Quotes about Gandhi

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever."

…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.

After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that
(1) all religions are true; (2) all religions have some error in
them; (3) all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism,
in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own
close relatives. My own veneration for other faiths is the same as
that for my own faith; therefore no thought of conversion is possible

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.

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

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

Hold The Thought Of What You Are - To Guide You Into What You Want To Be.

"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." ~ Paulo Coelho, 21st century Brazilian writer from The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream That makes it pretty simple, eh? What would you do if you weren't afraid? thinkdreams. thinkcourage.

The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.

"One does not fall 'in' or 'out' of love. One grows in love."

In order to create there must be a dymanic force, and what force is more potent that love?

"No man hath seen God at any time" [John 1:18 ] or can see Him, for the simple reason that Infinitude cannot be the subject of vision. To become visible, there must be Individualisation, and therefore when Philip said "Show us the Father" [John 14:8 -], Jesus replied, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" [John 14:9 - ]. The Word must become flesh before St John could say, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life" [1 John 1:1 - Ed]

Each individual is a temple himself, as St Paul tells us, and at the same time a single stone in the construction of the Great Temple which is the regenerated race, that "People of the I AM" which was inaugurated when Moses first pitched the tabernacle in the wilderness. But the process must always be an individual one, for a nation is nothing but an aggregation of individuals, and therefore in considering the metaphor of "the Stone" as applied to the individual, we shall realise its wider application also.

Now the Master was executed on the charge of blasphemy for asserting the identity of his own nature with that of God. The subjection of the Jews to the Roman rule placed the power of life and death in the hands of a tribunal which could not take cognisance of such an offence - "Take ye him and judge him according to your law" (John 18:31), said Pilate when the charge of blasphemy was preferred before him; and in order to bring him to execution it became necessary to substitute for the original charge of blasphemy one of high treason, so as to bring it within the jurisdiction of the court.

"Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar" (John 19:12) - and so the inscription fastened to the cross was "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" (John 19:19). But the true reason why Jesus was hunted to death was expressed by the scribes, who mocked the sufferer with the words "He trusted in God; let Him deliver him now if He will have him, for he said 'I am the son of God'." (Matt. 27:43)

The teaching of Jesus was the inversion of all that was taught by the official priesthood. Their whole teaching rested on the hypothesis that God and Man are absolutely distinct in nature, thus directly contradicting the earliest statement of their own Scriptures regarding Man, that he is the image and likeness of God. As a consequence of this false assumption, they supposed that the whole Mosaic Law and Ritual was intended to pacify God and make him favourable to the worshipper, and so in their minds the entire system tended only to emphasise the gulf that separated Man from God.

It may seem a truism to say that no statement about a thing is the thing, yet we are apt to miss this in practice. The Master pointed this out very clearly when he said to the Jews, "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have everlasting life, and they are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39). He said in effect, "You make a mistake by supposing that the reading of a book can in itself confer Life. What your Scriptures do is to make statements regarding that which I am. Realise what those statements mean, and then you will see in me the living example of the Living Truth; and seeing this, you will seek for the development of the same thing in yourselves. The disciple, when perfected, shall be as his Master".

We lose the key to the whole teaching of the Bible if we lose sight of the truth that the Universal cannot, as such, initiate a course of action on the plane of the particular. It can do so only by becoming the individual, which is precisely the production of the intellectually enlightened man we are speaking about. The failure to see this very obvious Law is the root of all the theological discordances that have retarded the work of true religion to the present time, and therefore the sooner we see through the error, the better.

"This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away."

~ Mevlana Rumi, 13th century sufi poet and mystic
from Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance


Yet another of Rumi's thoughts on the value of challenges: "It is God's kindness to terrify you in order to lead you to safety."

How can we possibly grow without challenge and a bit of discomfort?

Here's to our polishing!

If you can't pay for a thing, don't buy it. If you can't get paid for it, don't sell it. Do this, and you will have calm and drowsy nights, with all of the good business you have now and none of the bad. Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180)

The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved. Mother Teresa (1910 - 1998)

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. Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

"If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning ." Gandhi

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Poverty is the worst form of violence.

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."

"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"

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)

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