“If everyone lives by the sweat of his brow the earth will become a paradise.” ~ Gandhi, The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 200

Why this emphasis on manual labor? Surely this is an exaggeration? Well, no.  Spiritual as he was, Gandhi felt that the disconnect between the human being and her or his physical environment, especially the natural environment, that yawned wider and wider as humanity moved into the industrial age, had cut us off from an awareness of who we are and where we are. He literally said on one occasion that “a man who does not till the earth will not know who he is.” That was one thing.  Then, in India and throughout the world, people with different occupations tend to be regarded with very different degrees of dignity, and a widespread gulf has been created between those who work with their minds (never mind what they do with them) and those who work with their hands and bodies. So two purposes would be served at once if everyone took to manual labor (even setting aside for the moment various economic benefits): a spiritual grounding in Who We Are and a healing of the division between the laboring and the intellectual class. There is no status hierarchy more difficult to democratize, no human division more painful than the failure to accord all humans with respect.

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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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