“The author of the Mahabharata has not established the necessity of physical warfare; on the contrary he has proved its futility.” ~ Gandhi, The Gita According to Gandhi, p. 128

The Bhagavad Gita is a chapter out of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Seemingly, it is a book about a great war; even the Gita takes place on a battlefield. So would we think that such stories are there to teach us that war is wisdom? Gandhi disagrees. He notes that these great stories only show the futility of warfare and violence: whosoever lives by violence in these epics comes to ruin. Could we have Gandhi do a commentary on Star Wars? If only…

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Stephanie Van Hook, the Metta Center’s executive director, launched Daily Metta in 2015 as a way to share Gandhi’s spiritual wisdom and experiments with nonviolence.

Our 2016 Daily Metta continues with Gandhi on weekdays. On weekends, we share videos that complement Michael Nagler’s award-winning book, The Search for a Nonviolent Future: A Promise of Peace for Ourselves, Our Families, and Our World. To help readers engage with the book more deeply, the Metta Center offers a free PDF study guide.

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