Background Image

...

My Doctrine Means That I Must Identify Myself With Life, With Everything That Lives, That I Must Share The Majesty Of Life In The Presence Of God. The Sum-total Of This Life Is God. .. Man Is Not At Peace With Himself Until He Has Become Like Unto God. The Endeavor To Reach This State Is The Supreme, The Only Ambition Worth Having. And This Is Self-realisation. This Self-realisation Is The Subject Of The Gita, As It Is Of All Scriptures... To Be A Real Devotee Is To Realise Oneself. Self-realisation Is Not Something Apart.

-Mahatma Gandhi

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

My Doctrine Means That

Mahatma Gandhi

...

My Doctrine Means That I Must Identify Myself With Life, With Everything That Lives, That I Must Share The Majesty Of Life In The Presence Of God. The Sum-total Of This Life Is God. .. Man Is Not At Peace With Himself Until He Has Become Like Unto God. The Endeavor To Reach This State Is The Supreme, The Only Ambition Worth Having. And This Is Self-realisation. This Self-realisation Is The Subject Of The Gita, As It Is Of All Scriptures... To Be A Real Devotee Is To Realise Oneself. Self-realisation Is Not Something Apart.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Mahatma Gandhi

Absolute Calm Is Not The Law Of Ocean. And It Is The Same With The Ocean Of Life.

If All Christians Acted Like Christ, The Whole World Would Be Christian.

Truth Is My Religion And Ahimsa Is The Only Way Of Its Realization.

There Is Nothing But Nonviolence To Fall Back Upon For Retaining Our Freedom, Even As We Had To Do For Gaining It.

I Must Dissent Emphatically From Any Proposal To Spend Any Money On Preparing A Statue Of Me, More Especially At A Time When People Do Not Have Enough Food And Clothing.

God Has No Religion.

Ramanama Purifies While It Cures, And, Therefore, It Elevates.

If You Worry About Yesterday's Failures, Then Today's Successes Will Be Few. The Future Depends On What We Do In The Present

We Must Break Through The Provincial Crust If We Are To Reach The Core Of All-india Nationalism.

Animal Experimentation Is The Blackest Of All The Black Crimes That A Man Is At Present Committing... We Should Be Able To Refuse To Live If The Price Of Living Be The Torture Of Sentient Beings... I Abhor [animal] Experimentation With My Whole Soul. All The Scientific Discoveries Stained With Innocent Blood I Count As Of No Consequence... The Greatness Of A Nation And Its Moral Progress Can Be Judged By The Way Its Animals Are Treated.

The Man Or The Woman Who Can Display The Nonviolence Of The Brave Can Easily Stand Against As External Invasion.

Execution Of The Constructive Programme In Its Entirety Means More Than Swaraj. It Means Ram Raj, Khudai Sultanat Or The Divine Kingdom.

My Religion Says That Only He Who Is Prepared To Suffer Can Pray To God.

It Is No Religion To Have For One's Wife A Girl Who Is Fit Only To Sit In One's Lap, It Is The Height Of Irreligion.

Joy Lies In The Fight, In The Attempt, In The Suffering Involved, Not In The Victory Itself

I Simply Want To Tell The Story Of My Experiments With Truth...as My Life Consists Of Nothing But Those Experiments.

The Bible Is As Much A Book Of Religion With Me As The Gita And The Koran.

As The Means, So The End.

It Is Against The Spirit Of Ahimsa To Overawe Even One Person Into Submission.

A Man, Whilst He Is Dreaming, Believes In His Dream; He Is Undeceived Only When He Is Awakened From His Slumber.

The Primary Object Of Non-co-operation Is Nowhere Stated To Be Paralysis Of The Government. The Primary Object Is Self-purification.

Hinduism Is A Relentless Pursuit Of Truth. "truth Is God" And If Today It Has Become Moribund, Inactive, Irresponsive To Growth, It Is Because We Are Fatigued; And As Soon As The Fatigue Is Over, Hinduism Will Burst Upon The World With A Brilliance Perhaps Unknown Before.

Fasting And Prayer Are Common Injunctions In My Religion.

Begin Your Day With Prayer, And Make It So Soulful That It May Remain With You Until The Evening.

My Modesty Has Prevented Me From Declaring From The House Top That The Message Of Non-co-operation, Nonviolence And Swadeshi Is A Message To The World.

Silence Becomes Cowardice When Occasion Demands Speaking Out The Whole Truth And Acting Accordingly.

Ahimsa Calls For The Strength And Courage To Suffer Without Retaliation, To Receive Blows Without Returning Any.

If You Have No Character To Lose, People Will Have No Faith In You.

In A Self-respecting India, Is Not Every Woman's Virtue As Much Every Man's Concern As His Own Sister's?

A True Soldier Does Not Argue As He Marches, How Success Is Going To Be Ultimately Achieved. But He Is Confident That If He Only Plays His Humble Part Well, Somehow Or Other The Battle Will Be Won. In Is That Spirit That Every One Of Us Should Act. It Is Not Given To Us To Know The Future. But It Is Given To Everyone Of Us To Know How To Do Our Own Part Well.

No Police Or Military In The World Can Protect People Who Are Cowards.

Man Becomes Not The Lord And Master Of All Creation But He Is Its Servant.

I Must Fight Unto The Death The Unholy Attempt To Impose British Methods And British Institutions On India.

We Burn The Evil Men Do With Their Mortal Remains. We Treasure The Memory Of The Good They Do, And Distance Magnifies It.

Nonviolence Is An Unchangeable Creed. It Has To Be Pursued Even In Face Of Violence Raging Around You.

Restore The Spinning Wheel To Its Place And You Will Solve The Problem Of Poverty.

The Spirit Of Democracy Is Not A Mechanical Thing To Be Adjusted By Abolition Of Forms. It Requires Change Of Heart.

The Truth Is Far More Powerful Than Any Weapon Of Mass Destruction.

Mass Destruction

Close The Day With Prayer So That You May Have A Peaceful Night Free From Dreams And Nightmares.

First They Ignore You, Then They Denounce You, And Then They Say That They Knew What You Were Saying All The Time.

My Heart Rebels Against Any Foreigner Imposing On My Country The Peace Which Is Here Called Pax-britannica.

The Votary Of Ahimsa Has Only One Fear, That Is, Of God.

It Is A Crime And A Sin To Regard A Person As Untouchable Because He Is Born In A Particular Community.

No One Can Ride On The Back Of A Man Unless It Is Bent.

My Religion Teaches Me That Whenever There Is Distress Which One Cannot Remove, One Must Fast And Pray.

If We Know How Much Passive Violence We Perpetrate Against One Another, We Will Understand Why There Is So Much Physical Violence Plaguing Societies And The World.

When A Man Vowed To Nonviolence As The Law Governing Human Beings Dares To Refer To War, He Can Only Do It So As To Strain Every Nerve To Avoid It.

I Have Nothing New To Teach The World. Truth And Non-violence Are As Old As The Hills. All I Have Done Is To Try Experiments In Both On As Vast A Scale As I Could.

A Nonviolent Struggle Necessarily Involves Construction On A Small Scale. It Cannot Therefore Lead To Tamas Or Darkness Or Inertia.

I Claim That In Losing The Spinning Wheel We Lost Our Left Lung.

The Sacrifice Which Causes Sorrow To The Doer Of The Sacrifice Is No Sacrifice. Real Sacrifice Lightens The Mind Of The Doer And Gives Him A Sense Of Peace And Joy. The Buddha Gave Up The Pleasures Of Life Because They Had Become Painful To Him.

President Means Chief Servant

The Foundation Of Service And Your Real Training Lie In Spinning Khaddar.

A Nonviolent Warrior Knows No Leaving The Battle. He Rushes Into The Mouth Of Himsa, Never Even Once Harbouring An Evil Thought.

Let The Gita Be To You A Mine Of Diamonds, As It Has Been To Me; Let It Be Your Constant Guide And Friend On Life's Way.

If One Person Gains Spiritually, The Whole World Gains

God Is Light, Not Darkness. God Is Love, Not Hate. God Is Truth, Not Untruth. God Alone Is Great.

Nonviolence Is Not A Cloistered Virtue, Confined Only To The Rishi And The Cave-dweller.

Wherever Flaxseeds Become A Regular Food Item Among The People, There Will Be Better Health.

I Will Not Be A Traitor Of God To Please The Whole World.

Education Without Courage Is Like A Wax Statue - Beautiful To Look At But Bound To Melt At The First Touch Of A Hot Stuff.

Personally I Like To Believe That All Become Honest, The Millennium Is Round The Corner!

If I Could Wake All Of The Women Of Asia, India Could Be Won In A Day.

The Quest Of Truth Involves Tapas-self-suffering-sometimes Even Unto Death.

Freedom Of Worship, Even Of Public Speech, Would Become A Farce If Interference Became The Order Of The Day.

The End Is Inherent In The Means.

There Is More To Life Than Increasing Its Speed.

The Human Voice Can Never Reach The Distance That Is Covered By The Still Small Voice Of Conscience.

Constant Development Is The Law Of Life, And A Man Who Always Tries To Maintain His Dogmas In Order To Appear Consistent Drives Himself Into A False Position.

Let Us, By Praying, Purify Ourselves And We Shall Not Only Remove Untouchability But Shall Also Hasten The Advent Of Swaraj.

What Is Truth? A Difficult Question; But I Have Solved It For Myself By Saying That It Is What The "voice Within" Tells You. All That I Can In True Humility Present To You Is That Truth Is Not To Be Found By Anybody Who Has Not Got An Abundant Sense Of Humility. If You Would Swim On The Bosom Of The Ocean Of Truth You Must Reduce Yourself To Zero.

Fearlessness Presupposes Calmness And Peace Of Mind.

Hitler Killed Five Million Jews. It Is The Greatest Crime Of Our Time. But The Jews Should Have Offered Themselves To The Butcher's Knife. They Should Have Thrown Themselves Into The Sea From Cliffs. As It Is, They Succumbed Anyway In Their Millions.

For Every Minute That I Spin, There Is In Me The Consciousness That I Am Adding To The Nation's Wealth.

Civilization Is That Mode Of Conduct Which Points Out To Man The Path Of Duty.

Fear Has Its Use But Cowardice Has None.

A Correct Diagnosis Is Three-fourths The Remedy.

Nonviolence Is An Attribute Of The Almighty Whose Ways Of Fulfilling Himself Are Inscrutable.

The Only Way Love Punishes In By Suffering.

A Successful Search For Truth Means Complete Deliverance From The Dual Throng, Such As Of Love And Hate, Happiness And Misery.

The Right To Err, Which Means The Freedom To Try Experiments, Is The Universal Condition Of All Progress.

In Times To Come People Will Not Judge Us By The Creed We Profess Or The Label We Wear Or The Slogans We Shout, But, By Our Work, Industry, Sacrifice, Honesty And Purity Of Character.

Without The Study Of Samskrit One Cannot Become A True Indian And A True Learned Man.

I Do Not Regard Capital To Be The Enemy Of Labour.

My Hindu Instinct Tells Me That All Religions Are More Or Less True.

The Golden Rule Is To Act Fearlessly Upon What One Believes To Be Right.

Out Of The Performance Of Duties Flow Rights, And Those That Knew And Performed Their Duties Came Naturally By Their Rights.

A Nonviolent Person's Life Is Always At The Disposal Of Him Who Would Take It.

My Whole Soul Rebels Against The Idea That Hinduism And Islam Represent Two Antagonistic Cultures And Doctrines.

Decency And Tolerance, To Be Of Any Value, Must Be Capable Of Withstanding The Severest Strain.

No Police Officer Could Compel A Satyagrahi To Give Evidence Against A Person Who Has Confessed To Him. A Satyagrahi Would Never Be Guilty Of A Betrayal Of Trust.

Even A Single Lamp Dispels The Deepest Darkness.

One Who Hooks His Fortune To Ahimsa, The Law Of Love, Daily Lessens The Circle Of Destruction And To That Extent Promotes Life And Love.

If That Is The Law Of Life We Must Work It Out In Daily Exisitance. Wherever There Are Wars, Wherever We Are Confronted With An Opponent, Conquer By Love. I Have Found That The Certain Law Of Love Has Answered In My Own Life As The Law Of Destruction Has Never Done.

If I Were Asked To Define The Hindu Creed, I Should Simply Say: Search After Truth Through Non-violent Means. Hinduism Is A Relentless Pursuit After Truth.

But No One Has A Right To Coerce Others To Act According To His Own View Of Truth.

It Needs More Than A Heart Of Oak To Shed All Fear Except The Fear Of God.

Democracy Is A Great Institution And, Therefore, It Is Liable To Be Greatly Abused.

The Attainment Of National Independence Is To Me A Search For Truth.

It Was The Cowards Who Died Many Times Before Their Death.

Behind My Non-cooperation There Is Always The Keenest Desire To Cooperate On The Slightest Pretext Even With The Worst Of Opponents. To Me, A Very Imperfect Mortal, Ever In Need Of God's Grace, No One Is Beyond Redemption.

An Ideal Sanctified By The Sacrifices Of Such Master Spirits As Lenin Cannot Go In Vain, The Noble Example Of Their Renunciation Will Be Emblazoned For Ever And Quicken And Purify The Ideal As Time Passes.

Active Nonviolence Of The Brave Puts To Flight Thieves, Dacoits, Murderers, And Prepares An Army Of Volunteers Ready To Sacrifice Themselves In Quelling Riots, In Extinguishing Fires And Feuds, And So On.

There Is No Such Thing As ‘too Insane’ Unless Others Turn Up Dead Due To Your Actions.

The Spirit Of Non-violence Necessarily Leads To Humility. Non-violence Means Reliance On God, The Rock Of Ages. If We Would Seek His Aid, We Must Approach Him With A Humble And Contrite Heart.

You Can Only Have Lasting Peace Based On Justice.

Freedom Received Though The Efforts Of Others, However Benevolent, Cannot Be Retained When Such Effort Is Withdrawn.

People In A Democracy Should Be Satisfied With Drawing The Government's Attention To A Mistake, If Any.

Swaraj, Without Any Qualifying Clause, Includes That Which Is Better Than The Best One Can Conceive Or Have Today.

No Matter How Explicit The Pledge, People Will Turn And Twist The Text To Suit Their Own Purpose

Passive Resistance Is A Method Of Securing Rights By Personal Suffering; It Is The Reverse Of Resistance By Arms.

Passive Resistance

So Long As Untouchability Disfigures Hinduism, So Long Do I Hold The Attainment Of Swaraj To Be An Utter Impossibility.

It Is My Great Misfortune That I Have To Measure Your Love By The Money Gifts You Give For Daridranarayana.

I Am A Seasoned Soldier Of Nonviolence, And I Have Evidence Enough To Sustain My Faith.

All Great Religions Have Rightly Regarded Kama As The Arch-enemy Of Man, Anger Or Hatred Coming Only In The Second Place.

Real Education Has To Draw Out The Best From The Boys And Girls To Be Educated.

The Music Of Life Is In Danger Of Being Lost In The Music Of The Voice.

God Is Always The Upholder Of Justice.

What Kind Of Victory Is It When Someone Is Left Defeated?

God Is Conscience. He Is Even The Atheism Of The Atheist.

Meditation Is Waiting On God.

Love Never Claims, It Ever Gives.

God, As Truth, Has Been For Me A Treasure Beyond Price. May He Be So To Every One Of Us.

It Is Impossible To Wait And Weigh, In Golden Scales, The Sentiments Of Prejudice And Superstition That Have Gathered Round The Priests Who Are Considered To Be The Custodians Of Hinduism.

There Is A World-wide Conflict Between Capital And Labour, And The Poor Envy The Rich.

Pure Motives Can Never Justify Impure Or Violent Action.

Your Action Expresses Your Priorities.

Civil Disobedience Means Capacity For Unlimited Suffering, Without The Intoxicating Excitement Of Killing.

True Ahimsa Should Mean A Complete Freedom From Ill-will And Anger And Hate And An Overflowing Love For All.

The Restoration Of Free Speech, Free Association And Free Press Is Almost The Whole Swaraj.

The Vedas Are As Indefinable As God And Hinduism.

Men Flocked To See It And Ascended It As It Was A Novelty And Of Unique Dimensions. It Was The Toy Of The Exhibition. So Long As We Are Children We Are Attracted By Toys, And The Tower Was A Good Demonstration Of The Fact That We Are All Children Attracted By Trinkets. That May Be Claimed To Be The Purpose Served By The Eiffel Tower.

My Work Will Be Finished If I Succeed In Carrying Conviction To The Human Family That Every Man Or Woman, However Weak In Body, Is The Guardian Of His Or Her Self-respect And Liberty.

We Must Learn To Be Self-reliant And Independent Of Schools, Courts, Protection And Patronage Of A Government We Seek To End, If It Will Not Mend.

Think Of The Poorest Person You Know And See If Your Next Act Will Be Of Any Use To Him.

Newspapers Today Have Almost Replaced The Bible, The Koran, The Gita And Other Religious Scriptures.

Tolstoy's So-called Inconsistencies Were A Sign Of His Development And His Passionate Regard For Truth.

Since Satyagraha Is A Method Of Conversion And Conviction, It Seeks Never To Use The Slightest Coercion.

I Claim To Be No More Than An Average Man With Below Average Capabilities.

Detachment Is Not Indifference. It Is The Prerequisite For Effective Involvement. Often What We Think Is Best For Others Is Distorted By Our Attachments To Our Opinions. We Want Others To Be Happy In The Way We Think They Should Be Happy. It Is Only When We Want Nothing For Ourselves That We Are Able To See Clearly Into Others Needs And Understand How To Serve Them.

The Moment The Cultivators Of The Soil Realize Their Power, The Evil Of Zamindari Will Be Sterilized.

If You Want To Change The World, Be That Change.

Prayer Is Not Asking. It Is A Longing Of The Soul. It Is Daily Admission Of One's Weakness. It Is Better In Prayer To Have A Heart Without Words Than Words Without A Heart.

Cowards Can Never Be Moral.

Education Is The Basic Tool For The Development Of Consciousness And The Reconstitution Of Society.

The Wind Of God's Grace Is Incessantly Blowing. Lazy Sailors On The Sea Of Life Do Not Take Advantage Of It. But The Active And Strong Always Keep The Sails Of Their Minds Unfurled To Catch The Favorable Winds And Thus Reach Their Destination Very Soon.

If Love Or Non-violence Be Not The Law Of Our Being, The Whole Of My Argument Falls To Pieces.

Fear Of Disease Killed More Men Than Disease Itself.

You May Pluck Out My Eyes, But That Cannot Kill Me. You May Chop Off My Nose, But That Will Not Kill Me. But Blast My Belief In God, And I Am Dead.

Poverty Is The Worst Form Of Violence.

Hunger And Poverty

The Notion Of Education Through Handicrafts Rises From The Contemplation Of Truth And Love Permeating Life's Activities.

In Order To Get Meat, We Have To Kill. And We Are Certainly Not Entitled To Any Other Milk Except The Mother's Milk In Our Infancy.

Prayer Is The Only Means Of Bringing About Orderliness And Peace And Repose In Our Daily Acts.

[he] Alone Is Truly Nonviolent Who Remains Nonviolent Even Though He Has The Ability To Strike.

What, However, Left A Deep Impression On Me Was The Reading Of The Ramayana Before My Father. During Part Of His Illness My Father Was In Porbandar. There Every Evening He Used To Listen To The Ramayana.

The Spinning Wheel Is A Symbol Of Nonviolence For Me.

Let No One Try To Justify The Glaring Difference Between The Classes And The Masses, The Prince And The Pauper, By Saying That The Former Need More.

A Nonviolent Action Accompanied By Nonviolence In Thought And Word Should Never Produce Enduring Violent Reaction Upon The Opponent.

No Religion Which Is Narrow And Which Cannot Satisfy The Test Of Reason, Will Survive The Coming Reconstruction Of Society In Which The Values Will Have Changed And Character, Not Possession Of Wealth, Title Or Birth, Will Be The Test Of Merit.

Civil Disobedience Is The Only Nonviolent Escape From The Soul-destroying Heat Of Violence.

War Knows No Law Except That Of Might.

Marriage Is Not An Act Of Services. It Is A Comfort Man Or Woman Seeks For Himself Or Herself.

The Life Of Millions Is My Politics, From Which I Dare Not Free Myself Without Denying My Life-work And God.

God Resides In Every Human Form, Indeed In Every Particle Of His Creations, In Everything That Is On His Earth.

Man Is Oftentimes Weak-minded Enough To Be Caught In The Snare Of Greed And Honeyed Words.

God Alone Is Immortal, Imperishable.

Woman, I Hold, Is The Personification Of Self-sacrifice, But Unfortunately Today She Does Not Realise What A Tremendous Advantage She Has Over Man.

Religion Taught Us To Return Good For Evil.

Love Has More Force Than A Besieging Army.

Where There Is Fear There Is No Religion.

A Great Man May Not Do Great Things But They Do Ordinary Things Greatly.

For Me The Present Is Merged In Eternity. I May Not Sacrifice The Latter For The Present.

When I Despair, I Remember That All Through History The Way Of Truth And Love Has Always Won.

A Man Who Is Truthful And Does Not Mean Ill Even To His Adversary Will Be Slow To Believe Charges Even Against His Foes. He Will, However, Try To Understand The Viewpoints Of His Opponents And Will Always Keep An Open Mind And Seek Every Opportunity Of Serving His Opponents.

Each One Has To Find His Peace From Within. And Peace To Be Real Must Be Unaffected By Outside Circumstances.

The Renunciation Of The Gita Is The Acid Test Of Faith.

Basic Education Links The Children, Whether Of The Cities Or The Villages, To All That Is Best And Lasting In India.

It Is The Absolute Right Of India To Misgovern Herself.

The Villagers Want Bread-not Butter-and Disciplined Work, Some Work That Will Supplement Their Agricultural Avocations Which Do Not Go On For All The 12 Months.

One Needs To Be Slow To Form Convictions, But Once Formed They Must Be Defended Against The Heaviest Odds.

This Civilization Is Such That One Has Only To Be Patient And It Will Be Self-destroyed.

India's Coming Into Her Own Will Mean Every Nation Doing Likewise.

Robust Faith In Oneself And Brave Trust Of The Opponent, So Called Or Real, Is The Best Safeguard.

Marriage Must Cease To Be A Matter Of Arrangement Made By Parents For Money.

One Has To Speak Out And Stand Up For One's Convictions. Inaction At A Time Of Conflagration Is Inexcusable.

I Believe In The Absolute Oneness Of God And, Therefore, Also Of Humanity. What Though We Have Many Bodies? We Have But One Soul. The Rays Of The Sun Are Many Through Refraction. But They Have The Same Source. I Cannot, Therefore, Detach Myself From The Wickedest Soul (nor May I Be Denied Identity With The Most Virtuous).

Religion Is Entirely A Personal Matter. Each One Could Approach His Creator As He Liked.

There Is No Greater Spellbinder Of Peace Than The Name Of God.

Nonviolence Is The Law Of Our Species As Violence Is The Law Of The Brute.

Swadeshism Is Not A Cult Of Hatred. It Is A Doctrine Of Selfless Service That Has Its Roots In The Purest Ahimsa, I.e. Love.

The Nation's Non-co-operation Is An Invitation To The Government To Co-operate With It On Its Own Terms, As Is Every Nation's Right And Every Good Government's Duty.

There Are Subjects Where Reason Cannot Take Us Far And We Have To Accept Things On Faith. Faith Then Does Not Contradict Reason But Transcends It. Faith Is A Kind Of Sixth Sense Which Works In Cases Which Are Without The Purview Of Reason.

You Will Find That God Is Always By The Side Of The Fearless.

Man Should Forget His Anger Before He Lies Down To Sleep.

No Human Being Is So Bad As To Be Beyond Redemption.

Bullies Are Always To Be Found Where There Are Cowards.

My Fight Against Untouchability Is A Fight Against The Impure In Humanity.

Swaraj Does Not Depend On Jail Going. If It Did, There Are Thousands Of Prisoners In Jail Today. It Depends On Everyone Doing His Or Her Own Task.

I Claim To Be No More Than The Average Person With Less Than Average Ability. I Have Not The Shadow Of A Doubt That Any Man Or Woman Can Achieve What I Have, If He Or She Would Make The Same Effort And Cultivate The Same Hope And Faith.

A Complete Fast Is A Complete And Literal Denial Of Self. It Is The Truest Prayer.

Trending Author

Carol Moseley Braun

Elizabeth Kostova

Category