“When a body of men disown the state under which they had hitherto lived, they nearly establish their own government.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, November 10, 1921

Nonviolence is the supreme law of life, is a well-known phrase from the Vedic scriptures. Gandhi must be drawing on it here to emphasize that nonviolence is very much a law. To disown a state would mean to repudiate its means, the law of its being; so a group, Gandhi points out, is in that sense nearly establishing their own government. But there is another point here, as well: The way that one can overcome a violent entity or institution is by countering its violence with an escalation of nonviolence. This is a basic dynamic in nonviolent action and it can be applied from the personal to the global sphere.

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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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