May 28:

“The only real and reliable guarantee for khadi would be honesty, truthfulness and sincerity of khadi workers.”

–Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 7, p. 20)

The khadi–or home-spun cloth–campaign was a key constructive program for the Free India movement. It meant that if you were part of the struggle, you would not only wear the rough home-spun cloth to signify your freedom from British imports and ultimately their imperial rule, you would also spin cotton, daily, with a commitment of at least one hour per day. Again, in a place where other leaders might stress rights, which are important, Gandhi doubled-down on duties first.

Imagine now that you’re there. You have started wearing your khadi and you have found a time each day to spin, likely a regular time, say first thing in the morning. Do you think this was enough for Gandhi? No way! In his view, you could throw away the khadi (ok, maybe he wouldn’t go that far, that is wasting, after all…), you would be a bit hypocritical if you were wearing khadi but putting the energy of the “old system” into it–deceit, despair, insincerity.  In other words, you had to work on yourself first. You have to dedicate yourself to truthfulness, honesty and sincerity.

Gandhi’s legacy was to build up the person and a movement, along this concentric progression: first you work on yourself, then you work with your community, then you offer resistance to your opponents (or rather, to their injustice) from a place of confidence and strength. In other words, what we call at Metta person power, leading to constructive program leading to satyagraha.

Experiment in Nonviolence:

The next time you want to get rid of your belongings to express your nonviolence, first ask yourself if you have any hatred to transform.