“Still the community stood unmoved; only the weaklings slipped away. But even the weaklings had done their best. Let us not despise them.” ~ Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, p. 206

Our Mahatma treads a fine line between demanding the best of everyone around him and compassion for them when they did not rise to his expectations. He held people accountable to the highest standards but was constitutionally incapable of disrespect for anyone, even those who failed. In this we can see the germ of what has become in our day “restorative justice,” the approach, slowly taking hold in schools and the prison system, where those who have offended take full responsibility for whatever they’ve done but given every chance to go forward with dignity. Indeed, it confers dignity to take responsibility; but then, as the saying goes, “you are not the worst thing you ever did.” This was part of his formula for drawing the best out of “ordinary” people—and building a following that has not been seen before or since.

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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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