Satya (Truth) Graha (Firmness) AHIMSA – non-violence

Mahatma Gandhi
 1869 – Gandhi was born
 1889 – India was under a British crown/protector
 1888 – Gandhi sailed for England for his study. In this time, Europe was the center of
human civilization. All roads lead to England.
 1891 – he returned to India
 1893 – he travelled to south Africa
o He was sharpening his political awareness
o Cape and natal
 1894 – (South Africa) Gandhi worked with other Right Activists
 1899 – Gandhi initiated a reform for independence. This group would provide relief to
the injured British soldiers. It’s all about transformation not about eviction against the
British rule. It’s too soon for independence.


1906 – Organized his first Satyagraha. A campaign of non-violence act ‘NON-COOPERATION’

1914 – Gandhi decided to go back to India

It was in South Africa that he started the Satyagraha

1915 – Was welcomed a hero in India and started to establish the Satyagraha in the form of schools.

 Gandhi traveled to places in India by train and saw much of social problems
 The famine, human problems, and government corruption urged Gandhi to do a Social reform.
 Gandhi wanted to abolish the caste System.
 Gandhi complained for the rights of the untouchables

1917 –

1919 – The Right to public speech.

- Armed Indians killed many unarmed Indians including Women and Children. (Massacre)
- Publicized 3-day fast of Gandhi

1920 – Protested western Materialism

- Refused to buy western materials

- (The boycott of Western goods)
- Promoted local produce

1928 – Boycotting a tax right (tax strike) a hard blow to the British government

- To protest the creation of an independent reform

 - The British created a council without a single Indian representative

1930 –A protest against the salt Act

- Because the British forbade Indians to make their own salt

- The salt march
- Non-violent disobedience

1932 – Gandhi began his fast unto death for the elector for the untouchables

- The end of caste system

- His fast inspired many that many became sympathetic
- The British were threatened if Gandhi would die during his fasts

1933 – Gandhi was absent for the national politics next 7 years because he spent his time teaching the
importance of education.

1940 – When the world was in the brink of WWII, Gandhi returned to active politics.

Quit India Movement

- Gandhi was arrested due to this nationwide protest for the independence of India

1945 – Germany was defeated

- At the end of WWII when allied forces have won, India’s independence was negotiated

1946 – The tension between Hindus and Muslims arise

- Both Indian and Muslims, both feared they would not receive adequate representation
- Resulted into a religious war, followed by politics

1947 – India gained impendence from the British power but with two nations

1948 – Gandhi died at the age of 78: 3 bullets fired

SELF REALIZATION

 There is One Reality

 Brahman/The Divine Being
 The Universal Self
 Everything is a reflection of the Universal Self
 The Self is present in all things
 God is present is present in all his creation
 Since God is present in all things then God is within man
 The mission of life is to strive after perfection
 This perfection is self-Realization
 Making one self a reflection to the universals self
 It is the pursuit of the good
 That paves way for self-realization
 For self-realization is realization of God within man
 This is the pursuit of Life’s fulfilment
 For the Hindus, this is the universal call to holiness
 This entails self-sacrifice
 There is no self-realization without sacrifice
 Self-realization requires one to identify himself with all that lives
 In this way, one realizes god’s presence in and around one’s self
 Gandhi believed that God is within the living creatures
 Achieved only by self-sacrifice
 Neglecting oneself in favor of the universal self

AHIMSA – non-violence

 One has to go self-realization

 It connotes selfless and goodwill to others
 There is the practice of love
 Ahimsa is the practice of putting one soul against evil while Self-realization puts first the higher
universal self
 Literally means Non-violence/non-injury
 For Gandhi, it is the abstraction from the infliction from the physical injuries from others.
 Also the non-injury in thought
 Physical injury is the end product of the thought
 The prerequisite for Ahimsa is selflessness and goodwill to others
 Ahimsa for Gandhi is a practice no other than love
 It is the weapon against evil/vengeance
 Gandhi realized that Men must rely on God’s grace to create genuine Ahimsa.

6 prerequisites for a Votare/ a follower of Ahimsa

1. Nonviolence is the law of the humans same as brute force is the law of the jungle
2. Must have a living faith in God

3. Nonviolence should be taken to be the defense of one’s self-respect. Ahimsa is only about the self and
is not used to protect your property and wealth

4. Nonviolence implies self-sacrifice and hence presumes other peoples possession as immoral acts

5. The power of nonviolence is available to all provided that one has one’s faith in God

6. It should be acceptable as the law of life (Ahimsa) it is applicable to all; it has its universality

SATYAGRAHA – holding fast to the truth/firmness of truth

 Satya – Truth
 Graha – Holding fast
 An eternal principle: The Law of Truth and love
 The law of truth, Love /Soul Force
 Satyagraha is called the Soul force for it recognizes the Soul with in us
 He stretched the importance of Self Sacrifice to avoid violence
 Satyagraha rejects any form of violence
 Violence for Gandhi is not the truth
 Self-sacrifice is the foundation of the Three.
 One has to be firm and to stand up for the truth
 SATYAGAHI – the follower of satyagraha
 Death will be taken not as an end but the performance of one’s duty
 Death is something that is welcomed

Qualifications:
1. He has a living faith in God
2. He believes in Truth and Non-violence is his creed
3. He lives a chaste life. Willing to give up his possessions – practice of chastity
4. He is habitual kadi
5. He must be free from the use of intoxicants (alcohol, nicotine)
6. He shall carry out obedience
7. He must carry out jail rules unless if the rule is devised to hurt self-respect.
-You will be compromised, anything that can compromise good, any virtue of the
Mahatma
Self-respect – is really connected to his first principle: Self-realization – The pursuit of Good
8. SATYAGRAHI must always be truthful –
To be honest – conformity of mind and reality. Depedent on the one comprehending the reality

To be Truthful – higher than to be honest. – is objective independent of anything else

To be Truthful is to ascent to God who is truth itself (adhering to the Truth itself “God”)

 It is impossible to separate ahimsa and satyagraha

 There are intertwined with each other
 There is no way of realizing truth without ahimsa
 If one is practicing non-violence, he must adhere to the truth

Satyagraha+ ahimsa = non possession

 If we love our neighbors as our selves then we cannot possess much less crave for
superfluities.
 If you have more that’s already injustice to have non
 For one who practices of ahimsa thinks of nothing but the good of others
 Reducing oneself o total zero for Self giving
 Directed to others

The social philosophy of mahatma is based on his religion/belief

 Where God is the basic fundamental of all

 Religion is a living wide awake consciousness of God within
 The very seat of God within is the soul of man
 Gandhi called himself the practical idealist
 He has his ideals/idealism for the practicality of it and once applied it can be applied to
the people
 Transformation and change start from the ideal
 Your ideals is where change starts
 His idealism is through2 based on the idealism and his practicality are based on his ideas
 Ad these ideas change people

Gandhi’s social philosophy

 The emergence of society
 Curtailing of ones’s selfishenss
 His social philo starts with the problem of origin of society
 Interaction of people that creates society
 The origin of society lies in man’s realizations that complete selfishness has no place in
society. (self-sacrifice)
 It is when man put/controls restrains his brute ways that society comes into existence
  Thus the origin of society is when man transcend his egoistic ways.
 The very purpose of the creation of the society is to avoid violence
 It the egoistic ways of the people are the roots of violence.
 People should practice Ahimsa
 Gandhi can justify that non-violence creates an idea of society
 Non-violence and self-sacrifice have become the core of Gandhi’s social philosophy
 There is no such thing as my own, it is owned by the whole tribe (no right to ownership)

 We must transcend our brutish ways

 Live in a tribe then his way of life change
 (Hunting animal to agriculture)
 Interaction/interdependence comes in when man engages with others
 It is work that distinguishes us from animals.
 Your work is also to for fulfill others
 Gandhi states that work is the basis for social organization

 What kind of work makes us essential?

 It is the class struggle that is the pivoting element that makes society to grow.
 For Gandhi, the basis for work is Love and cooperation
 A healthy social life must be based on Cooperation and division of work.
 There is no man that embraces that embraces all kinds of work
 He really wanted to instill the hearts of the Indian people that you can climb in the
Indian status.
Doctrine/principle of bread labor

 Gandhi asserts first, the dignity of labor

 The dignity/importance of labor
 There is Equality between the manual and mental work
 Mental work is never superior to manual work
 Equality of the wages cannot be easily realized but for Gandhi one step in that direction
is a right direction
 The work is terms of aptitudes and capacities of the person
 All work should engage both so that there is no distinguish
 Love and willing cooperation
 Take it voluntarily/with our compulsion
 For Gandhi this is a voluntary act
 It necessarily follows that there must be equality of wages
 For Gandhi, all kinds of work are mentally sacred
  The basis for distribution of work is the aptitudes and abilities
 Abolish caste system, peace and non-violence
 Achieve social efficiency because one is not motivated by wages but by abilities
The principle of the relationship between labor and capital

 Gandhi holds that Labor is superior to the capital

 The person giving the labor is given a kind of dignity
 Gandhi believe that the society must be based on love and mutual trust
 Violent struggle must be not used against capitalist
The principle of Trusteeship of the rich

 That the rich people become the trustee of the poor (an Administrator)
 A manager for the common good (caretaker)
 Utilizing the riches for the good of the poor
 The wealth of rich men Fruit of the labor of the poor men
 The capital must be for the poor
 Keep surplus wealth in trust
 Based on the sense of morality and love
This is for Oneness and Wholeness of Life

 Pro life
 Pro poor
 Pro God
 There is no such thing as religious act without political
implication/power/influence/religious belief
 One cannot divide social/political/religious into water compartments
 There is always the play of the two things
 No demarcation line bur a Holistic way of seeing things
 The dignity of humanity is always above
 It should serve human life
 One man achieve his moral life, then there is no need of a state
 The state would serve man’s end (Set order)

Gandhi’s Non-Violent State/Federal State

 Stateless (no more government) THE MORAL HEIGHT OF THE PERSON

 There is no need for any government that would dictate
 Because there is already love, I know self-sacrifice
 Gandhi aimed at the democratic violence and de-centralization of power
 Decentralization for Gandhi is to distribute power to many branches (cooperation of
power)
 No police power/armed forces
 Ham hajaya – Gandhi’s non-violent state – a federation
 A democratic state based on decentralization of power
 A self-autonomous republic
 There is self-authority but with cooperation
 Cooperate on what has decided about/legislated
 The coordinating must make of what has been legislated
 The central body is to improve efficiency in administration
 (Check and balance)
 It is essential that a new man must be made
 The new state is the product of the new man
 Looks life as one of the perpetual struggle between good and evil
 It is by self-realization
 Overcoming the forces of evil archives self-retaliation
 How to realize God? Service to the world and humanity
 Good can be realized through service
 To hear the cries of the poor/marginalized is a form of service
 Wage a nonviolent protest in order to fight evil
 Service for Gandhi is extending help to others without expecting nothing in
return
 To render service is to forget oneself and finding satisfaction in others.
 Jita - Practice of denouncing one’s action and to stand up for the truth.

ETHICS OF GANDHI
  Ahimsa (non-violence) & satyagraha (truth) – means of service as inspired by these 2
principles
 Utility of the idea
 Every idea has an effect of how we conduct ourselves
 Life and death are inevitable to mortals
 Death for him will be not the end but the foremost act of the person (death is a duty)
 His ethics is rooted in his religion

There is no sharp line between Ethics and Economics

 Economics that hurt the moral wellbeing of the person is immoral

 Good ethics must be good economics
 Love is the keyword in his ethics expressed in the form of service and sacrifice
 It is using one’s power and selflessness for the wellbeing of others
 There is trusteeship
 Must us money to facilitate justice and not use money entrusted to you to destroy
others
 Religion in economics
 Concretizes Ahimsa and Satyagraha in human relations.
 Gandhi wants to eradicate exploitation and corruption
 Old system would always corrupt
 For Gandhi, economics is always equated with corruption
 Gandhi wants to overhaul ethics because it is where corruption is strong
 Profit sharing
 Giving more emphasis on the human person
 Gandhi would not tolerate a dole out to an disable
 What a person happy is something to work, hope, and love for
 Gandhi was fighting for the ordinary laborer
Non-violent non-cooperation of the British products

 They spin their own clothes

 They find their own dignity by producing their own
 Non-cooperation for an unwilling
 What holds in respect to oneself equally applies to the wholes universe
 All mankind in essence are alike
Political freedom
 Political freedom is always considered as the birth right of individuals and
 Freedom belongs to the very being and nature of man
 Thus the world cannot exist half slave and half free
 And that man aspiring to be free can hardly think of enslaving others.
 For Gandhi freedom is the dynamic master of an individual over his acts from external
constraints.
 (You have the mastery)
 Yore acts that comes from your freewill
 External constraint has influence over the actions
 Mastery of the self is the restraint from external
 Freedom is the mastery of the self when it comes you’re your actions from external
constraints.
 Everyone must have the fullest liberty to see the capacities that you have, equally to
your neighbors
 Our talents benefit not only for the self but for others and part of the social structure.
 Gandhi deliver weaker races of the earth from the bondage of exploitation.
 Gandhi values individual freedom but one must not forget that one is a social being
 To interact, you must carry out your own freedom
 The willing to submission to the social restraint enriches
 If individual freedom is lost, society is lost
 Individual freedom alone can make a man volunteer to surrender himself completely to
the service of society.
 No society can be built on a denial of individual freedom
 Individual freedom for Gandhi relates to the social freedom
 Take freedom from the individual then you also take away the freedom of the social and
also

 Gandhi believes that the most despotic government that would always destroy the
nation
 Freedom and slavery are mental states as soon as he wills it.
 One has to be educated about these things. One has to think has the will power.
 You cannot achieve social freedom by armed rebellion
 The path to freedom is self-purification
 To make Indian society a really free one he put at the center, the spinning wheel
 The spinning wheel will help the common men from poverty
 Freedom and Poverty
 There is no genuine freedom if people will starve
 Equality which can be only be realized by sharing the weakest and denying ourselves
Swaraj

 Purna healthy and dignified interdependence

 Swaraj Continous independence from government control
An ideal government is free from any constraint both national and foreign/internal and
external.

 Based on the Oneness of Reality (Braham is Within)

 All men are equal
 All are intertwined
 All men must move towards the common good
 All men must strive for perfection (self-realization)
 The way to which is Ahimsa and Satyagraha.