“Let it be granted, that according to the letter of the Gita it is possible to say that warfare is consistent with renunciation of fruit. But after forty years’ unremitting endeavour fully to enforce the teaching of the Gita in my own life, I have in all humility felt that perfect renunciation is impossible without perfect observance of ahimsa in every shape and form.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“I was a coward. I used to be haunted by the fear of thieves, ghosts and serpents. I did not dare to stir out of doors at night. Darkness was a terror to me. It was almost impossible for me to sleep in the dark, as I would imagine ghosts coming from one direction, thieves from another and serpents from a third. I could not therefore bear to sleep without a light in the room. ”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“This is the centre round which the Gita is woven. This renunciation is the central sun, round which devotion, knowledge and the rest revolve like planets. The body has been likened to a prison. There must be action where there is body. Not one embodied being is exempted from labour. And yet all religions proclaim that it is possible for man, by treating the body as the temple of God, to attain freedom. Every action is tainted, be it ever so trivial. How can the body be made the temple of God? In other words how can one be free from action, i.e. from the taint of sin? The Gita has answered the question in decisive language: ‘By desireless action; by renouncing fruits of action; by dedicating all activities to God, i.e., by surrendering oneself to Him body and soul.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“You may have occasion to possess or use material things, but the secret of life lies in never missing them.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“Our contribution to the progress of the world must, therefore, consist in setting our own house in order.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“It is simple impertinence for any man, or any body of men, to begin, or to contemplate, reform of the whole world.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“I believe that just as everyone inherits a particular form so does he inherit the particular characteristics and qualities of his progenitors, and to make this admission is to conserve one's energy.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“It does not require money, to live neat, clean and dignified..”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“I become more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of Hussein, the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers and his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“Ahimsa necessarily includes truth and fearlessness.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“There is force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.”
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Mahatma Gandhi