Recently, I stumbled upon some teachings by Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma" Gandhi, the father of India and pioneer of Satyagraha (सत्याग्रह, a philosophy and practice of active, non-violent resistance). Unlike Machiavellian thought of "ends justifying the means", Satyagraha teaches that the means and ends are inseparable and that it is contradictory to use unjust means to obtain justice or use violence to obtain peace (not a popular belief even in this day and age). Gandhi believed that although violence is preferred over cowardice, "nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment".Out of his many wisdoms, Mahatma Gandhi's observations on Traits Most Spiritually Perilous to Humanity resonates most strongly with me:
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Science without humanity.
Knowledge without character.
Politics without principle.
Commerce without morality.
Worship without sacrifice.
Pleasure without conscience.
Science without humanity.
Knowledge without character.
Politics without principle.
Commerce without morality.
Worship without sacrifice.
Recommended Reading: Gandhi: a Life by Yogesh Chadha
1 comment:
Gandhi's seven Perilous Traits, when put in practice, become the basis of a pure, selfless form of living. Modern society currently is motivated by the opposite, namely, self-gains. As pointed out in the blog article, they are prevalent in the modern society but are not necessarily restricted to the political and corporate leaders only; common folks exhibit some of these Traits too because some are too eager to gain something on the expense of others. To the practitioners of such Traits, the excuse is that one's life is too short in comparison with the time span of humanity. Taking is a lot easier and quicker than giving back to the faceless mass of the generations to come. I am no Gandhi, however, I'd would like to think that, when the occasions arise, I motivate myself to give a little back e.g. buy produce from the FairTrade producers; pay voluntary carbon emission fuel supplement to plant some trees to offset my carbon footprints; own shares of only those companies, which I worked or am currently working for etc.
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