Courage and Theft - 1

Gandhi in “Mangal Prabhat” p 21 & pp 15-7 talks about two words. They are “Abhay” and “Astay”.

Abhay means fearlessness. Astay means “no theft”.

Gandhi says that these two words are interconnected. There isn’t any asset greater then being fearless. Without being fearless – you cannot practice non-violence. God’s way is a way of courage and fearless – cowards cannot follow it. Truth is God and you can call it Ram, Narayan, Vasudev – whatever. Cowards fear things and people – braves are fearless.

My Interpretation on Gandhi Thoughts and their application in every day life:

Gandhi is very clear in his thoughts. There could be two reasons backing non-violence. Being fearless is a good reason for being non-violent. You don’t hurt, because you do not want to hurt. Your value system refuses you to hurt.

There is yet another reason why people practice fake non-violence. That reason is fear and weakness. According to Gandhi – non-violence cannot coexist with fear. In that sense, we may say that such a non-violence is fake.

Imagine a situation where in a wood you stand ten feet from a lion unarmed and you harp of non-violence. You know you will be over-powered by lion and it’s going to tear you to pieces. In this situation, non-violence is a camouflage of inability to act. Not reacting due to incapacity is an act of cowardice and has nothing to do with non-violence.

Gandhi does not talk about this sort of non-violence. His concept of non-violence is very powerful. It is being non-violent amidst strength. It is an act of bravery. To reinforce his concept of non-violence, Gandhi talks about bravery. He says that braves can follow God. Cowards have nothing to do with religion.

Corollary to interrelation of non-violence with bravery is relationship of cowardice with violence. This way terrorist who kill innocent (irrespective of their faith – Hindu or Muslim or Christians or whatever) are cowards. They fear their existence. They have no faith on God and have nothing to do with religion.

We as humans tend to rationalize our mistakes. It is not that we tell lie to others. It is that we lie to ourselves.

I have often learned one thing in life. The moment you write what is truth on a piece of paper – many doubts are resolved. But you have to muster huge courage to right that truth. Perhaps hear that little whisper from within – perhaps clear a little fog in your mind to open a door of that inner spirit.

For instance, you don’t like somebody. May be he flaunts too much in self-appreciation and you simply cannot take it. You like a way of sobriety and person right in front of you is harping about things that are totally untrue and may be you know or think them to be untrue. You feel angered from within. You get a feeling of despise for that person.

This sort of feeling is in backdrop of a possible framework that you are sober and the other person extravagant. You don’t like extravagance. May be you feel that other one is trying to belittle you. You disapprove this behavior. You get a tinge of bitterness somewhere deep within.

Although, this situation looks distant from fearlessness or from non-violence, it is very proximal.

Now just look at the whole situation from this angle: A small child of 10 years harps how brave he is to an Army Commander. The Commander knows that the child is lying. Do you think the Commander will feel bitter and agitated towards that child? No. What does he do? The Commander simply ignores that child or maybe laughs with all affection for that child – the commander plays with that child.

You know why? That is because the commander knows he is a commander and the child is a child. The commander comfortably ignores the child because he is sitting on a pedestal of his efforts and hard-work and experience. The child does not bother him! May be the commander’s heart is full of love for that little tot. Here – although, it appears that the principles of non-violence do not play any role – they do play a role because the commander is brave – he does not care for the child and his braveness gives birth to non-violence – although he can overpower the child by his talks or by his hand, he simply tolerates the child – plays with the child and may be in the process of that playing the commander teaches the child some lesson of humbleness.

If the commander fears the child or feels that the child is belittling him, a feeling of competition comes from within of that commander and the commander may simply react to the child with a child-like way.

Now come back to your situation – you and some other person sitting in front of you harping of his achievements. If you get into competition with that person, a feeling comes that he is trying to belittle you. That feeling is a manifestation of inner fear. Just like a commander is fearless about that child, if you are fearless and sitting on pedestal of your work, experience and efforts, you simply get a capacity to ignore such talks. Remember, you cannot ignore things by simply overlooking them outwardly, but the moment you stop feeling uncomfortable with things, they stand ignored!

Now your height is like a commander. You are fearless. You have courage. That moment, you will have no complaints for other person. You don’t feel he is belittling you. You don’t feel that he is trying to grow taller then he is. You don’t feel like cutting him to size. You feel just nothing! How great? You are inert. You are near God. You are focused. You know what you have to do and you just do that and nothing more, nothing less.

I think fearless is a basic trait. Obviously, we will turn divine, if we get into such a state permanently. It is not possible in real sense. But we can try. Can’t we? We can understand Gandhi’s words and try to follow it. It is not bad to get slipped. You commit no sin if you slip or slid in life. That is how we learn. Just like a child learns to crawl and get up, we learn the way of emotional maturity and someday we will fully understand Gandhi and someday we will be nearer to God who loves us so much!