Coined by Gandhi in Africa, to describe the non-violent, civil disobedient, independence movement in India, “Satyagraha” is truth-force. Seeking and teaching. The soul-force. Spirit invisible. Roots of the fruits are self-discipline, self-control, and self-purification. Con-version not co-ercion . Transformation and Liberation… all of wrongdoers. “Satyagrahi’s” are fearless lovers. Self-suffer-ers and self-sacrifice-ers. Evil eradicators. Community servers and unjust authority resisters.
In the words of Gandhi…”Why, of course I read Thoreau.” “I actually took the name of my movement from Thoreau’s essay, ‘On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.’
Thoreau and Gandhi… similar-ly rejected, and protested, and criticized interpretations of the Hindu Bible, The Gita, as a means for violence justification. Reading them often, in prison, in his newspaper, called Indian Opinion, Thoreau’s words spoke deeply to Gandhi. Impressively. Enormously. Inspirationally. Thoreau was one who also entered jail willingly, “for the sake of his principles and suffering humanity.” Thoreau philosophized that the true place for a just man is also in prison, under a government, which imprisons unjustly. Divinely, it is our duty, to resist against oppression, slavery and robbery. We should all realize this responsibility, then pledge ourselves independently. Let us not have, any longer, such evil-ous machinery.
Gandhi teaches us that being in jail is “of one’s good fortune” and in good name of one’s country and one’s religion. Going to jail is a season, for undergoing suffering, a place for fasting. For Reading, and writing. Meditation and reflection. Ultimate happiness in privation. Opportunistically a time for the purpose of perceiving the machine from a different perception.
For Gandhi, Henri. David Thorreau was a man who’s beliefs he practiced, guided by his consciousness, who confirmed the effectiveness, of societal and governmental defiance, non-violence, and non-cooperative, unjust law resistant, civil, disobedience. Thoreau was Gandhi’s encouragement, his nourish-ment for the move-ment, for the Salt March, that in flower-nature blossom, manifested… India’s Independence.
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