Yoga is more than poses we do with our bodies to stretch. It’s more than expensive studio memberships and yoga gear. It is, as described in the classical Hindu text, The Bhagavad Gita, “skill in action,” a path to recognizing our deep interconnectedness and healing our divides. Listen to insights from Michelle C. Johnson on… read more
“I may deliver up my soul with the remembrance of God on my lips.” ~ Gandhi, Pyarelal, Last Phase, II, p. 101 It seems fitting to end our second year with Gandhiji with this magnificent testimony. For this, of course, was exactly what he did, deliver up his soul with the words “Rama Rama Rama”—the… read more
“(Religion) is not a thing that is alien to us, but which has to be evolved out of us.” ~ Gandhi, Ashram Observances in Action, p. 76 By “religion” Gandhi here does not mean what you can gain by “reading the scriptures,” he explains, but a “heart-awareness” of the divine in things and people—and ourselves!… read more
“In my opinion [the Gita] is a book which can be put into the hands of a child. It teaches the gospel of love in the place of that of hate. It replaces violence with self-sacrifice. It pits soul force against brute force.” ~ Gandhi, Young India in January 1921 on Hind Swaraj or Indian… read more
“Ahimsa is one of the world’s great principles, which no power on earth can wipe out.” ~ Gandhi, Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 147 In the modern “scientific” age, this is a fact that needs constant repetition, and Gandhi accordingly repeats it: there are unseen, non-physical forces in the universe. They are not abstract, non-living… read more
“Let the Gita be for you a mine of diamonds, as it has been to me; let it be your constant guide and friend on life’s way.” ~ Gandhi, Mahatma 2, p. 307 A young friend who had been having trouble with her meditation once said to me, “But I still think the Bhagavad Gita… read more
“Without devotion, action and knowledge are cold and dry and may even become shackles.” ~ Gandhi, Message of the Gita, p. 261933 The Bhagavad Gita, the “spiritual reference book” for Gandhi, and millions of others, presents and is even built on the three classic paths to self-realization: bhakti yoga, the way of devotion; karma yoga,… read more
“Towards the end of my second year in England I came across two Theosophists, brothers, and both unmarried. They talked to me about the Gita.” ~ Gandhi, Autobiography, p. 67 The Gita, which was as a “mother’s milk” to Gandhi for his adult life, was not something that he drew upon as a child. It… read more
“To have a conviction that there is violence or sin in a certain course of conduct is one thing; to have the power of acting up to such a conviction is quite another.” ~ Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, p. 230 In the Bhagavad Gita the warrior prince Arjuna, representing you and me, asks Sri… read more
“I see no courage or sacrifice in destroying life or property for offense or defense.” ~ Gandhi, Mahatma 6.67 I’m revisiting this statement (see yesterday’s post) because in it Gandhi refers offhandedly to something that is quite controversial in contemporary nonviolence practice: property destruction. There are circumstances—for example breaking into a military base and destroying… read more
