March 1:

“Experience gained in two schools under my control has taught me that punishment does not purify; if anything, it hardens children.”

–Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 2, p. 218)

(Pictured: Gandhi’s wife Kasturba, and their four children)  

One day, Gandhi’s grandson Arun was in Johannesburg with his father, Manilal, getting their car fixed. While his father went to an appointment, Arun was to wait for the car and pick him up when it was ready. However, he decided to go into the theatre and watch some John Wayne films. He watched a double feature, and suddenly realized that it was way past the time to pick up his father.  He decided to make up a story about the car not being ready earlier, to avoid getting in trouble. To his surprise, when he told his father what “happened,” Manilal told him that he had already called the garage, and knew that the story was not true.

Disappointed that his son would choose to lie to him, he decided he would walk home to the ashram, over 18 miles away! Arun drove behind him, at a snail’s pace, for hours.  The result was that Arun learned a very important lesson no punishment could have conveyed: in his words, “That made me decide never to tell a lie. If he had punished me, I would have taken the punishment and decided not to get caught the next time.”

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Instead of punishing someone close to you, consider taking some act of penance (not as extreme as walking eighteen miles!).

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.