I wish to share words of wisdom from Mahatma Gandhi, a great human rights lawyer whose practice of the doctrine non-violence led to the post-War independence of India. Thus:
Hatred ever kills. Love never dies. Such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred.
There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e. the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being.
Insistence on truth can come into play when one party practises untruth or injustice. Only then can love be tested. True friendship is put to the test only when one party disregards the obligation of friendship.
It may be long before the law of love will be recognized in international affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another.
Non-cooperation is an attempt to awaken the masses to a sense of their dignity and power. This can only be done by enabling them to realize that they need not fear brute force, if they would but know the soul within.
To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that the one that must be loved is not a friend. There is no merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend.
The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted.
An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody will see it.
Even as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Non-cooperation is directed not against men but against measures. It is not directed against the Governors, but against the system they administer. The roots of non-cooperation lie not in hatred but in justice, if not in love.
Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it.
There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.
Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.
The only virtue I want to claim is truth and non-violence. I lay no claim to superhuman powers. I want none. I wear the same corruptible flesh that the weakest of my fellow beings wears, and am therefore as liable to err as any. My services have many limitations, but God has up to now blessed them in spite of the imperfections.
If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause.
Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself.
Experience convinces me that permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence. Even if my belief is a fond delusion, it will be admitted that it is a fascinating delusion.
I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.
It is better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one's belly in order to be able to save one's head.
Imitation is the sincerest flattery.
Let no one charge me with ever having abused or encouraged weakness or surrendered on matters of principle. But I have said, as I say again, that every trifle must not be dignified into a principle.
Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.
Self-respect knows no considerations.
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 then the one derived from fear of punishment.
There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.
I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I claim, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.
Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.
Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.
There will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything great and enduring. That discipline will not come by mere academic argument and appeal to reason and logic. Discipline is learnt in the school of adversity
Constant development is the law of life. A man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.
Commonsense is the realized sense of proportion.
It would conduce to national progress and save a great deal of time and trouble if we cultivated the habit of never supporting resolutions by speaking or voting for them if we had not either the intention or the ability to carry them out.
Breach of promise is a base surrender of truth.
We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?
There should be truth in thought, truth in speech, and truth in action. To the man who has realized this truth in perfection, nothing else remains to be known because all knowledge is necessarily included in it.
An ounce of practice is worth more then tons of preaching.
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 atrembling.
When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.
Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.
The greater the institution, the greater the chances of abuse. Democracy is a great institution and therefore it is liable to be greatly abused. The remedy therefore is not avoidance of democracy but reduction of the possibility of abuse to a minimum.
To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation of the soul.
Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.
Destruction is not the law of humans. Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.
Every murder or other injury, no matter for what cause, committed or inflicted on another is a crime against humanity.
The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.
Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living ?
The hardest metal yields to sufficient heat. Even so must the hardest heart melt before sufficiency of the heat of non- violence. And there is no limit to the capacity of non-violence to generate heat.
Rights accrue automatically to him who duly performs his duties. In fact the right to perform one's duties is the only right that is worth living for and dying for. It covers all legitimate rights.
It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.
An opponent is entitled to the same regard for his principles as we would expect others to have for ours. Non-violence demands that we should seek every opportunity to win over opponents.
Power invariably elects to go into the hands of the strong. That strength may be physical or of the heart or of the spirit. Strength of the heart connotes soul-force. Let it be remembered that physical force is transitory, even as the body is transitory. But the power of the spirit is permanent even as the spirit is everlasting.
Truth quenches untruth, love quenches anger, self-suffering quenches violence. This eternal rule is a rule not for saints only but for all.
We do not need to proselytize either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.
