My heartfelt salutations. I will certainly try to present my learning in three core points, although the essence of life's teachings is vastly richer. Nonetheless, here are three central insights from my journey.
1. Non-violence and Love as a Primary Force: Our actions must have non-violence at their core. We should not fight each other, but rather, our inner grievances and shortcomings. We need to understand that strength lies not in power, but in love. Love possesses the unparalleled ability to transform hearts, making individuals serve society willingly, bringing about harmonious interconnections and fostering peace.
2. Inner Transformation: Real societal change begins from within ourselves. Regular self-contemplation, meditation, and direct experience of service can bring about this transformation. This shift within us allows us to see reality clearly, contributes to societal change and aids us in the practice of nonviolence. Remember, we cannot bring about external change until we change within.
3. Patience and Persistence: Change takes time. Rome was not built in a day, and neither can we expect immediate transformations. We must approach our work with patience and persistence, just as I did when digging the well or obtaining land through Bhoodan movement. Shortcuts may lead to quicker results, but they may also prove costly in the long run.
Remember, life is a ceaseless teacher. We should strive to learn and grow every day. It is by serving others without expectation and living in harmony with nature and our fellow beings that we truly enrich our own lives.
The sources below helped generate your response ...
- We began working another piece of land where there was no
water supply. So one morning, as soon as I got up, I went off to that field
and started to dig a well. Everyone joined in. They were all strong young
men, with twice the strength that I had, but I found they could do only half
my work. This was because I did all my work by arithmetic. I would dig a
little while in silence, then stop for a few seconds, and so on every few
minutes. But these strong youths would shovel furiously until they had to
stop from sheer exhaustion, so that on the whole they needed more rest than
I did. I also used my shovel in a scientific way, and discovered that our tools
needed much improvement. Arithmetic plays a part in all my doings, and I
sometimes think that even when I die, I shall die by arithmetic!
Meanwhile we dug a channel from the original field to bring water from
the well there. We were all new to the job; those who worked with me were
college students, and though I liked physical labour I had no real knowledge.
We dug our channel, we let in the water, but the water did not run into the
new field.
Source: 259702138-Moved-By-Love.txt... - those actions and the information and know-how
have done their work and disappeared. only a few samskaras remain, and these
samskaras are our capital. that is our net gain from the business of living. a
trader keeps daily, monthly and annual accounts of income and expenditure
and arrives at the figure of profit or loss. it is exactly the same with life.
addition and deletion of samskaras goes on throughout the life, resulting finally
in a small net balance. when the end of life comes near, the self begins to
think of the gains in life. looking back, it finds that these gains are few. this
does not mean that all that one did and all that one learnt have proved to be
futile. they have certainly done their work. there could be thousands of
transactions in a trader's business, but a single final figure of either profit or
loss is the net result. if there is a loss, his heart sinks. if there is a profit, he is
happy.
3. we too are in a similar position. if at the time of death the mind craves for
food, it is a clear indication of having spent the entire life in indulging the
palate. craving for food is then the only 'achievement' in life; it is the only
capital that has been accumulated in this life.
Source: talks_on_the_gita.txt... - But now that I
go two stages a day what happens is that I simply explain my ideas and then
move on. In practice, that means that the work takes a 'more gentle' form.
* Indian thought recognizes three properties as present in all creatures in
varying proportions. They are sattvaguna, rajoguna and tamoguna,
characterized respectively by purity and goodness, by energy and activity
and by inertia and ignorance.
I do not feel elated when I get large gifts of land, nor discouraged when
they are small. While I was in Bihar the average daily gift was three
thousand acres, and three hundred or three hundred and fifty pledges of gifts.
When a lawyer's practice grows his fees also grow, but here in Tamilnadu
the people have 'degraded' me. I spent thirty-three days in Salem District and
received only four or four and a half acres a day. But although the river has,
as it were, dried up, the river in my heart does not fail. Even though the
visible Kaveri itself were to dry up, the inward springs would never cease to
flow.
In November 1956, at a meeting of our workers at Palni, 1 put forward the
idea of nidhi-mukti. 'Nowadays,' I said, 'many people make the mistake of
thinking that the bhoodan movement is being carried on by salaried workers.
They are not altogether wrong, there is some truth in it, but it is a mistake all
the same.
Source: 259702138-Moved-By-Love.txt...