Sermon

“The truly noble know all men as one

And return with gladness good for evil done.”

Hindu sacred text

Gandhi – A Man for All Faiths

Joyce Ramay

Today we celebrate All Faiths Peace Sunday, America’s July 4^th Independence Day, and the inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi, who for many years has been my hero.

Mahatma means “Great Soul” – a name given to him by the Indian people

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says: “When goodness grows weak when evil increases, I make myself a body. In every age I come back to deliver the holy, to destroy the sin of the sinner, to establish righteousness.” So many Indians regarded Gandhi as another incarnation of God - like Krishna, Buddha or Jesus. But, like Muhammad, Gandhi was very careful to deny that he was anything more than an imperfect man struggling to be better.

Gandhi was born in 1869,12 years after India’s first war for Independence in 1857. At the same time that Darwin’s new scientific ideas were being used to justify Britain’s supremacy and Empire, the man who would disprove their interpretation and break the Empire was born.

Gandhi had an arranged marriage at the age of 13, a common practice then in India. At the age of 19 he went to England for three years to study law and was admitted to the bar.

After an unsuccessful year back in India, he went to South Africa in 1893 for one year – that turned into 21 years, for it was in South Africa that he found his karma – his duty - to work for the uplift of the Indian people. He found his passion for justice and truth, and for the equality and dignity of all humans, a passion that would motivate him for the rest of his life.

Gandhi was by nature very shy. He was short and frail. He had a weak voice and found it difficult to speak in public. At first glance, he would seem to be the least likely of revolutionary leaders. But all that changed when he discovered his mission. Then through force of will, dedication to Truth, exercise of Love, Persistence, Dedication and Selflessness, he became what many people consider to be the greatest man of the 20^th century.

Shortly after arriving in South Africa, he bought a first class ticket on the train. When a white South African came to his car, he and the conductor demanded that Gandhi go to the third class compartment, where Indians were expected to travel. When he refused, like our own Rosa Parks did later on that Birmingham bus, he was removed from the train. From that time forward, he knew that he had a purpose in life. In South Africa, he became a successful lawyer, he founded a newspaper to communicate with his people, and most important, he became an effective advocate for Indian rights.

He worked hard to raise the status of his people, not only to free them from oppression by the whites and British, but also to improve them through education, and elimination of their own discriminatory practices of the caste system. How could he object to the white man’s discrimination if he accepted the caste practices of Hinduism?

Gandhi was a universal man. He was not only Indian and Hindu, but also a product of his broad education and contacts with people of many faiths and countries. In his childhood village, he was deeply influenced by neighboring Jains, who practiced strict ahimsa – or nonviolence, to the extent that they would not even kill insects. Nonviolence and vegetarianism became basic tenets of his life.

He admired many attributes of the English. He studied Christianity and read the Bible. He didn’t care for the Old Testament, except for the Psalms and the Prophets, who spoke truth to power and challenged the domination systems of their time.

He was sincerely moved by Jesus, who would ignore the law to save the lamb, and particularly by the Sermon on the Mount, which became a foundation for his method of active non-violent resistance… love your enemy, turn the other cheek, and blessed are the peacemakers. Martin Luther King said, “Gandhi was the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals, to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale.”

Gandhi applied the combined wisdom of many faiths when he created his idea of Satyagraha – Truth Force, or Soul Force. To Gandhi, Truth was God, Truth was Love. He genuinely believed:

Truth is stronger than Lies,

Trust is stronger than Fear, and

Love is stronger than Hate.

And he was that rare human being who practiced what he preached.

While in jail for breaking unjust laws, he was given a copy of Thoreau’s book on Civil Disobedience. Did you know that Emerson had studied the Bhagavad-Gita and the Vedas, and he lent them to Thoreau who was greatly impressed by them? Our own American Transcendentalist Unitarians were influenced by these ancient Hindu scriptures, as reflected in Emerson’s essays, particularly The Oversoul, and Thoreau’s life at Walden and writings on civil disobedience. They in turn influenced Gandhi, who later influenced Martin Luther King in his struggle for Civil Rights. We do, indeed, live in one interconnected world!

Gandhi also appreciated Tolstoy who challenged the exploitative agrarian practices of serfdom in Russia, and advocated a simple, peaceful life. They exchanged correspondence and Gandhi even named one of his communes Tolstoy Farm. Both in South Africa and in India Gandhi established ashrams – communal retreats that emphasized sharing, simple living and self-reliance.

While Gandhi sought inspiration and truth from all sources, he was most impressed by the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita, in which the four types of yoga are described. It became apparent to him that Karma Yoga, the Yoga of Action, best suited him and his mission. He said, “I felt that God could be realized only through service; and service for me was the service of India.” Gandhi was not a reclusive monk or a passive mystic. He found that when he followed Krishna’s advice to just do your own work properly, and don’t worry about the rewards, he was able to persist against all obstacles in spite of failures. This selflessness was not only a virtue – it was empowering to a man of action. When people called him a saint doing politics, he corrected them by saying that he was a politician trying to become a saint.

Before English domination, India had been prosperous and self-sufficient. But the English destroyed the cottage industries in India. They took cotton from India, shipped it to English textile mills, and then sold it back to the Indians as finished goods– so the value-added profits went to the English, and the Indians lost important sources of gainful employment. Realizing this, Gandhi stopped wearing his stylish English suits, and donned the simple Indian dhoti – the loincloth, which he wore even when he visited the King of England. Seeing the widespread poverty that resulted when Indians stopped producing their own cloth, he re-instituted the practice of spinning and encouraged Indians to wear only Khadi – homespun cloth. He himself spent at least half an hour every day spinning, and the spinning wheel was placed on the Indian flag as a symbol of their independence.

Gandhi is mistakenly called passive. There was nothing passive about him. He was pro-active and deliberate in everything he did. He experimented with many methods of resistance against the British, but always insisted on absolute non-violence. The means had to suit the ends. Good could never come from evil. He organized boycotts of British goods, and hartals - total strikes, closing down all activities in the country. Such total strikes are frequent today in Pakistan, when people stand up to the armed might of the military dictators.

When Gandhi believed a law was unjust, he notified the British, called upon them to correct the law, and informed them that he would lead the people in breaking the law.

One of the most famous episodes was his 240 mile march on foot (at the age of 61) to the sea where he harvested sea salt in protest against the British monopoly and taxing of salt. When he broke the laws, he was willing to face the consequences, admit his guilt, and accept imprisonment. Both in South Africa and India he was imprisoned many times.

But Gandhi did not only take action against the British and their misbehavior. He also wanted the improvement of the Indian people. He sought to end the practice of child marriage. He sought to eliminate Hindu caste practices of untouchability. He called the untouchables Harijans – beloved children of God. He instructed them in sanitation and cleanliness.

When the Indian people engaged in violence, he announced that he was going to fast and take the suffering upon himself until the violence ended. That practice of fasting and personal suffering worked against those who loved him. When the Indian people responded favorably, he would end his fasts. He fasted to get justice for Pakistan when the Indian government did not want to give a fair share of the assets to Pakistan.

A few months after the 1947 independence of India and Pakistan, when Gandhi saw the continuation of Hindu-Muslim violence that accompanied the partition of South Asia, he announced a fast unto death unless the killing would stop. He almost died from that fast, but the killing stopped and representatives of all faiths came to assure him that the Indian people had responded, and peace had been restored. Unfortunately, a few days later, in January 1948, a Hindu belonging to the RSS, a fundamentalist group like our Ku Klux Klan, shot him as he entered a garden to join people for prayers. So he was assassinated - like Jesus and like Martin Luther King.

To the outside world, Gandhi is most famous for facilitating Indian Independence from the British Empire. He, the great innovator, was the first person in history to achieve a political revolution without the use of violence. After World War II, India was the first to gain freedom from the European colonial powers. India’s success became an inspiration for other oppressed people who sought their freedom. But we should also know that, while Gandhi wanted to cut India off from the Empire, he did not want to separate Indians from the British people. He wanted to be equal partners with Britain and the Dominions of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Gandhi said, “Isolated independence is not the goal. It is voluntary Interdependence.” So in 1948 India voluntarily joined the British Commonwealth.

Gandhi helped India to gain independence from Britain by training the Indian people to cooperate in non-cooperation with the British. Although he was willing to die for his beliefs, he was never willing to kill for them. He believed that it takes more courage to engage in non-violent resistance than in violent revolution.

While having great respect for the individual, he knew that individualism could be a curse when it becomes self-serving. One of the great things about Gandhi is that he was never attracted to “isms” – capitalism, communism, socialism – which dealt with economic orders in abstraction. He believed that all these shared a common flaw because they emphasized material well-being, whereas man’s true happiness and success comes from spiritual and social well-being, after attaining a basic level of sustenance. Gandhi remained interested in individuals - real men, real women and real children, and their real problems. No laws and no systems were more important than real people, and justice must always be in accord with the higher law of conscience and compassion for people. To quote my late husband, Haneef Ramay, Love is the Constitution, and any law that violates the Constitution of Love is a black law and should be changed.

Gandhi truly believed in his Satyagraha - that Truth is stronger than Lies, that Trust is stronger than Fear, and that Love is stronger than Hate. He set an example for us and lived in accordance with his beliefs. Shouldn’t we try to do likewise?

We appreciate our own Founding Fathers who brought America’s independence, and Gandhi who brought India’s independence. We value our freedom from the old colonial systems of domination. Now, in the spirit of Gandhi, let us dedicate ourselves to ending our new forms of exploitation and imperialism. Like Gandhi, let us be pro-active peacemakers and justice seekers. Like Gandhi, let us be advocates for the poor, the weak and the dispossessed people of the Earth.

Gandhi believed that the law of nature – in love, friendship, work, progress and security – is creative interdependence.

Happy Interdependence Day!

July 1, 2007

Discussion Questions on Gandhi.

1. Applied non-violence – How can you apply Gandhi’s ideas about non-violence in your daily lives? In your communication with others? In your social action? In your relationship with all life? And particularly in your inner thoughts?

2. Synthesis - Gandhi was a synthesizer of wisdom from many sources. How does Gandhi serve as a model for us at All Faiths?

3. Creative thinking - Gandhi took ideas, built upon them and created new paradigms for practical action. He appreciated constructive non-conformity. How can he guide you in learning to “think outside the box” of conformity and tradition?

7-1-07