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Spiritual Quotes from Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi

About Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. In India, he is recognized as the Father of the Nation. October 2nd, his birthday, is commemorated each year as Gandhi Jayanti, and is a national holiday. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha — the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence — which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi and as Bapu (in Gujarati, Father).

As a British-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community's struggle for civil rights in South Africa. Upon his return to India, he organized poor farmers and labourers to protest against oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, for the liberation of women, for brotherhood amongst differing religions and ethnicities, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation, but above all for Swaraj — the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the disobedience of the salt tax on the 400 kilometre (248 miles) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in both South Africa and India.

Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organizing an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes — the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha, he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest. Gandhi's life and teachings inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Biko and Aung San Suu Kyi and through them the American civil rights movement and the freedom struggles in South Africa and Myanmar respectively.

Source: Wikipedia Mahatma Gandhi

end of Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi bio

Spiritual Quotes

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

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

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.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.

I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

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

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

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

In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

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.

The only devils in this world are those running around inside our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought.

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 you action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face, one must be able to love the meanest of all creation as oneself.

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