I read the other day about something that happened 101 years ago (before I was born) that got me thinking abouth writing this post....
September 11th, 2006 marked 100 years to the day that Mahatma Gandhi :) launched the modern non-violent resistance movement.
Satyagraha (suht-yuh-gruh-huh – Hindi: Skt satya truth + Ägraha strong attachment, persistence) began in South Africa, in 1906, when Gandhi lead a peaceful resistance against the imposition of new laws against people from India.
Gandhi's greatest influences at the time were the teachings of Jesus, Leo Tolstoy, and Henry David Thoreau, especially Thoreau's famous essay "Civil Disobedience." Gandhi considered Thoreau’s terms passive resistance and civil disobedience inadequate for his purposes, however, and coined another term, Satyagraha.
Even though Satyagraha is actually the pursuit of truth and NOT the call for non-violent resistance, Gandhi used this “pursuit of truth” as a springboard to developing his non-violent movement. And as everyone knows, Gandhi used it in India to win independence from the British.
(The Satyagraha movement was also studied and applied by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in leading the civil rights movement in the United States and Nelson Mandela used it in South Africa to end apartheid.)
As stated earlier, Satyagraha is the pursuit of truth. Gandhi believed that truth should be the cornerstone of his life and that everyone should dedicate their lives to pursuing the truth; the truth in their lives. And so his entire philosophy was the philosophy of life, the pursuit of truth. He believed that it was a pursuit that we should have embedded in our life and that we should live it all the time so that we can improve and become better human beings.
And so, from this philosophy, which originated over 100 years ago, came one of Gandhi’s most famous quotes: “Be the change that you want to see in the world”. In other words, if we want to live in a peaceful world we must “Be” peaceful people.
(Now I get it, McCartney actually meant, "let ME be" and not "let IT be"... :)
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Be the Change...by MahatmaGandhi
Posted by jon be me at 11:11 AM
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3 Comments:
The greatness of this man survives years of plundering that followed him.
Yes, of course, we should be peaceful. But this doesn't mean we should keep our mouth shut. And that's when the trouble begins. When we try to preach The Truth and nothing but The Truth. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life seems to be a very agressive way of putting it. Christianity sent us into the Dark Ages to our present Born-again Christianity. When we should have stayed with Roman Stoicism along with further advancement of science and technology.
What did actually save the world from decadence?
Rambler, Greatness knows not time...like your site!
Anon,
true... peacefull and passive does not mean to keep quiet. No, it is just a way of life....and correct, RELIGION, not just Christianity, has caused more death on earth than any other entity, as if it is the Anti-Christ, or Anti-Good, whatever you want to call it. It has done more harm to the growth of our souls on earth....
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