For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Ahimsa and Mahatma Gandhi-XV

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-XV

Removal of untouchability means love for and service of the whole world and thus merges into ahimsa. Removal of untouchability spells the breaking down of barriers between man and man, and between the various orders of beings. We find such barriers erected everywhere in the world; but here we have been mainly concerned with the untouchability which has received religious sanction in India and reduced lakhs and crores of human beings to a state bordering on slavery. 1 Tolerance may imply a gratuitous assumption of the inferiority of other faiths to one’s own and respect suggests a sense of patronizing whereas ahimsa teaches us to entertain the same respect for the religious faiths of others as we accord to our own, thus admitting the imperfection of the latter. This admission will be readily made by a seeker of Truth, who follows the law of Love. If we had attained the full vision of Truth, we would no longer be mere seekers, but would have become one with God, for Truth is God. 2 Humility cannot be an observance by itself. For it does not lend itself to being deliberately practised. It is, however, an indispensable test of ahimsa. In one who has ahimsa in him it becomes part of his very nature. 3

We make frequent use of the word ‘yajna’. We have raised spinning to the rank of a daily mahayajna. It is therefore necessary to think out the various implications of the term ‘yajna’. ‘Yajna’ means an act directed to the welfare of others, done without desiring any return for it, whether of a temporal or spiritual nature. ‘Act’ here must be taken in its widest sense, and includes thought and word, as well as deed. ‘Others’ embraces not only humanity, but all life. Therefore, and also from the standpoint of ahimsa, it is not a yajna to sacrifice lower animals even with a view to serving humanity. It does not matter that animal sacrifice is supposed to find a place in the Vedas. It is enough for us that such sacrifice cannot stand the fundamental tests of Truth and Non-violence. I readily admit my incompetence in Vedic scholarship. But the incompetence, so far as this subject is concerned, does not worry me because, even if the practice of animal sacrifice be proved to have been a feature of Vedic society, it can form no precedent for a votary of ahimsa. 4 The case of the motherland is exactly similar. After all it does matter in which land and in which atmosphere we are born. Ahimsa has its origin in this thought. In so far as ahimsa means universal love it can have direct application in our serving the creatures that are nearest us. 5

As we reflect deeper and remain peaceful, the meaning of ahimsa and truth becomes clearer. I even realize the supreme utility of these two. I believe we realize God in the degree to which we practise them. I am getting more convinced than ever in my view that seeing God except through truth and ahimsa is impossibility. How can members of a group practise ahimsa towards one another? They can do so by displaying generosity towards coworkers and their faults and everyone regarding his own faults with strictness. Anyone who observes the faults of others believes, whether he is conscious of the fact or not, that he does not have the same faults. This gives rise to pride. The true rule is that one should oneself observe all rules strictly and tolerate others who seem slack in observing them. This is not kindness but strict justice. Do we really know what effort is made by a person in observing a rule even as slackly as he does? If our seeming strictness in observing rules comes naturally to us, what is the value of that strictness? Is it any cause for wonder if a man like Bhima can lift a weight of four pounds with the utmost ease? A girl, however, might slip down while trying to lift one pound; what would we think of that Bhima if he laughed at her then? Really speaking, the effort of that girl to lift one pound is of much greater value than Bhima’s lifting the weight of four pounds. If Bhima had not lifted that weight, somebody else as strong would have lifted it; but by her effort to lift one pound that girl taught the world a lesson in doing one’s duty and earned God’s grace.

Our dharma therefore does not lie in criticizing others and thereby committing violence; it lies in becoming more vigilant ourselves. If a strong bullock is yoked with one seemingly or really weak, the former’s duty is to do more work and make up for the deficiency of the latter. The driver goads it to labour harder. If the strong bullock does not do the work expected of it, it is looked upon as a shirker; it is selfish and has no pity on the other one. Let us never be shirkers. Let us always do our duty. God will judge us and our co-workers. He can see into the hearts of all. We scarcely can see into our own. We easily learn this if we strive sincerely to cultivate ahimsa. 6 I was happy that Lilavati had to suffer. That is, it is always better that, instead of some other woman, and a woman of the Ashram should have to suffer. An inmate of the Ashram should have more endurance and the spirit of ahimsa in her. 7

In renewing your acquaintance after so many months, I feel within me a glow of pleasure that under the greatest difficulty the paper has continued publication. I had told my co-workers that, in the event of suppression by the authorities, the paper were to continue publication even though it was a hand-written sheet multiplied to the extent of volunteers coming up to make copies. Where there is perfect coordination and willingness, copies can be thus multiplied without end and no printing press in the world can compete with such an effort. But I know that this is true in theory. In practice, one does not find that willingness. But nothing is impossible for ahimsa or active, unadulterated love. It surmounts all difficulties. My companions have chosen an effective though in my opinion a method less in keeping with the spirit of ahimsa and truth which know no secrecy. But I do not judge them. On the contrary, their organizing ability has commanded my admiration and respect. I do not yet know how over seven thousand copies are being issued with such regularity. I must content myself with thanking the invisible helpers and the numerous readers who have continued their association with Young India. In renewing contact with the readers through these sheets, let me redeclare my faith. Over eight months’ contemplation in solitude has, if possible, increased my faith in truth and ahimsa. At the risk of incurring ridicule, I repeat what I have said so often that voluntary universal adoption of khaddar with all its vast implications means purna swaraj and that civil disobedience becomes a necessary duty only because khaddar has not yet obtained the hold it should. 8

The young men were simply shouting, “Gandhi go back”, “Down with Gandhism”. They had a right to do so inasmuch as they thought that I had not done everything in my power to save Bhagat Singh, or that being a believer in ahimsa, I had simply neglected Bhagat Singh and his comrades. But they had no intention to molest me or for the matter of that anyone else. They allowed everyone to pass, and then a young man handed to me flowers made of black cloth. They might have thrown them on me and insulted me, but they had no such intention. Flowers are given me everywhere, I am usually indifferent about them, even when they are received from dear sisters and sometimes even chide them for wasting the flowers on me. But these I seized and have treasured them. I shall also tell you what I want to do with them. If the young men come and tell me that they should not have been angry and that their suspicions about me were groundless and that therefore they want the flowers returned to them, I shall gladly give them back. But if they do not do so, they will be sent to the Ashram to be preserved as heirlooms. 9 The charge of moderation I must admit. Friends who know me have certified that I am as much a moderate as I am an extremist and as much a conservative as I am a radical Hence perhaps my good fortune to have friends among these extreme types of men. The mixture is due, I believe, to my view of ahimsa. 10

If I have anywhere referred to India having received the fullest support from world opinion, it should be set down as an unconscious exaggeration. I should like to be shown such a statement of mine if I have made one. For myself I have absolutely no idea of having made any such statement. The correspondent, by comparing the condition of unarmed India pitted against the British military power to that of a defenseless woman thrown at the tender mercy of a ruffian, has done an injustice to the strength as well of non-violence as of woman. Had not man in his blind selfishness crushed woman’s soul as he has done or had she not succumbed to ‘the enjoyments’ she would have given the world an exhibition of the infinite strength that is latent in her. What she showed in the last fight was but a broken and imperfect glimpse of it. The world shall see it in all its wonder and glory when woman has secured a equal opportunity for herself with man and fully developed her powers of mutual aid and combination. And it is wrong to say that a person is unarmed in the sense of being weak that has ahimsa as his weapon. The correspondent is evidently a stranger to the real use or the immeasurable power of ahimsa. He has used it; if at all, only mechanically and as an expedience for want of a better. Had he been saturated with the spirit of ahimsa, he would have known that it can take the wildest beast, certainly the wildest man. If, therefore, the world’s blood did not boil over the brutalities of the past year, it was not because the world was brutal or heartless but because our non-violence, widespread through it was, good enough though it was for the purpose intended, was not the nonviolence of the strong and the knowing. It did not spring from a living faith. It was but a policy, a temporary expedient. Though we did not retaliate, we had harboured anger; our speech was not free from violence, our thoughts still less so. We generally refrained from violent action, because we were under discipline. The world marveled even at this limited exhibition of non-violence and gave us, without any propaganda, the support and sympathy that we deserved and needed. The rest is a matter of the rule of three. If we had the support that we received for the limited and mechanical non-violence we were able to practise during the recent struggle, how much more support should we command when we have risen to the full height of ahimsa? Then the world’s blood will certainly boil. I know we are still far away from that divine event. We realized our weakness at Cawnpore, Benares, and Mirzapur. When we are saturated with ahimsa we shall not be nonviolent in our fight with the bureaucracy and violent among ourselves. When we have a living faith in non-violence, it will grow from day to day till it fills the whole world. It will be the mightiest propaganda that the world will have witnessed. I live in the belief that we will realize that vital ahimsa. 11

I have said before in these pages that I claim no followers. It is enough for me to be my own follower. It is by itself a sufficiently taxing performance. But I know that many claim to be my followers. I must therefore answer the questions for their sakes. If they will follow what I endeavour to stand for rather than me they will see that the following answers are derived from truth and ahimsa. 12 Camping for Congress volunteers should mean greater dedication, greater self-purification, greater service of the poor, greater skill in hand-spinning and carding, greater skill in dealing with repairs to various machines required for spinning, ginning, carding, etc.; and above all, greater regard for truth and ahimsa. A Congress volunteer in camp should mean cleaning up of surrounding villages. 13 But even swadeshi like any other good thing can be ridden to death if it is made a fetish. That is a danger that must be guarded against. To reject foreign manufactures merely because they are foreign and to go on wasting national time and money to promote manufactures in one’s country for which it is not suited would be criminal folly and a negation of the swadeshi spirit. A true votary of swadeshi will never harbour ill-will towards the foreigner; he will not be moved by antagonism towards anybody on earth. Swadeshism is not a cult of hatred. It is a doctrine of selfless service that has its roots in the purest ahimsa, i.e., love. 14

I am glad that your weight and strength are increasing. Remember the verse about fasting in the verses of the second chapter of the Gita that we sing every evening. Fasting is good enough up to a point. But if we are nervous about our perception of Truth and Ahimsa, the moment we begin to satisfy real hunger, we have reached the danger point, and our ascribing a better perception of Truth and Ahimsa to fasting or semi-fasting may be pure hallucination. Hard work must be consistent with hard and clear thinking. Conversely, hard and clear thinking I hold to be impossible if a person has become physically a perfect wreck. A healthy mind in a healthy body is a correct maxim. 15 I see nothing inconsistent with ahimsa in this or with the terms of the Settlement. Even an economic boycott requires strict vigilance, if the people are to be weaned from a habit of practically a century. They have to be repeatedly reminded that it is a bad habit. The test that the boycott now is purely economic lies in this, that there is not boycott of British cloth or British goods as such. That boycott was most effectively used during the campaign frankly as a political weapon and stopped as if by magic immediately the Settlement was announced. This can be proved by producing conclusive evidence that almost the day after the Settlement orders for British machinery, British drugs and the like were dispatched. Have I made the position clear? I can assure you that there is no desire on the part of any member of the Working Committee to use the economic boycott as a political weapon. That it has political consequences is not to be denied. The fact was before both Lord Irwin and me during our talks and he recognized that it was inevitable. But you can examine the position in this way also. Supposing that Lancashire withdrew its trade in piece-goods from India which is after all 12%, boycott of foreign cloth will still continue although the competitor will be chiefly Japan. To complete the case I am sending you the correspondence bearing on the question between the Central Government and myself. 16

I begin with the Hindus. We are an overwhelming majority. If we feel physically dwarfs before the Mussalman and the Sikh giants, we shall never grow through the legislatures. We shall grow by shedding fear, not by straining our limbs. Courage has never been known to be a matter of muscle; it is a matter of the heart. The toughest muscle has been known to tremble before an imaginary fear. It was the heart that set the muscle trembling. Let us take heart and endorse what the Mussalmans and the Sikhs ask. This is just, weighed in the scales of ahimsa otherwise spelt love. If this scheme results in opening the eyes of us Hindus, it would be well even though non-nationalist Sikhs and Mussalmans may reject it. 17 When you are buffeted about and thrown on your resources, it becomes a tough job. If you give yourselves to study, if you dedicate yourselves to study, to eternal research, there is no limit to joy, there is no limit to pleasure that you derive from that study. My study consistently has been the search after Truth. During the early days of my study and search I could not consistently find Truth unless I invited injury against myself and not against others. I could find Truth only when I eschewed all feeling of causing injury to others, but, when necessary, inflicting it on myself Because, as you must be knowing, Truth and violence are opposed to each other: Violence hides Truth and, if you try to find Truth by violence, you will betray horrible ignorance in the search of Truth and, therefore, non-violence without any exception whatsoever. I have come to realize the essence of life that is ahimsa. 18

You have dealt with one of the problems which reformers in India hope to rectify in time. In my Ashram, we had a dying calf. He had stinking sores and was lame. I put an end to his earthly existence by painless injections. I was bitterly attacked by some of my fellow countrymen, who in my view have yet to learn that ahimsa never meant that suffering which could be terminated should be permitted. I think that much of the animal suffering in India today is due to this travesty of what ahimsa meant. 19 Just a line in reply to your question whilst I am sitting at the Conference. I favour preference to Lancashire to help a partner nation in its distress, assuming of course that partnership was possible. Why should Japan complain that I prefer a partner in distress? If India becomes partner instead of remaining subject, there is no Empire. You must relate all my acts to ahimsa. In ahimsa there is no room for immoral expedience. 20

I found too that love in the sense of ahimsa and non-violence has only a limited number of votaries in the world. And as I made progress in my search, I made no dispute with “God is love”. It is very difficult to understand “God is love” (because of a variety of meanings of love) but I never found a double meaning in connection with Truth and not even atheists have denied the necessity or power of Truth. Not only so. In their passion for discovering Truth, they have not hesitated even to deny the very existence of God from their own point of view rightly. 21 The second chapter of the Gita has presented difficulties to many. I would commend to your attention my introduction to the Gita. I have dealt with the difficulty in that introduction. If you have not read it, get a copy from the Ashram. It was published in Young India. In the first instance, forget that God is speaking through the Gita. God never speaks save through defective human agency. In the second instance, it is not to be treated as a historical book. Thirdly, it was written by him in whose time war was not taboo and was not considered inconsistent with ahimsa, just as even now generally speaking, killing of animals for food or in self-protection is not considered inconsistent with ahimsa, though in point of fact it is. The author of the Gita therefore chose for driving his lesson home an illustration which we are entitled to consider as defective. Personally I have no difficulty in understanding the second chapter. The central teaching of the Gita is in Biblical language ‘Be careful for nothing’. Results are not for us to control. Having known the path of duty it must be pursued in total disregard of consequence. Arjuna’s reasoning was defective and arose from attachment to earthly ties. He was not averse to war; he was averse to fighting kinsmen. The religious answer to this attachment would be, there is no kinsman and no-kinsman. All are the whole creation is kinsmen or no one is. If therefore it is lawful to wage war at all, it makes no difference whether it is kinsmen who are concerned or strangers. But this physical, outward war is merely a shadow of the war that is going on within between God and Satan, forces of evil and good. And do we not always have difficult and delicate problems of conscience arising within us? The Gita says, “Surrender all to God, He will take care of you and your doubts; do not vex yourself about anything but simply perform the service that comes to you in the name of and for the sake of God. Cultivate uttermost selflessness and all will be well.” The result of this selfless detachment must be uttermost truth and nonviolence. Thus read, the second chapter instead of being a hindrance becomes, in my opinion, a help. 22

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