“Only those who realize that there is something in man which is superior to the brute nature in him, and that the latter always yields to it, can effectively be Passive Resisters.” ~ Gandhi in December 1914, from Gandhi: Essential Writings, by K.K. Ramana Murti

This would seem to be a tall order! But without it, we don’t get the full bearing of Gandhi’s message, which went far beyond being a mere technique or what peace scholar Johan Galtung once called “a set of tricks.” The revolutionary import of Gandhi’s vision was precisely how our vision, or state of mind, will be the final determining factor in the true success or failure of our nonviolent action—a success or failure that sometimes only shows up “down the road” in forms we may not have expected, but follows surely from the state of our consciousness when we performed it.

(Needless to say, by “passive resistance” here he’s actually referring to what he usually called satyagraha, after coining the term in 1908).

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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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