price for the only real freedom that
is worth having. And when a man thus loses himself he immediately finds himself
in the service of ail that lives. It becomes his delight and his recreation. He
is a new man, never weary of spending himself in the service of God's creation.
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