All Life is one – Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

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

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All Life is one – Mahatma Gandhi

 

During my brief visit to Borsad last month in several of my speeches I had said that, although I believed that even plague stricken rats and fleas were my kindred and had as much right to live as I had, I had no hesitation in endorsing Dr. Bhaskar Patel’s campaign against rats and fleas. A reporter who was struck by this claim to kinship with rats and fleas, but not interested in the context in which I had said it, telegraphed to his paper the interesting claim I had advanced. The Sardar’s eagle eye caught the paragraph and wanted me to correct the mischief it was likely to do. Being immersed in the work he had entrusted me with, I excused myself by saying that the people concerned would not misunderstand me. But perhaps the Sardar was right. For the paragraph containing the half-truth was wired to London. Those who are jealous about my European reputation were agitated, though they had realized that my claim to kinship must have had large qualifications. They have sent me the clipping containing the paragraph.

I am bound now, if only for the sake of these loving friends, to clear the position though the half-truth having had a start cannot be overtaken at once. I was in the midst of a population which would not kill wild animals that daily destroy their crops. Before the Sardar threw the whole weight of his tremendous influence into the campaign of the destruction of rats and fleas, the people of the Borsad Taluka had not destroyed a single rat or flea. But they could not resist the Sardar to whom they had owed much, and Dr. Bhaskar Patel was allowed to carry on wholesale destruction of rats and fleas. I was in daily touch with what was going on in Borsad. The Sardar had invited me naturally to endorse what had been done. For the work had still to continue, though henceforth with the people’s own unaided effort. Therefore, in order to emphasize my endorsement, I redeclare in the clearest possible terms my implicit belief in ahimsa, i.e., sacredness and kinship of all life but why this contradiction between belief and action? Contradiction is undoubtedly there. Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after perfection which is self-realization. The ideal must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections. I am painfully conscious of both in me. The silent cry daily goes out to Truth to help me to remove these weaknesses and imperfections of mine. I own my fear of snakes, scorpions, lions, tigers, plague-stricken rats and fleas, even as I must own fear of evil-looking robbers and murderers. I know that I ought not to fear any of them. But this is no intellectual feat. It is a feat of the heart. It needs more than a heart of oak to shed all fear except the fear of God. I could not in my weakness ask the people of Borsad not to kill deadly rats and fleas.

But I knew that it was a concession to human weakness. Nevertheless there is that difference between a belief in ahimsa and a belief in himsa which there is between north and south, life and death. One who hooks his fortunes to ahimsa, the law of love, daily lessens the circle of destruction and to that extent promotes life and love; he who swears by himsa, the law of hate, daily widens the circle of destruction and to that extent promotes death and hate. Though, before the people of Borsad, I endorsed the destruction of rats and fleas, my own kith and kin, I preached to them without adulteration the grand doctrine of the eternal Law of love of all life. Though I may fail to carry it out to the full in this life, my faith in it shall abide. Every failure brings me nearer the realization.

 

Reference:

Harijan, 22-6-1935