For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Ahimsa and Mahatma Gandhi-IX

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

Ahimsa and Mahatma Gandhi-IX

To clothe me with sainthood is too early even if it is possible. I myself do not feel a saint in any shape or form. But I do feel I am a votary of Truth in spite of all my errors of unconscious omission and commission. The correspondent has judged rightly that I am not “a statesman in the garb of a saint”. But since Truth is the highest wisdom, sometimes my acts appear to be consistent with the highest statesmanship. But I hope I have no policy in me save the policy of truth and ahimsa. I will not sacrifice truth and ahimsa even for the deliverance of my country or religion. This is as much as to say that neither can be so delivered. 1 God is Truth. The way to Truth lies through Ahimsa (nonviolence) 2 If we wish to deal with it ourselves, we will have to make arrangement for lights. In that case, we have no option but to have the electricity. It is the cheapest source and is ours. We have to use the engine for water and perhaps the same may be used for electric lights. For the protection of the guards, we will have to make special arrangement. The situation remains the same even if we ourselves do the work of guards. We have taken up so many activities here that we cannot do without taking steps for their protection or we will have to wind up all the activites. We have to see how long we can adhere to ahimsa in spite of our activities. 3

I quite agree with you that karma and the cross may well go together. If you have followed the pages of Young India, you must have noticed that last year I read the New Testament every Saturday to the students of our National College. I did stumble over the words “without a cause”, and in explaining it I simply rejected the thing as redundant. But I was agreeably surprised on turning to Moffat’s and Weymouth’s translations which I had by me to make the discovery that you made. In reading all religious works, I have learnt one thing. Never to take them literally, but understand the drift and catch the drift also by means of what is to me an infallible canon of interpretation, and reject those which cannot stand the test of Truth and Ahimsa. I know that even in spite of this canon of interpretation difficulties do arise; but they are solved if one has patience and if one has a living faith in God. 4

The insistent calls I have received are evidence of a wrong attachment which we must surmount at all costs. I am nothing but a mere lump of earth in the hands of the Potter. Truth and Love ahimsa is the only thing that counts. Where this is present, everything rights itself in the end. This is a law to which there is no exception. It would be very bad indeed that Gujarat or India should look up to me and sit with folded hands. Let her worship Truth and Love, look up to that divine couple, employ servants like myself so long as they tread the straight and narrow path and check them when they swerve from it. 5 To proceed a little further, sacrifice means laying down one’s life so that others may live. Let us suffer, so that others may be happy and the highest service and the highest love is wherein man lays down his life for his fellowmen. That highest love is thus ahimsa which is the highest service. There is an eternal struggle between life and death, but the sum-total of life and death does not mean extinction but life. For life persists in spite of death. We have an ocular demonstration, positive proof of the unquestioned sovereignty of ahimsa, and this triumph of ahimsa is possible through sacrifice. There is thus no higher law than the law of yajna, the law of service, which is the law for the volunteer. Even for those whom you love most, even for me, you may not hate anyone else. If you do, it will not be love or service, but infatuation. If you have served me out of infatuation, this service will not be of avail. But I know you have not done so. You did not know me except by hearsay. You had never seen me, and you have during these four months never even come near me to receive a word of thanks from me. Yours was genuine selfless service. And let this service be to you an incentive to serve the cause I have been serving the cause of Daridranarayana. And as I read in today’s chapter a clear indication that the spinning-wheel affords us in India the highest instrument of universal service, I have placed the spinning-wheel before the country, and whenever your interest in the wheel flags you will turn to the Gita and replenish your faith. I know none of you, but I know full well the service you have rendered. It is not for me to reward you for it, it is beyond my power, and it is well that it is so. God alone can give the reward, and it is His covenant that He always rewards service truly and selflessly rendered. 6

What I desire to tell you are that, if you will search that book through and through, you will find there mentioned in such simple words, brahmacharya, satya, ahimsa, abhayam and others which ought to be the primary qualities of everyman of God. The last word I leave with you is that you should read that book with a prayerful spirit, not in a carping spirit, and to obey the dictates of that book. 7 I was also glad to receive an address from the Jain friends. To them also I would suggest that at the present moment the widest application of the doctrine of ahimsa is possible only through the spinning-wheel. It has been conceived and calculated to benefit the remotest village and the neediest people in the land. What ahimsa, what love can be deeper and faster than that which takes in its sweep millions of starving people! 8 A religion whose two great maxims are “Satyannasti paro dharmah”, “Ahimsa paramo dharmah”, a religion that is broad based on fundamental truth and fundamental love, cannot possibly tolerate untouchability because one is born in particular surroundings. I say also with greatest emphasis that there is no warrant in this Hinduism that I have defined to you for child widowhood. Marriage, it is universally acknowledged, gives a status and a change in life. There can be no such thing as a sacred bond on the part of a girl of tender years who is only fit to sit in her mother’s or father’s lap. And if fathers, who are blind to all affection springing out of parental love, give away their daughters of tender years in marriage, it is not marriage except a stone being married to a man. Therefore I say that there is no such thing as a child widow because there is no such thing as child marriage. 9

After all I must fall upon one sovereign remedy which I think is applicable for all the ills of life. And that is, in whatever fight we engage, the fight should be clean and straight, and there should not be the slightest departure from truth and ahimsa. And if we will keep our carriage safely on these two rails you will find that our fight even though we may commit a thousand blunders will always smell clean and will be easier fought. And even as a train that is derailed comes to a disastrous end, so shall we, if we be derailed off these two rails, come to a disaster. A man who is truthful and does not mean ill even to his adversary will be slow to believe charges even against his foes. He will, however, try to understand the viewpoints of his opponents and will always keep an open mind and seek every opportunity of serving his opponents. I have endeavoured to apply this law in my relations with Englishmen and Europeans in general in South Africa as well as here and not without some success. How much more then should we apply this law in our homes, in our relations, in our domestic affairs, in connection with our own kith and kin? 10

The Gita contains the gospel of karma or work, the gospel of bhakti or devotion and the gospel of jnana or knowledge. Life should be a harmonious whole of these three. But the gospel of service is the basis of all, and what can be more necessary for those who want to serve the country than that they begin with the chapter enunciating the gospel of work? But you must approach it with the five necessary equipments, viz., ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), brahmacharya (celibacy), Aparigraha (non-possession), and asteya (non-stealing). Then and then only will you be able to reach a correct interpretation of it. And then you will read it to discover in it ahimsa and not himsa, as so many nowadays try to do. Read it with the necessary equipment and I assure you you will have peace of which you were never aware before. 11 May then true ahimsa and purity be your shield forever in your life. May God help you to realize all your noble ambition? I thank you once more for inviting me to take part in this function. 12

Adhikara then there certainly was. But it was the adhikara of right conduct known as the five yamas or cardinal restraints ahimsa (innocence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), Aparigraha (no possession), and brahmacharya (celibacy). These were the rules that had to be observed by anybody who wished to study religion. He may not go to religious books for proving the necessity of these fundamentals of religion. 13 I do not know what you wrote about Ramakrishna Parmahansa. In spite of your information, it would not be wrong to say that he was an embodiment of ahimsa. He believed in that dharma and tried to follow it to the best of his lights. That he did something which to us toda with our fuller experience appears to be repugnant to the doctrine of ahimsa, does not take away from the merit of Ramakrishna inasmuch as he could not think out of the custom prevalent around him, so far as food was concerned. It is not possible that future generations will condemn the eating of cooked food as contrary to ahimsa and yet the existing authorities of ahimsa will not be liable to condemnation for not having discovered the inconsistency of eating cooked food. No person is able to practise completest ahimsa. Possession of a material frame involves a certain amount of unavoidable himsa. A votary of ahimsa therefore continually strives to reduce the extent of himsa to a minimum. 14

Hinduism with its message of ahimsa is to me the most glorious religion in the world as my wife to me is the most beautiful woman in the world but others may feel the same about their own religion. Cases of real honest conversion are quite possible. If some people for their inward satisfaction and growth change their religion, let them do so. As regards taking our message to the aborigines, I do not think I should go and give my message out of my own wisdom. Do it in all humility, it is said. Well, I have been an unfortunate witness of arrogance often going in the garb of humility. If I am perfect, I know that my thought will reach others. It taxes all my time to reach the goal I have set to myself. What have I to take to the aborigines and the Assamese hillmen except to go in my nakedness to them? Rather than ask them to join my prayer, I would join their prayer. We were strangers to this sort of classification “animists”, “aborigines”, etc. but we have learnt it from English rulers. I must have the desire to serve and it must put me right with people. Conversion and service go ill together. 15

If another war was declared tomorrow I could not with my present views about the existing Government assist it in any shape or form; on the contrary, I should exert myself to the utmost to induce others to withhold their assistance and to do everything possible and consistent with ahimsa to bring about its defeat. 16 The matter you have discussed is of tremendous importance. It is never out of my mind, if only because it is for the vindication of ahimsa that I love to live and should equally love to die. But I see that I have not been able clearly to explain my position. I must not however enter into any argument. If God enables me to meet you this year we shall prayerfully discuss the matter and possibly come to a joint conclusion. Before deciding finally I propose to await your cable or letter as the case may be. 17

The relation between mill-agents and mill-hands ought to be one of father and children or as between blood-brothers. I have often heard the mill-owners of Ahmadabad refer to themselves as ‘masters’ and their employees as their servants. Such loose talk should be out of fashion in a place like Ahmadabad which prides itself on its love of religion and love of ahimsa. For that attitude is a negation of ahimsa, inasmuch as our ideal demands that all our power, all our wealth and all our brains should be devoted solely to the welfare of those who through their own ignorance and our false notions of things are styled labourers or ‘servants’. What I expect of you therefore is that you should hold all your riches as a trust to be used solely in the interests of those who sweat for you, and to whose industry and labour you owe all your position and prosperity. I want you to make your labourers co-partners of your wealth. I do not mean to suggest that unless you legally bind yourselves to do all that, there should be a labour insurrection. The only sanction that I can think of in this connection is of mutual love and regard as between father and son, not of law. If only you make it a rule to respect these mutual obligations of love, there would be an end to all labour disputes; the workers would no longer feel the need for organizing themselves into unions. Under the ideal contemplated by me, there would be nothing left for our Anasuyabehn and Shankerlals to do; their occupation would be gone. But that cannot happen until there is a single mill-hand who does not regard the mill in which he works as his own; who complains of sweating and overwork, and who therefore nurses in his breast nothing but ill will towards his employers. And where is the difficulty? 18

The definition that he has given for ahimsa is worth considering. And what he has suggested in respect of self-help, though not pertinent, is proper in these days. Very few have the desire to serve others without any reason and there are not many such occasions too. But the aim here is to put a stop to the giving of alms out of a religious sentiment and to such false service, and that seems but proper. 19 I have no doubt that from the point of view of ahimsa silk and tiger-skin should be given up. Similarly, things like pearls too should also be given up. It seems that people in the age in which the custom of wearing silk and tiger-skin was prevalent, did believe in the dharma of ahimsa, but still continued to use these things. This is because at that time they realized the usefulness and necessity of silk and tiger-skin and hence despite their faith in ahimsa, they used both these. Despite their belief in the principle of ahimsa our predecessors made sacrificial offerings of animals, and we find some people doing so even now. Those who sacrifice animal’s state on the authority of the Shastras that violence done for the sake of yajna cannot be termed violence. Similarly, those of us who eat a strictly vegetarian diet, destroy vegetables which have life in them, and believe that this does not affect our ahimsa.

The moral we derive from all this is that human beings cannot altogether abstain from himsa. Even those living only on air and water are guilty of himsa to some extent. Therefore, we can make a rule that the use of anything which involves himsa should as far as possible be abandoned. And while practising such renunciation, we should not criticize but extend charity to those who do not do so. Although, as mentioned above, we needs must be simple in our habits of eating and dressing, and although our dharma is to save the lives of lower beings, yet we should realize that the ahimsa practised in such self-control is not everything but only a small part of dharma. We find every day that a person who meticulously practises this type of ahimsa can also be guilty of great himsa, and may have no sense of ahimsa at all. From the fact that, following inherited traditions, we use certain things for eating and dressing we cannot claim that we practise ahimsa towards these objects. Let the material results be the outcome of ahimsa which is practised through tradition or necessity; in itself, however, ahimsa is a noble sentiment and can only be attributed to the person whose mind is non-violent and is overflowing with compassion and love towards all beings.

A person who does not take no vegetarian food even today because he has never done so, but loses his temper every moment and robs others regardless of morality or immorality? And is unconcerned about the happiness or unhappiness of those whom he robs, such a person can in no case be regarded as non-violent but may be said to be guilty of great himsa. Diametrically opposed to him is the person who eats meat in accordance with inherited traditions, but is overflowing with love, free from anger and hatred and treats everyone as equal; he is truly non-violent and deserves to be revered. While considering ahimsa we always think of it in terms of eating and drinking; that is not ahimsa that is a state of unconsciousness. That which gives moksha, that which is the supreme dharma, in whose presence ferocious beasts shed their violence, an enemy sheds his hatred, a hard heart is softened, this ahimsa is a supernatural power and it is only attained by a few after great effort and penance. Love and ahimsa are matchless in their effect. But in their play there is no fuss, show, noise or placards. They presuppose self confidence which in its turn presupposes self-purification. Men of stainless character and self-purification will easily inspire confidence and automatically purify the atmosphere around them. I have long believed that social reform is a tougher business than political reform. The atmosphere is ready for the latter, people are interested in it, and there is an impression abroad that it is possible without self-purification. On the other hand people have little interest in social reform, the result of agitation does not appear to be striking, and there is little room for congratulations and addresses. The social reformers will have therefore to plod on for some time, hold themselves in peace, and be satisfied with apparently small results. 20

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