SEVENTYTH DAY REPORT GANDHI SWARAJ PADYATRA by Jeff Knaebel
SEVENTYTH DAY REPORT
GANDHI SWARAJ PADYATRA
by Jeff Knaebel, sojourner stateless freedom
27 October 2009
“I have not the slightest doubt that, but for the pair, truth and non-violence, mankind will be doomed. We can have the vision of that truth and non-violence only in the simplicity of the villages” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
MAHATMA GANDHI ON PEACE AND NON-VIOLENCE
By Ashu Passricha, Journal of Gandhian Studies, 2006
Gandhi believed in the thorough practice of the ideal of Abhayam or fearlessness along with non violence. He was always stressing for practicing Ahimsa it is essential to shed all fear. The votary of Ahimsa only has no fear of God. As he pursues the God journey he realizes the eternal Atman and feels absolute indifference towards the temporary pleasures of the world. He sheds the attachment for the mortal physical frame. |
“Violence is needed for the protection of things external; non violence is needed for the protection of the Atman.” Ahimsa or positive creative love can be practiced only on the basis of fearlessness and it may even be said that perfect Ahimsa means absolute fearlessness. It is the path of the brave.
He prayed only for the heroic non violent action of the brave and was never attached to the nonresistance offered by the weak. He wanted the cultivation of courage as a preparation for life, but he wanted this courage to be expressed non violently, and not violently. He insisted on the development of that moral courage and strength which proceed from an indomitable will.
There is a solid concern for the actual and the concrete in Gandhi’s saying that the sword is not the sign of strength but the symbol of fear and weakness. Fear generates suspicion and sometimes even arrogance. The accumulation of fear results in the formation of complexes. Sometimes it may produce aggressiveness.
A greatly disturbing situation of our times is the growth of perverted and maladjusted personalities who are prone to being exploited by demagogues who raise bogeys and scares of different kinds and play upon the fear of the people. Gandhi teaches the psychological efficacy of fearlessness based on spiritual faith as the way to counteract the blighting influences of political coercion, group jealousies and rivalries and individual appetites.
Fearlessness is acquired by perfection of personal character and by deep faith in the existence of God. A believer in the reality and kindness of God cares only for truth, faith in the creative and beneficent power of the Spirit provides to man a firm determination to fight all factors of injustice even at the cost of the sacrifice of one’s life.
Gandhi was a perfect devotee of civility and humility, but he explicitly, unconditionally and categorically stated that if the only actives were cowardice and violence he would choose the latter. He was not tired of repeating that fear or cowardice should have no place in the national dictionary. He wrote:
“The truth is that cowardice itself is violence of a subtle and, therefore, dangerous type, and far more difficult to eradicate than the habit of physical violence. A coward never risks his life. A man who would kill often risks it. For he knows that the soul within never dies. The encasing body is ever perishing.
The more a man gives his life, the more he saves it. Thus non violence requires more than the courage of the soldier of war. The Gita definition of a soldier is one who does not know what it is to run away from danger.”
*****
Today before our departure and farewell to young Ashok Kumar, he pressed me again and again to return to his village and visit for some time. On fast today, he refuses our offer of breakfast. We had a hard – very hard – time persuading him to accept five hundred rupees for all he had done for us – carry Jeff’s pack, find vegetables for dinner, fix the electrical connection in our rented hut.
Scruffy, ragged angel, he is really a different kind of person, unlike any other known to me. He reminds me of the angel in Tolstoy’s story, “What Men Live By.”
We got underway from Village Barkal at 0850 hrs. At 1025 our steep trail reaches a road at Village Devti. On the way, we found Leh berries of perfect ripeness.
At 1300 we take short rest at Village Khahad. At 1405 we reach Village Salai and try to buy vegetables, but the farmer refuses to take any money for his 2 kg of peas.
Reaching Sarai Koti Mandir at 1631 hrs, we are circled by several large eagles. Lens clouds form in standing waves over the whole sweep of Kinnaur Kailash, and it is snowing across the entire range. Village Sarahan is in clear view across a deep valley.
The DAK Bungalow and all other spaces are filled with more than 100 people who have come for an all-night puja at Sarai Koti. Dreams of a day of rest and bath gone, we pitch tents in the deepening cold of dusk. There is little firewood and too much wind for the mountain stove, so we will go without supper. The amazing Pathram manages to find enough wood for chai.
Today we walked 14 km – tally 1,078.
— END OF DAY 70 REPORT —
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