Celebrating Gandhi’s Birthday – A New Tradition

I read Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth when I was 18 years old. And from that moment on I felt he was my Teacher.

For the longest time, however, I only superficially understood the meaning of non-violence. Because of that, I too believed it was of limited use, more of an idea than a practice.

A few years ago, though, I took it upon myself to go back to Gandhi’s teachings, engaging with the commitment to understand them in a deeper way. And what I found was such practical Wisdom, such inspiration, that my desire to expand my own capacity for non-violence grew exponentially.

October 2nd is Gandhi’s birthday. He was born in 1869. 1869! Just think about that. Every year, October 2nd has become known as the International Day of Nonviolence. Starting this year, I want to write a post or make a video, or create something to commemorate the day and invite everyone to learn and practice non-violence.

Today I spent the day thinking of all the many things I could write, but finally dropped the perfectionism in the evening, and reminded myself that I can share more with you at any time. So here are a few things you might want to engage with.

One of my favorite resources to learn about non-violence and Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings is The Metta Center for Nonviolence. In particular, they have a series in which they share one short quote by Gandhi per day with some commentary to understand the teachings. You can receive the series by email (which I did and really enjoyed), buy the book, or listen to the audios. Whatever you choose, I do recommend you consume just one post/page/audio per day, to give yourself the time to digest and contemplate it.

This year, The Metta Center for Nonviolence is also running a 7-day challenge to learn more about non-violence. It started today and you can find it here.

It is not idealistic or utopian, or wishy-washy to talk about non-violence. Once we understand the true meaning of the practice, the depth and science of it, the intelligence and spirit informing it, we realize there was never any other way.

I leave you with an inspiring talk by Nipun Mehta, someone I also consider as a Teacher and who always has the most amazing stories to share. Here’s one about Heartivism.

Peace.