Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/374

 284 EARLIER INDIAN SPEECHES

must love my enemy. I must apply the same rules to the wrong-doer who is my enemy or a stranger to me, as I would to my wtong-doing father or son. This active Ahimsa neceessarily includes truth and fearlessness. As man cannot deceive the loved one, he does not fear or frighten him or her. Gift of life is the greatest of all gifts ; a man who gives it in reality, disarms all hostility. He has paved the way for an honourable understanding. And none who his himself subject to fear can bestow that gift. He must, therefore, be himself fearless. A man cannot then practice Ahimsa and be a coward at the same time. The practice of Ahimsa calls forth the greatest courage. It is the most soldierly of a soldier's virtues. "General Gordon has been represented in a famous statue as bearing only a stick. This takes us far on the road to Ahimsa. Bui a soldier, who needs the protection of even a stick, is tc that extent so much the less a soldier. He is the true soldier who knows how to die and stand his ground in the midst of a hail of bullets. Such a one was Amba- rish, who stood his ground without lifting a finger though Durvasa did his worst. The Moors who were being pounded by the French gunners and who rushed to the guns' mouths with ' Allah ' on their lips, showed much the same type of courage, Only theirs was the courage of desperation. Ambansha's was due to love. Yet the Moorish valour, readiness to die, conquered the gunners. They frantically waved their hats, ceased firing, and greeted their erstwhile enemies as comrades- And so the South African passive resisters in their thousands were ready to die rather than sell their honour for a little personal ease. This was Ahimsa in? its active form. It never barters away honour, A

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