For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Love and Mahatma Gandhi- X

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

Love and Mahatma Gandhi- X

If you want that the love you have shown me, the kindness you have done me in placing the mantle of responsibility on me, should continue, you should understand this well; keep me in this position if you want to. But it will be even better if the Swarajists and No-changers should walk in unison, As Dr. Besant said, one single stick, by itself, easily breaks, but in a bundle it is very strong. But what I now want to ask you for, is something more, something better, something richer, and that is this: Transfer all this noble affection, all this generosity that you have shown to me to the thing that you and I hold dear, to the thing that alone binds you and me together and that is swaraj. If we want swaraj, we must know the conditions of swaraj. You have endorsed the conditions in the resolutions and every one of you known those conditions. Do not leave these conditions here. Take them away with you and fulfil them to the letter and to the spirit and insist upon others to fulfil those conditions, not by force but by love. Exert all the influence and all the pressure which love can exert, upon everyone that surrounds you and upon your neighbours. 1

I have adopted an untouchable child as my own. I confess I have not been able to convert my wife completely to my view. She cannot bring herself to love her as I do. But I cannot convert my wife by anger; I can do so only by love. If any of my people have done you any wrong, I ask your forgiveness for it. Some members of the untouchable class said when I was at Poona that they would resort to force if the Hindus did not alter their attitude towards them. 2 Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment. When the members of this Conference will prepare themselves by loving service, they will acquire the right to speak on behalf of the people and no Prince will be able to resist them. Then only is there an atmosphere for non-co-operation, if it ever becomes necessary. I know that to many my speech will appear incomplete and even insipid. But I cannot give any practical or useful advice by going outside my province. My field of labour is clearly defined and it pleases me. I am fascinated by the law of love. It is the philosophers’ stone for me. I know ahimsa alone can provide a remedy for our ills. In my view the path of non-violence is not the path of the timid or the unmanly. Ahimsa is the height of Kshatriyas dharma as it represents the climax of fearlessness. In it there is no scope for flight or for defeat. Being a quality of the soul it is not difficult of attainment. It comes easily to a person who feels the presence of the soul within. I believe that no other path but that of non-violence will suit India. The symbol of that dharma for India is the spinning-wheel as it alone is the friend of the distressed and the giver of plenty for the poor. The law of love knows no bounds of space or time. My swaraj, therefore, takes note of Bhangis, Dheds, Dublas and the weakest of the weak, and except the spinning-wheel I know no other thing which befriends all these. 3

There is no place for scheming in it; it is full of love and understanding. In fact, love and affection are a thousand times more effective than political maneuvering besides, the interests of everybody including those of the peasant, the scavenger and the pariah, can best be looked after thorough understanding and love. You know, I gave a similar definition of statesmanship before the Congress and I was not ashamed of it. It is from this point of view that I have included khadi among political matters. I claim my view to be wise and enlightened, and hope that someday you will also hail my advocacy of the spinning-wheel and khadi as shrewd, wise and enlightened. When people mock at me today and describe the spinning-wheel as Gandhi’s toy, I pity them, and I am not going to give it up however much they laugh at me. If you forsake love, you shall lose the battle. They who regard untouchability as sin, must not sin themselves by hating their opponents. Turn a smiling face even to those who abuse you. If you love them from the depth of your heart, and maintain the right attitude and behaviour, the sin of untouchability is bound to be eradicated. 4

Whenever I have come to Kathiawar I have been covered with overflowing love. It is no wonder when I know that everywhere in India I find Kathiawar, i.e., the overwhelming love of Kathiawar. Much as I prize that love, I crave for that “love amazing, love divine”, which nourishes the soul, and not the love which, not being backed by the will to perform promises made, withers the soul. It is service of the people that connects you and me, and not circumstances of a private nature. Unless, therefore, you give all your love practical shape, turn it into work of public benefit, it has, for me at least, no meaning. I am an ordinary mortal, as much exposed to affections and passions as anyone of you. But I always try to control them. I therefore demand love which soothes but does not overwhelm. I want the fire of that love to purify and not to burn me. Let all your love therefore be converted into work in fulfillment of the national programme. The king carries on his work by means of punitive sanctions. You will carry on your work with the sanction of sacrifice and love. Drench both the rulers and ruled with the water of your sacrifice and love, so that you may convert Kathiawar into an Eden worthy for men and gods to behold. If I may bless you, that is my blessing. If I am not worthy to give you blessings, that is my prayer to God. Let the spinning-wheel be a symbol of your sacrifice and love for fellowmen. 5

Whenever I go to Kathiawar, I am overwhelmed by the affection I receive. This has ceased to surprise me. Whenever I go, I see Kathiawar. Yet, being a Kathiawar makes a difference. Can it be that I myself need love from Kathiawar? Or, that I wish Kathiawar to make an exhibition of its love? I cannot fathom the nature of my feeling. Why should there be any exhibition of love in Kathiawar? What kind of love is that which requires formal courtesies to express it? Yes, it did cause resentment. There have been conversions of Hindus to Islam always, but the Hindus never took any notice of them. But Heaven knows what has happened today. They are raising a storm over it. After all, these people embrace Islam of their free will and for the love of it. 6 The more I see their weaknesses, the more shall I serve them? My love for them will certainly endure. But the language of love will change it has become more firm and will become firmer still just as my words to Englishmen are becoming stiffer. That will be the only difference. My sole object is to rouse you this morning and to caution you. I want to caution you because you may sometimes face a similar situation. If any little boy or girl in the Ashram is kidnapped, you should not just look on, interpreting my non-violence in a superficial way. The determination to be pure is itself a source of strength. A man having a pure and unsullied heart has no need to develop his body. His body automatically becomes strong. And thereafter mere resolve is enough. It is my resolve that I would utter the name of Rama before retiring, so that without changing the name I can never get sleep. And if I do get it, I utter Ramanama while turning on my side and I do see my standing near me. The same true of every resolve. 7

There is no doubt that the practice of untouchability is inspired by hatred. If anyone claims that he bears love for Antyajas though treating them as untouchables, I will not believe him. I see no evidence of love whatsoever in this practice. If we bore love for them, we would not address them insultingly, would not throw at them our left-overs; if we had love for them, we would hold them in reverence as we do our mothers, would provide them better wells and schools than what we ourselves have, and permit them to visit temples. All these would be indications of love. Love shines with the light of countless suns. If one little sun cannot be hidden, how can love remain so? Does a mother ever have to declare that she loves her child? An infant who cannot even speak looks at its mother’s eyes and, as their eyes meet, we see something mysterious passing between them. 8

That chain of love is nothing but the thread of handspun yarn. If the yarn is foreign, it would only serve as iron shackles on your feet. Your links should be with your villages, with the Rabaris and with the Mers of Barda. If, instead, you have your links with Lancashire or Ahmadabad, of what profit will that be to Porbandar? What the people really want is that we should have some use for their labour, that we should not force them to remain idle and so starve them. Is it right that instead of getting stone from Ravana, you should order your requirements from Italy? How can you afford to order your cloth or ghee from Calcutta in preference to the cloth woven in your own villages and the ghee made from the milk of your own cows and buffaloes? If you do not use your own products but order your needs from elsewhere, I would say that you were chained with fetters. I have been a free man ever since I discovered this sacred principle of complete swadeshi and understood that my life should have a link with the poorest among the poor. Neither the Rana Saheb nor Lord Reading nor even King George can deprive me of my happiness. 9

The Ahmadabad people have not deserted me, they come to see me and I enjoy their goodwill. This is so simply because I had bound them with the chain of love and I was confident that I would get the reward of my love from Ahmadabad itself. Shri Fulchand is a man who will stick to his post as I did. Why should he run away from Wadhwan? He should not desert his post even if has to starve. If he does anything in anger or out of obstinacy, or says anything to hurt you, that would be sin. If, however, his words spring from love, they will touch your heart. God alone knows with what feelings he acts; the result will depend on what they are. 10 I would love to have new light on the question. I would like all the friends to look at the facts and try to influence us both. But if after we have exhausted all our resources to come to a joint conclusion, we fail, we must dare to let the public know our difference of opinion and know too that we shall still love one another and work together. But that very love demands that we take no hasty action. Are you coming to Delhi? If you are, let us travel together. I leave by the meter gauge on 27th. But if you are coming and you would rather leave by the Punjab Mail I would join you at Baroda. It may be advisable to have leisurely discussion between us. The train seems to be the best place for such discussion. 11

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” from the Congress but one has no power to banish the Thing Itself. What is a solemn affirmation if it is not the same thing as in the name of God? 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 that 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 Him 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 along 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 lute, and all would be well. 12

I cannot rub them off the slate, if I would, but knowing those differences, I must love even those who differ from me. You will find an exemplification of this law throughout the world. No two leaves of this very tree, under whose shadow we are sitting, are alike, though they spring from the same root, but, even as the leaves live together in perfect harmony and present to us a beautiful whole, so must we, divided humanity present to the outsider looking upon us a beautiful whole. That can be done when we begin to love each other and tolerate each other in spite of differences. So, although I see the deep ignorance, the black ignorance of blind orthodoxy, I refuse to be impatient with that orthodoxy, and hence I present to the world the law of non-violence and I say that a man who wants to lead a religious life on this earth and a man who wants to realize himself on this earth in this incarnation must remain non-violent in every shape and form and in every one of his actions. And I am here to tell you that, had this Vykom Satyagraha been carried on in that absolutely non-violent spirit and had that campaign received that support from you which it should have received, the battle would have closed long ago. I have given my need of praise to the satyagrahis of Vykom. They have done well. They have commanded my admiration, but that was only one side of the picture. I would be untrue to you if I did not present to you the other side of the picture but there again, applying the same law of non-violence, I refuse to condemn them. They have done their best, but I ask them and I ask you to do better. They have done no physical violence to anybody, but their thoughts and their minds were not non-violent. I discovered that even during my discussion with them. They feel bitter towards the orthodox people who are putting up this opposition. They are angry with them and they distrust their motives. They distrust the motives of the Government. I say that all these things are beneath the dignity of Satyagraha. I will take the Government at its word. I believe the orthodox when they say that it does violence to their religious sentiment when I pass through their road and, by giving them the same credit for honesty which I would claim for myself, I disarm their suspicion and opposition. 13

Blind love is not non-violence. The mother who under the influence of blind love pampers her child in all sorts of ways practises violence born out of ignorance rather than non-violence. I wish that people would not attach undue importance to restrictions on eating and drinking and, while observing these restrictions, understand the meaning of non-violence in its broader sense, its subtle form and essence. A Western saint who eats beef because it is customary there, is a million times more non-violent than a wicked hypocrite who following the custom in his country does not eat beef. The person who has put the questions to me should say to himself: “Although I give up foreign sugar, foreign cloth and tea, if I do not have compassion for my neighbour, if I do not regard other people’s children as my own, if I am not honest in my trade, if I do not regard my servants as members of my family and do not love them, the restrictions on my diet are meaningless, they are mere show, senseless practices born out of ignorance.” Narasinha Mehta’s sacred utterance is, “So long as one has not realized the truth about the atman all penance is in vain.” To realize the self is to become nonviolent. To be non-violent is to love even one’s opponent , to do good to him who has harmed us, to reward vice with virtue, and while doing so, to look upon it not as something strange but as one’s natural duty. 14

May He, who came to Draupadi’s rescue, also come to my help? I am an orphan and look to Him for assistance. He alone knows what love I have for the cause of cow-protection. Should that love be pure, may He makes this unworthy servant worthy. I have taken upon my shoulders many responsibilities that He has burdened me with. He may add one more to these, if He so desires. He alone can make me overcome my fears. 15 Instead of talking of universal love, it would be enough if we give up the calico made in the mills of Ahmadabad, Japan or England and win instead the simple love of the poor by wearing cloth spun and woven by our own brothers and sisters. Shri Narayan Guru Swami has assured me that he will himself take up spinning and forbid his followers from approaching him unless they are clad in khadi. We have to practise the dharma of ahimsa and love in another matter as well. 16

Your love of the country must be of an indifferent character if you neglect your neighbours, though all are your neighbours, for your distant neighbours of the Punjab, even though the Punjab may be in India. If every one of you will look after his or her immediate neighbours, you will realize that there will be no difficulty and there will be no distress in India. All of you are agreed that this message of khaddar is an inestimable message. I therefore ask every one of you to immediately adopt khaddar if you have not done so already; and I ask you also to reinstate the spinning-wheel in every home here, for unless hundreds and thousands take to voluntary spinning, it will not be possible for us to reach that fineness in yarn which we want to realize, and unless we take to voluntary spinning, it will not be possible for us to cheapen khaddar as we are able to, and it was because of the immense possibility of the spinning-wheel that I ventured to suggest to every Congressman that the franchise should include the spinning test. I had the pleasure of seeing so many of our sisters at the spinning-wheel today. 17

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