Thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi

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  • We all desire mukti but, perhaps, we do not know precisely what it means. Deliverance from the cycle of birth and death is one of its several meanings.

    "December 20, 1944", CWMG, vol. LXXVIII, p. 394.
  • The poet-saint Narsinh says: "A man of God seeks not deliverance from birth and death; he asks to be born again and again." Viewed from this angle, mukti takes on a somewhat different form.

    "December 21, 1944", CWMG, vol. LXXVIII, p. 394.
  • Extreme non-attachment is salvation, according to the Gita, and we find the same meaning given in the first verse of the Ishopanishad.

    "December 22, 1944", CWMG, vol. LXXVIII, p. 394.
  • How to develop non-attachment? This can be done by regarding joy and sorrow, friend and foe, mine and thine, as all alike. Thus another name for non-attachment is equanimity.

    "December 23, 1944", CWMG, vol. LXXVIII, p. 394.
  • As drops add up to make the ocean, we can be friendly and become an ocean of friendliness. The world would be transformed if everyone in the world lived in a spirit of mutual amity.

    "December 24, 1944", CWMG, vol. LXXVIII, p. 394.
  • Today is Christmas Day. For us who believe in the equality of all religions, the birth of Jesus Christ is as worthy of veneration as that of Rama, Krishna, etc.

    "December 25, 1944", CWMG, vol. LXXVIII, p. 394.
  • Illness itself should be a matter of shame for man. Illness betokens some lapse. Illness should not beset one whose body and mind are wholly sound.

    "December 26, 1944", CWMG, vol. LXXVIII, p. 394.
  • Evil thoughts are also a sign of illness. Let us, therefore, avoid evil thoughts.

    "December 27, 1944", CWMG, vol. LXXVIII, p. 395.
  • One infallible means for escaping evil thoughts is Ramanama. The Name should come not merely from the lips but from the heart.

    "December 28, 1944", CWMG, vol. LXXVIII, p. 395.
  • Numerous are our ailments; numerous, too, are physicians and their treatments. But we would be spared much bother if we regarded all diseases as one and Rama as the one and only Physician who can eradicate them.

    "December 29, 1944", CWMG, vol. LXXVIII, p. 395.
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