“All have not the same capacity. It is in the nature of things, impossible.… I would allow a man of intellect to earn more, I would not cramp his talent.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, November 26, 1931

Is this inequality? Not quite. Because earning more doesn’t mean being better; money is not life. We need the talents of the more gifted; what we don’t need is their superiority. What checks the latter are the concept of trusteeship, and more generally the image of the human being as a spiritual being deeply interconnected with all of life. With these, no difference in endowment need compromise “heart unity;” any difference in capacity becomes only a greater capacity for service.

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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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