Philosophical Viewpoints: Non Violence Quotes - Quotes, The Story Of My Experiments With Truth | The Story of My Experiments with Truth - Summary & Themes - Novels PDF Download

Ahimsa means literally not-hurting, non-violence. (1.7.12)

That's the definition, folks. The opposite would be militancy. If activists believe in violent methods, they're militants. But Gandhi rejects that completely.

But the New Testament produced a different impression, especially the Sermon on the Mount, which went straight to my heart. [...] The verses, "But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man take away thy coat let him have thy cloak too," delighted me beyond measure. (1.20.4)

This famous approach of Christianity has inspired plenty of people, not just Gandhi. It's also evoked in many stories. Think of the final showdown between Luke and Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.

I must say that, though these officers were so bad, I had nothing against them personally. [...]

This attitude of mine put the officials with whom I came in contact perfectly at ease, and though I had often to fight with their department and use strong language, they remained quite friendly with me. I was not then quite conscious that such behaviour was part of my nature. I learned later that it was an essential part of Satyagraha, and an attribute of ahimsa. (4.9.10-11)

It's not enough just to refrain from striking your opponent, according to Gandhi. You also have to cultivate positive interactions with him.

Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked, always deserves respect or pity as the case may be. "Hate the sin and not the sinner" is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world. (4.9.12)

Gandhi wishes us to value people, not hate them. That doesn't mean being a pushover or doormat; we can still condemn and take action against unjust deeds. That's why he moved away from the term "passive resistance"—the phrase sounded like weakness.

This ahimsa is the basis of the search for truth. I am realizing every day that the search is vain unless it is founded on ahimsaas the basis. It is proper to resist and attack a system, but to resist and attack its author is tantamount to resisting and attacking oneself. For we are all tarred with the same brush, and are children of one and the same Creator, and as such the divine powers within us are infinite. To slight a single human being is to slight those divine powers, and thus to harm not only that being but with him the whole world. (4.9.13)

The point, Gandhi says, is to attack an unjust system, not the individuals running it. If the authorities are doing unjust things, they should be pitied, not hated.

Ahimsa is a comprehensive principle. We are helpless mortals caught in the conflagration of himsa. The saying that life lives on life has a deep meaning in it. Man cannot for a moment live without consciously or unconsciously committing outward himsa. The very fact of his living—eating, drinking, and moving about—necessarily involves some himsa, destruction of life, be it ever so minute. A votary of ahimsa therefore remains true to his faith if the spring of all his actions is compassion, if he shuns to the best of his ability the destruction of the tiniest creature, tries to save it, and thus incessantly strives to be free from the deadly coil of himsa. He will be constantly growing in self-restraint and compassion, but he can never become entirely free from outward himsa. (4.39.4)

Here, Gandhi is acknowledging that it's impossible to be perfectly non-violent. You might accidentally step on a bug, for example. But, he says, you should seek not to.

Experience has taught me that civility is the most difficult part of Satyagraha. Civility does not here mean the mere outward gentleness of speech cultivated for the occasion, but an inborn gentleness and desire to do the opponent good. These should show themselves in every act of a Satyagrahi. (5.24.5)

Activists might convince themselves to speak civilly to their opponents when the action is taking place, but that's still not enough, Gandhi says. They have to really mean it deep down; they have to seek to do their opponents well.

But my South African experiences had convinced me that it would be on the question of Hindu-Muslim unity that my Ahimsa would be put to its severest test, and that the question presented the widest field for my experiments in Ahimsa. The conviction is still there. Every moment of my life I realize that God is putting me on my trial. (5.26.3)

This passage hoping for Hindu-Muslim unity is especially sad when you recall that Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist who opposed Gandhi's accommodating approach to Muslims.

And if every page of these chapters does not proclaim to the reader that the only means for the realization of Truth is Ahimsa, I shall deem all my labor in writing these chapters to have been in vain. (Farewell.4)

So, are you convinced that you must be non-violent in order to find truth? If not, might as well flush his book down the toilet, Gandhi says.

Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification; without self-purification the observance of the law of Ahimsa must remain an empty dream; God can never be realized by one who is not pure of heart. Self-purification therefore must mean purification in all walks of life. And purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to purification of one's surroundings. (Farewell.6)

According to Gandhi, self-purification goes hand in hand with non-violence. It's not as if his fasting and dietary choices and refraining from smoking and so on are something separate from his non-violence. He says these techniques of purification are necessary to identify yourself with other life forms and to always wish them well.