Page 62 - DENG101_Communication Skills-I

Unit 5: Note Taking & Note Making

purification. At the same time, he has to see that it does not inflict violence on the other Notes
side, but is content to invite suffering on himself. Suffering, deliberately invited, in support
of a cause which one considers righteous, naturally purges the mind of the satyagrahi of
ill-will and removes the element of bitterness from the antagonist.

The efficacy of satyagraha depends upon the tenacity to resist evil which, while it abjures
force, develops in the satyagrahi the faculty to face all risks cheerfully. Thus, the emphasis
is transferred from aggression by force to resistance by tenacity. It is only when these
requirements are met that nonviolent satyagraha becomes a mighty weapon of resistance
both in the struggle for freedom as well as in self-realisation. The results are reached by
slow degrees, it is true, but the resultant bitterness is short-lived.
Satyagraha in some form or the other was adopted by various sets of people at different
times in history. But it was left to Gandhi to perfect the technique by which mass resistance
could succeed in achieving enduring results without resorting to force and without leaving
a legacy of bitterness behind. The technique acquires great importance in the modern world
when instruments of coercion and destruction are concentrated in the hands of a few rulers
in every country. Those who serve the cause of freedom or collective welfare have no other

efficacious weapon left, except satyagraha. We see this illustrated in the satyagraha offered
by the Negroes in U.S.A.

Satyagraha as a social force is not a negative creed of the pacifists, a pious wish, a faith
devoid of passion. It is an activity resulting from an effective will to vindicate the supremacy
of the Moral Order. In the hour of danger, it demands the highest form of heroism as well
as self-control.
Satyagraha, as Gandhi often said, is a weapon of the strong, not a cover for the cowardice of
the weak. As he himself recognised, in the practical affairs of men there may be occasions
when nonviolence may have to be tempered with the defensive use of violence.

Nonviolence is absolute in principle; but on occasions, as the one which presented itself to
Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita, it has to be a mental attitude, not an absolute refusal to resist
violence by violent methods.

The power of satyagraha lies in the satyagrahi’s firm determination to uphold his truth at
the cost of his life in a spirit of humility. This power only comes to a satyagrahi when he
acquires the faith that the cause he fights for is God-given. This aspect of satyagraha was

thus expressed by Gandhi: “But who am I? I have no strength save what God gives me. I
have no authority over my countrymen save the purely moral. If he holds me to be a sure
instrument for the spread of nonviolence in place of the awful violence now ruling the
earth, He will give me the strength and show me the way. My greatest weapon is mute
prayer. The cause of peace is, therefore, in God’s good hands. Nothing can happen but His
will expressed in His eternal, changeless Law which is He.” “God is a living presence to
me. I am surer of His existence than of the fact that you and I are sitting in this room. I may
live without air and water but not without Him.” “You may pluck out my eyes, but that
cannot kill me. But blast my belief in God and I am dead.” “Whatever striking things I have
done in life, I have not done prompted by reason but by instinct, I would say God.”
Gandhi had none of the sanctions which position, power and wealth give; the only sanction
he possessed proceeded from his nearness to God. It is this which gave him an authority
over the hearts of men, an authority which was spiritual and moral. To a world dominated
by what Aldous Huxley calls “the false doctrine of totalitarian anthropocentrism and the
pernicious ideas and practices of nationalistic pseudo-mysticism”, Gandhi gave a new
technique of spirituality in action.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 55