Gandhi’s Thoughts For A Better World
If each one of us could take up (and put into practice) the best of the most outstanding thinkers, surely humanity would go in another direction.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a political activist like few others, whose example has hardly been matched. As a consistent thinker, Gandhi not only dedicated himself to expounding his ideas, but, in addition, he was their own example, leading a peaceful, simple and solidary life with the most needy in his country, India.
Below, we will share some of the most remarkable thoughts from this great moral reference whom we commonly call “Mahatma” (“great soul”).
love, life and forgiveness
Gandhi spoke of love as a human feeling; it was not just about love between couples, it was about children, friends, neighbors, universal love for the whole human race. He compared himself as an example, being sympathetic to his humble and disgraced counterparts.
He also professed forgiveness as “an attribute of the strong”, emphasizing that “the weak can never forgive” . Have you ever met people who prefer to live in resentment before forgiving those who have offended them? Gandhi forgave his persecutors and had the courage to defend their principles in order to follow their ideals.
The produce of the land and the greed of man
Gandhi always lived in humility, without boasting and with great simplicity. One of his maxims was that “the earth offers enough to satisfy human need, but not man’s greed” . The devastation of land and the overexploitation of resources is a sample of what Gandhi wanted to express with this simple phrase.
Religions and their followers
Today there are thousands of religions with the best principles. Mahatma Gandhi spoke of the contradictions into which practitioners of any religion usually fall, who behave contrary to what their religion indicates. Gandhi said, “Your Christ pleases me, but not your Christians, because they don’t look like your Christ.”
Perseverance to reach your purpose
Many people are halfway to their goal when they encounter obstacles. They are not able to move forward in the midst of adversity and prefer to give up.
In one of his maxims, Gandhi expresses the steps to achieve what you propose to yourself: “First they ignore you, then they laugh and then they fight against you. In the end, you win.”
Are you aware of what you think?
Talking and doing don’t always go together. You’ve certainly met individuals who claim to be peaceful but who don’t act on their word. Or those who claim to be humble but are ostentatious. But there are also those who enjoy life doing exactly what they say, and seem to be the ones who live most harmoniously.
That’s what Gandhi was referring to when he said, “Happiness is when what you think, say, and do agree in harmony.”
revenge blinds the world
Taking revenge on those who have offended you is not always the best situation. Most of the time, revenge generates more violence and has a problem: it never ends. Gandhi reflected on this: “Following the law of an eye for an eye ends up blinding the world.”
Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone followed these maxims?
Image credits: Bokic Bojan
