“I am used to misrepresentation all of my life. It is the lot of every public worker.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, May 27, 1926, p. 193

Here Gandhi offers us a warning and a lesson: misrepresentation is going to happen, especially when an ordinary human being attempts to harness the power of nonviolence in the social field. The misrepresenting can be of two kinds: those who simply do not understand what they are seeing; and those who understand very well what they are witnessing when they see nonviolence and they want to try to stop it. The lesson that Gandhi teaches us is to be on guard against bitterness or resentment; let it go and don’t get caught up in keeping a perfect image to everyone, thereby losing sight of the work ahead. No one is perfect, and public opinion will not make anyone more or less perfect either–that’s reserved for the inner work we all have waiting for us.

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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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