Gandhi 45
Gandhi would glean from his mother’s initial teachings, and example, the principle of self-restraint that would guide him his whole life:
“Morally, I have no doubt that all self-denial is good for the soul.”
“Realization of truth through self-gratification, appears a contradiction in terms.”
“Many aspirants after celibacy fail, because in the use of their other senses, they want to carry on like those who are not celibates.”
“An aspirant after celibacy will always be conscious of his shortcomings, will seek out the passions lingering in the innermost recesses of his heart, and will incessantly strive to get rid of them.”
Gandhi 46
There is a gift that comes from self-restraint, that oh-so-elusive gift…of happiness.
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
“My life is based on disciplinary resolutions.”
Gandhi 47
Finally, at 38 years old, after having become a lawyer and having fathered four sons, Gandhi surrendered to his destiny:
“I pondered over celibacy and its implications, and my convictions took deep root. I discussed it with my co-workers.”
“It was borne in upon me that I should have more and more occasions for service of the kind I was rendering, and that I should find myself unequal to my task if I were engaged in the pleasures of family life and in the propagation and rearing of children.”
“I saw that celibacy, which is so full of wonderful potency, is by no means an easy affair, and certainly not a mere matter of the body. It begins with bodily restraint, but does not end there. The perfection of it precludes even an impure thought. The true celibate will not even dream of satisfying the fleshly appetite, and until he is in that condition, he has a great deal of ground to cover.”
“For me the observance of even bodily celibacy has been full of difficulties. Today, I may say that I feel myself fairly safe, but I have yet to achieve complete mastery over thought, which is so essential. Not that the will or effort is lacking, but it is yet a problem to me wherefrom undesirable thoughts spring their insidious invasions.”
“In the first flush of enthusiasm, I found the observance quite easy.”
“Thus celibacy, which I have been observing willy-nilly since 1900, was sealed with a vow in the middle of 1906. Events were so shaping themselves as to make this self purification on my part a preliminary, as it were, to nonviolent noncooperation. I can now see that all the principal events of my life, culminating in the vow of celibacy, were secretly preparing me for it.”
Gandhi 48
Gandhi’s vow of chastity gave him the strength, faith and courage to face the most formidable military power on earth at the time, the British Empire…with not so much as a knife or hand gun:
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
“A living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.”
“You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.”
“We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.”
“Do thou thy allotted task; action is superior to inaction. With inaction even life's normal course is not possible.”
Gandhi 49
Like AA, Gandhi believed that “Talk is cheap”….action is what counts:
Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:
- I shall not fear anyone on Earth.
- I shall fear only God.
- I shall not bear ill will toward anyone.
- I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.
- I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.
Gandhi 50
Again and again Gandhi would hammer home the message of the connection between sex and food:
“My experiments in dietetics are dear to me. They give me recreation and joy.”
“I have not the least doubt that milk diet makes the celibacy vow difficult to observe. Let no one deduce from this that all celibates must give up milk.”
“Celibacy needed no effort on my part in South Africa when I lived on fruits and nuts alone. It has been a matter of very great effort ever since I began to take milk.”
“The effect on celibacy of different kinds of foods can be determined only after numerous experiments.”
“But, it was after coming to India that I realized that such chastity was impossible to attain by mere human effort. Until then I have been laboring under the delusion that fruit diet alone would enable me to eradicate all passions, and I had flattered myself with the belief that I had nothing more to do.”
“Let me be clear that those who desire to observe chastity with a view to realizing God need not despair, provided their faith in God is equal to their confidence in their own effort. Therefore His name and His grace are the last resources of the aspirant after chastity.”
“My diet consisted of, among other things, ground nuts, ripe and unripe bananas, lemon, olive oil, tomatoes and grapes. I completely eschewed milk, cereal, pulses and other things.”
“Control of the palate is very closely connected with the observance of celibacy. I have found from experience that the observance of celibacy becomes comparatively easy if one acquires mastery over the palate. This does not figure among the observances of time-honored recognition. Could it be because even the great sages found it difficult to achieve?”
“The observance of celibacy has been found, from experience, to be extremely difficult so long as one is not acquired mastery over taste. Control of the palate has, therefore, been placed as a principle by itself.”
“Those who would achieve an easy conquest of animal passion must give up all unnecessary things which stimulate it. They must control their palate and cease to read suggestive literature and to enjoy all luxuries. I have not the shadow of a doubt that they will find celibacy easy enough after such renunciation.”
Gandhi 51
Gandhi knew that “God is Truth”, but he wasn’t pushy about it.
“I saw that a man of truth must also be a man of care.”
“My life was certainly more truthful and my soul knew no bounds.”
“But all my life through, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise.”