If you want to be Gandhian in your actions and life (practical only ),you will have to follow eleven vows of Gandhi without any fail and any thought ,action or behaviour that goes against these vows ,means that you fail Gandhi . Any action of any person or group can be justified ,verified ,tested and approved by these vows fallowed not in words but in spirit and if any thing goes against or deviates a little ,one falls down from the rope of life like an acrobat and can not call it Gandhian . But it is the simplest way and there is no chance of doubt or failure if you are sincere (honest ) ''ज्ञान क पंथ कृपान क धारा : परत खगेश न लागहिं बारा '' (Tulasi in Ramcharit Manas ); means - the way of knowledge is like the blade of sword and needs no frequency to cut the things that are put on . So is the Gandhian way .
These eleven are -- (as Gandhi thinks and writes )
1- Satya (Truth)
Truth has no form. Therefore everyone one will form such an idea or image of Truth as appeals to him, and there will be as many images of Truth as there are men. These will be true as long as they last. For they enable a man to obtain everything he wants. - Diary of Mahadevbhai, p. 120 .
Truth should be Truth in thought, Truth in speech, and Truth in action. To the man who has realised this Truth in its fulness , nothing else remains to be known, because all knowledge is necessarily included in it. What is not included in it, is not truth and so not true knowledge. - From Yeravda Mandir, p. 2.
2- Ahimsa (Nonviolence)Ahimsa is not merely a negative state of harmlessness , but it is positive state of love , of doing good even to the evil-doer. - Young India,August 25, 1920
Ahimsa is a weapon of matchless potency. It is the summum bonum of life. It is an attribute of the brave, in fact, it is their all. It does not come within the reach of coward. It is no wooden or lifeless dogma, but a living and life giving force. - Young India, Sept 6, 1926.
Ahimsa is not the way of the timid or cowardly. It is the way of the brave ready to face death. He who perishes sword in hand is no doubt brave; but he who faces death without raising his little finger and without flinching, is braver. - Young India, Oct. 11, 1928
3- Asteya (Non-stealing)
Non-stealing does not mean merely not to steal. To keep or take anything which one does not is also stealing. And of course, stealing is fraught with violence.- Bapu-ke-Aashirvad, November 24, 1944.
We are not always aware of our real needs, and most of us improperly multiply our wants and thus , unconsciously, make thieves of ourselves. One who follows the observance of Non-stealing will bring about a progressive reduction of his own wants. Much of the distressing poverty in this world has risen out of the breaches of the principle of Non-stealing.- From Yeravda Mandir, p. 20.
4- Brahmacharya (Self Discipline)
Brahamchraya means control of all the organs of sense. He who attempts to control only one organ, and allows all the others free play is bound to find his effort futile . To hear suggestive stories with the ears, to see suggestive sights with the eyes, to taste stimulating food with the tongue, to touch exciting things with the hands, and at the same time to expect to control the only remaining organ, is like putting one's hands in the fire and expecting to escape being hurt. Bapu's letters to Mira. P.257.
5- Aparigraha (Non-possession)Non possession means that we should not hoard anything that we do not need today. - Bapu-ke-Aashirvad, Nov. 25,1944.
The less you possess, the less you want , the better you are. And better for what ? Not for your enjoyment of this life but for enjoyment of personal service to your fellow beings ; service to which you dedicate yourself ,body, soul and mind. - Mahatma Vol. 3, p.155. When you dispossess yourself of everything you have, you really possess all the treasures of the world. In other words , you really get all that is in reality necessary for you., everything . If the food is necessary, food will come to you.- My Philosophy of Life, p. 138. 6- Sharirshrama (Bread Labour) Earn thy bread by the sweat of the brow- says Bible . Bread labour means that everyone is expected to perform sufficient body-labour in order to entitle him to his living. It is not ,therefore, necessary to earn one's living by bread labour ,taking living' in its broader sense. But everyone must perform some useful body-labour. Young India, Nov. 5, 1925.
The economics of Bread labour are the living way of life . It means that every man has to labour with his body for his food and clothing. If I can convince the people of the value and necessity of bread-labour, there never will be any want of bread and cloth. - Harijan, Sept. 7, 1947.
7- Aswada (Control of the Palate)Unless we are satisfied with foods that are necessary for the proper maintenance of our physical health, and unless we are prepare to rid ourselves of stimulating heating and exciting condiments that we mixed with food. We will certainly not be able to control the over-abundant, unnecessary, and exciting stimulation that we may have. If we do not do that, the result naturally is that we abuse ourselves, and become less than animals and brutes. - Speeches & Writings of Mahatma Gandhi. p. 384
The diet should be healthy and well-balanced. The body was never meant to be treated as a refuse-bin. Food is meant to sustain the body. - My Philosophy of Life.p.111
8- Sarvatra Bhayavarjana (Fearlessness)
Fearlessness should connote absence of all kinds of fear - fear of death, fear of bodily injury, fear of hunger, fear of insults, fear of public disapprobation, fear of ghosts and evil spirits, fear of anyone's anger. Freedom from all these and other such fears constitute fearlessness. - Bapu - Ke Ashirwad. Nov 26, 1944
9- Sarva Dharma Samantva (Equality of the religions)
Religions have been interwoven . One sees a special quality in every one of them . But no one religion is higher than another. All are complimentary to one another .Since this is my belief, the speciality of any one religion cannot run counter to another, cannot be at variance with universally accepted principles. - Harijanbandhu, March 19, 1933.
were necessary for the people to whom these religions were revealed. And I believe that, if only we could all of us read the scriptures of the different faiths from the standpoint of the followers of those faiths we should find that they were at bottom all one and were all helpful to one another.- Harijan, Feb. 16, 1934 .
10- Swadeshi (Use Locally Made Goods)
Swadeshi is that sprit in us which requires us to serve our immediate neighbours before others , and to use things produced in our neighbourhood in preference to those more remote. So doing, we cannot serve humanity to the best of our capacity, we cannot serve humanity by neglecting our neigbours. - Young India, April 20 1919.My definition of Swadeshi is well known . I must not serve my distant neighbour at the expense of the nearest. It is never vindictive or punitive. It is in no sense narrow , for I buy from every part of the world what is needed for my growth. I refuse to buy from anybody anything, however nice or beautiful, if it interferes with my growth or injures those whom Nature has made my first care. - Young India, March 12, 1925
11- Sparshbhavna (Untouchability)
Untouchability means pollution by the touch of certain persons in reason of their birth in a particular state or family. It is an excrescence. In the guise of religion, it is always in the way, and erupts religion. - From Yeravda Mandir, p. 31 Removal of untouchability means love for, and service of, the whole world and thus merges into Ahimsa. Removal of untouchability spells the breaking down of barriers between man and man and between the various orders of Being. -From Yeravda Mandir,
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