The Gandhi Project by Nashid Fareed-Ma’at

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Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 321, excerpt from Harijan, March

18, 1939.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 321, excerpt from Harijan, October

13, 1940.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 324, excerpt from Harijan, April

21, 1946.

By the above standards, Gandhi regarded:

“the majority of fasts do not at all come under the category of

Satyagraha fasts and are, as they are popularly called, hunger-

strikes undertaken without previous preparation and adequate

thought. If the process is repeated too often, these hunger-strikes

will lose what little efficacy they may possess and will become

objects of ridicule.”

Consider this proclamation in light of the dwindling impact of protest tactics by many in the

community organizing, peace, and social justice fields: marches that used to galvanize whole

communities and nations now have no more impact than a traffic jam. Not only have they been

overused without adequate thought and preparation, they are often done without the essential

purity, depth of soul, and genuine living of Truth. Such careless action has wreaked great

damage on the community organizing, peace, and social justice fields. The lesson of this

dynamic Gandhi learned from fasting:

“Unscientific experimentation with it [fasting] is bound to be

harmful to the one who fasts, and it may even harm the cause

espoused. No one who has not earned the right to do so should,

therefore, use this weapon.”

Gandhi further warned that, “Ridiculous fasts spread like plague and are harmful.”

This

doesn’t mean Satyagrahis should abandon misused tactics. As Gandhi related about fasting:

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 320, excerpt from Harijan, May 6,

1933.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 97, excerpt from Harijan, July 23,

1938.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1957, p. 210.

“Like all human institutions, fasting can be both legitimately and

illegitimately used. But as a great weapon in the armoury of

Satyagraha, it cannot be given up because of its possible abuse.”

Those of us who will use Satyagraha tactics must approach them in a proper way. In practice,

this means that before we even begin pondering the use of non-violent tactics, we must have

made considerable progress in living the laws of ahimsa and seeking Truth.

Another significant realization Gandhi discovered through brahmacharya is the

connection of one’s vital (or creative) energy and the mind. This vital energy is often associated

with sexual activity -- and why celibacy is part of the brahmacharya vow -- but it goes beyond

that. Gandhi stated:

“This vitality is continuously and even unconsciously dissipated by

evil, or even rambling, disorderly, unwanted, [sic] thoughts. And

since thought is the root of all speech and action, the quality of the

latter corresponds to that of the former. Hence perfectly controlled

thought is itself power of the highest potency and can become self-

acting. That seems to me to be the meaning of the silent prayer of

the heart.”

Understanding this dynamic, we will clearly understand why Gandhi said:

“Many aspirants after brahmacharya fail, because in the use of

their other senses they want to carry on like those who are not

brahmacharis.”

Consider how “normal” it has become to engage in evil (destructive) acts and thoughts, to

engage in rambling and disorderly thinking and activities. Continued participation in such

Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1957, p. 210.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 95, excerpt from Harijan, October

13, 1940.

weakens our vital energies and the power these can infuse into our beneficent thoughts and

actions. It is for this reason, Gandhi spoke forcefully to the need for unwavering discipline. It is

also why Gandhi strongly declared:

“There should be a clear line between the life of a brahmachari

and of one who is not. The resemblance that there is between the

two is only apparent. The distinction ought to be clear as daylight.

Both use their eyesight, but whereas the brahmachari uses it to see

the glories of God {Truth}, the other uses it to see the frivolity

around him. Both use their ears, but whereas the one hears nothing

but praises of God {Truth}, the other feasts his ears upon ribaldry.

Both often keep late hours, but whereas the one devotes them to

prayer, the other fritters them away in wild and wasteful mirth.

Both feed the inner man, but the one only to keep the temple of

God {Truth} in good repair, while the other gorges himself and

makes the sacred vessel a stinking gutter. Thus both live as the

poles apart, and the distance between them will grow and not

diminish with the passage of time.”

Enough said.

CLOSING WORDS

“As faith in God {Truth} is essential in a Satyagrahi, even so is

brahmacharya. Without brahmacharya the Satyagrahi will have

no lustre, no inner strength to stand unarmed against the whole

world.”

The above quote is a recurring theme in Gandhi’s writing but should be understood in

context. Much of his writing was geared specifically to Indian people in India for whom

brahmacharya was an accepted part of their cultural, religious, and spiritual practices. For those

outside the Indian experience, they may have other vow processes that attain the above stated

benefits Gandhi acquired through brahmacharya. Remember, it is the person one becomes by

living the brahmacharya vow that is essential to living Satyagrahi.

I, myself, live a different spiritual path than Gandhi, living a traditionally African

Kemetic way of life. This spiritual way of life requires one to face and overcome the reign of the

unbalanced ego in quest of living a pure heart. Thus, many of the benefits Gandhi attained

through brahmacharya I attained through Kemetic purification practices. And I can attest with

complete confidence how this has transformed who I am to be better able to seek, embrace, and

live Truth.

Whatever path (or no path) you choose, make sure it deals with the ego. I will venture to

say there are few, if any, greater barriers to living Satyagraha than egotism: not only how it

manipulates those who are harmful and destructive, but even controls those who proclaim to seek

a life that reduces and seeks to eliminate harm in the world. Addressing the ego may require

those on the Satyagraha path to explore the mystic aspects of their religious and spiritual

traditions, especially since many modern mainstream approaches to various religious and

spiritual traditions make a place for harm and ego within their practice. Satyagrahis must face

their harmful practices from the roots: this requires an in-depth introspective examination of

one’s self which may lead one to one’s ego, the source from which many destructive acts and

thoughts emanate. When this is the case, Satyagrahis must then embrace a process of addressing

their egos and cultivating their entire being (including their minds) to ways of ahimsa (no harm).

Do not doubt the possibility of transformation, of even radical transformation. When

Gandhi was young and more concerned with his law profession and marriage (including making

children), he would have doubted -- if not outright rejected -- the lessons regarding ahimsa he

later dedicated his life to living and teaching. It is these lessons that he talked about more than

any tactics, strategies, political objectives, etc. -- and often, he only mentioned these in the

context of ahimsa and seeking Truth. This may be surprising to some, given the way many quote

only certain elements of Gandhi’s teachings. But a wider and more careful examination of his

life shows that he was a ceaseless propagator of ahimsa, seeking Truth, and the spiritual

components needed to live these virtues.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1957, p. 322.

It is only by an openness of being, which Gandhi attributed in part to Truth (God), that he

was able to embrace a path that allowed him to learn the lessons of ahimsa for himself. This is

very much required for every Satyagrahi: that one learns the lessons of ahimsa for one’s self. So

be open to these lessons. A well-designed vow process will contribute greatly to developing the

means to learn and live these lessons. It is these lessons, in large part, that transformed Gandhi

from an ego-centered lawyer controlled by selfish passions to a selfless seeker of Truth who shed

many passions in order to pursue and live Truth, share the lessons of Truth with others, and serve

them with the goal of transforming and building a nation guided by Truth.

“In trying to cure one old disease, we give rise to a hundred

new ones; in trying to enjoy the pleasures of sense, we lose in

the end even our capacity for enjoyment. All this is passing

before our very eyes, but there are none so blind as those who

will not see.”

˜˜˜

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 176, excerpt from Young India,

December 26, 1924.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule), 1938 reprint from original publication in 1909, p.

47, Chapter XIV: How Can India Become Free?

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule), 1938 reprint from original publication in 1909, p.

57, Chapter XVII: Passive Resistance.

CHAPTER FOUR

Swaraj (Self-rule) is Part of the Search for Truth

“Satyagraha is search for Truth; and God is Truth. Ahimsa or

non-violence is the light that reveals that Truth to me. Swaraj

for me is part of that Truth.”

“It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves. It is, therefore, in

the palm of our hands. Do not consider this Swaraj to be like a

dream.”

“So long as the superstition that men should obey unjust laws

exists, so long will their slavery exist.”

In Chapter 1, I stated Satyagraha was developed to be as community-oriented as it is

individually focused. I also emphasized how much community building is a pillar of Satyagraha

and must include community engagement. For Gandhi, one of the goals of this approach

included India becoming an independent nation governed by Indian people: an aspiration

summed up in the word Swaraj, which is often translated as “home-rule.”

Swaraj literally means self-rule: swa meaning self, raj meaning rule. But, as informed by

the previous chapters, Gandhi did not intend this to be a compulsory rule based in an egotistical,

Some spiritual, particularly mystic, traditions embrace an approach of living with “no self,” often

understood today as having no ego. In the context of seeking Truth, Truth would replace the limited (and often

deluded) ego in guiding who a person is and how one’s components (i.e., heart, mind, body) function in relationship

to each other.

destructive self. It is a self (or no self)

in alignment with Truth that is best-suited to rule itself.

In fact, without Truth one is not able to rule one’s self. I will explain this point in the following

paragraphs.

Let me first make a shift in the use of vocabulary. Gandhi repeatedly used the word

“rule” in English translations of Swaraj regarding to self-rule and home-rule. But contemporary

understandings of the word “rule” imply autocracy, such as one person having an overwhelming

dominance and authority over whole groups of people. This certainly does not speak to

Gandhi’s intent. I will instead use the word governance: it implies group responsibility for

maintaining public order and serving the collective welfare. Even in acknowledging this concept

in present understandings of the word “governance,” I realize examples of such are rare in the

current age. But this word speaks more to Gandhi’s intent when he used the word “rule” in

relation to Swaraj (self-rule): that there is a group responsibility of one’s heart, mind, and body

to maintain (a moral) order and serve their collective welfare in the quest of Truth. This same

approach can be applied to the “community” of one’s actions, words, and thoughts. And for

some spiritual paths, such as mine, the “community” of heart, mind, and body can be

supplemented with the emotional body, the energetic body, the experiential body, the spirit /

soul, and other components one may acknowledge as composing the community of self. It is

from the basis of a governed self that one can connect with other governed selves to collectively

govern their community.

Also essential to a comprehensive understanding of Swaraj is how Gandhi viewed the

self in context to Truth. Remember, Gandhi’s religious path was Hinduism. And, to be

simplistic for the sake of discussion, anything that is not true (emanating from and in alignment

with Truth) is illusion (maya). Within the entrapments of illusion, people embrace delusion,

egotism, self-deception, and other things that are not true. These separate people from Truth and

often leave them in a state of confusion -- not to mention these also manifest destructive

outcomes. Think about it: if you are deluded, selfish, confused, deceive yourself, and accept

what is false to be true, can you truly govern yourself (or others)? How can you affirm that any

supposed control of yourself is not an illusion? And if you do such things to yourself, do you

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule), 1938 reprint from original publication in 1909, p.

68, Chapter XX: Conclusion.

think you can adequately prevent others from doing these same things to you? Or you doing

these to others?

Hinduism places an emphasis on moving beyond illusion, so one may then perceive

things as they are. If we cannot do this, our every act is liable to further the entanglements of

illusion. We may perform an act with the intent of helping others that actually harms them, and

we may not even realize it because we are deluded, confused, deceiving ourselves, etc. Gandhi

found it necessary to seek and embrace Truth, that the clarity of this pursuit enabled him to

perceive things as they are. With such clarity, we can realize a beneficial act to be beneficial and

not confuse destructive acts as beneficial or vice versa. With this, we won’t confuse chaos for

order and can genuinely assess if we are fulfilling the necessary responsibilities to serve the

well-being of ourselves and others. Acquiring the clarity derived from seeking Truth is often a

process that moves from imperfection in quest of perfection. But even in such an evolving

imperfect state, of which Gandhi confessed to be in throughout his Satyagraha days, an evolving

clarity offers more benefit than the trappings of illusion. Within illusion, one is almost

guaranteed to fail in beneficently governing one’s self (and others) -- the widespread presence of

destruction in the world serves as testament of this. Seeking Truth offers us the opportunity to

develop the means to beneficently govern ourselves (and others). And this opportunity can be

made into a guarantee of success if the quest of Truth is pursued with purity and within the path

of ahimsa. Thus, we can see how Swaraj and Satyagraha (seeking and holding on to Truth) are

intricately linked.

The beneficial governance of one’s self is a fundamental basis of Swaraj. The approach

taken to establish order and serve the collective welfare of the community of self (the

components of one’s self) can be applied to a community of persons. To quote Gandhi, “Real

home-rule is self-rule or self-control.”

And if you are not able to govern your self, you are in no

position to adequately govern others. Consider this statement in light of the proliferation of

governments that aspire to serve their citizens yet fail. Most of these governments are run by

people who fail to adequately govern themselves: they do not seek Truth and, thus, remain bound

to the entrapments of illusion despite what other qualifications they possess. Some are

straightforward enough to confess their desires for greed, fame, power, and other selfish aims.

But some profess more noble aims of national service, yet still fail to genuinely serve the people

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule), 1938 reprint from original publication in 1909, p.

47, Chapter XIV: How Can India Become Free?

often because they are bound to illusion and, consequently, unable to achieve their stated goals.

They often cannot see that their so-called attempts to serve others are misguided without the

ability to see things as they are, and they are often unaware that their actions are more self-

serving than beneficial to others. Yet, in a state of delusion, some of these people genuinely

believe that they are committed to serving others. This illusion-based dynamic plays out not

only in government but all realms of life, including many involved in contemporary community

organizing, peace, and social justice work.

But the work of Swaraj does not stop at the attainment of self-governance: one of the

main aims of Swaraj is to build a community of self-governing individuals. As Gandhi wrote:

“The Swaraj that I wish to picture is such that, after we have once

realized it, we shall endeavour to the end of our life-time to

persuade others to do likewise. But such Swaraj has to be

experienced, by each one for himself. One drowning man will

never save another. Slaves ourselves, it would be a mere

pretension to think of freeing others.”

Those who have attained the human maturity of self-governance are better suited to help others

attain self-governance than those who have not attained it. And it takes a community of self-

governing persons to collectively govern themselves. It has been shown repeatedly throughout

past and current history that attempts at governance by persons who have not attained self-

governance will fail -- and often drastically. Such attempts are plagued by constant violence,

conflict, ineptitude, wastefulness, corruption, hypocrisy, and other destructive symptoms and

outcomes. But a group of self-governing individuals is at least prepared for the task of collective

governance. It is to the aim of building and maturing communities of self-governing individuals

that Gandhi devoted much of his efforts around Swaraj.

At the risk of being overly repetitive, Gandhi first and foremost emphasized that

Satyagraha is essential to Swaraj: seeking Truth and using Truth-force to govern one’s self,

community, and nation. This, of course, is combined with the commitment to practice ahimsa:

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 159, excerpt from Young India,

August 18, 1920.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 305, excerpt from Harijan, March

30, 1940.

because violence (to one’s self and others) impedes the ability of people to fulfill the individual

and communal components of Swaraj.

Swaraj also acknowledges there is a value in government as a way to organize collective

governance -- otherwise why seek to engage and convert governments? Some have mistaken

some of Gandhi’s harsh criticisms of the British colonial government in India as him being

against all forms of government, some even citing him to be an anarchist. This is a great

mistake. A comprehensive study of Gandhi shows that his pursuit of Truth was a fundamental

guiding force in his life and informed how he approached most, if not all, of his efforts after he

committed himself to the quest for Truth. It is contrary to Truth to seek something counter to

Truth as a way to attain it. In other words, Gandhi would not embrace a lie, even temporarily, to

attain Truth. And as the opening quote of this chapter said, Swaraj is part of Truth. Therefore,

in seeking Swaraj, Gandhi would avoid all work with government if it had no place in Swaraj.

Instead, he put forth much work in seeking to engage and convert the government in India --

from local entities to the national British-run colonial government. Take note of the following

quotes:

“Co-operation with a just Government is a duty; non-co-operation

with an unjust Government is equally a duty.”

“Do not, therefore, concentrate on showing the misdeeds of the

Government, for we have to convert and befriend those who run

it.”

“In Kheda, a population that was cursing the Government now

feels that it, and not the Government, is the power when it is

prepared to suffer for the truth it represents. It is, therefore, losing

its bitterness and is saying to itself that the Government must be