FORTY SEVENTH DAY REPORT
GANDHI SWARAJ PADYATRA
by Jeff Knaebel, sojourner free
4 October 2009

For Swaraj to be built on non-violence, we must give the villages their proper place. (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi).

What appealed to me most in Tolstoy’s life is that he practiced what he preached, and reckoned no cost too great in his pursuit of truth. (Mahatmaa Gandhi in Tendulkar 1960)…

[Two of Tolstoy’s magnificent works – The Kingdom of God Is Within You and Twenty Three Tales (particularly What Do Men Live By?) are recommended for dear readers of this website. ~ Jeff]

Truth is what the voice within tells you. (Tendulkar 1960)…

Search for Truth is search for God.  Truth is God.  God is because Truth is. (Tendulkar 1960)…

When you want to find Truth as God, the only means is love, which is non-violence (CW)…

Buddha renounced every worldly happiness because he wanted to share with all his happiness which was to be had by sacrifice & suffering in the search for truth. (Mahatma Gandhi in Tendulkar 1960)…

Mechanical university study deprives us of desire for originality.  Years of memorizing fatigue the mind such that we are fit only for clerical work. (Tendulkar 1960).

***

Today was spent in Chopal, reorganizing and repacking for the much colder weather.  Niraj-ji went ahead to scout the next few days arrangements for rest stops and night halts.

Sunrise was at 0638, and by early afternoon a cold rain had begun.  Rain continued into the night, raising in our minds the concern that the notorious landslides and road wash-outs of Himachal could easily cause us significant delays.

It was a very cold day for us, and the cat had got into the milk we had procured for our hot drinks.

In the bazaar we saw a large signboard, “Adolescent Reproductive Counseling Center, Chopal – National Rural Health Mission.”

How is it that we have been duped to believe that the State has anything to do with the sex education of our children?  Is this not the duty of parents and grandparents?  What more can dis-interested bureaucrats on hire offer than loving parents?  Or, is it that we have abdicated our natural duties and responsibilities?

Niraj-ji retuns in the evening with a successful scouting report.  We plan for a modified schedule as adjustment to the weather.  Formerly we have been walking for two hours before sunrise in order to avoid both heat and road traffic.  We have been getting underway on empty stomachs and taking trail snacks of dry fruit and kakra as we walk.

Now that cold is the challenge and the narrow mountain roads have sparse traffic, we will depart later, after hopefully imbibed some hot milk and nasta.

Imported below is a message from Gwich’in Elder Lincoln Tritt of Arctic Village, Alaska.  He and Jeff worked together as Trustees and managers of Spiritual Unity of the Tribes, and now Lincoln writes at our website www.freeofstate.org.  He is also a co-creator and author at our website www.thetreeoftomorrow.org.

Here is Lincoln on 3 October 2009:

There seem to be a little dip in the amount of denial being generated.  Let us hope that people are starting to see through the conservative propaganda and start doing something about the state of our planet.  I think too much of these talks are hindering our effort.  It is time to stop the protesting and start guiding people on what we can do to get back to having a healthy planet.

There is a difference between talking and communicating.  If you just write, and do not practice any of the values or philosophy you are talking about, you are in essence just making noise over the people that are actually getting things done.

So far, I have read a lot of statements and writing but none is leading us in the right direction.  All the writings I have read about the corporations and governments have all been going on for a long time.  When we only write about them, we are being distracted from the really important issue of “healing the Earth”.

All you have to do is see how many volcanoes went off last year and see the number of earthquakes, we are experiencing this year, and the weather disasters that are getting more destructive.  It would be a lot more beneficial at this point to concentrate more on the planet and less on the things that are distracting, because that is what it is suppose to be done.  Otherwise, protest writing is keeping people from doing  what is vitally important.

I would like to see more on Indigenous knowledge on living together and being responsible about life and the discipline to save the lives of the seventh generation from our time.

Blessings, Lincoln Tritt  October 3, 2009

***

It seems clear to me that industrialized humanity has little idea about how to live together, and no idea about living in balance and with respect for nature.  The corporate consumer pipe dream is also being successfully sold here in village India, which has the largest population of subsistence farmers and artisans.  Their way of life is being rapidly destroyed, and their wisdom ways are being washed away in the tsunami of TV rubbish.

The mission of this Gandhi Swaraj Padyatra is to raise awareness of what is actually coming down, and to inspire action before it is too late.  Jeff speaks from his executive experience to the point of dissuading youth from leaving their land and going into the corporate jungle of the big cities.  His Indian colleagues offer programs of village self help and inspiration for demanding true Hind Swaraj now itself – today.

We try to help people become aware that the vector of cultural and planetary destruction is the industrial Corporate Warfare State.  That it is a cruel, heartless, non-human machine of institutionalized structural violence.  That the way to save ourselves is through the Hind Swaraj vision of Mahatma Gandhi.

That to achieve this vision we must withdraw our participation in the corporate consumer society and in the proceedings of sham democracies that are merely fiefdoms of Central Bankers and the corporations.  This is the way espoused by the great Mahatma.

At the same time, Jeff does not feel that he is doing enough.  I am beginning to feel that this padyatra should be continued on a personal level of walking and planting trees in these mountains as long as my legs will carry me.

Today we walked zero km – tally 819.

— END OF DAY 47 REPORT —

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