"What a smile did"

"What a smile did"

“Not an ounce of nonviolent energy is ever wasted.”

–Gandhi (Harijan, January 11, 1948)

 

Mrs. Hartsough (the mother of one of my nonviolence mentors, David Hartsough) stood day after day in front of Hanford WA nuclear plant, to try to reach the conscience of those who worked there with a group of other ordinary people who realized that nuclear would mean danger to persons and the environment. Usually no one would greet them, and she thought for years after that their actions did not have any effect. One day, however, she found herself in line at a local grocery store when the man in front of her turned to her, as if he recognized her from somewhere. “Did you by any chance protest at the entrance of the Hanford nuclear plant twenty years ago?” he asked. “Why yes, I did,” she replied. “Well, you don’t know me, but I used to work there. And they told us that we shouldn’t make eye-contact with you people. But one day, I looked at you. And you smiled at me. And I quit my job.”

No newspaper would have known to report on that nonviolent success, but there you have it. Even David’s mother didn’t realize that she had transformed the life of another person–with a smile where he was likely expecting a rebuke or an insult. Imagine now that this kind of action is taking place all of the time. How do we explain that?

Just weeks before he shed his body, after decades of nonviolent struggle on two continents, Gandhi quietly shared one of the most significant insights about the power of nonviolence: no amount of nonviolent energy, no matter how small or unseen, is wasted. It might not seem to have worked, but, who knows? It could have been the small act that saved a life, inspired another way to do things, or led, even, to the fall of an Empire.

 

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Write down today’s quote in a place that you can see it often.

Courtesy: www.mettacenter.org

Thought For The Day ( DEMOCRACY )

A successful strike

“The conditions of a successful strike are simple. And when they are fulfilled, a strike need never fail.”
–M. K. Gandhi (Young India, February 16, 1921)

Would it be a surprise to learn that Gandhi was in favor of laborers and was on the side of strikers throughout his life? Of course not.
He knew, and wanted others to realize, that workers have a lot of power–it is their work that keeps the wheels of society moving. He was convinced that workers needed always to advocate for themselves to ensure dignity in their conditions and recognition of their rights. Strikes become an important tool to be used, he felt, as with any tool in the nonviolence toolkit: with discernment, which keeps the tool sharpened and powerful.
But how do you strike, according to Gandhi? Do you just stop going to work? What happens if those against whom you are striking just replace you at your job? A few years after resorting to fasting (one of the first of his career) to boost the flagging morale of striking workers in Ahmedabad in 1918, he came up with a few, energy-saving guidelines.
Here are his six rules for strike success:
1. The cause must be just.
2. There must be “practical unanimity” among all of the strikers (hence the 1918 fast).
3. No violence should be used against any non-strikers.
4. Strikers should not draw from union funds during the strike, but turn instead to some “useful and productive temporary occupation.”
5. If there is enough labor to simply replace the strikers, then a strike will not work. Resignation is the way forward, instead.
6. Follow all rules 1-5, without overlooking or ignoring any of these recommendations.
You have to love that last one.

Experiment in Nonviolence:
Based on his list about strikes, can you anticipate what might be some of Gandhi’s guidelines for resignation as a tool of nonviolent strategy?

Courtesy: www.mettacenter.org

Thought For The Day ( MAN )

Gandhi and Mother Cow

Gandhi and Mother Cow

“Cow protection to me is one of the most wonderful phenomena in human evolution.”

–Gandhi (Harijan, January 1, 1925)

Cow protection. Why would Gandhi be concerned about this ancient duty to “Mother Cow”? Hint: it was about more than the cows. The practice, which he said he would “defend against the whole world,” represented, in essence, the height of ahimsa. Protection of the cow meant to him, really, the protection of all non-human life, of which the cow is only a symbol. But not an irrelevant one, given how much human beings seem to depend on her, even, he notes, more than their own mothers. But unlike our mothers, he points out, cows do not stop serving even when they die: their bones, skin, horns, intestines, every part, he notes, can be put to use. “I say this not to disparage the mother who gave us birth, but in order to show you the substantial reasons for my worshipping the cow.”

A gentle creature, Gandhi calls her, “the cow is a poem of pity,” because she relies on human goodness and care for her survival, and yet she cannot put up a protest against the demands that humans put on her, “expecting nothing but grass and grain in return.” He adds, “The appeal of the lower order of creation,” he said, “is all the more forcible because it is speechless.”

More than a superstition or passed-on folk belief, cow protection to him was one of “the most wonderful phenomena in human evolution.” All creatures can benefit from our increased sensitivity to the forces of consciousness that pervade all of life, which we come to know more and more through the daily practice of nonviolence. In the end we are as much the beneficiaries ourselves when we develop that fine sensitivity to the value of life around us.

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Apply “cow protection” to your own context. What would it look like?

Courtesy: www.mettacenter.org

Thought For The Day ( AHIMSA )