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LIVING FOR CHANGE October 2 Is Gandhi’s Birthday By Grace Lee Boggs Michigan Citizen, Oct. 1-7, 2006 On October 2, 2006, the 137th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, the Sarvodaya Movement of Sri Lanka will host the largest gathering in that country’s history: a one million person meditation for peace. Sarvodaya was founded in 1958 by Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne. The name comes from the Sanskrit words sarva meaning “all” or “embracing everything” and udaya meaning “awakening.” Combining Buddhist precepts with the teachings of Gandhi, the Sarvodaya Movement has implemented programs in education, health care, agriculture, renewable technology, community development and peacemaking – employing a spiritually based self-help method in their work for sustainable social change. Since the recent escalation of violence in Sri Lanka, Sarvodaya has expanded its peace initiative with events held across the country. The event on Oct. 2 is intended to influence the collective consciousness of people throughout the world towards peace and loving kindness. As with Sarvodaya’s previous meditations (the last one assembled 650,000 participants), this is a spiritual gathering for people of all ages, religions and ethnic origins, many of them directly impacted by the ongoing civil war. People around the world are invited to join, either in person or in spirit. The corresponding time in the U.S. for the culminating meditation is 7:30-8:30 AM EDT on the morning of Oct. 2. Complete information and a schedule are available on the web at: www.sarvodaya.org or sarvodayausa.org/ **** For Gandhi Spirituality meant an awareness of our interconnectedness with one another and with the universe. The main reason why Western civilization lacks Spirituality, he thought, is because it has given priority to economic and technological development over human development. Advanced technology has made it possible for us to perform miracles but it has impoverished us spiritually because it has made us feel that who and what we are is determined by outside forces. Traditional societies lacked our material comforts and conveniences. But individuals had more Soul, or a belief in the individual’s power to make moral choices because these societies valued the community relationships which they depended on for survival. Gandhi anticipated that because modern societies, capitalist or communist, are committed to unlimited growth, they would eventually become so gigantic and complex that human beings would be reduced to masses, dependent on experts, serving machines instead of being served by them. Moreover, the abundance created by pursuing unlimited economic growth would make it almost impossible to distinguish between Needs and Wants, so that we/they would end up being enslaved by the temptations of material wealth and luxuries, a form of bondage Gandhi considered even more cruel than physical enslavement. For similar reasons Gandhi rejected Western strategies for revolutionary struggle that depend upon constantly agitating the masses and increasing their anger, militancy and rebellion. Struggles of this kind, he said, can only end up with political leaders who are preoccupied with prestige and power and with states dominating rather than serving society. The struggle for independence from Britain, he insisted, should not be mainly a struggle for state power but should revolve around going to people at the grassroots, encouraging them to transform their inner and outer lives, helping them to think for themselves and to create self-reliant local communities based on Work that preserves rather than destroys skills and encourages cooperation rather than competition, and on Education whose goal is the building of community rather than increasing the status and earning power of the individual. **** Following his 1959 visit to the land of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “I am more convinced than ever before that non-violent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom. The aftermath of hatred and bitterness that usually follows a violent campaign was found nowhere in India. The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers, But the way of nonviolence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.” (Ebony Magazine, July 1959) **** “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.” ---- Gandhi Email GraceBoggs Center, |