“Mutual tolerance is a necessity for all time and for all races.” ~ Gandhi,  Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 401

There could hardly be a more needed message for our day. But Gandhi will go beyond mere “tolerance” and argue that every child must be given a “reverential study” of all the world’s major faiths. That would teach the child that her or his own faith is only one system among others, and hopefully that “One who has no respect for another religion has no respect for his own”—the text of a famous edict by Emperor Ashoka, who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from c. 268 to 232 BCE. Interestingly, Gandhi never encouraged anyone to convert to another faith, much less attempt to convert another person. He did believe that all valid paths lead to the same goal and that being born into a particular one was not a matter of coincidence, but had some “karmic” meaning.

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About Daily Metta

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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