Using a spinning wheel for cotton processing, Gandhi advocated for the revival of traditional Indian crafts and the economic independence of villages.
Sabarmati, also known as Gandhi’s ashram, Harijan ashram, or satyagraha ashram, is located in the outskirts of Ahmadabad, on the western bank of the Sabarmati river. The ashram was founded at this location in 1917. Gandhi conducted experiments in agriculture, animal husbandry, and cow breeding here. His famous quote is: “This is the right place for our actions to continue the search for truth and develop fearlessness.”
A great man and the pride of India, Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948) was inspired in his intense life by two great ideas that guided him both in his personal and political life. These ideas were nonviolence and truth. Gandhi was a true example of a practical idealist, someone who confirmed what he stood for through his life. His entire life was characterized by his efforts to realize these ideas in practice. As a lawyer, primarily he sought to achieve a compromise between the political parties, in which he succeeded and which, as he says, did not cost him money or soul. During his time in South Africa, he fought against racial prejudices, and during the Boer War and Zulu uprising, he offered to care for the wounded and sick soldiers. He fought for the improvement of the position of Indians in South Africa and India, encouraged Indians to disobedience and passive resistance to British imperialism. He initiated a miners’ strike, led a march in Transvaal, and advocated for textile workers in Ahmedabad, always on the side of the most vulnerable layers of society.
His fight for India’s independence from the British Empire was not based on fomenting hatred towards the British. Everything he undertook, although rebellious, reflected his true humanism. He unwaveringly believed in the possibility of nonviolence and arriving at the truth in all aspects of life – personal, economic, political… Very modest, with great goals, he himself says he was never flattered by being in the+ They called him Mahatma (Great Soul). On his journey, he became more aware of his own human weaknesses and limitations, which made him naturally humble. He considered building a temple where people worshipped his image as pure idolatry, believing that God and Truth should be worshipped, not him. He wanted people not to imitate him, but to follow their own inner voice.
His struggle lasted until January 30, 1948, when he was killed on his way to evening prayer.
The idea of nonviolence
Although we may think that the concept of nonviolence is clear to us, Gandhi established this idea on much more complex and deeper foundations than is commonly understood.
The importance of nonviolence stems from all traditional teachings, as they consider all beings equally valuable. Therefore, Gandhi says that all people are brothers despite differences in race, religion, or nationality. The common bond that unites us all is God. Through inner purification, he awakened love for the entire humanity within himself. Well, it goes like this: All my actions stem from my unbiased love for humanity. I did not make distinctions between relatives and strangers, between fellow countrymen and foreigners, between white and colored, between Hindus and Indians of other religions, be they Muslims, Parsis, Christians or Jews. I can say that my heart could not differentiate among them. I also condemned cruelty towards animals, especially for scientific purposes. Life is unique, and by causing harm to one part of it, we harm the whole, including ourselves.
For Gandhi, nonviolence is not a matter of emotion but an expression of respect for the natural Law. Just as there are physical laws, there are also laws at higher levels that we can call moral laws. They are just as real as the first ones. Just as there is Newton’s law of action and reaction in the material world, there is also a law of action and reaction on the moral plane. Indians call it the law of karma. Gandhi says that nonviolence is the law of humans, just as violence is the law of animals, and that a person’s dignity Citizenship requires obedience to the law that applies to it. Nonviolence is a natural human state. Through violent behavior, a person loses their humanity and thus harms themselves more than the one they inflict harm upon.
The strength that enables us to be nonviolent is the power of love, which for Gandhi stems from his faith in God. How to love those who hate us? Gandhi says that it is the most difficult thing because it is easy to love those who love us. The law of universal love is sometimes difficult to follow, but it is possible if we truly desire it. In doing so, we strengthen the power of love within ourselves, which will give our lives a completely new dimension contrary to selfishness. In his autobiography, Gandhi says that after a long period of self-discipline and prayer, he was no longer able to hate anyone. The ability to find the noblest qualities in a person maintained his faith in God and human nature. Everything that God has created, living and non-living, has its good and bad sides, Gandhi emphasizes.
For Gandhi, love is the path to truth, to God, who is t also love because the means contains something of the essence of the goal we strive for. These are not romantic but serious matters, as they speak about the evolutionary task of humans to know themselves. By acting violently, we revolve in an experience intended for animals and do not discover anything new that can bring a little more beauty, peace, true joy, and divine spark into our lives. Gandhi says that he never approves of violence because even when it seems to bring good, that good is only temporary because it is built on poor foundations. Gandhi was raised in the spirit of ancient Indian tradition, according to which humans are immortal souls that awaken awareness of their own immortality through life experiences on Earth. In that sense, the soul travels from life to life and carries with it only the good that it has done, but if “good” conquers through violence, then that good becomes worthless. The reward in the present for noble endeavors is inner fulfillment that can only be felt by a person who acts in accordance with their own humane nature.
By discarding the sword, we do not I have nothing else to offer my opponents but a glass of love. And by offering that glass, I believe I will attract them. I cannot believe in permanent enmity among people. And as I believe in the theory of reincarnation, I live in hope that in this life or another, I will be able to embrace all people as friends.
Nehru and Gandhi
In this ascetic room, Mahatma Gandhi spent key years of his life between 1918 and 1930, during which he developed his own philosophy. Its main features are outlined on the plaque above the spinning wheel.
Gandhi emphasizes that practicing complete nonviolence is difficult and can only be done by extremely courageous and fearless individuals. To live the idea of nonviolence, a strong belief in the divine nature of all beings is necessary, as well as the understanding that it is worse to lose one’s soul than one’s body, which is part of the understanding in all traditions.
Just as we need to learn how to kill when preparing for violence, we also need to learn how to die. Preparing for nonviolence involves facing our fears. Gandhi says that we should have the strength to know how to die, and that the willingness to kill is inversely proportional to the willingness to die. A follower of the path of nonviolence must overcome fear in order to develop the skill of ahimsa. If we cling tightly to our possessions such as wealth and life, what will we do when they are threatened? Will we be ready to reason or will fear cloud our judgment? Violence serves only to protect external things, while nonviolence protects internal values, the humanity of the soul. In its positive sense, ahimsa means the greatest love, the greatest mercy. If I am a follower of ahimsa, I must love my enemy. The same rules that I must apply to a sinner who is my enemy or a stranger, I must also apply to my father or son if they make a mistake. This active ahimsa necessarily includes truth and fearlessness.
Nonviolence and discouragement can hardly go together. I can imagine a person armed to the teeth who is a coward in their soul. Possessing is true especially in stressful situations when our survival instincts kick in, but it is precisely in those moments that true nonviolence is needed the most. It requires inner strength and courage to resist the urge to resort to violence and instead find peaceful solutions. Gandhi’s teachings remind us that true civilization is not measured by material possessions or power, but by our ability to empathize, understand, and serve others. By embracing nonviolence and self-discipline, we can create a society that values compassion, justice, and harmony. Whether consciously or unconsciously, it leads to violence and thus harms themselves, others, and the environment. The goal of self-discipline is the verticalization of the human soul towards what is right. Awaken the dormant essence that has nothing in common with roughness, violence, malevolence, hatred, excessive sensuality, anger, exploiting others, all of which are the consequences of losing contact with oneself. We need to be careful because, as Gandhi says, in our current state, we are only partially human. If we manage to overcome our lower instincts with love, then we will kill the beast within us. Inner purification is necessary in order to experience the beings around us. Without it, ahimsa remains only in words.
But the path of self-purification is difficult and steep. Whoever wants perfect purity must completely free themselves from passion in thoughts, speech, and action; rise above the conflicting currents of love and hate, attachment and aversion. I am aware that I do not yet have that triple purity within me, despite my constant striving to achieve it. And that’s why I am not moved when the world praises me, it often hurts me. It seems to me that restraining even the smallest passion is much more difficult than conquering the world by force of arms.
You would like to know what kind of man wants to understand the truth that is God. He must rid himself of anger and lust, greed and attraction, pride and fear. He must reduce himself to nothingness and fully control his senses – starting with his appetite or tongue. The tongue is the organ of speech and taste. With our tongue, we indulge in exaggeration, falsehood, and offensive words. The desire to please our taste makes us slaves to appetite, so we live like animals just to eat. However, with proper discipline, we can become beings who are “just a little lower than angels.”
Gandhi said he didn’t believe that an individual can be truly happy while everyone around him suffers because all people are connected and humanity is one entity. What he aspired to was not only the brotherhood of the Indian people, although he dedicated his entire life and time to it, but the brotherhood of all. Hello people. He emphasized the equal value of all religions, races, genders, condemned conflicts, exploitation of people, racial discrimination, armament, and everything else that divides people and incites hatred.
In Gandhi’s autobiography, we find that nonviolence is not:
Actions such as passive acceptance of unjust things due to weakness, providing free meals to healthy individuals who have not earned them, defending one’s neighbors under the guise of nonviolence, he condemns them and does not consider them noble and nonviolent. He warned Indians about the misunderstanding of ahimsa, which made many of them indifferent to insidious forms of violence: harsh words, harsh judgments, malice, anger, malice, cruelty, greed, torture of humans and animals, oppression of the weak, and the destruction of their self-esteem, which was prevalent in India at that time, where a tremendous amount of violence was taking place in the name of ahimsa.
Gandhi says that in his life he has not encountered a single situation in which he did not see a solution. Through nonviolence. However, nonviolence is not easy to understand, let alone implement. The path of ahimsa or love is often lonely and can only be traveled by a brave person.