March 5:

“Some Englishmen state that they took, and they hold, India by the sword. Both these statements are wrong. The sword is entirely useless for holding India. We alone keep them.”
–Gandhi (Hind Swaraj, p. 41)

The lie that violence projects is that it is all-powerful, and once someone uses it against us we are hopeless to overcome it. Gandhi saw through this facade, realizing that the spark of nonviolence resides in the reality that violence can really only work if we submit to it. We have to believe ourselves to be incapable of surmounting the challenges violence poses in order for it to have its full effect. (Recall here the words of Albert Szent-Gyeorgyi, that Gandhi “proved that force had lost its suggestive power”). For this reason, nonviolence requires an enormous faith in ourselves. But, at the same time, that faith alone is not enough. We need to have an alternative toward which we can turn. This is the brilliance of constructive program that Gandhi developed during the Indian Freedom Struggle: if you want nonviolence to be real, give people something concrete to do. Don’t just make them dream about a better system, give them a way to participate in building it; let them live it and strive to uphold it. That is Gandhi’s style of empowerment.

Experiment in Nonviolence:
What do you feel powerless about changing in your life, either personally or socially? How can you apply Gandhi’s vision of empowerment in your thinking about this situation?

Daily Metta 2015, a service of the Metta Center for Nonviolence, is a daily reflection on the strategic and spiritual insights of Mahatma Gandhi in thought, word and deed. As Gandhi called his life an “experiment in truth,” we have included an experiment in nonviolence to accompany each Daily Metta. Check in every day for new inspiration. Each year will be dedicated to another wisdom teacher.