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The Good Stuff
Anecdotes
Ghandi's Wisdom
by B. A. Llewellyn
Length:  507 words 

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Ghandi's Wisdom

Ghandi was a man of peace, who lived in very violent times.  He believed in the power of love, and the need for rational thought.  His advice and guidance were powerful forces in their own right, often sought by prominent world figures and by the people of his native India.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. 
Try as we may, we are never able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics 
but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say."

Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi

One famous story of Ghandi’s wisdom is set in 1947.  A fellow countryman, who was seeking solace and redemption, approached Ghandi.  The man had killed a child!  He had done this great evil in the name of war, religion and politics. 

"You assist an evil system most effectively 
by obeying its orders and
decrees. 
An evil system never deserves such allegiance. 
Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil."
Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi

Unfortunately, Hindi India and Moslem Pakistan have a long history of violence against one another, including the violence of this time period.  The child-killer was a Hindi; the child had been a Moslem.

"Man and his deed are two distinct things. 
Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation,
and a wicked deed disapprobation, 
the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked, 
always deserves respect or pity as the case may be."
Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi

Ghandi listened to the man’s tale of woe and self-hatred.  Ghandi had no need to condemn the man … the man had already condemned himself.  Ghandi deliberated over this heart-wrenching crime, which was being repeated by many other men from each religious fraction, and eventually Ghandi gave to the desperate and despairing child-killer the solution which would repair his broken heart and mind.

"Man's nature is not essentially evil. 
Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. 
You must never despair of human nature."
Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi

Ghandi believed in love, and the fellowship of all men ahead of all religious politics.  He knew what he would tell the child-killer would stretch the man beyond the boundaries of ignorance and hatred. Ghandi knew what he was asking the man to do would have at one time been thought impossible.  He would instruct the man to accept into his own home the very reason for his previous atrocity.  The child-killer would have a life-long lesson in compassion, understanding and love.

Ghandi said, "Go forth and find a Moslem child who has been orphaned by the riots.  Take that Moslem child into our own Hindu home and raise him as your own son, but as a Moslem."

"Hatred ever kills, love never dies; 
such is the vast difference between the two. 
What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality 
for it increases hatred.
What is obtained by love is retained for all time."

Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi
 

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