The Wisdom of Gandhi

The Wisdom of Gandhi

A Seven-Week Series

IN-HOME STUDY GUIDE

Week THREE Study Questions and Notes for Discussion

“Satyagraha is a private affair that begins within the human heart. . . . I t is the acid test of nonviolence that in a nonviolent conflict there is no rancor left behind and, in the end, the enemies are converted into friends.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Study Questions - Satyagraha, Soul Force (Review the book Gandhi the Man, pages 41 - 54, and Appendix, pages 149 - 172)

Does satyagraha (soul-force) work with the conditions of the world today? Notes for discussion:

Satyagraha is rooted in the deepest truth of existence, that all life is one. The Compassionate Buddha offered the proof: When one person hates another, it is the hater who falls ill – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. When he loves, it is he who becomes whole. Hatred kills. Love heals.” (p. 53)

“Gandhi was not being metaphorical when he used the term ‘soul-force’. Gandhi said of this power: “Its universal applicability is a demonstration of its permanence and invincibility. It can be used alike by men, women, and children.” (p. 152)

“Gandhi saw satyagraha as essentially an attitude, an interior condition of nonviolent love which frames our relationship with the rest of humanity.” (p. 166)

Satyagraha does not depend upon numbers. One person using satyagraha can begin to “heal the wounds of conflict.” (p. 167)

Gandhi said of religion and politics: “To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth [God] face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.” (p. 60)

How can you use satyagraha in personal relationships? In the workplace? Notes for discussion:

In personal relationships, Gandhi’s wife, Kasturbai, provides a model. “Without knowing it, Kasturbai . . .used satyagraha’s foremost weapons to win over her husband: a readiness to suffer rather than retaliate, and an implacable will.”

(p. 169)

“I learnt the lesson of nonviolence from my wife, when I tried to bend her to my will. Her determined resistance to my will, on the one hand, and her quiet submission to the suffering my stupidity involved, on the other, ultimately made me ashamed of myself and cured me of my stupidity . . . in the end, she became my teacher in nonviolence.” – Gandhi (p. 169)

“Few homes today seem able to withstand even the predictable tensions of married life, so that estrangement and alienation have become common ingredients in the modern household. At this low ebb in family living, Gandhi’s way rings especially true: forgive, forbear, support the other person always and when it becomes necessary to resist, do so lovingly and without rancor.” (p. 170)

In the workplace, the issues often boil down to “two unbending egos locked in personal combat. The ‘best’ way of doing things is usually ‘my’ way. . . . So the task of satyagraha here is to work silently and steadily to minimize self-interest in the work environment through the appeal to a broader, unifying purpose.”

(p. 171, 172)

Gandhi felt that even one person dedicated to satyagraha in the workplace can alter the work environment so that the work can be done in an atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation. (p. 172)

Gandhi said, “Without purification, the law of love must remain an empty dream.” What did Gandhi mean? How can self-purification give us access to our own soul-force?Notes for discussion:

Gandhi was adamant about the need for self-purification. “An individual can generate the ‘irresistible’ power of satyagraha only when he has become ‘passion-free in thought, speech and action,’ able ‘to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion.’” (p. 167)

“The person who studies Gandhi to learn the source of nonviolent power will repeatedly be turned back upon himself and urged to establish nonviolence in his own consciousness.” (p. 167)

“Self-interest blocks access to our own soul-force.” As Easwaran says, “Those years of intense striving in which Gandhi confronted and uprooted his own self-interest mark for him that same purifying self-satyagraha he asks of us.” (p. 168)

NOTE: Self-purification is the challenge we all face on the spiritual path. Both Western and Eastern traditions employ spiritual practices as important “tools” in the struggle to live selflessly rather than selfishly. Gandhi’s own spiritual practices are part of the reading for week five in this series: “Out of the Ego Cage.”