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Selected Letters Of Gandhiji
To Mangaldas Gandhi
After March 14, 1915
Posh Vad 101, 1971,
(After March 14, 1915)
You are right in what you think
about nonviolence. It essentials are daya,2 akrodha,3 aman,4 etc. clearly in
Calcutta and came to the conclusion that we should include it among our vows.
The thought led to the further conclusion that we do so by way of vows, we
perceive the inner significance of non-violence. In my talks with hundreds of
men here I place the various yamas above everything else.
shiyaram premphiushpuran hot janmu
na bharatko
munimanagam yamniyamsamdam vishamvrath achartko.
1.Maganlal Gandhi-Gandhiji's cousin;
assisted Gandhiji for about a decade in his work a party of about 25 students
and teachers for India and with them stayed for some time at Tagore's Shanti
Niketan; Manager, Sabarmati Ashram; Member, All India Khadi Board. Such was his
devotion to Constructive Programme that Gandhiji felt widowed by his untimely
death in 1928.
2. Compassion
3. Freedom from anger
4. Freedom from the desire to be respected
5. Any great moral or religious duty or observance
6. "If Bharata had not been born, imbued with the ambrosia of love for Sita and
Rama, then who would have practiced such self-control and strict observance,
continence, restraint and rigorous vows as scare enter the imagination of
sages?" - Ayodhya Kanda (Second book) of 'Tulsidas' Ramayana, (Hill's
translation).
I remembered this verse in Calcutta on this occasion and pondered deeply over
it. I am absolutely clear in my mind that India's deliverance of these vows.
In observing the vow of
non-hoarding, the main thing to be borne in mind is not to store up anything
which we do not require. For agriculture, we may keep bullocks, if we use them,
and the equipment required for them. Where there is a recurring danger required
for them. Where there is a recurring danger of famine, we shall no doubt store
food-grains. But we shall always ask ourselves whether bullocks and food-grains
are in fact needed. We are to observe all the yamas in thought as well, so that
we shall grow more secure in them from day to day and come to think of fresh
things to renounce. Renunciation has no limit to it. The more we renounce, the
more shall we grow in the knowledge of the atman.1 If the mind continues to move
towards renunciation of the desire for hoarding and if in practice we give up
hoarding as far as it is physically possible to do, we shall have kept the vow
of non-hoarding.
The same is true about non-stealing.
Non-hoarding refers to stocking of things no needed. Non-stealing refers to the
use of such things not needed. Non-stealing refers to the use of such things. If
I need only one shirt to cover myself with but use two, I am guilty of stealing
one from another. For, a short which could have been of use to someone else does
not belong to me. If five bananas are enough to keep me going, my eating a sixth
one is a form of theft. Suppose we have a stock of limes, thinking that among us
all we would need them. I need only two, but take three because there are so
many. This is theft.
Such unnecessary consumption is also a violation of the vow of non-violence. If
with the ideal of non-stealing in view, we reduce our consumption of things we
would grow more generous. If, we do so, actuated by the ideal of non-violence,
we would grow more compassionate. In assuring, as it were, every animal or
living thing that it need have no fear on our account, we entertain such love
will not find any living being inimical to him, not even in thought. That is the
most emphatic conclusion of the Shastras and my experience as well.
The principle underlying all these
vows in truth. By deceiving oneself, one may refuse to recognize an act of
stealing or hoarding as such. Hence, by taking careful thought we can ensure at
every step that truth prevails. Whenever we are in doubt whether a particular
thing should be stored or not, the wisdom of speaking, it is the duty of a man
who has taken the vow of truth not to speak.
I want all of you to take only such
vows as each one feels inclined to, of his own free will. I always feel that
vows are necessary. But everyone may take them only when he himself feels the
need and take only such as he wants to.
Ramchandra may have been a man of great prowess, performed innumerable feats and
killed hundreds of thousands of monsters, but no one would think of him today if
he had not had such devoted men as Lakshmana and Bharata to follow him. The
points is, if Ramchandra had had no more than extraordinary strength as a
fighter, his greatness would have been forgotten after a while. There have been
many brave warriors who killed monsters as he did. There has been none among
them whose fame and greatness are sung in every home. Ramchandra possessed power
of some other kind which he could induce into Lakshmana and Bharata and in
virtue of which the latter became great men of austerities. Singing in praise of
their austerities, Tulsidasji asked, who else, if Bharata had not been born and
practised austerities unattainable even by great sages, would have else, if
Bharata had not been born and practised austerities unattainable even by great
sages, would have turned an ignorant man like him to Rama? This is as much as to
say that Lakshmana and Bharata were the guardians of Rama's fame, that is, of
his teaching. moreover, austerities are not everything. For, if Lakshmana went
without food or sleep for 14 years, so did Indrajit1. But the latter did not
know the true significance of austerities which Lakshmana (Meghnad, son of
Ravana, who had earned the name of Indrajit, by his victory over Indra, chief of
the Gods.) had learnt from Rama; on the contrary, he possessed a nature which
inclined him to misuse the power earned through austerities and so came to be
known merely as a monster and suffered defeat at the hands of Lakshmana, the man
of self-mastery, a lover of God and seeker of deliverance. In the same way,
however great the ideal of Gurudev, (Rabindranath Tagore) if there is no one to
implement that ideal, it will spread its light multiplied many times over. The
steps which one has to climb in order to practice an ideal constitute tapas.
(Penance) One should realize, therefore, how very necessary it is to bring
tapas-discipline-into the life of children.
Blessing from Bapu
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