I'm sure I will shock My Professor a little bit with this little confession and perhaps some of you, knowing full well that my responses to many of these assignments have been a-light with anger, yet I tell you the above meditation has been the cornerstone of my spirituality since I was a girl of 12 when I fell in love with Hinduism.
One of my favorite Quotes of Gandhi's is the "Be the change you wish to see in the world." a sentiment which is highly reflective of Gandhi's Hindu upbringing. It is my fundamental spiritual belief that we are all one organism, each person, each life, each plant, animal, microorganism or monster we are all one being, and that being IS God.
I came to this startling epiphany during my own search for God, without the confines of church intervention I was able to academically guide my own search following those concepts which felt to me to be the most true.
In this book we are given the image of Gandhi seated in concentraited prayer listening to these lines from the Bhagavad Gita and I imagine he was actually trying to realize this connection to devinity. For it is only through great love can we be so enraged by the lack of it in others.
I believe the shaping of Gandhi the persona we idolize today that he obviously tried in the later portion of his life to cultivate was a direct result of two major contributing factors in his life. His time spent in Africa fighting on the side of the British force cleaning up the injured and the dead during the Zulu’s bid for Independence; and his mother’s deep interest in Jainism.
Jainism is one of the oldest religions in the world, indeed containing a rich library, the most literate followers in the world, and many of the ideals later followed by Gandhi are teachings of Jainists, who go so far in order to avoid even accidentally causing harm to even the lowliest of creature place a white card over their mouth and nose so they do not accidentally ingest anything living.
As Easwaran says Gandhi “sought to make himself Zero” that is to attain that state of perfection that is laid down in the Bhagavad Gita. Many religions teach that love is the answer but few warn us away from too much love. I do not mean lust, passion or desire, but I mean a truly null state of being; to live equally, to see clearly, to identify with all, and accept all with equality.
This is really only seen in the eastern religions and I am a firm believer that many of our wisest philosophical and religious minds which came into contact with this way of thought, from Jesus, Buddha, Dalai Lama, Gandhi and through Gandhi Martin Luther King Jr. we see an eventual broadening of the mind, an iris of understanding and perceiving that broadens their scope of brotherly love.
“Evil is only real in so far as we support it. The essence of holding onto truth is to withdraw support of what is wrong.” Gandhi was known to be a highly stubborn man, how could he not be with the goals he gave himself which he accomplished. A great will and stubbornness would be needed to starve oneself by choice, to traverse the entirety of India to walk to the sea, to withstand beatings and do jail time all in the name of what you believe.
I looked up to Gandhi’s example for much of my young life, because I could identify with his mentality, his sentiment that we cannot support evil, as one of my favorite poets so aptly said
Do not go gentle into that good night. By Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I think perhaps cleaning up after the slaughter of innocents, the people he once believed to be inferior yes in fact having once said that the "white race of South Africa should be the predominating race." struck Gandhi in a way that was perhaps pivotal to the formation of his dedication to the cause of nonviolence, for before his time serving in our majesties army Gandhi had been a meat eater, convinced that the Indian people would only be made strong of limb enough to rise up to drive out the British if they ate meat.
I think perhaps it was Gandhi’s first real experience with death and violence and what he saw changed him forever, and eventually what changed the world. Would you not be sickened by war, pain, suffering, violence and attrition if you had to clean up the remains of simply armed Zulu’s with their hide shields and rock tipped spears riddled with bullet holes and trampled by horses?
It is no wonder that he “found no glory in the fields” of Natal, but only his chosen path to enlightenment.
In fact I believe that Gandhi’s soul that “raged against the dying of the light” would not have let him rest knowing he could do something, ANYTHING to “be the change you wish to be in the world” but this first hand dance with the effects of violence deeply disturbed, sickened and left Gandhi feeling violated.
Not all of us can handle the sight of blood, not everyone can be a nurse able to take care of and nurse others, some of us can handle violence, and some of us can clean up the shit, puke, blood and guts of the world. I do not believe Gandhi could actually handle the cruelty, the ugliness in this world, so turning from this he sought to change the world into something he could understand, that he could live in because being quiet was never an option for him.
In the end I would love to believe in a world free of violence, of suffering, that man could one shining day live this way, but then I remember we are animals, and dream drifts away like a cloud drifting overhead in a blue Vermont sky. While I believe what Asha Devi said was true that “there are no limits to our capabilities.” we can BE the change we wish to see in this world if only we accepted less apathy in this world and more anger springing from the greatest love.
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