Page:Manshardt - The Terrible Meek, An Appreciation of Mohandas K. Gandhi.pdf/10



Love is a priceless thing, only to be won at the cost of death.

Those who live to die, these attain, for they have shed all thoughts of self.

Those heroic souls who are rapt in the love of the Lord, they are the true lovers.

“The body ceases to be,” says Gandhi, “when we give up all attachment to it. This freedom from all attachment is the realization of God as Truth. Such realization cannot be attained in a hurry. The body does not belong to us. While it lasts, we must use it as a trust handed over to our charge. Treating in this way the things of the flesh, we may one day expect to become free from the burden of the body. Realizing the limitations of the flesh, we must strive day by day towards the ideal with what strength we have in us… Whatever difficulties we encounter, whatever apparent reverses we sustain, we may not give up the quest for Truth which alone is, being God Himself.”

The third ruling principle of Gandhi’s life was Brahmacharya or Chastity. The man who takes Truth as his life-partner is unfaithful to her if he applies his talents in other directions. Since consecration to the realization of Truth requires utter selflessness, the attempt to realize Truth through self-gratification is a contradiction in terms.

Brahmacharya, for Gandhiji, is not just a matter of sexual morality. Etymologically, charya means course of conduct; brahmacharya, conduct directed to the search of Brahma or Truth—which implies the disciplined control of all the senses.

“The distinction between the life of a brahmachari and of one who is not ought to be as clear as daylight,” says Mr. Gandhi. “Both use their eyesight, but whereas the brahmachari uses it to see the glories of God, the other uses it to see the frivolity around him. Both use their ears, but whereas the one hears nothing but praises of God, the other feasts his ears upon ribaldry. Both often keep late hours, but whereas the one devotes them to prayer, the other fritters them away in wild and wasteful mirth. Both feed the inner man, but the one only to keep the temple of God in good repair, while the other