Arun Gandhi Reflects on Working Toward Peace
The
greatest challenge in promoting nonviolence is the English
language and its limitations. The next is our perception,
rooted for centuries, that violence is the only way we can
resolve our problems.
When my grandfather Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi developed
his philosophy of nonviolence in South Africa and wanted
an appropriate word to describe it, he could not find one.
He rejected "passive resistance" and "civil
disobedience," saying there was nothing passive or
disobedient about the movement. He even offered a reward
to anyone who could come up with a positive English word
to describe what he had in mind. Alas, no one could.
Gandhi decided a Sanskrit word might be more appropriate,
as he was planning to move back to India and lead the Indian
struggle for freedom. He found satyagraha, a combination
of two Sanskrit words, described his philosophy the best:
satya, meaning "truth," and agraha, meaning "the
pursuit of." Thus, satyagraha means the pursuit of
truth, the opposite of the Western concept of possessing
the truth.
Nonviolence, therefore, can be described as an honest
and diligent pursuit of truth. It could also mean the search
for the meaning of life or the purpose of life, questions
that have tormented humankind for centuries. The fact that
we have not been able to find satisfactory answers to these
questions does not mean there is no answer. It only means
we have not searched with any degree of honesty. The search
has to be both external and internal. We seek to ignore
this crucial search because the sacrifices it demands are
revolutionary. It means moving away from greed, selfishness,
possessiveness, and dominance to love, compassion, understanding,
and respect. It means that to be true to our faith and religion
it is not enough to pray ten times a day. Rather we must
make the Scriptures the basis of our existence.
Because of our materialistic, greedy lifestyle, we have
become very possessive. We seek to possess not only material
goods but even our spiritual beliefs-even peace, if we find
it. How many times have we heard people say, "I am
at peace with myself," or gurus say to their devotees,
"find your peace and hold on to it." Can anyone
find peace or spiritual awakening and hold on to it for
themselves?
Grandfather liked to tell us the story of an ancient Indian
king who was obsessed with finding the meaning of peace.
What is peace? How can we get it? And what should we do
with it when we find it? These were some of the questions
that bothered him. Intellectuals throughout his kingdom
were offered a handsome reward to answer the king's questions.
Many tried but none succeeded. At last, someone suggested
the king consult a sage who lived just outside the borders
of his kingdom.
"He is an old man and very wise," the king was
told. "If anyone can answer your questions he can."
The king went to the sage and posed the eternal question.
Without a word the sage went into his kitchen and brought
a grain of wheat to the king. "In this you will find
the answer to your question," the sage said as he placed
the grain of wheat in the king's outstretched palm.
Puzzled but unwilling to admit his ignorance, the king
clutched the grain of wheat and returned to his palace.
He locked the precious grain in a tiny gold box and placed
the box in his safe. Each morning, upon waking, the king
would open the box and look at the grain seeking an answer,
but he could find nothing.
Weeks later another sage, passing through, stopped to
meet the king, who eagerly invited him to resolve his dilemma.
The king explained how he had asked the eternal question
but was given a grain of wheat. "I have been looking
for an answer every morning but I find nothing."
"It is quite simple, your honor," said the sage.
"Just as this grain represents nourishment for the
body, peace represents nourishment for the soul. Now, if
you keep this grain locked up in a gold box it will eventually
perish without providing nourishment or multiplying. However,
if it is allowed to interact with the elements-light, water,
air, soil-it will flourish and multiply, and soon you would
have a whole field of wheat to nourish not only you but
so many others. This is the meaning of peace. It must nourish
your soul and the souls of others, and it must multiply
by interacting with the elements."
This is the essence of Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence,
or the pursuit of truth. In the lifelong pursuit of truth
we must always be guided by love, compassion, understanding,
and respect. We must allow everything we have to interact
positively with the elements and help create a society of
peace and harmony. The more possessions we have, the more
we have to secure them from those who covet them. This generates
feelings of jealousy and leads the needy to resort to taking
by force what they cannot get through love and the compassion
of the rich.
The best way to understand Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence
is to first understand the extent of the violence we practice,
consciously or unconsciously, every day of our lives. Grandfather
made me aware of the violence in society, including the
violence within myself, by asking me to work on a family
tree of violence, using the same principles as a genealogical
tree.
"Violence has two children," he said, "the
physical and passive forms. Now, every day before you go
to bed I would like you to write under each heading everything
you experienced during the day and its relationship with
violence."
I had to honestly write down my own acts of violence during
the day. This meant that every night I had to analyze my
actions. If I found them to be violent, then the act had
to be identified as such. It was an excellent way of introspection
and acknowledgment of one's own violence.
We generally deny our own violence because we are ignorant
about it or because we are conditioned to look at violence
only in its physical manifestation-wars, fighting, killing,
beating, rapes-where we use physical force. We don't, however,
consider oppression in all its forms-name-calling, teasing,
insulting, disrespectful behavior-as passive forms of violence.
The relationship between passive violence and physical
violence is the same as the relationship between gasoline
and fire. Acts of passive violence generate anger in the
victim, and since the victim has not learned how to use
anger positively, the victim abuses anger and generates
physical violence. Thus, it is passive violence that fuels
the fire of physical violence, which means if we wish to
put out the fire of physical violence we have to cut off
the fuel supply.
The choice before humanity, to quote Gandhi's words, is
quite simple: We have to be the change we wish to see. Unless
we change individually, no one is going to change collectively.
For generations we have been waiting for the other person
to change first. A change of heart cannot be legislated;
it must come out of conviction.
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