February 4

“The law of love will work, just as the law of gravitation will work, whether we accept it or not.”

–Gandhi (The Nation’s Voice, Part II, pp. 109-110)

Gandhi was a scientist when it came to the practice of nonviolence. He carried out precise experiments in every aspect of his life, driven by a burning desire to realize its promise: liberation. Like anyone who has studied nonviolence even for one day, Gandhi had many people tell him that nonviolence was unrealistic and it wouldn’t work. To those people, Gandhi would humbly state: “the law of love will work” whether we are aware of it or not, whether we accept it or not.

The essence of any spiritual law must always return to the human being for Gandhi, for we are body, mind, and spirit.  If there are laws of the universe that apply to the body, like gravity, there are also laws that govern the spirit. The spirit was firmly Gandhi’s domain. His claim that “love works” was not hypothetical, hopeful or even merely sentimental; it was the fruit of direct experience and systematic practice in working out this law on the widest scale possible.

 

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Consider how seeing another person as mind, body and spirit, expands the possibilities of understanding them.

 

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.