July 15: “My nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected.” –Gandhi (Young India, May 28, 1924) Sushila Nayar met Gandhi as a child and began working with him as his personal physician as well as an active member of the freedom struggle from 1939 till Gandhi’s assassination in… read more
Tag Archives: Nonviolence
“Love, like nonviolence. . .”–Daily Metta
July 14: “Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents, never revenges itself.” –Gandhi (Satyagraha in South Africa) Gandhi was familiar with the tenets and writings of Christianity at an early stage in his personal and spiritual development. He took up its study with an open heart to grasp the teachings of… read more
“A Charter for Compassion”–Daily Metta
July 13: “The unity we desire will last only if we cultivate an unyielding and charitable disposition toward one another.” –Gandhi (Young India, May 11, 1921) In 2009, religious scholar Karen Armstrong won a prize from the TED Institute for, as their tagline goes, “an idea worth spreading.” It was compassion. Her wish, emerging from… read more
“Hearts as Broad as the Ocean”–Daily Metta
July 12: “Make your hearts as broad as the ocean.” –Gandhi (Young India, January 1, 1925) Compassion is as essential to nonviolence as dehumanization is to violence. From Latin, it means “to suffer with,” or to paraphrase religious scholar Karen Armstrong, “to put yourself in the shoes of another, and take the journey with them.”… read more
“The lesson of the willow”–Daily Metta
July 11: “The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree; and there is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree.” –Gandhi (Hind Swaraj) I woke up early today with my mother on the phone, telling me that… read more
“Paying attention to our words”–Daily Metta
July 10: “Where there is love there is life; hatred leads to destruction.” –Gandhi (Young India, May 5, 1920) A dear friend has told me time and again that when I use the word ‘hate,’ she always feels slightly surprised. It hadn’t really occurred to me. I have never spoken to her about hating anybody,… read more
“On the importance of ‘Swadeshi'”–Daily Metta
July 9: “I work for India’s freedom because my swadeshi teaches me that, being in it and having inherited her culture, I am fittest to serve her and she has prior claim to my service.” –Gandhi (Young India, April 3, 1924) Swadeshi is a Sanskrit term comprised of two parts: swa- meaning “one’s own” and… read more
“Sparks of hope in Koodankulam”–Daily Metta
July 8: “This force is to violence and, therefore, to all tyranny, all injustice, what light is to darkness.” –Gandhi (Young India, November 3, 1927) In late 2013, a few of us from the Metta Center journeyed to India to learn about the Gandhian movement today. The group that stands out in our minds was… read more
“Transforming a Neo-Nazi March”–Daily Metta
July 7: “Violence can only be effectively met by nonviolence.” Gandhi (Harijan, March 31, 1941, p. 433) What would you do if a Neo-Nazi group chose your town for a yearly march? Would you challenge them with violence or nonviolence? The village of Wunsiedel, Germany, boasting just over 1,000 inhabitants was faced with this dilemma.… read more
“It’s within our hearts”–Daily Metta
July 5: “To seek God one need not go on a pilgrimage or light lamps or burn incense before or anoint the image of the deity or paint it with red vermilion. For He [sic] resides in our hearts.” –Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi, Pyarelal, 1946) When he was 24 and living in South Africa at a… read more
