January 4

Happiness means an enlightened realization of human dignity and a craving for human liberty which prizes itself above mere selfish satisfaction of personal comforts and material wants and would readily and joyfully sacrifice these.

-Gandhi (Young India 3-5-1931)

When people who knew Gandhi reflect on what it was like to be around him, they would often say, with Narayan Desai, son of Gandhi’s lifelong secretary, Mahadev Desai, “bliss it was to be with Gandhi.”  One day, a reporter asked him his secret, and as Gandhi was observing his day of silence, he wrote on a piece of paper, “Renounce and enjoy.”

Gandhi knew much of the Upanishads by heart, including his favorite verse from the Isha, which in his view, summed up the teachings of his tradition. When he answered this reporter, he was likely paraphrasing the following verse:

The Lord is enshrined in the hearts of all. The Lord is the supreme reality. Rejoice in him through renunciation. Covet nothing. All belongs to the Lord. Thus working may you live a hundred years. Thus alone can you work in full freedom.

These words were integral to his consciousness, forming his character and daily actions. Yet for those of us inundated with messages telling us that happiness comes from consuming, the message of the Isha–and of Gandhi– comes as a challenge.

Happiness–lasting happiness– is not, as it is commonly advertised to us by the mass-media, a passive or idle state induced by  consuming something.  It is, according to Gandhi, “an enlightened realization of human dignity.” Similarly, it is our dignity that gives value and meaning to anything we “get,” even material goods, even political freedom. (It’s not a coincidence that in the Philippine’s People Power Revolution in the 1980s, the Tagalog term for nonviolence was “alay dangal,” which means “to offer dignity.”)

Do you want to be really happy? Do you want to really experience freedom? Gandhi is asking us with his toothless smile. Then offer someone dignity.

Experiment in Nonviolence: 

Take the time to consciously offer someone dignity today. Take notice of the ways in which your own dignity is included when you offer dignity to another.

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.