On his 140th Anniversary, one of my favorite quotes from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi :
The roots of violence . Somehow we have moved so far away from those ideals
Wealth without work. – i wonder if the global economic meltdown would have happened if the system looked at value instead of valuation.
Pleasure without conscience especially if you have the money. Roman Polanski, Shiney Ahuja, Salman Khan, ….
Knowledge without character – people, who should know better, who play the system. It is the way we evade taxes, figure loopholes in the law !
Commerce without morality – To Say Satyam would be unfair – it is the system – from the guy who doesn’t give you a pucca bill, to the guy who tries to fudge on Sales Tax, to the person who sells adulterated stuff or someone who thought this up
Science without humanity – GM. It is killing our farmers 🙁 so are fertilizers !
Worship without sacrifice. – sacrifice doesn’t mean some poor goat or whatever – it means tyaag 🙁 amongst other things, it means waiting in queues like a penitent pilgrim when going to see ‘God’ – not claiming VIP status to walk in and walk out. Imagine the arrogance, going to see ‘God’ and claim that you are a VIP – tut, tut !
Politics without principles. – Parliament, Legislature .
I wonder if it is that difficult to follow. Is it the way we are individually bringing up gen next or is it an issue with society and changing values ?
I should have issues about Mont Blanc naming a 14 lakh pen after him – but, would he have ? or would he have gone about doing his work – the way he always did ?
First time heard about Gandhiji’s view on root of violence..And gargi madam, you have given perfect example of their violation in current India. I always remember his word that — Be the change what you want to see…
Interesting post. Though it is easy to interpret the violence and pleasure in some third party mode (for rioters, for example), I was wondering if Gandhi interpreted violence as ‘violence against animals’ and pleasure as ‘pleasure derived from eating non-vegetarian food’. If you think so, do you think modern India, with economic reforms and all that follows from americanization of the society, should still promote vegetarianism as a virtue.