Cowards can never be moral.

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

If you don't ask, you don't get.

"God has no religion."

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.

There is no way to peace peace is the way!

In the march toward Truth, anger, selfishness, hatred, naturally give way, for otherwise Truth would be impossible to attain.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with dirty feet.

Your capacity to keep your vow will depend on the purity of your life.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

I have known many meat eaters to be far more nonviolent than vegetarians.

I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.

Good government is no substitute for self-government.

The golden rule of conduct . . . is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall always see Truth in fragment and from different points of vision.

God comes to the hungry in the form of food.

To put up with. . . distortions and to stick to one's guns come what may - this is the. . . gift of leadership.

The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment. And if this is a correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be concentrated on achieving reform from within.

The good man is the friend of all living things.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.

Where there is fear, there is no religion.

Fear has its use but cowardice has none.

I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth.

Where there is love there is life.

Love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the humblest imaginable.

To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.

I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move the world.

I don't believe in stereotypes, I prefer to hate people on a more personal basis. The measure of a truly great man is the courtesy with which he treats lesser men. An eye for an eye will make the whole world go blind.

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock.

In this age of the rule of brute force, it is almost impossible for anyone to believe that any one else could possibly reject the law of the final supremacy of brute force.

It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one's opponent.

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

I claim to be no more than an average man with less than average abilities. I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.

My commitment is to truth not consistency.

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.

True morality consists, not in following the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and in fearlessly following it!

The control of the palate is a valuable aid for the control of the mind.

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.

H. G. Wells was not the only one to mention Churchill and Hitler in the same breath: "Churchill and Hitler are striving to change the nature of their respective countrymen by forcing and hammering violent methods on them. Man may be suppressed in this manner but he cannot be changed. Ahimsa [non-violence in the Hindu tradition], on the other hand, can change human nature and sooner than men like Churchill and Hitler."

Ahimas [non-violence in the Hindu tradition], is the attribute of the soul, and therefore, to be practiced by everybody in all affairs of life. If it cannot be practiced in all departments, it has no practical value.

Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.

All business depends upon men fulfilling their responsibilities.

Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state.

I came to the conclusion long ago . . . that all religions were true, and also that all had some error in them.

Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation.

I believe in the doctrine of non-violence as a weapon of the weak. I believe in the doctrine of non-violence as a weapon of the strongest. I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

To believe that what has not occurred in history will not occur at all, is to argue disbelief in the dignity of man.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problem.

Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared.

No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.

All crime is a kind of disease and should be treated as such.

My nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving the dear ones unprotected.

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

Don't listen to friends when the Friend inside you says "Do this."

The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. . . . Freedom and slavery are mental states.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.

For the nonviolent person, the whole world is one family. He will fear none, nor will others fear him.

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.

Faith must be enforced by reason. When faith becomes blind it dies.

Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.

If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.

Those who know how to think need no teachers.

There is no hope for the aching world except through the narrow and straight path of nonviolence.

Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

A man who is swayed by negative emotions may have good enough intentions, may be truthful in word, but he will never find the Truth.

It is difficult but not impossible to conduct strictly honest business. What is true is that honesty is incompatible with the amassing of a large fortune.

Never make a promise in haste.

Even a believer in nonviolence has to say between two combatants which is less bad or whose cause is just.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

Learn as if you would live forever, live as if you would die tomorrow.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

It is open to a war resister to judge between the combatants and wish success to the one who has justice on his side. By so judging he is more likely to bring peace between the two than by remaining a mere spectator.

Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause.

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.

If intellect plays a large part in the field of violence, I hold that it plays a larger part in the field of nonviolence.

Almost anything you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

Increase of material comforts, it may generally be laid down, does not in any way conduce to moral growth.

Personally, I hold that a man, who deliberately and intelligently takes a pledge and then breaks it, forfeits his manhood.

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.

A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, Nothing else.

My life is an indivisible whole, and all my activities run into one another: and they have their rise in my insatiable love of mankind.

Remember that there is always a limit to self-indulgence, but none to self-restraint.

The real test of nonviolence lies in its being brought in contact with those who have contempt for it.

The nonviolence I teach is active nonviolence of the strongest. But the weakest can partake in it without becoming weaker.

Nonviolence is an intensely active force when properly understood and used.

Non-violence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.

The mice which helplessly find themselves between the cats teeth acquire no merit from their enforced sacrifice.

Monotony is the law of nature. Look at the monotonous manner in which the sun rises. The monotony of necessary occupations is exhilarating and life-giving.

Nonviolence is the law of the human race and is infinitely greater than, and superior to, brute force.

Nonviolence of the strong cannot be a mere policy. It must be a creed, or a passion, if 'creed' is objected to.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

Mental violence has no potency and injures only the person whose thoughts are violent. It is otherwise with mental non-violence. It has potency which the world does not yet know.

The best politics is right action.

A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.

If one does not practice nonviolence in one's own personal relations with others and hopes to use it in bigger affairs, one is vastly mistaken.

A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.

Purity of mind and idleness are incompatible.

It is the acid test of nonviolence that in a nonviolent conflict there is no rancor left behind, and in the end the enemies are converted into friends.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be inseparable part of our very being.

When nonviolence is accepted as the law of life, it must pervade the whole being and not be applied to isolated acts.

Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.

No man could be actively nonviolent and not rise against social injustice, no matter where it occurred.

Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God.

One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.

A person who has truly realized the principle of nonviolence has the God given strength for his weapon, and the world has not yet known anything that can match it.

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. . . . It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.

Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

I understood . . . that those who desired salvation should act like the trustee who, though having control over great possessions, regards not an iota of them as his own.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make, not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at large.

If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.

They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.

The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity.

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

My religion is based on truth and nonviolence. Truth is my God. Nonviolence is the means of realizing Him.

I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.

It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.

What is a man if he is not a thief who openly charges as much as he can for the goods he sells?

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, ALWAYS.

The mantra becomes one's staff of life and carries one through every ordeal. Each repetition has a new meaning, carrying you nearer and nearer to God.

It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

The 7 Deadly Sins are: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Business without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principle.

There is sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. My wisdom flows from the Highest Source. I salute that Source in you. Let us work together for unity and love.

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning. If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.

It is wonderful, if we chose the right diet, what an extraordinarily small quantity would suffice.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

On Western civilization: "I think it would be a good idea." Man Becomes Great Exactly In The Degree To Which He Works For The Welfare Of His Fellow Man

What’s not given is lost!

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Live Simply that others may Simply Live.

If you don't find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for Him further.

What kind of victory is it when someone is left defeated?

Non-violence is not a cover for cowardice, but it is the supreme virtue of the brave. Exercise of non-violence requires far greater bravery than that of swordsmanship. Cowardice is wholly inconsistent with non-violence. Translation from swordsmanship to non-violence is possible and, at times, even an easy stage. Non-violence, therefore, presupposes ability to strike. It is a conscious deliberate restraint put upon one's desire for vengeance. But vengeance is any day superior to passive, effeminate and helpless submission. Forgiveness is higher still. Vengeance too is weakness. The desire for vengeance comes out of fear of harm, imaginary or real. A dog barks and bites when he fears. A man who fears no one on earth would consider it too troublesome even to summon up anger against one who is vainly trying to injure him. The sun does not wreak vengeance upon little children who throw dust at him. They only harm themselves in the act. (YI, 12-8-1926, p285)

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.

It is better to allow our lives to speak for us than our words. God did not bear the cross only two thousand years ago. He bears it today, and he dies and is resurrected from day to day. It would be a poor comfort to the world if it had to depend on a historical God who died two thousand years ago. Do not, then, preach the God of history, but show him as he lives today through you.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.

My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet.

Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive, because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive, because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.

To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face, one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.

My life is my message.

"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."

Love is the subtlest force in the universe.

The end is inherent in the means.

A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns more from them than he teaches them. He who learns nothing from his disciples is, in my opinion, worthless. Whenever I talk with someone I learn from him. I take from him more than I give him. In this way, a true teacher regards himself as a student of his students. If you will teach your pupils with this attitude, you will benefit much from them.

Violent means will give violent freedom.

If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children; and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won't have to struggle; we won't have to pass fruitless idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which consciously or unconsciously the whole world is hungering.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

I look upon an increase of the power of the State with the greatest fear, because although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality, which lies at the root of all progress. We know of so many cases where men have adopted trusteeship, but none where the State has really lived for the poor.

No society can possibly be built on a denial of individual freedom.

One who uses coercion is guilty of deliberate violence. Coercion is inhuman.

I am not at all concerned with appearing to be consistent. In my pursuit after Truth I have discarded many ideas and learnt many new things.

"My optimism rests on my belief in the infinite possibilities of the individual to develop nonviolence. . . . In a gentle way you can shake the world."

The future depends on what we do in the present.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

Truth is as hard as adamant and tender as a blossom.

It is possible to live in peace.

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us.

…the Sermon on the Mount… went straight to my heart. I compared it with the Gita. The verses, `But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man take away thy coat let him have thy cloke too," delighted me beyond measure and put me in mind of Shamal Bhatt's `For a bowl of water, give a goodly meal'…My young mind tried to unify the teaching of the Gita, the `Light of Asia' and the Sermon on the Mount. That renunciation was the highest form of religion appealed to me greatly.

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.

A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practice perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice.

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.

A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness.

Action expresses priorities.

Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.

Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.

But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac.

Commonsense is the realized sense of proportion.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.

Each one prays to God according to his own light.

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.

Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.

Fear of death makes us devoid both of valor and religion. For want of valor is want of religious faith.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living ?

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it.

God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress. Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others.

I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force.

If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty.

Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.

Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one's belly, in order to be able to save one's head.

It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.

Just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may be.

Justice that love gives is surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.

Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.

Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

Morality is contraband in war.

Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.

Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.

Peace is its own reward.

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.

Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.

Self-respect knows no considerations.

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.

Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul.

That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problem.

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.

The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.

The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.

The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted.

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one's opponent.

The real ornament of woman is her character, her purity.

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.

There is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is no blind law; for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings.

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

~ Gandhi Speaks ~ SRF Pamphlet @ Lake Shrine

I own that I have an immovable faith in the universe and its goodness, and an inconsumable passion for truth and love. But, is that not what every person has latent in him?

Work without faith is like an attempt to reach the bottom of a bottomless pit. I can easily put up with the denial of the world, but any denial by me of my universal power is unthinkable.

The heart’s earnest and pure desire is always fulfilled. In my own experience, I have often seen this rule being verified.

I am too conscious of the imperfections of the species to which I belong to be irritated against any member thereof. My remedy is to deal with the wrong wherever I see it, not to hurt the wrongdoer; even as I would not like to be hurt for the wrongs I continually do.

I implicitly believe in the truth of the saying that not a blade of grass moves but by Universal Will. Universal Will say it [my life] if He needs it for further service in this body. None can save it against His will.

I remain an optimist, not that there is any evidence that I can give that right is going to prosper but because of my unflinching faith that right must prosper in the end. Our inspiration can come only from our faith that right must PREVAIL.

A drop in the ocean partakes of the greatness of its parent, although it is unconscious of it. But it is dried up as soon as it enters upon an existence independent of the ocean. We do not exaggerate when we say that life is a mere bubble.

A seeker after truth cannot afford to be an egotist. One who would sacrifice his life for others has hardly time to reserve for himself a place in the sun.

If we could erase the “I’s” and the “mine’s” from religion, politics, economics, etc., we should soon be free and bring heaven upon earth.

I have made the frankest admission of my many sins but I do not carry their burden on my shoulders. If I am journeying Godwardly, as I feel I am, it is safe with me.

My Mahatmaship is worthless…. What is of abiding worth is my insistence of truth, nonviolence, and celibacy, which is the real part of me. That part of me however small is not to be despised. It is my all.

I prize even the failures and disillusionments which are but steps toward success.

A cause has the best chance of success when it is examined and followed on its own merits. Measures must always, in a progressive society, be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfillment.

I have no desire for prestige anywhere. It is furniture required in courts of kings. I am a servant of Musulmans, Christians, Parsis, and Jews, as I am of Hindus. And a servant is in need of love, not prestige. That is assured to me so long as I remain a faithful servant.

The good that a man does is more often than not better left unsaid. Imitation is the sincerest flattery.

I can truthfully say that I am slow to see the blemishes of fellow beings, being myself full of them. Therefore, being in need of their charity, I have learnt not to judge anyone harshly and to make allowances for defects that I may detect.

I have been accused of being autocratic… I have never been able to subscribe to the charge of obstinacy or autocracy. On the contrary, I price myself on my yielding nature in non-vital matters. I detest autocracy. Valuing my freedom and independence I equally cherish them for others.

I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into power which can move the world.

How I find it possible to control anger would be a useless question, for it is a habit that everyone must cultivate and must succeed in forming by CONSTANT PRACTICE.

I know the path. It is STRAIGHT and NARROW. It is like the edge of a sword. I rejoice to walk on it. I weep when I slip. The Universal word is, “He who strives never perishes.” I have implicit faith in that promise.

I am but a seeker after TRUTH… To find Truth completely is to realize oneself and one’s destiny, i.e., to become perfect. I am painfully conscious of my imperfections, and therein lies all the strength I possess, because it is a rare thing for a man to know this own limitations.

Defeat cannot dishearten me. It can only chasten me. I know that the universe will guide me. Truth is superior to man’s wisdom.

The most practical, the most dignified way of going on in the world, is to take people at their word, when you have no positive reason to the contrary.

A breach of promise shakes me to my root, especially when I am in any way connected with the author of the breach. And if it cost my life, which after all at the age of seventy has no insurance value, I should most willingly give it in order to secure due performance of a sacred and solemn promise.

I am but a poor struggling soul earning to be wholly truthful and wholly nonviolent in thought, word, and deed, but ever failing to reach the ideal which I know to be true. It is a painful climb, but the pain of it is a positive pleasure to me. Each step upward makes me feel stronger and more fit for the next.

I will not be a traitor to the universe to please the whole world. It will be time enough to pronounce a verdict upon my work after my eyes are closed and this tabernacle consigned to the flames.

It has been my misfortune or good fortune to take the world by surprise. New experiments in new style must sometimes engender misunderstanding.

What is TRUTH? A difficult question’ but I have solved it for myself by saying that it is what the “VOICE WITHIN” tells you.

All that I can in true humility present to you is that TRUTH is not to be found by anybody who has not got an abundant sense of humility. If you would swim on the bosom of the ocean of TRUTH you must reduce yourself to a zero.

There are innumerable definitions of God- the universe, because His manifestations are innumerable.

Though the path of TRUTH is STRAIGHT and NARROW and SHARP as the RAZOR’s EDGE, for me it has been the quickest and easiest.

Often my progress I have had faint glimpses of the ABSOLUTE TRUTH, God- the universal intelligence; and daily the conviction is growing upon me that HE alone is real and all else is unreal.

Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after perfections, which is self-realization. The ideal must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections.

In the final analysis a man is guided in his conduct by his own inner promptings, though the example of others my sometimes seem to guide him.

There only is life where there is love. Life without love is death. Love is the reverse of the coin of which the obverse is truth. It is my firm faith that we can conquer the whole world by truth and love.

I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever-changing, ever-dying, underlying all that changing is a LIVING POWER that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and recreates. That informing POWER of SPIRIT is God- universal intelligence. And since nothing else that I see merely through the senses can or will persist HE alone IS.

I can see that the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God- universal intelligence is LIFE, TRUTH, LIGHT. He is LOVE. He is SUPREMEM GOOD.

I call universal intelligence long- suffering and patient precisely because he permits evil it the world. I know that he has no evil in him and yet if there is evil, he is the author of it and yet untouched by it.

The purer I try to become, the nearer to the universal intelligence I feel myself to be. How much more should be near to him when my faith is not a mere apology, as it is today, but has become as immovable as the Himalayas and as white and bright as the snows on t heir peaks.

Belief in universal intelligence has to be based on faith which transcends reason. Indeed, even so-called realization has at bottom an element of faith without which cannot be sustained.

I have no special revelation of universal intelligence’s will. My firm belief is that he reveals himself daily to every human being, but we shut our ears to the “STILL SMALL VOICE.” We shut our eyes to the ‘PILLAR OF FIRE” in front of us. I realize his OMNIPRESENCE.

I may be a despicable person, but when TRUTH speaks through me I AM INVINCIBLE.

I know that I can do nothing. The universal intelligence can do everything. O universal intelligence, make me Thy fit instrument and use me Thou Wilt!

Universal intelligence is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist. For in his boundless love, universal intelligence permits the atheist to live. He is the SEARCHER OF HEARTS.

Universal intelligence IS to those who have faith. He is all things to all men. He is in us and yet above and beyond us. He cannot cease to be because hideous immoralities or inhuman brutalities are committed in his name. He is long- suffering. He is patient but he is also terrible.

I am endeavoring to see universal intelligence through service to humanity, for I know that universal intelligence is neither in heaven or down below, but in everyone.

If I could persuade myself that I should find him in a Himalayan cave I would proceed there immediately. But I know that I cannot find him apart from humanity.

Perfection is the attribute of the Almighty, and yet what a great democrat He is! What an amount of wrong and humbug he suffers on our part!

He is a Being without hands and feet and other organs, yet that man can see Him to whom He chooses to reveal Himself.

I can testify that I may live without air and water but not without him. You may pluck out my eyes, but that cannot kill me. You may chop off my nose, but that will not kill me. But blast my belief in god- universal intelligence, and I am dead.

All the power I may have comes from universal intelligence. But he does not work directly. He works through his numberless agencies.

There is not a moment when I do not feel the presence of a Witness whose eye misses nothing and with whom I strive to keep in tune. I cannot recall a moment in my life when I had a sense of desertion by universal intelligence.

The rays of the sun are many through refraction. But then have the same source. I cannot, therefore, detach myself from the wickedest should [nor may I be denied identify with the most virtuous].

Nor can I do without experiment. Life is but an endless series of experiments.

When every hope is gone, “when helpers fail and comforts flee,” I experience that help arrives somehow, from I know not where. Supplication, worship, prayer are not superstition; they are acts more real than the acts of eating, drinking, sitting, or walking. It is not exaggeration to say that they [thoughts of god- universal intelligence] alone are real, all else is unreal.

Prayer needs no speech. It is in itself independent of any sensuous effort. I have not the slightest doubt that prayer is an unfailing means of cleansing the heart of passions. But it must be combined with the utmost humility.

As food is necessary for the body, prayer is necessary for the soul. Prayer is an impossibility without a living faith in the presence of god-universal intelligence WITHIN. Universal intelligence demands nothing less than complete self-surrender as the price for the only real freedom that is worth having.

Never own defeat in a sacred cause. Make up your mind henceforth that you will be pure and that you will find a response from universal intelligence. But universal intelligence never answers the prayers of the arrogant, not he prayers of those who bargain with him. If you would ask him to help you, go to him in all your nakedness; approach him without reservations, also without fear or doubts as to how he can help a fallen being like you.

The prayer of even the most impure will be answered. I am telling this out of my personal experience, I have gone through the purgatory.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening. “It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” [Bunyan]

I am giving you a bit of my experience and that of my companions when I say that he who has experienced the magic of prayer say do without food for days together but not for a single moment without prayer. For without prayer there is not inward peace.

The more my faith in universal intelligence increased, the more irresistible became the yearnings for prayer. Life seemed to me dull and vacant without it. In fact food for the body is not so necessary as prayer for the soul.

I have found people who envy my peace. That peace comes from prayer; I am not a man of learning but I humbly claim to be a man of prayer. I am indifferent as to the form. Everyone is a law unto himself in that respect.
 

It has often occurred to me that a seeker after truth has to be silent. I know that wonderful efficacy of SILENCE. Go within and meditate for your answers.

We are frail human beings. We do not know very often what we say. If we want to listen to the “STILL SMALL VOICE” that is ALWAYS SPEAKING WITHIN US, IT WILL NOT BE HEARD IF WE CONTINUALLY SPEAK.

Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress nor modify the TRUTH, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man, and silence is necessary in order to surmount it.

Silence of the sewn-up lips is no silence. One may achieve the same result by chopping off one’s tongue, but that too would not be silence. He is silent who having the capacity to speak, utters not idle word.

After I had practiced silence for some time I saw the spiritual value of it. It suddenly flashed across my mind that that was the time when I would best hold communion with universal intelligence.

There are moments in your life when you must ACT, even thou you cannot carry your best friends with you. The ”STILL SMALL VOICE” WITHIN YOU MUST ALWAYS BE THE FINAL ARBITER WHEN THERE IS A CONFLICT OF DUTY.
 

For me the VOICE OF GOD-UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE, THE CONSCIENCE, OF TRUTH, OR THE INNER VOICE OR “THE STILL SMALL VOICE” MEAN ONE AND THE SAME THING.

Let everyone try and find out that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing else can be compared.
 

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
 

Truth never damages a cause that is just.

all quotes on this page are by ~ Mohandas Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

~~~~~
 
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948.
 

On February 1, 1948 Paramahansa Yogananda conducted a memorial service in Los Angeles in honor of the martyred saint. Dr. V.M. Nawle, a publisher and journalist from Poona, India, an old friend of Paramahansa Yogananda who knew the spiritual bond between Gandhi and Sri Yogananda, subsequently sent a portion of the mahatma’s ashes to him.

Paramahansa conducted the dedication ~ with the governor of California ~ of the Gandhi World Peace Memorial on August 20, 1950, enshrining Gandhi's portion of ashes in a thousand-year-old Chinese sarcophagus at the SRF Lake Shrine.

Dr. Nawle later wrote to Paramahansaji:
“You make India and the whole world shy, as you are the first in erecting a Gandhi Memorial.”

Note: all the pictures above where taken at the
Gandhi World Peace Memorial ~
Self Realization Fellowship ~
Lake Shrine, 17190 Sunset Blvd.,
Pacific Palisades, California, 90272-3001

Open to the public for
 
Zen garden and
silent meditation areas
founded by Paramahansa Yogananda.

~~ for more information
~~ SRF's website: www.yogananda-srf.org ~
~~~~ Undreamed of Possibilities ~~~~

~~~~ Think of peace while being silent. ~~~~

~~~~ Ask your true self in silence,,,,,

How can we all ~ Really improve?

Live a beautiful lifestyle & still obtain my inner dreams?

Creatively attain goals with conciousness of our universe?

How can we all like helping others with understanding that it really benefits ourselves in the process?

How can fulfilling my dreams benefit others?

What is it that the world is calling to my imagination?

What is it that the world is calling to my attention?

How can we wake up every morning, & be determined to fulfill our longing for a better way of being to eachother, our living creatures, our world?

BE FEARLESS ~ LIVE HAPPILY!

BE COURAGIOUS TO JUST DO THE RIGHT THING

~~~~ TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS ~~~~

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