Gandhian Ahimsa And Contemporary Relevance
Mohandas K. Gandhi born on 1869, he is more known for spiritual And
Political Leader of India's Independence Movement, Independence was achieved
largely through nonviolent revolution (1947).
Gandhian philosophy of Ahima, True
meaning of Ahimsa is non-violence and freedom from hatred, ill-will, brotherhood
and love for all or in simple word non-violence which human should have at
mental level and physical level, ahimsa (Non-violence) is a religious
philosophy of life that all living being are pure, Gandhi believe in pluralism
he believe in Hindu Muslim unity including all section of society rich poor his
focus is communal harmony Gandhi know how to unite different diversity of
India, communal harmony where we need non violence.
Gandhi says religion should
be in politics that will inculcate the ethical and moral thinking sense in mind
of politics they will not become unjust, stop themselves from doing something
wrong if this can apply there can be development in society.
Ahima become soul
theory in time of Gandhi,. Interfaith harmony tolerance the various people, he criticise intolerant. one should admire other faith. Truth he firmly believed
can be attained only through non-violence which was not negative meaning absence
of violence but was appreciatively define by him as love resort to non-violence
is expedient to love in its positive sense non-violence means love for others,in its negative sense it seeks no injury to others both in words as well as
deeds.Gandhi ji talked of non-violence of different people there is the
non-violence of the weak one does not have faith in non-violence but he uses it
for attaining his objective there is the non-violence of the coward, it is not
non-violence but lacking in power more harmful than violence for Gandhiji
violence was a better option than cowardice.
Through non-violence one appeals to the verity that nestles in people and makes
the latter realise it in themselves come around, and join hands in the common
march to verity along with those whom they before considered as their
adversaries Given the enmeshing of means and ends Gandhiji often saw love,
truth, God and Non-violence as exchangeable terms truth or god or self-realisation
being man's ultimate goal in life, this goal can be attained only through
non-violence or ahimsa.
Gandhi use word for non-violence is ahimsa, Ahimsa is a Sanskrit word mean
non-violence, no harm, no intent to kill, do not strike, do not injure.Ahimsa is more than that it's an ethical virtue in many eastern religion
including religion like Hinduism,Jainism, Buddhism. Ahimsa is one of the virtue
which one taught from childhood in some culture which is taught from every early
age.
Problem For the Term Non-violence
Translation of word non-violence mean No violence, so does non-violence mean
running away or cowardice, on-action to injustice you see something terrible
happening in your country or in front of you and you don't do anything about it
does this count as non-violence? well the short answer is no, both of this
thing to Gandhi do not count as non-violence but as a result we have to think of
a more robust definition of non violence than simply no violence.
So what does
non violence mean ? Gandhi views non violence as having two forms to create the
whole as Positive and Negative moral law, positive moral law tells us what we
should do, the way we should act in a society and negative moral law tells us
things that we should refrain form.
The negative form means "In its negative
form, it means not to injure any living being, neither with body nor with spirit".
so we see that non-violence just don't mean not injuring in physical way
but also mental way included in it. Realm of intention he think that not only
should you not harm other individuals, you should not intend harm on other
individuals, do not intend harm or hold ill-will towards any living being.
Non-violence is equally applicable to animals as to humans and this actually
another common feature for eastern traditions such as Hinduism and Buddhism that
animals are just automatically included into the moral community whereas in
western traditions its not as common. Negative form of non-violence is important
part of non-violence but Gandhi signifies it's as lowest form of non-violence,
if we practice this form of non-violence alone, we are not non-violent but
un-violent "non-violence of the weak".
If we only focus on un violence it can
lead to cowardice, the opposite of non-violence. Positive form of non-violence
what we have to do, we have to do love, care for everybody. In Gandhi words Ahima means the largest love, the greatest charity in another word universal
love, care for every individual should have desire to help others to live the
life of service.
Gandhi claims that:
if I am a follower of ahimsa, I must love
my enemy.
If we love our enemy and we also love every individual that means
you are going to actively resist evil for the sake of others that would be
harmed but as for the person that would be doing the harm,it's better for you
as an individual if you don't do terrible things, so for Gandhi non violence is
actually sum of all virtues that you have to perfect, all the other virtues in
order to be non-violent in its perfect form you need to be honest, you need to
be courageous and that's why he think cowardice is the opposite of if someone is
non violent, he will help to stop that violence not run away from it which is
cowardice.
True Non-Violence
True non-violence includes both positive and negative form this is what it calls
"non- violence of the strong". True soldiers are non-violent rather than violent
it takes bravery not to strike back and instead to respond with love and care,
through this process we can transform the situation and the main goal is to
change the heart of your enemy rather than hatred towards each other and to not
being alive anymore. cowardness and ahimsa is far from each other, the
practice of ahimsa come with great courage, it's is the most soldierly of a
soldiers virtues.Ahimsa talk about how a soldier can better protect people
without the use of violence and having the courage to lay down arms and only
fight with act of love and non-resistance.
Nonviolence is unattainable
Many people respond to these ideas that Gandhi that no one able to attain this
or not everybody can be Gandhi and not everybody can fight back non violently
but ultimately its unattainable, what's interesting is that Gandhi agrees that
non-violence is unattainable but that's the way moral laws work,those moral
laws are ultimately guidelines that we should true to follow even if we can't
practice them perfectly, so non-violence is unattainable but strive for it
anyways.
Gandhi is character that most people in the world associate with
non-violence that individual himself claimed that he wasn't perfectly non
violent, Gandhi calmly compares no violence to the concept of a perfect line,
Gandhi state that Euclid straight line may not be capable of being drawn on the
blackboard but the impossibility of the task cannot be permit to alter the
definition, so the idea here is that ethics is hard being a good individual is
hard and you will never become a perfect individual but that doesn't mean that
you shouldn't try now that doesn't mean you should lower the goalposts then
things turn out like I can't be that good.
So I'm going to just try to be this good,well what is right is right and the
fact that you have not yet or never obtained it does not mean that the moral law
must change. Non violence should be our goal and we should make process while
making progress.
Nonviolence is Practical and Moral
Gandhi's another element is nonviolence that is a moral law that we need to
observe independently of the results however it takes place to have great
results too. Non-violence is more powerful than longstanding violence. Ahimsa or
non-violence moves at the basis of the hassle that is anger and hatred while
violence most effective reasons the ones roots to develop deeper.
If we
consider the long term good non violence is the right thing to do, it is the
practical thing to do, it mean transforming the relationship entirely instead of
having those same relationship just one person having their foot on the neck of
another that's only going to work as long as the other person is subdued
eventually that violence will erupt again eventually.
Nonviolence in practice
Non-violence requires action, it is not sitting passively and letting terrible
things happen and not running away, at times it calls for direct non violent
resistance and civil disobedience, but the real test is practicing non-violence
in our daily lives and this is interesting point about Gandhi, many people see
him as a political leader primarily,but Gandhi see himself as a moral
philosopher, people should be non violent in individual level and more
concerned with those individual actions that you take in daily life, but it's
because of this principle of non-violence that brought him out to the public
sphere and make him popular.
How did Gandhi put Non-violence in action?
One exciting way is Vegetarianism, Gandhi idea to be non-violent which consist
of take care of all individual such as human & animals, it is easy to live
lengthy and healthful existence with out consuming meat, one can live long and
healthy life without eating meat, Compared this to humanity that eating simply
you spend less money and you have more resources to help others. There is an
idea of shanti sena "peace armies" if we dedicate the same amount to peace
armies as we dedicate to violent army,developing strategies and brigades etc.
By this army can easily defend a country using non violent methods rather than
violent ones. Satyagraha literally translates to soul or love force or holding
on to truth,this what we traditionally associate with non violence,so such
things as civil disobedience there's establishing intentional violation of an
unjust regulation such things as the ones rallies, marches and boycotts all of
those are procedures of non-violent political resistance.
What Gandhi's could
name satyagraha, a practitioner of satyagraha known as a satyagrahi. Another
interesting implication of Gandhi's way of putting non-violence into action is
non-possession, so he believes that it was wrong to own more than necessary
because there are other people who need these items to "just live so others can
you care about people you won't take more than you need, instead give your
excess toothers to save their lives "the world has enough for everyone's need
but not enough for everyone's greed".
Another thing is ashrams these were
kind of non-violent communes, people live throughout their day practice non
violence in every action so that went from cultivating their food, what to do
with their waste, how to treat their neighbour's, how to treat deaths and even
how to treat animals and livestock, some of these Ashrams still exist.
Contemporary relevance
Gandhi's principles must be followed or not, his maximum ardent critics neglect
about it and cannot ignore the fact that some of his principles are followed and
accepted worldwide. Mahatma Gandhi himself was a visionary before becoming a
political leader, no doubt he wrote many philosophies, Gandhi's views on the
need for universal basic education, decentralization of power and empowerment of
women are some examples that even today's world leaders cannot ignore.
Former
US President Barack Obama of the Dalai Lama described himself as a follower of
Gandhi. the terror we can get from Ukraine's recent war against Russia is
increasing and we can see how much world need ahimsa. In today's scenario,
especially considering the nuclear age where one country has the power to
destroy another with just one click, the principle of Ahimsa Gandhi is
revealed.
Sometimes it is not struggle or show of force that solves problems
but love and care solve problem, many peacekeeping organizations work around
the world to promote peace rather than militancy,when in an era of
globalization spiritual power seems to be being built up as a whole.
The world is interdependent, we cannot wage war, there must be peace, because
with nuclear weapons we risk lives and resources that can benefit those in need.
Harmony in the community becomes very important and must exist in every society
in our time when hatred against the community grows and guides the nations of
the world in the wrong direction.
Conclusion
Non-violence demands both that we refrain from wishing for or contributing to
harm of any living being but more importantly it tells us that we not love and
wish well-being upon all living beings, but we act on that love that non
violence is an active force, Gandhi specifies it as most active force in the
world in fact if you're practicing non violence correctly. finally we should
continually strive to become more non violent, even though perfect nonviolence
is unattainable.
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