January 26

“The true source of rights is duty.”

–Gandhi (Mahatma, Vol. 2, p. 179)
 

When Gandhi was asked to sign the Declaration of Human Rights, he said to bring him instead a Declaration of Human Duties, and he would sign that. Duties and rights always went hand in hand for him. The  talk of mere rights was sentimental and symbolic when decoupled from our responsibilities–the things that we must do to realize ours and others’ rights. And he felt strongly that focusing on our personal rights could become selfish, while focusing on our duties to the whole would avoid that danger and bring our rights in their wake. In this way, his perspective suggests that if we are carrying out our duty, and our rights are being ignored, say if we are being exploited, it becomes our duty to offer nonviolent resistance to uplift our rights and those of others.

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Read the Declaration of Human Rights. Identify the duties that would uphold those rights.

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.