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Comprehensive Website on the life and works of
Mahatma Gandhi
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+91-23872061
+91-9022483828
info@mkgandhi.org
Truth is like a vast tree, which yields more and more fruit, the more you mature it. The deeper the search in the mine of Truth the richer the discovery of the gems buried there, in the shape of openings for and ever greater variety of service.
Auto, p. 218
The seeker after Truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after Truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then, and not until then, will he have a glimpse of truth.
Ibid., p. XVI
Devotion to Truth is the sole reason for our existence. All our activities should be centred in Truth. Truth should be the very breath of our life. when once this stage in the pilgrim's progress is reached, all other rules of correct living will come without effort, and obedience to them will be instinctive. But without Truth it would be impossible to observe any principles or rules in life.
YI, 30 July 1931
There should be Truth in thought, Truth in speech, and Truth in action. To the man who has realized this Truth in perfection, nothing else remains to be known, because all knowledge is necessarily included in it. What is not included in it is not Truth and so not true knowledge; and there can be no inward peace without the true knowledge. If we once learn how to apply this never-failing test of Truth, we will at once be able to find out what is worth being, what is worth seeing and what is worth reading.
Ibid.
The quest of Truth involves tapas self-suffering, sometimes even unto death. there can be no place in it for even a trace of self-interest. In such selfless search for Truth nobody can lose his bearings for long. Directly one takes to the wrong path one stumbles and is thus redirected to the right path. Therefore the pursuit of Truth is true bhakti (devotion). It is the path that leads to God and therefore there is no place in it for cowardice, no place for defeat. It is the talisman by which death itself becomes the portal to life eternal.
YI, 30 July 1931
It is not nit given to know the whole Truth. His duty lies in living up to the Truth as he sees it and in doing so to resort to the purest means, i.e., to non-violence.
H, 24 Nov. 1933
If observance of Truth was a bed of roses, if truth cost one nothing and was all happiness and ease, there would be no beauty about it. We must adhere to Truth even if the heavens should fall.
YI, 27 Sept. 1928
Only Truth quenches untruth, Love quenches anger, self-suffering quenches violence. This eternal rule is a rule not for saints only but for all. Those who observe it may be few but they are the salt of the earth, it is they who keep the society together, not those who sin against light and truth.
H, 1 Feb. 1942
Abstract Truth has no value, unless it incarnates in human beings who represent it by proving their readiness to die for it. Our wrongs live because we only pretend to be their living representatives. The only way we can prove our claim is by readiness to suffer in the discharge our trust.
YI, 22 Dec. 1921
A man of Truth must ever be confident, if he has also equal need to be different. His devotion to truth demands the fullest confidence. His consciousness of human nature must make him humble and therefore ever ready to retrace his steps immediately he discovers his error.
YI, 6 May 1926
Finite human beings shall never know in its fullness Truth and Love which is in itself infinite. But we do know enough for our guidance. We shall err, and sometimes grievously, in our application. But man is a self-governing being, and self-government necessarily includes the power as much to commit errors as to set them right as often as they are made.
YI, 21 April 1927
I believe that in spite of the best intentions one is led into committing mistakes they do not really result in harm to the world or for the matter of that any individual. God always saves the world from the consequences of unintended errors of men who live in fear of Him.
YI, 3 Jan. 1929
To err, even grievously, is human. But it is human only if there is determination to wend the error and not to repeat it. The error will be forgotten if the promise is fully redeemed.
H, 6 Feb. 1937
No niggardly acceptance of the inevitable will appear pleasing to God. It must be a thorough change of heart.
YI, 2 Feb. 1922
There is no one without faults, not even men of God. They are men of God not because they are faultless but because they know their own faults, they strive against them, they do not hide them and are ever ready to correct themselves.
H, 28 Jan. 1939
Confession of error is like a broom that seeps away dirt and leaves the surface cleaner than before.
YI, 16 Feb. 1922
Truth is not truth merely because it is ancient. Nor is it necessarily to be regarded with suspicion, because it is ancient. There are some fundamentals of life which may not be lightly given up because they are difficult of enforcement in one's life.
H, 14 March 1936
Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God.
YI, 14 Oct. 1926
Change is a condition of progress. An honest man cannot afford to observe mechanical consistency when the mind revolts against anything as an error.
YI, 19 Dec. 1929
I make no hobgoblin of consistency. If I am true to myself from moment to moment, I do not mind all the inconsistencies that may be flung in my face.
H, 9 Nov. 1934
There is a consistency that is wise and a consistency that is foolish. A man who in order to be consistent would go bare bodied in the hot sun of India and sunless Norway in mid-winter would be considered a fool and would lose his life in the bargain.
YI, 4 April 1929
Human life is a series of compromises and it is not always easy to achieve in practice what one has found to be true in theory.
H, 18 Nov.1939
There are eternal principles which admit of no compromise and one must be prepared to lay down one's life in the practice of them.
H, 5 Sept. 1936
In my opinion the Sanskrit text means that tone should speak the truth in gentle language. One had better not speak it, if one cannot do so in a gentle way; meaning thereby that there is no truth in a man who cannot control his tongue.
YI, Sept.1925
Nature has so made us that we do not see our backs; it is reserved for others to see them. Hence it is wise to profit by what they see.
DD, p. 224
The pursuit of Truth is true bhakti (devotion). It is the path that leads to God, and, therefore, there is no place in it for cowardice, no place for defeat. It is the talisman by which deaths itself becomes the portal to the life eternal.
YM. Chap. I
From the standpoint of pure Truth, the body too is a possession. It has been truly said, that desire for enjoyment creates bodies for the soul. When this desire vanishes, there remains no further need for the body, and man is free from the vicious circle of births and deaths.
YM, Chap. VI
How beautiful it would be, if all of us, men and women, devoted ourselves wholly to Truth in all that we might do in our waking hours, whether working, eating, drinking, or playing, till dissolution of the body makes us one with Truth?
YM, Chap, I
Where there is no Truth, there can be no true knowledge. That is why the word Chit or knowledge is associated with the name of God. And where there is a true knowledge, there is always bliss (Ananda). Sorrow has no place there. And even as Truth is eternal, so is bliss derived from it. Hence we know God as Sat-chit-ananda, one who combines in Himself Truth, Knowledge and Bliss.
YM, 30 July 1931
Silence is a great help to a seeker after truth. In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light and what crystal cleanness. Our life is along and arduous quest after Truth, and the soul requires inward restfulness to attain its full height.
H, 10 Dec. 1938
Experience has taught me that silence is apart of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man, and silence is necessary in order to surmount it. A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every world.
Auto, p.62