True meaning of Selfless Service – Gandhi

True meaning of Selfless Service – Gandhi

 
(1) SELFLESS SERVICE A SOURCE OF JOY

The human body is meant solely for service, never for indulgence. The secret of happy life lies in renunciation. Renunciation is life. Indulgence is death. Therefore everyone has a right and should desire to live 125 years while performing service without an eye on result. Such life must be wholly and solely dedicated to service. Renunciation made for the sake of service is an ineffable joy, of which none can deprive one, because that nectar springs from within and sustains life. In this there can be no room for worry or impatience. Without this joy, long life is impossible and would not be worth-while even if possible.

The soul is omnipresent; why should she care to be confined within the cage-like body, or do evil and even kill for the sake of the cage ? We thus arrive at the ideal of total renunciation and learn to use the body for the purpose of service, so long as it exists, so much so, that service and not bread becomes with us, the staff of life. We eat and drink, sleep and awake, for service alone. Such an attitude of mind brings us real happiness and beatific vision in the fullness of time.

(2) SERVICE MEANT FOR SELF-REALIZATION

I am here to serve no one else but myself, to find my own self-realization through the service of these village folk. Man’s ultimate aim is the realization of God, and all his activities — social, political, religious — have to be guided by the ultimate aim of the vision of God. The immediate service of human beings becomes a necessary part of the endeavour, simply because the only way to find God is to see Him in His creation and be one with it. This can only be done through one’s country. I am part and parcel of the whole, and I cannot find Him apart from the rest of humanity. My countrymen are my nearest neighbours. They have become so helpless, so resourceless, so inert that I must concentrate on serving them. If I could persuade myself that I should find Him in a Hima- layan cave, I would proceed there immediately. But I know that I cannot find Him apart from humanity.

(3) SERVICE LEADS TO SALVATION

I am striving for the Kingdom of Heaven, which is spiritual deliverance. For me the road to salvation lies through incessant toil in the service of my country and my humanity. I want to identify myself with everything that lives. In the language of the Gita> I want to live at peace with both friend and foe. My patriotism is for me a stage on my journey to the land of Eternal Freedom and Peace. Thus it will be seen that for me there is no politics devoid of religion. They subserve religion. Politics bereft of religion is a death-trap because they kill the Soul.

(4) SERVICE SHOULD BE CONSTANT

A life of service must be one of humility. He, who could sacrifice his life for others, has hardly time to reserve for himself a place in the sun. Inertia must not be mistaken for humility, as it has been in Hinduism. True humility means most strenuous and constant endeavour, entirely directed towards the service of humanity. God is continuously in action without resting for a single moment. If we should serve Him or become one with Him, our activity must be as unwearied as His. There may be momentary rest in store for the drop which is separated from the ocean, but not for the drop in the ocean, which knows no rest. The same is the case with ourselves. As soon as we become one with the ocean in the shape of God, there is no more rest for us, nor indeed do we need rest any, longer. Our very sleep is action. For we sleep with the thought of God in our hearts. This restlessness constitutes true rest. This never-ceasing agitation holds the key to peace ineffable. This supreme state of total surrender is difficult to describe, but not beyond the bounds of human experience. It has been attained by many dedicated souls, and may be attained by ourselves as well.

Self-Restraint Pathway to God – Gandhi

Self-Restraint Pathway to God – Gandhi

(1) RESTRAINT SHOULD BE VOLUNTARY

Restraint self-imposed is not compulsion. A man who chooses the path of freedom from restraint, i.e. self-indulgence, will be a bondslave of passions, whilst a man who binds himself to rules and restraints, releases himself. All things in the universe including the sun and the moon and the stars — obey certain laws.

Without the restraining influence of these laws, the world would not go on for a single moment. … It is discipline and restraint that separates us from the brute. If we would be men walking with our heads erect and not walking on all fours, let us understand and put ourselves under voluntary discipline and restraint.

(2) CONTROL OF PALATE

True happiness is impossible without true health and true health is impossible without a rigid control of the palate. All the other senses will automatically come under our control when the palate has been brought under control. And he who has conquered his senses has really conquered the whole world.

One should eat not in order to please the palate but just to keep the body going. When each organ of sense subserves the body and through the body the soul, its specific relish disappears and then alone does it begin to function in the way nature intended it to do. Any number of experiments is too small and no sacrifice too great for attaining this symphony with nature.

(3) CONQUEST OF LUST

The conquest of lust is the highest endeavour of man or woman’s existence. Without overcoming lust man cannot hope to rule over self. And without rule over self there can be no Swaraj or Ramaraj. Rule of all without rule of oneself would prove to be as deceptive and disappointing as a painted toy-mango, charming to look at outwardly, but hollow and empty within… Great causes… call for spiritual effort or soul- force. Soul-force comes only through God’s grace, and God’s grace never descends upon a man who is a slave to lust.

Brahmacharya means control of all organs of sense. He who attempts to control only one organ and allows all others free play, is bound to find his effort futile. To hear suggestive stories with ears, to see suggestive sights with the eyes, to taste stimulating food with the tongue, to touch exciting things with the hands and then at the same time, try to control the only remaining organ, is like putting one’s hand in fire and then trying to escape being burnt. … If we practise simultaneous self-control in all directions, the attempt is scientific and easy of success. Perhaps the palate is the chief sinner. Hence we have assigned to its control, a separate place among the observances.

(4) SUBLIMATION OF VITALITY

All power comes from the observation and sublimation of the vitality that is responsible for the creation of life. If the vitality is husbanded instead of being dissipated, it is transmuted into creative energy of the highest order. . . . This vitality is . . . dissipated by evil . . . thoughts. And since thought is the root of all speech and action, the quality of the latter corresponds to that of the former.

Hence perfectly controlled thought is itself a power, of the highest potency and can become self-acting. . . . Such power is impossible in one who dissipates his energy . . . even as steam kept in a leaking pot yields no power.

(5) RESTRAINT VS. SUPPRESSION

It is harmful to suppress the body if the mind at the same time is allowed to go astray. Where the mind wanders, the body must follow sooner or later. It is necessary here to appreciate one distinction. It is one thing to allow the mind to harbour impure thoughts, it is different thing altogether if it strays among them in spite of ourselves. Victory will be ours in the end, if we non-co-operate with the mind in this evil process. . . . Hence the body must be immediately taken in hand and then we must put forth a constant endeavour to bring the mind under control. We can do nothing more, nothing less.

Restraint never ruins one’s health. What ruins one’s health is not restraint but outward suppression. A really self-restrained person grows every day from strength to strength and from peace to more peace. The very first step in self- restraint is the restraint of thoughts. Understand your limitations and do only as much as you can. . . . Let not what I have told you alarm you or weaken you. Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed.

Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. There is nothing potent than thought, deed follows word and word follows thought. The world is the result of a mighty thought, and where the thought is mighty and pure, the result is always mighty and pure.

Pathway to God – Love – Gandhi

Pathway to God – Love – Gandhi

Pathway to God
Part II : Moral Sadhana
CHAPTER FIVE
LOVE (AHIMSA)

Om

Three Great Jewels (Cardinal Virtues)

Truth—Love—Restraint

Truth supports.

Love unites.

Restraint enlivens.

We can conquer the world by Truth and Love.

Control of Thought, Word and Deed is Brahmacharya – a Perennial Spring of Eternal Energy.

Selfless Service leads to Salvation.

 

(1) TRUTH AND LOVE

Love and Truth are the faces of the same coin, and both very difficult to practise, and the only things worth living for. A person cannot be true, if he does not love all God’s creatures. Truth and Love are therefore the complete sacrifice.

Without Truth there is no Love. Without Truth it may be affection, as for one’s country, to the injury of others; or infatuation as of a young man for a girl. . . . Love transcends all animality and is never partial.

True Love is boundless like the ocean and swelling within one, spreads itself out and crossing all boundaries and frontiers, envelops the whole world.

(2) LOVE UNITES

Scientists tell us that without the presence of the cohesive force amongst atoms that comprise the globe of ours, it would crumble to pieces and we would cease to exist; and even as there is a cohesive force in the blind matter, so must there be in all things animate and the name for that cohesive force among animate beings is Love. We notice it between father and son, between brother and sister, friend and friend. But we have to learn to use that force among all that lives and in the use of it consists our knowledge of God.

(3) LOVE IS LIFE

If Love was not the law of life, life would not have persisted in the midst of death. Life is a perpetual triumph over the grave. If there is fundamental distinction between man and beast, it is the former’s progressive recognition of the Law and its application in practice to his own personal life. All the saints of the world, ancient and modern, were each according to his light and capacity, a living illustration of that supreme Law of our being. That the brute in us seems so often to gain easy triumph, is true enough. How should it be otherwise with a Law which is as high as Truth itself? When the practice of the Law becomes universal, God will reign on earth as He does in Heaven. … I need not be re minded that earth and heaven are within us. We know the earth, we are strangers to heaven within us.

It is my firm belief that it is Love that sustains the earth. There only is life where there is Love. Life without Love is death. Love is the reverse of the coin of which the obverse is Truth.

Hatred ever kills; Love never dies. Such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by Love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred, proves a burden in reality, for it increases hatred. The duty of a human being is to diminish hatred and to promote Love.

(4) THE LAW OF LOVE

The Law of Love, call it attraction, affinity, cohesion if you like, governs the world. The universe continues in spite of destruction incessantly going on. Truth triumphs over untruth. Love conquers hatred. God eternally triumphs over Satan.

We will have ample cause to congratulate ourselves, if we learn to substitute the Law of Love in society for that of the jungle and instead of harbouring ill will and enmity in our bosoms against those whom we regard as our enemies, we learn to love them, as actual and potential friends.

(5) THE RELIGION OF AHIMSA

The world is full of Himsa, and Nature does appear to be “red in tooth and claw”. But if we bear in mind that the man is higher than the brute, then is man superior to Nature. If man has a divine mission to fulfill, a mission that becomes him, it is that of Ahimsa.

I am not a visionary. I claim to be a practical idealist. The religion of non-violence is not meant merely for Rishis and saints. It is meant for the common people as well. Non-violence is the law of our species, as violence is the law of the brute. The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law, to strengthen the spirit.

Man as animal is violent, but as a Spirit is nonviolent. The moment he awakes to the Spirit within, he cannot remain violent. Either he progresses towards Ahimsa or rushes towards his doom. That is why, the Prophets and the Avatars have taught the lesson of truth, harmony, brotherhood, justice etc.— all attributes of Ahimsa.

So let no one doubt that the salvation of all the exploited peoples of the earth and therefore of the world, lies in the strictest reliance on the coin on whose one face is written Truth and on the other Non-violence in large letters. Sixty years of experience has taught me no other method.

Pathway to God – Truth – Gandhi

Pathway to God – Truth – Gandhi

Pathway to God
Part II : Moral Sadhana
CHAPTER FOUR
TRUTH

Om

Three Great Jewels (Cardinal Virtues)

Truth—Love—Restraint

Truth supports.

Love unites.

Restraint enlivens.

We can conquer the world by Truth and Love.

Control of Thought, Word and Deed is Brahmacharya – a Perennial Spring of Eternal Energy.

Selfless Service leads to Salvation.

 
(1) WHAT IS TRUTH?

What is Truth ? A difficult question, but I have solved it for myself, by saying that it is what the Voice within tells you. How then, you ask, different people think of different and contrary truths?

It is because we have at the present moment everybody claiming the right of conscience without going through any discipline whatsoever, there is so much untruth being delivered in a bewildered world. All that I can, in true humility, present to you is that Truth is not to be found by anybody, who has not got an abundant sense of humility. If you would swim on the bosom of the ocean of Truth, you must reduce yourself to a zero.

Truth is within ourselves. There is an inmost centre in us all, where Truth abides in fulness. Every wrong-doer knows within himself that he is doing wrong, for untruth cannot be mistaken for Truth. . . . Truth and Righteousness must for ever remain the Law in God’s world.

The Law of Truth is merely understood to mean that we must speak the Truth. But we understand the word in a much wider sense. There should be Truth in thought, Truth in speech, and Truth in action.

(2) TRUTH IS THE SOURCE OF CHARACTER

Character is based on virtuous action, and virtuous action is grounded on Truth. Truth, then, is the source and foundation of all things that are good and great. Hence fearless and unflinching pursuit of the ideal of Truth and Righteousness is the key of true health as of all else.

(3) How TO REALIZE IT?

But how is one to realize Truth, which may be likened to the Philosopher’s Stone or the Cow of Plenty? By single-minded devotion (Abhyasa) and indifference to every other interest (Vairagya).

Silence is a great help to a seeker after Truth like myself. In the attitude of silence, the soul finds the path in clearer light and what is elusive and deceptive, resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is long arduous quest after Truth, and the Soul requires inward restfulness to attain its full height.

Experience has taught me that silence is a part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of Truth. Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or to modify Truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man, and silence is necessary in order to surmount it. A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech. He will measure every word.

(4) NEED OF FEARLESS VIGILANCE

There is so much superstition and hypocrisy around, that one is afraid even to do the right thing. But if one gives way to fear, even Truth will have to be suppressed. The golden rule is to act fearlessly upon what one believes to be right. . . . The danger is that when we are surrounded by falsehood on all sides, we might be caught in it and begin to deceive ourselves. We should be careful not to make a mistake, out of our laziness and ignorance. Constant vigilance under all circumstances is essential.

(5) ITS SUPREME VALUE

How beautiful it would be if all of us young and old, men and women, devoted ourselves wholly to Truth in all that we might do, in our waking hours, whether working, eating, drinking or playing, till pure dreamless sleep claimed us for her own. God as Truth has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to everyone of us!

God’s Incarnations – Gandhi

God’s Incarnations – Gandhi

Om
The Supreme Ideal
Man’s Ultimate Aim is Realization of God.

God
is Sat-Chit-Ananda Existence, Knowledge, Power and Bliss.
He is an Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omniblissful Mysterious Power.

God is not a person. To affirm that He descends to earth every now and again, in the form of human being, is a partial truth, which merely signifies that such a person lives near to God. Inasmuch as God is omnipresent, He dwells within every human being and all may, therefore, be said to be incarnations of Him. But this leads us nowhere. Rama, Krishna, etc. are called incarnations of God because we attribute divine qualities to them. Whether they actually lived or not does not affect the picture of them in man’s mind.

God Has Many Names – Gandhi

God Has Many Names – Gandhi

Om
The Supreme Ideal
Man’s Ultimate Aim is Realization of God.

God
is Sat-Chit-Ananda Existence, Knowledge, Power and Bliss.
He is an Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omniblissful Mysterious Power.

There is only one omnipotent and omnipresent God. He is named variously and we remember Him by the name which is most familiar to us. Each person can choose the name that appeals most to him. Ishwara, Allah, Khuda, God mean the same.

God has a thousand names, or rather, He is nameless. We may worship or pray to Him by whichever name that pleases us. All worship the same Spirit, but as all foods do not agree with all, all names do not appeal to all. Each chooses the name according to His associations and He being the Indweller, All-Powerful and Omniscient, knows our inmost feelings and responds to us according to our desires.

In my opinion, Rama, Rahaman, Ahurmazda, God or Krishna, are all attempts on the part of man to name that invisible Force. . . . Man can only conceive God within the limitations of his own mind. What matters, then, whether one man worships God as a person and another as Force? Both do right according to their lights. One need only remember that God is the Force among all the forces. All other forces are material. But God is the Vital Force or Spirit which is all- pervading, all-embracing and therefore beyond human ken.

Daridranarayan is one of millions of names by which humanity knows God who is unnameable and unfathomable by human understanding. And it means “God of the poor”, God appearing in the hearts of the poor.

God is Infinite Mercy – Gandhi

God is Infinite Mercy – Gandhi

Om
The Supreme Ideal
Man’s Ultimate Aim is Realization of God.

God
is Sat-Chit-Ananda Existence, Knowledge, Power and Bliss.
He is an Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omniblissful Mysterious Power.

God is, even though the whole world may deny Him. God embraces not only this tiny globe of ours, but millions and billions of such globes. How can we, little crawling creatures so utterly helpless as He has made us, how could we possibly measure His greatness, His boundless love, His infinite compassion? So great is His infinite love and pity that He allows man insolently to deny Him, wrangle about Him, and cut the throats of his fellowmen. How can we measure the greatness of God, who is so forgiving, so divine ?

He allows us freedom and yet His compassion commands obedience to His Will. But if anyone of us disdains to bow to His Will, He says: “So be it.” “My sun will shine no less for thee, My clouds will rain no less for thee. I need not force thee to accept My sway.” Of such a God let the ignorant dispute the existence. I am one of the millions of wise men who believe in Him and am never tired of bowing to Him and singing His glory.

God is the hardest task-master, I have known on earth. He tries you through and through. And when you find your faith is failing, or your body is failing you, and you are sinking, He comes to your assistance somehow or other and proves to you that you must not lose your faith and that He is always at your beck and call, but on His terms. So I have found. I cannot recall a single instance when at the eleventh hour, He has forsaken me.

God is Eternal Law – Gandhi

God is Eternal Law – Gandhi

Om
The Supreme Ideal
Man’s Ultimate Aim is Realization of God.

God
is Sat-Chit-Ananda Existence, Knowledge, Power and Bliss.
He is an Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omniblissful Mysterious Power.

God Is ETERNAL LAW

God is Law Himself. He and His Law abide everywhere and govern everything. Therefore, though I do not think that He answers in every detail, every request of ours, there is no doubt that He rules our actions and I literally believe that not a blade of grass grows or moves without His will.

I do feel that there is orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable Law governing everything and every being that lives and moves. It is not a blind law, for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings. . . . The Law and the Law-giver are one. I may not deny the Law or Law-giver, because I know so little about It or Him. Even as my denial or ignorance of the existence of an earthly power will avail nothing, so will not my denial of God and His Law, liberate me from its operation; whereas, humble and mute acceptance of Divine Authority makes life’s journey easier even as acceptance of earthly rule makes life under it easier.

Pathway to God
Part 1 : Intellectual Sadhana
CHAPTER ONE
GOD

God is Being-Awareness-Bliss – Gandhi

God is Being-Awareness-Bliss – Gandhi

Om
The Supreme Ideal
Man’s Ultimate Aim is Realization of God.

God
is Sat-Chit-Ananda Existence, Knowledge, Power and Bliss.
He is an Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omniblissful Mysterious Power.

GOD IS SAT-CHIT-ANANDA 

The word Satya (Truth) is derived from Sat which means “Being”. And nothing is or exists in reality except Truth. That is why Sat or Truth is perhaps the most important name of God. In fact, it is more correct to say Truth is God than to say God is Truth.

And where there is Truth, there is also Knowledge, which is true. Where there is no Truth, there can be no true knowledge. That is why the word Chit or Knowledge is associated with the name of God. And where there is true Knowledge, there is always Bliss (Ananda). Sorrow has no place there. And even as Truth is Eternal, so is the Bliss derived from it. Hence we know God as Sat- Chit-Ananda, one who combines in Himself, Truth, Knowledge and Bliss.

Pathway to God
Part 1 : Intellectual Sadhana
CHAPTER ONE
GOD

God is Supreme Good, Truth and Love – Gandhi

GOD IS  SUPREME GOOD, TRUTH AND LOVE – Gandhi

Om
The Supreme Ideal
Man’s Ultimate Aim is Realization of God.

God
is Sat-Chit-Ananda Existence, Knowledge, Power and Bliss.
He is an Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omniblissful Mysterious Power.

GOD IS  SUPREME GOOD

Is this Power benevolent or malevolent? I see It as purely benevolent. For I can see that in the midst of death, life persists; in the midst of untruth, truth persists; in the midst of darkness, light persists. Hence, I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is Love. He is the Supreme Good.

God is wholly good. There is no evil in Him. God made man in His own image. Unfortunately for us, man has fashioned Him in his own. This arrogation has landed mankind in a sea of troubles. God is the Supreme Alchemist. In His presence all iron and dross turn into pure gold. Similarly does all evil turn into good.

Again God lives, but not as we. His creatures live but to die. But God is Life. Therefore, goodness and all it connotes is not an attribute. Goodness is God. Goodness conceived as apart from Him, is a lifeless thing and exists while it is a paying policy. So are all morals. If they are to live in us, they must be considered and cultivated in their relation to God. We try to become good, because we want to reach and realize God. All the dry ethics of the world turns to dust because apart from God they are lifeless. Coming from God they come with life in them. They become part of us and ennoble us.

GOD IS TRUTH AND LOVE

The Absolute Truth, the Eternal Principle, that is God. There are innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are innumerable. They overwhelm me with wonder and awe and for a moment stun me. But I worship God as Truth only.

To me God is Truth and Love. God is ethics and morality; God is fearlessness. God is the source of Light and Life, and yet He is above and beyond all these.

God is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist. For in His boundless love, God permits the atheist to live. He is the searcher of the hearts. He knows us and our hearts better than we do ourselves. … He is personal God to those who need His personal presence. He is embodied to those who need His touch. He is the purest Essence. He is, to those who have faith. He is all things to all men.

Pathway to God
Part 1 : Intellectual Sadhana
CHAPTER ONE
GOD

God is a Mysterious Power – Gandhi

God is a Mysterious Power – Gandhi

Om
The Supreme Ideal
Man’s Ultimate Aim is Realization of God.

God
is Sat-Chit-Ananda Existence, Knowledge, Power and Bliss.
He is an Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omniblissful Mysterious Power.

GOD IS A MYSTERIOUS POWER

There is an indefinable Mysterious Power that pervades everything. I feel it though I don’t see it. It is this Unseen Power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses.

I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing and ever dying, there is underlying all that change a Living Power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves and recreates. This informing Power or Spirit is God.

The truth is that God is the Force. He is the essence of life. He is pure, undefiled consciousness. He is eternal. And yet, strangely enough, all are not able to derive, either benefit from or shelter in the all-pervading Living Presence.

Electricity is a powerful force. Not all can benefit from it. It can only be produced by following certain laws. It is a lifeless force. Man can utilize it if he can labour hard enough to acquire the knowledge of its laws. The Living Force which we call God can similarly be followed if we know and follow His law leading to the discovery of Him in us.
God is an Unseen Power residing within us. There are many powers lying hidden within us and we discover them by constant struggle. Even so, we may find this Supreme Power, if we make deligent search with the fixed determination to find Him.

My God does not reside above. He has to be realized on earth. He is here, within you, within me. He is omnipotent and omnipresent. You need not think of the world beyond. If we can do our duty here, the beyond will take care of itself.

Pathway to God
Part 1 : Intellectual Sadhana
CHAPTER ONE
GOD