Thoughts and compilation by: Gabriela Yareliz
Below are some of my favorite quotes by M. Gandhi from his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth.
I first came across this book while doing a series of interviews for the India Against Corruption movement last fall at the University of Florida. In my time with Akshay Kumar, the one who told me all about the movement and a true leader here at the UF and U.S. branch of the movement, he showed me the book with much pride and he shared with me the opening quote, in the forward:
“I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills.” (xiii)
Akshay shared with me his vegetarian progress, and all about this powerful movement protesting wide-spread corruption in India. The movement of course is rooted in the principles practiced and advocated by this one man.
I have been reading a lot about Indian Politics and India’s history this summer. Right now I am reading a book on Nehru, by Shashi Tharoor, whom I love (note: this doesn’t mean I always agree with him). I read maybe three or four of his books this summer… Anyway, then the Gandhi autobiography came to mind, and I requested it from the library. When I saw the cover, I smiled and thought of Akshay.
Gandhi is a brilliant mind. I say is because through his writing he is still with us today sharing his wisdom. I won’t lie– I think it would have sucked, big time, to have been his wife. She spent a lot of time alone and self-sacrificing. Gandhi was also one that practiced celibacy after a certain point in his life, I won’t comment further. Of course, I think all of this can be blamed on the fact that they had a child-marriage. I get it. He reminds me of Paul in the Bible… Anyway, I liked his writings. They made my head feel that “I-learned-something-today” feeling after reading.
India has produced some of the most fascinating people in history; this includes those who weren’t Indian but were adopted by the land and its people.
Here is to Gandhi; here is to the wisdom he shared, that I now share with you; And finally, here is to a country whose people I love, who continually fight peacefully for a better tomorrow.
Heart Searchings by: M. Gandhi
“Man is man because he is capable of, and only in so far as he exercises, self-restraint.” (317)
“If I was to be their real teacher and guardian, I must touch their hearts. I must share their joys and sorrows, I must help them to solve the problems that faced them, and I must take along the right channel the surging aspirations of their youth.” (342)
“A devotee of Truth may not do anything in deference to convention. He must always hold himself open to correction, and whenever he discovers himself to be wrong he must confess it at all costs and atone for it.” (350)
“As a student I had heard that the lawyer’s profession was a liar’s profession. But this did not influence me, as I had no intention of earning either position or money by lying.” (361)
“…it was also my habit never to conceal my ignorance from my clients…This frankness earned me the unbounded affection and trust of my clients.” (366)
“No reform is possible unless some of the educated and the rich voluntarily accept the status of the poor, travel third, refuse to enjoy the amenities denied to the poor and, instead of taking avoidable hardships, discourtesies and injustice as a matter of course, fight for their removal.” (379)
“Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul.” (386-387)
“A Satyagrahi obeys the laws of society intelligently and of his own free will, because he considers it to be his sacred duty to do so. It is only when a person has thus obeyed the laws of society scrupulously that he is in a position to judge as to which particular rules are good and just and which unjust and iniquitous.” (470)
GABRIELA YARELIZ 