Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/270

 180 PASSIVE RESISTANCE

be sons of your Father wbioh is in heaven.' I was simply overjoyed, and found my own opinion confirmed where I least) ex Deo bed ib. Tbe Bhagavad Qita deepened the- impression, and Tolstoy'* 'Tbe Kingdom of God is Within You' gave it a permanent form."

Tolstoy, Buskin, Thoreau and the Passive Resistance Movement in England " had proved an object lesson, not only to him but to his people, of singular force and in- tere&t.'* Mr Gandhi's ideal "is not so much to resist evil passively, it has its active compliment to do good in reply to evil*' In answer to Rev. Joseph Doke, he said'*

I do nob like the term " passive resistance." Id fail* to convey all I mean. Ib describes a method, bub givea no bint of the system of which it is only part. Seal beauty, and that is my aim, is in doing good against evil. Bvil), I adopt the phrase because ib is well-known, and easily understood, and because, ab present, the great* majority of my people can only grasp that idea. To me, the ideas which underlie the Gujarabi hymn and the "Sermon on the Mount" should revolutionise the whole- -of life.

��SOUL FORCE v. PHYSICAL FORCE

The advantages of soul- force against physical force are well pictured by Mr. Gandhi in the following* words :

Passive resistance is an all-aided sword ; ib can be used anyhow ; ib blesses him who uses ib and him against Whom it is used wichout drawing a drop of blood ; it pro- duces /ar-reaohlog results. Ib never rusts and cannot be

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