Chapter 2: A man becomes what he thinks
Gandhiji was not just a thinker and arm-chair philosopher but a man of intense action. Almost every human being can think. But only those who understand the creative power of thought and properly apply it, accomplish their purpose in life. Through this basis we can construct an ideal home, business, ideal life and ideal environment and so on. Thoughts can become words and actions. Hence we should have control over our thoughts.
Years later when an American missionary visited Gandhiji at his Sevagram ashram, and asked “what have been the most creative experiences in your life?” Gandhiji replied “Such experiences are multitude. But as you put the question to me, I recall an experience that changed the course of my life.” He then related the Maritzburg incident as below.
“Now the creative experience comes there. I was afraid for my very life. I entered the dark waiting-room. There was a white man in the room. I was afraid of him. What was my duty, I asked myself. Should I go back to India, or should I go forward, with God as my helper, and face whatever was in store for me? I decided to stay and suffer. My active non-violence began from that date”.
Gandhiji could see an independent India in his very lifetime and also rose to the status as father of the nation. But his achievements did not happen in one sitting. They happened little by little, beginning with a burning desire to have the right of being treated as equal.
The position of Indians in Transvaal was worse than in Natal. They were compelled to pay a tax of three pounds per each individual. Their weddings under Hindu traditions were not recognized by the law and declared invalid. They could not own land except in a specially allotted location, a kind of ghetto. They had no voting rights. They were not permitted to walk on the pavement or be out of doors after 9 p.m. without a special permit which they had to carry all the time.
One day Gandhiji, who had received from the State Attorney a letter authorizing him to be out of doors at all hours, was having his usual evening walk. A guard suddenly and without any warning pushed him off the pavement and kicked him into the street. An Englishman, who knew Gandhiji, happened to pass by and saw the incident. He advised Gandhiji to proceed against the guard and offered himself as witness. But Gandhiji politely refused the offer saying that he had made it a rule not to go to court in respect of a personal grievance. But he wondered as to how a person can feel great by causing suffering to another person.
After getting thrown down from train in Maritzburg station, instead of running away from problems Gandhiji started thinking of his duty. He realized that he will be tested by the trials until he fights them head-on. He understood that the hardship to which he was subjected was only a symptom of the deep disease of colour prejudice. He resolved to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process.
And when this impulse of thought first flashed into his mind, two difficulties stood in his way. First, he was facing the British, a force, feared and respected as the most powerful empire on the earth. Second, the people on his side were divided and fighting among themselves based on caste, religion, language and so on. The British were further playing 'Divide and Rule' politics to cause Indians fight among themselves based on religion and caste. You can learn in latter chapters, how he overcame these obstacles.
Many people believe that they are victims and always blame other people or situations. They keep repeating 'if I was born under right star', 'if I have got the right job', 'if my family members understood me', and so on. But this approach is a path to disaster. It is like making others responsible for our problems. Instead, the correct approach is to accept own responsibility, even if the problems were created by others.
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist. Because he was of Jewish religion, he was imprisoned by the Nazis in extermination camps and subjected to cruel tortures. There he lost his parents, wife and brother. But he continued his psychiatric research even under such unbearable circumstances. He used to dream about escaping from the prison and teaching again about his findings to his students.
He observed that some prisoners chose to work as spies for Nazis to escape tortures or to get more food. They caused more suffering and damage to fellow prisoners. On the other hand some prisoners went about comforting and aiding fellow prisoners, sacrificing their share of food or even bearing tortures on behalf of others.
He found that there is a kind of ultimate freedom, namely spiritual freedom, which cannot be stolen, even by the most ruthless tyrants. People may lose their political or economic freedom, physical or mental freedom. But the spiritual freedom, how a person responds to a given situation, cannot be taken away. He said that between stimulus and response, a human being has freewill to choose his response. This is the greatest gift only we human beings are endowed with, unlike other creatures.
Stimulus Response
Hunger Eating Vs. Fasting
Tiredness/sleep time Sleeping Vs. Remaining Awakened
Threatening with weapon Running away to save life Vs.
Challenging death face to face
Failure in exams Ending studies or life Vs.
Getting ready for exams again
Freewill is the greatest blessing we human beings possess because it lets us challenge our limitations and climb the heights of human potential. All of us have the potential to control our own lives but many of us are too afraid to do so. As a result we give up our freedom and allow our lives to be governed by other people and circumstances.
Our upbringing and social influences shape our thought process and this is called 'samskara' (habitual process). Thus our behaviour and choices are subject to hereditary or social influences. We have a general understanding of what we like, what we dislike, what is good for us and what is not. Based on this we choose our friends, objects, activities and so on. The source of this understanding is called 'Vasanas' in Sanskrit and 'Sub-conscious mind' in English.
Like a computer which is fed with information and brings out answers, we feed ourselves with vasanas and bring out corresponding thoughts and actions. If the vasanas are good, the thoughts and actions are good. If the vasanas are bad or mixed, the thoughts and actions also will be bad or mixed.
Great joy awaits the man who succeeds in improving his input of vasanas because he gains immense strength. Hence it is very essential to be in the company of good natured people and also devote time to study epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Mahabharata shows an example of how Duryodhana's hatred and jealousy of Pandavas and his association with wicked people such as Sakuni, Dussasana, Karna brought his downfall. This epic also tells us how Dharmaraja's weakness for dice brought suffering for Pandavas. Ramayana shows an example how a great ruler and devotee such as Ravana perished because of lust and pride.
Gandhiji explained about few books that had great impact on him and these include Sravana Kumar Charitra, Satya Harischandra and Unto the Last.
“Two other incidents belonging to the same period have always clung to my memory. As a rule I had distaste for any reading beyond my school books. The daily lessons had to be done, because I disliked being taken to task by my teacher as much as I disliked deceiving him. Therefore I would do the lessons, but often without my mind in them. Thus when even the lessons could not be done properly, there was of course no question of any extra reading. But somehow my eyes fell on a book purchased by my father. It was Shravana Pitribhakti Nataka (a play about Sharavana's devotion to his parents). I read it with intense interest.
There came to our place about the same time itinerant showmen. One of the pictures I was shown was of Shravana carrying, by means of slings fitted for his shoulders, his blind parents on a pilgrimage. The book and the picture left an indelible impression on my mind. 'Here is an example for you to copy,' I said to myself. The agonized lament of the parents over Shravana's death is still fresh in my memory. The melting tune moved me deeply, and I played it on a concertina which my father had purchased for me.
There was a similar incident connected with another play. Just about this time, I had secured my father's permission to see a play performed by a certain drama company. This play-Harishchandra- captured my heart. I could never be tired of seeing it. But how often should I be permitted to go? It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number. 'Why should not all be truthful like Harishchandra?' was the question I asked myself day and night. To follow truth and to go through all the ordeals Harishchandra went through was the one ideal it inspired in me. I literally believed in the story of Harishchandra. The thought of it all often made me weep. My common sense tells me today that Harishchandra could not have been a historical character. Still both Harishchandra and Shravana are living realities for me, and I am sure I should be moved as before if I were to read those plays again today.”
During a long train journey in South Africa, Gandhiji was given John Ruskin's book 'Unto This Last' by one of his friends. About this book, he has written that it brought an instantaneous change in his life. Gandhiji derived the following three messages from this book:
The good of the individual is contained in the good of all?. The concept of
'Sarvodaya' and 'Antyodaya' were the products of this influence of Ruskin on Gandhiji. Here we note the famous talisman of Gandhiji, which is inspired from the ideal of Antyodaya: Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test: 'Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and yourself melting away'.
Gandhiji also derived from this book that a 'Lawyer's work has the same value as the barber's as all have the same right of earning their livelihood from their work'.
The third message Gandhiji derived from this book was that a life of the tiller of the soil and that of handicraftsman / farmer / labourer is the life worth living. This message gave him a teaching that he would live a life of labour.
Power of emotions
It is a well-known fact that people are driven more by passionate emotions than by rational thoughts. Thoughts which are mixed with any of the feelings of emotions constitute a magnetic force which attracts from the vibrations of space, other similar thoughts.
A thought thus magnetized with emotion may be compared to a seed which, when planted in fertile soil, germinates, grows, and multiplies itself over and over again, until that which was originally one small seed, becomes countless millions of seeds of the same nature.
The space is a great cosmic mass of eternal forces of thought-vibrations. It is made up of both positive constructive and negative destructive vibrations. We know that space carries the sound of hundreds of orchestrations of music, and hundreds of human voices, all of which maintain their own individuality, and means of identification, through the medium of cell phone signals. Similarly, space carries, at all times, vibrations of fear, poverty, disease, failure, misery; and also vibrations of prosperity, health, success, and happiness.
From the great storehouse of space, the cells in human mind constantly attract vibrations which harmonize with that which dominates the human mind. Any thought, idea, plan, or purpose which one holds in one's mind attracts, from the vibrations of space, a host of its relatives, adds these 'relatives' to its own force, and grows until it becomes the dominating, motivating master of the individual in whose mind it has been stored.
The subconscious mind, (the chemical laboratory in which all thought impulses are combined, and made ready for translation into physical reality), makes no distinction between constructive and destructive thought impulses. It works with the material we feed it, through our thought impulses. The subconscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by fear just as readily as it will translate into reality a thought driven by courage or faith.
However not just ordinary thoughts, but dominant thoughts (energized by mixing with emotions such as desire, faith, love, hope, enthusiasm) have the potential to become creative. Of these emotions desire, faith and love are explained in detail in later chapters.