Since times immemorial in India (with parallels in other monastic traditions), spiritual communities have gathered around a spiritual teacher in intentional communities to carry out strenuous practices (a-shram comes from a root meaning exertion) under ideal conditions. Gandhi founded four such intentional communities throughout his career that also served as training grounds for those preparing… read more
Posts by Erika
Renunciation
Renunciation is the translation of the Sanskrit term aparigraha, (non-grasping). Renunciation was one of cardinal principles for residents of Gandhi’s ashrams. This attitude of renouncing personal attachment to anything — an object, another person, even an idea or opinion — is the key to self mastery, and also the spiritual key to freedom from coercion by… read more
Phalam
Phalam is a Sanskrit for fruit, and is the word used in the Bhagavad Gita to describe the personal gains acquired as the result of human action. According to the Gita theory of action, one should strive to be detached from these fruits. The goal is to learn to act selflessly and according to one’s duty rather than… read more
karma yoga
Karma yoga is the path of detached, selfless action. In yogic tradition, it is one of four paths to self-realization—along with bhakti, devotion or selfless, detached love, jnana, wisdom or intuitive awareness of the real, and raja, the royal path, a blend of the other three based on the practice of meditation. Gandhi was a supreme practitioner… read more
swadharma
In the Indian spiritual tradition, dharma means the way, literally law or duty. Everything and everyone in existence has its own dharma — its essential way of being in the world — that is in harmony with the overriding dharma of nonviolence that applies to all life (ahimsa paramo dharma). Thus a person’s swadharma (swa, own,… read more
Karma
Karma is the Sanskrit word for action. Because thought is an action, karma includes our thoughts and actions and their collective effect on us. This is known in psychology as our conditioning. Everything that is experienced, including thoughts, leaves a kind of mark on us, a fact now borne out by modern neuroscience. These experiences… read more
Gita Theory of Action
The Gita Theory of Action, derived from the ancient Indian spiritual text the Bhagavad Gita, is Gandhi’s approach to nonviolent action in a nutshell. The basic formula for selfless action is: choose the right goal, use the right means, and leave the results to God. The right goal is unity, or reconciliation, rather than winning or… read more
Vedanta
The vedanta is the ancient worldview that underlies all systems of Indian philosophy. A primary source for this worldview is the Upanishads. The Upanishads were handed down by tradition at the end of the Vedas, and Vedanta literally means “end of the Vedas.” This foundation of Indian spiritual thought, with its insistence on the underlying… read more
Detachment
According to the Gita Theory of Action, the philosophical basis of Gandhi’s approach to nonviolence, inaction is not possible for the human being as our thoughts themselves are actions. In effect, the decision not to act is a kind of action in itself. Since inaction is impossible, human beings must focus on how to act in… read more
Three Gunas
The three gunas of the Yogic tradition are the three energy states of the phenomenal world, tamas, rajas, and sattva. Tamas is a state of apathy and inaction, rajas of excitement and activity, and sattva meaning law or balance, is a state in which detachment, or selfless action is possible. Tamas describes people who respond to… read more
