GREATEST QUOTES OF MAHATMA GANDHI - ON THIS GANDHI JAYANTHI DAY

GREATEST QUOTES OF

MAHATMA GANDHI

Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2^nd October,1869 and died on 30^th,January,1948. Gandhiji was the tallest leader of India who has been accepted by the whole world, mainly for the twin principles of Truth and non violence that characterized all his life and all his struggles for the benefit of Humanity. His simplicity and truthfulness were par excellence. Today, let us remember some of his greatest teachings in the form of quotable quotes

Lal bahadur Sastri was born on2,October 1904 and died on 11 January 1966. He served as Indian Prime minister for a brief but most memorable period. His slogan of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan is still the corner stone of Indian Policy makers in many ways. Let us pay our due respects to Satriji along with our respects to Mahatma Gandhi.

1.  The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.  (Ex: Gandhiji and Leprosy Patients in South Africa, Parchure Sastri, a Leprosy patient aided by Gandhi)

2.  You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

3.  My life is my message.

4.  Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

5.  Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

6.  An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

7.  You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

8.  Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

9.  Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

10.              We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.

11.              Poverty is the worst form of violence.

12.              Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.

13.              To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

14.              A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

15.              Action expresses priorities.

16.              An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

17.              A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

18.              Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

19.              I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.

20.              Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having

21.              Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

22.              Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

23.              I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.

24.              Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.

25.              Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

26.              What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

27.              There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

28.              Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.

29.              Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.

30.              An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.

31.              Man is supposed to be the maker of his destiny. It is only partly true. He can make his destiny, only in so far as he is allowed by the Great Power.

32.              You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

33.              I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others.

34.              I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

35.              Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plain living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man's happiness really lies in contentment.

36.              I did once seriously think of embracing the Christian faith. The gentle figure of Christ, so full of forgiveness that he taught his followers not to retaliate when abused or struck, but to turn the other cheek - I thought it was a beautiful example of the perfect man.

37.              Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.

38.              Man can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.

39.              Let not the 12 million Negroes be ashamed of the fact that they are the grandchildren of slaves. There is dishonor in being slave-owners.

40.              I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

41.              God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.

42.              God cannot be realized through the intellect. Intellect can lead one to a certain extent and no further. It is a matter of faith and experience derived from that faith.

43.              One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's.

44.              Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

WHAT I CAN – WHAT I CAN’T - WHAT CAN I CHOOSE - POWER OF MY CHOICE- MY PRIORITY - WHAT IS SUCCESS IN LIFE?

WHAT I CAN – WHAT I CAN’T

Oh God :

Let me know clearly what I can do and focus my attention fully on doing that.

Let me know clearly what I cannot do and keep my focus away from that.

Let me not waste my time in trying to do what I cannot do

This is a popular quote. I like this.I love this. I admire this. I want to follow this. Because, this summarizes the effective, successful, purposeful, happy, healthy Life of an Individual.

This is the basic wisdom that all of us must cultivate in our lives.

This is the first lesson that must be taught in schools and colleges.

There are certain things in life that only we can do and nobody else can do for us.

We can breathe, we can see, we can hear, we can talk, we can smell, we can breathe, we can taste, we can eat, we can talk

we can do certain work with our hands, legs and other parts of  our body,

With our mind and heart, we can think, we can feel,

With our whole systems, we can make relationships, we can learn, we can communicate, we can write, we can carve, we can sing, we can paint, we can construct,

We can destruct, we can abuse, we can fight, we can make enmities, we can kill, we can wound…we can do a whole lot of destructive things….

like this, I can go on mentioning the many positive and negative things that we can do.

CHOICE : Above all these things, we can exercise the power of choice! WE CAN CHOOSE. This is a great power that is given to us – to do what we want to do.

We can also CHOOSE to - not to do, or avoid to do what we don’t want to do or even avoid to do that which we like to do.

PRIORITIZE : There are a million things that we want to do and a thousand things we can possibly do. Our Power of choice allows us to prioritize what we want to do at any particular time. Otherwise, out of the million things that we can do, we will be doing this this minute, that the next minute and go on shifting from one to another, without completing anything at any time. Power of choosing and power of prioritizing are two important tools in our hands to make our life successful.

YOUR GENETIC GIFTS : We have some genetic gifts. Everybody has some Genetic gifts and each has some special gift also, endowed to him. It comes, right from birth and may flower gigantically, hugely by training.

For example, You may be beautiful by birth. Or, you may be just ordinary. Or, some may be even ugly by the standards of the beautiful. This comes to some extent at birth itself.

Even the ugliest person can mend his physical form a lot by appropriate physical culture, physical exercise and so on. There is nothing to worry about these genetic gifts of physical form  - except trying to make the physical form as strong and as handsome / beautiful as possible by careful nurture. What Nature gives, we must improve by nurture, by our effort.

SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT : - We must not become either egoistic or pity ourselves or dislike others in respect of any such genetic, birthly gifts.

Our duty is to improve ourselves as much as possible by our effort. The scope for improvement is phenomenal in case of all people. Instead of focusing on that, we must not fritter away our energies in pitying ourselves or hating others.

You can see that many black people in some countries are very strong and very athletic and because of that, very attractive. But, most people in countries like India are weak. We do not exercise the power of choice to be strong! Indians must consciously choose to be strong, athletic and flexible. We must choose this as a society. We must do it today, individually and as a nation.

Our governments wants to supply computers to students. I have no quarrel with that. Let them also supply Dumbbells of a medium weight to all students to practice daily. Education is of the mind and of the body both. Of the Body first and then, of the mind. Without the body,

there is no mind. Let every Indian become strong first. When the Prime minister of India talked of a 56” chest, or more than 50” chest at least as some critics say, it is an invitation to all youngsters to surpass that. When he recently gave a fitness challenge, many leading stars took it. Including me, though I am not a star.

WHAT CANNOT BE MENDED OR AMENDED : - There are of course a few things which possibly cannot be mended or amended or reformed. Some people are born with some physical disabilities like Helen keller. She was deaf and dumb. But, that did not prevent her from achieving some greatest achievements. 

There are many who are born without eyes, without legs, without hands, with genetic defects, with deceases and so on. But each of them are also born with some unknown special gift. The idea of human society should be to nurture those special gifts and make him proud, or self satisfied individuals who are also adored in some way for heir talents.

AGE : At every age, you have a special talent. At childhood, it may be innocence and constant aptitude to learn new things. At Old age, it is maturity , patience and power to pardon. At every age, you have a special talent and you must nurture that talent.

YOUR GOAL : your goal of life must be to flower your innate talents, bring them out to be useful to you and to all those around you. Whatever you possess, don’t hide. Don’t be hesitant of, and afraid of exhibiting your talents. If you can write well, write and publish. If you can sing, sing to yourself and at public functions. Do whatever you can and benefit all those around you.

What good you can do – that you must try to do.

What good you cannot do – forget about it

What bad you can and cannot do – forget about it

What good quality you can improve, you must try to improve it.

What good quality you cannot improve, forget about it.

What bad quality you have, fight against it, get rid of it.

The greatest good quality that you can possess is – being happy and making others happy and being happy at others’ happiness

The greatest bad quality is its opposite.

I wish you all have understood and digested these first lessons of life. Follow them and be happy.

Wish you all the Successes in the world

Sd/-

(V.VIJAYAMOHAN)

YOUR INTERNAL THIEVES & YOUR GREATEST WEALTH

Your

INTERNAL THIEVES

&

Your

GREATEST WEALTH

India's most ancient wisdom  SAYS - 

 

"Kama, krodha, lobha, moha, madha, maatsaryaanaam dehe thishtathi taskaraah......

Tasmaath jaagrath, jaagrathaah "

What does it mean?

What does it imply?

Your greatest and most valuable treasure and wealth is - your joy, your happiness.

When you have them in plenty, you are the most wealthy in the world.

Who can steal them away from you?

There are Six thieves who can rob you of your entire joy and happiness !

And they are hiding within You!

They are your internal thieves and internal enemies

And, they are -

(i)                 Your unreasonable desires,

(ii)               your anger,

(iii)             your greed,

(iv)             your delusion,

(v)               your pride and

(vi)             your Jealousy.

Any one of them can rob you of your entire happiness.

And, when one arises, it brings the others also out, one by one.

You will never know when and where your happiness has disappeared. It’s Gone. As simple as that.

Your internal thieves are now dancing on the ruins of your happiness. You become mad, sad, and bad.

Somewhere, sometime, a seventh thief, the ultimate thief, takes over your whole life.

And, this ultimate thief is - FEAR.

When Fear arises, nothing else remains in life.

Nothing defeats you - like fear.

Fear is – your ultimate death penalty. And, it is you who imposes it on you.

Fear kills you before anyone else does and anything else does.

You will kill yourself in fear.  

While your true wealth is your Joy and your Happiness

Your best security Guard is

YOUR COURAGE

=My Heartiest Greetings to you on this

MAHA SHIVA RATHRI DAY

(V.VIJAYAMOHAN)