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The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.

Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.

Life

Realization: It was in South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi faced some discriminating incidents with him. Those incidents have been acknowledged as a turning point in his life. He was led by his inner voice, which he describes as also the voice of God, of truth, and of conscience.  From this  awakening he first coined the term satyagraha to signify his theory and practice of non-violent resistance. He was to describe himself preeminently as a  seeker of satya (truth), which could not be attained other than through ahimsa (non-violence, love) and brahmacharya.

Death: Mahatma Gandhi died on January 30, 1948 in New Delhi, India.

Teaching Style:  Gandhi spread his message partly through the press, writing and editing both ‘Indian Opinion’ and ‘Young India’. But most of all he conceived of his own life as a series of experiments for all his thought and teachings. He had set up Ashrams to attend his disciples. Hetravel throughout the country, taking him wherever his services were required.

Fame: Mahatma Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha ahimsa led India to independence. Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, for expanding women’s rights, for building religious and ethnic amity, for ending untouchability, for increasing economic self-reliance, but above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India.  He famously led Dandi Salt March in protesting the British-imposed salt tax  in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India  in 1942. He practiced non-violence and truth in all situations.

Legacy :  Mahatma Gandhi was primarily introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a respected leader of the Congress Party at the time. Rabindranath Tagore first accorded the title of Mahatma to him.  Gandhi’s life and teachings inspired many who specifically referred to Gandhi as their mentor or who dedicated their lives to spreading Gandhi’s ideas. Albert Einstein exchanged written letters with Gandhi, and called him “a role model for the generations to come” in a later writing about him

Teachings

Gandhi’s teaching ‘satyagraha’ meaning ‘passive resistance’, stands for truth and non-violence. Resisting through soul and not physical force being considered the purest form of resistance possible. Requirements for satyaghrahis include faith in God and in the goodness of human nature, and the commitment to living a chaste life.

According to him all violence is evil and can not be justified

He told that the most important battle to fight is overcoming one’s own demons, fears, and insecurities.

He was quoted as saying:

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always.”

The science of non-violence alone can lead one to pure democracy…Power based on love is thousand times more effective and permanent than power derived from fear of punishment.

Vegetarianism is the beginning of  deep commitment to Brahmacharya which is a means of becoming close with God and as a primary foundation for self realization.

Brahmacharya meant “control of the senses in thought, word and deed”.

According to Mahatma Gandhi active-celibacy meant perfect self control in the presence of opposite sex.

Mahatma Gandhi spoke of fasting as a spiritual experience, bound up with prayer.