The Gandhi MessageVolume XXXXVIII - Autumn Issue - 2014

The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Foundation

The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Foundation, Incorporated, was founded in the United States of America in 1959 by Swami Premananda of India. The purpose of the Foundation is to disseminate the philosophy, ideal,

life, service and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. The Foundation is a legally independent, nonprofit cultural and educational organization.

Gandhi Memorial Center Dedicated to the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, the Gandhi Memorial

Center seeks to offer a broad representation of authors from many cultures and times, as well as displays, recordings, lectures and demonstrations of

cultural and educational value. The Library of the Gandhi Memorial Center is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm

(except during July and August).

Our AppealFor the expansion of its ideals and activities the Foundation will gratefully receive donations of funds and contributions of books, publications and

memorabilia pertaining to Mahatma Gandhi and his associates. Please make checks payable to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Foundation, Inc.

or contribute online at our website: www.gandhimemorialcenter.org/contribute/

The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Foundation is a 501c(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. The staff of the Foundation and Gandhi Center are

dedicated workers who serve without any remuneration throughout the year. Your contribution is an offering towards the services and activities of the

Gandhi Center. Your contribution is tax deductible.

Gandhi Memorial Center 4748 Western AvenueBethesda, MD 20816

301-320-6871Email: info@gandhimemorialcenter.org Web: www.gandhimemorialcenter.org

Facebook.com/GandhiMemorialCenterUSA

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Table of Content

Gandhi Writing.......................................................................front cover

“Mahatma Gandhi’s Experiments with Truth”....................................2-7

Book Talk by Dr. Nalini Natarajan.........................................................8

High School Student Visits...................................................................9

Noble Thoughts..............................................................................10-11

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute...................................................12-13

Art Exhibition: “Akshara”................................................................14-15

Elementary School Student Visits.................................................16-17

Urdu Script from “Akshara” Series........................................back cover

“One should see oneself in the whole world and the whole world in oneself,

and act toward others in this realization - that when life is full of suffering,

we should cause suffering to none.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

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“Mahatma Gandhi’s Experiments with Truth”

A Talk by Carrie Trybulec, Director of Gandhi Memorial CenterPresented October 13, 2013 at the India Center in

Charleston, West Virginia as part of the Gandhi Day Program

At this time of year, around the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we reflect back on the life of Gandhiji and we try to examine what life meant to him and what it means for us. We search more intently for what inspired this great soul, that we, too, may be so inspired. There are many ways to view and to appreciate the life of Mahatma Gandhi: as philosopher and humanitarian, father of his country and states-man, writer and publisher, educator and founder of a university that still flourishes in India today. Political scientists study his tenets of satyagraha. Economists study his ideas for global development, and nutritionists ex-amine his views on diet and health. Despite all these practical contributions of Mahatma Gandhi, he was no doubt, one of the noblest men of history. Gandhi, indeed, lived life as a devotee of Truth: through his purity of heart, simplicity of spirit, humility and utter compassion; his practices of prayer and fasting; his asceticism and discipline; his identification with “the poorest, the lowliest and the lost;” his serene acceptance of condemnation, and his willingness to persevere in a great and selfless cause amidst the constant threat of death. Gandhiji’s own devotion to Truth became the magnetic power by which he drew, persuaded and united people. This magnetic power as he called it was “Truth Force” or “Soul Force.” He probed the spotlight of his search for Truth into every area of human need. He drew people of virtually every

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creed and belief, temperament and capacity: rich and poor, illiterate or educated. Some people joined his ashram communities to serve satya-graha or his economic or educational ideals, others to follow his experi-ments with health and diet, still others to explore the path of spiritual life. All joined the vast orbit of his cause because his was the full measure of life. The only requirement of those wishing to follow this path according to Gandhiji, was a commitment to Truth and Love. Gandhi can fairly be considered in the light of those great liberators who show us the path of Truth and the Light of Soul. Like Buddha, who taught freedom from all suffering in the world of duality. Or Jesus, who said, “Know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Like Moham-med, who told us that the realization of Truth is an inner path: “That which God writes on the forehead of man, thou shalt come to it.” Or Socrates, who lived for Truth and faced death with fearless certainty of the eternal freedom of his soul. Gandhiji stated in the introduction to his Autobiography that the attain-ment of freedom, (or “Moksha”), was the goal and total pursuit of his life. Certainly he wanted to see India free, independent and strong, but the freedom he looked forward to was not merely freedom from British yoke, but freedom from every yoke - from fear, cowardliness, lassitude, hatred, vanity, and greed. He was searching for freedom from all that binds the human spirit. Every key concept of satyagraha and ahimsa is based on the removal of obstacles from within ourselves, in order to be free. The satyagrahi holds firmly to the highest laws of Truth, and does not stoop to the vanities of worldliness to maintain his course. The follower of ahimsa knows that the goal of peace is to be realized only by remaining steadfast in the power of soul. The very foundation of Gandhiji’s dedication to ahimsa and selfless service was the enlightening message of the Bhagavad Gita. His com-mitment to nonviolence was based on the importance of non-attachment as described by Krishna. Gandhi said: “I have from my experience come to the conclusion that the Bhagavad Gita has been composed to teach this one ideal: We can follow truth only in the measure that we shed our attachment to the ego.” Consider how Gandhiji interprets the Gita’s description of the perfect devotee; of the perfect disciple of Truth:

“One who is jealous of none, who is a fount of mercy, who is without egotism, who is selfless, who treats alike cold and heat, happiness and misery, who is ever forgiving, who is always contented, whose

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resolutions are firm, who has dedicated mind and soul to God, who causes no dread, who is not afraid of others, who is free from exulta-tion, sorrow and fear, who is pure, who is versed in action and yet remains unaffected by it, who renounces all fruit, good or bad, who treats friend and foe alike, who is untouched by respect or disrespect, who is not puffed up by praise, who does not go under when people speak ill of him, who loves silence and solitude, who has a disciplined reason. Such devotion is inconsistent with the existence of strong at-tachments.”

This non-attachment … this renunciation of the fruits of our actions was the basis of his satyagraha and commitment to ahimsa. Aside from non-attachment, he held humility as an essential standard to follow the path of Truth and Love. Gandhi knew that one could not be successful in attaining the highest truth, the highest goal, without first reducing himself to zero. Gandhi said, “We must be humbler than the dust the world daily crushes beneath its feet. In such selfless search for truth, nobody can lose his bearings for long. Directly, he takes to the wrong path, he stumbles, and is thus redi-rected to the right path.” Gandhi exclaimed: “What I want to achieve, what I have been striving and pining to achieve all these years is self-realization, to see God face to face. I live and move and have my being in pursuit of this goal. All that I do is directed toward this end.” Gandhi’s life message proclaims that we must LIVE Truth. He deeply believed, “Truth to be real, must incarnate in human life.” But how do we live Truth? We know that Gandhiji entitled his autobiography, MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH. Why did he entitle it thus? What were his experiments? What Truth was he striving to know?

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Gandhiji experimented with how to bring one universal ideal – that of Truth – to everyday life and activity. To make it part of his thoughts, words, and deeds. The results of his experiments affected the hearts of millions, and will continue to do so for years to come. You could say he tried on Truth for size and he found that it fit all of humanity for every occasion provided that one wears it with humility and selflessness. As he tried to live by the ideal of Truth, he also invited others to make the same discoveries for themselves or new ones by their own light of the same Truth. In order to live the simple truths for himself, Gandhi established ashrams. Beginning in South Africa and continuing in India, he established ashrams where residents would seek to guide their lives by spiritual idealism in fulfillment of practical aims. The ashrams provided the space for experi-mentation. Within the ashram life, Gandhi practiced living a life devoted to Truth, ever searching for universal Truth. Here his experiments with Truth carried a great purpose, realization of the Self. In these ashrams Gandhiji gathered together people of different reli-gions, different classes, and different levels of education. In the ashrams all were equally respected. The ashram life proved to be his laboratory for experiments with Truth, for experimenting with how to live Truth. Through his own experiments with life, Mahatma Gandhi examined a course to develop the means of satyagraha and ahimsa within himself. Should we not do the same? We don’t have to live in an ashram to lead the ashram life. We just need an ideal by which to live our life. For con-sciousness of Truth and Love shape the life of the individual, as well as affect the surrounding environment. Gandhiji set a standard for himself and then continued throughout his life to live up to a higher and more universal ideal; striving ever so humbly to realize Truth. As revealed in the Katha Upanishad, the path to Truth is as narrow as a razor’s edge; like Gandhi, we too, strive to walk that path. Like Gandhi, we weep when we fall. In the effort to seek Truth, Gandhiji realized one must also maintain an attitude of silence. He reminds us that: “Silence is a great help to a seeker after Truth. In the attitude of silence, the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life”, Gan-dhi said, “is a long and arduous quest after Truth, and the soul requires inward restfulness to attain its full height.” In our busy day-to-day lives the value of silence and inward restfulness is often overlooked.

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Gandhi went so far as to reserve an entire day each week purely for silence. It was truly his discipline and devotion that kept him on the path of Truth. Gandhiji requested us not to turn merely to his writings and speeches but to the very actions of his life. His life truly was his message. What he wanted to share with successive generations may be observed by his daily living. His “experiment” with truth was his life. Through each as-pect of his life, whether it was spiritu-al, physical, or mental, he continually aspired to perfect each as a means of realization. Over the course of his life, his actions evolved toward what he hoped would be more enlightened living. As Gandhiji stated, “All our activities should be centered in Truth. Truth should be the very breath of our life.” Satyagraha was not a static idea that originated with Gandhi but an ideal that he held. It was an ideal that evolved within him. It was said that Gan-dhi did not make satyagraha; but rather, satyagraha made Gandhi. In us, too, Truth will grow. How can Truth be known in the past tense? Truth – to be real – must live, must grow. To “hold fast to Truth” – to pre-serve Truth – Truth must be rediscovered, created anew, through the ac-tions of our life. Is Truth ever irrelevant? Is human life meaningful if there is no Truth found in it? The challenge for us is not to decide whether what Gandhi taught is relevant to a particular time or to a particular situation; but to de-cide how we can uplift ourselves to value the pursuit of Truth which must become our own dedication. To Gandhi the smallest actions pursued with perseverance and faith would yield more and larger Truth. It should be the same for us. Gan-dhi explained satyagraha in profoundly personal and subjective terms as: “Self-purification, self-dedication, and selflessness.” “Believe in Truth, think and live Truth. However triumphant untruth may seem to be, it can never prevail against Truth.” This was his maxim for life. And his experiments with Truth – were just that – experiments. He did not strive to be merely consistent. But he did strive to ever evolve to a greater realization of Truth.”

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He said: “The opinions I have formed and the conclusions I have arrived at are not final. I may change them tomorrow. I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could do. In doing so, I have sometimes erred and learnt by my errors. Life and its problems have thus become to me so many experiments in the practice of truth and nonviolence.” To Gandhi – Truth is God. What he was pining and striving to achieve was in essence the realization of oneness with God and with all of life. He said:

“This God, whom we seek to realize, is Truth. Or, to put it in another way, Truth is God. This Truth is not merely the truth we are expected to speak. It is that which alone is, which constitutes the stuff of which all things are made, which subsists by virtue of its own power, which is not supported by anything else but supports everything that exists. Truth alone is eternal, everything else is momentary. It need not as-sume shape or form. It is pure Intelligence as well as pure Bliss.”

Finding Truth everywhere, and realizing himself as one with Truth, he identified himself with all beings. Gandhi believed that: “The world will be at peace only when the indi-viduals comprising it make up their minds to do so. None can deny the possibility nor say that it cannot come to pass. Such (thoughts) are an idle waste of time. To a good man, the whole world is good. By following this golden rule (one) can live in peace under all circumstances, believing that what is possible for oneself to be, is also possible for others.” This, Gandhi believed about his experiments with Truth; that each hu-man being should be able to carry out his or her own experiments with Truth and make the same discoveries or new discoveries by their own light of that same Truth.

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Recent Events at the Gandhi Center:Author Presentation and Book Signing

Atlantic Gandhi: The Mahatma Overseas by Dr. Nalini Natarjan

On June 14, 2014, Dr. Nalini Natarajan presented her book, Atlantic Gandhi: The Mahatma Overseas, at the Gandhi Memorial Center. She shared slides and historical images from the environment in South Africa in which Mahatma Gandhi began his satyagraha movement. Dr. Natarajan is a Professor at the English Department, College of Humanities, Univer-sity of Puerto Rico in the US, where she has been teaching since 1987. Prior to this, she taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (1978–80) and Miranda House, Delhi (1984–86), and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University (1986–87). She obtained her Ph.D from University of Ab-erdeen, UK in 1984. She has written a book titled Woman and Indian Modernity: Readings of Colonial and Postcolonial Novels in 2002, and edited Handbook of Twentieth Century Literatures of India in 1996, which received the Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award. She has also just completed a book published by Terranova Press, entitled The Resonating Island—a series of intercultural essays on the Caribbean and South Asia.

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National Cathedral School Seniors visit the Gandhi Center as part of their study of Mahatma Gandhi on April 25, 2014

Kosovo Exchange Students - January 18, 2014. The students were part of a U.S. State Department funded program for high schoolers from Kosovo,

to nurture leadership and civic engagement skills.

High School Student Visitors to Gandhi Center

High school students from across the U.S. visit the Gandhi Center with guests: Aditee Dalela and Aishwarya Chandra Shekar on June 26, 2014.

The students visited the Gandhi Center before heading to India as exchange students through the U.S. State Department sponsored scholarships as part of the

Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program.

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Truth spiritualizes the man who accepts and lives by it, for it is a spiritual reality. The light of truth is never dimmed,

but when the eyes are shut to its revealing effulgence, man falls into the pit of inner darkness...

Be brave to face the truth, for truth alone is the light of God. Let the light of truth illumine the path of your life

and guide you to God and his righteousness.

- Swami Premananda, The Inner Path to God

Man esteems truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man.

In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places are now and here.

- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

I think the most important quality in a person concerned with religion is absolute devotion to truth.

- Albert Schweitzer, Out of My Life and Thought

Man wants truth, wants to experience truth for himself; when he has grasped it, realized it,

felt it with his heart of hearts, then alone, declare the Vedas, would all doubts vanish,

all darkness be scattered, and all crookedness be made straight.

- Swami Vivekananda, Meditation and Its Methods

God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.

- Kahlil Gibran, Voice of the Master

Let Noble Thoughts come to us from every side...

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Bhakti and the heart’s call for the Divine have a truth - it is the truth of the Divine Love and Ananda. The will for Tapasya has in it a truth - it is the

truth of the Spirit’s mastery over its own members. The musician and the poet stand for a truth - it is the truth of the expression

of the Spirit through beauty.

- Sri Aurobindo, Dictionary of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga

I have put my truth in your innermost mind, and I have written it in your heart. No longer does a man need to teach his brother about God. For

all of you know Me from the most ignorant to the most learned, from the poorest to the most powerful.

- Jeremiah 31:33, Adapted by Stephen Mitchell: The Enlightened Mind

How can righteousness be attained and the veil of falsehood destroyed? Only by following the will of God, says Nanak:

“Truth becomes part of the self.”

- Sir Joginder Singh, Sikh Ceremonies

Preserve the One, guard Truth and you communicate with the whole Universe. The One is not hard to know, the difficulty is persistence.

Guard the One with no distraction and you are eternally vital.

- Master Ge Hong, The Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity

The Highest Truth can be known only by realization. Realization is something other than mere understanding.

We could not possibly understand intellectually the sweetness of sugar if we had not tasted it.

Just so, religious knowledge is drawn from the deepest experience of one’s own soul...living it in one’s life.

- Swami Yogananda Paramahansa, Science of Religion

Let Noble Thoughts come to us from every side...

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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the Gandhi Center March through May 2014

Dr. Moazzam Siddiqui offers a presentation on the “Language Families of India”for members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI).

Dr. Sudeshna Basu, Jeffrey Bauer and Fred Dixon present the life and music of Rabindranath Tagore for members of OLLI.

Namrata Dalela presents the textile traditions of India for members of OLLI.

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Debu Nayak, Dr. Samia Mahbub Ahmad, and Rebecca Rahman present the basics of Hindustani Classical music for members of OLLI.

Cooking techniques and demonstrations were presented along with samples of Indian cuisine.

Each spring the Gandhi Memorial Center offers a 10-week course for members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of American University. These members include retired professionals living in and around Wash-ington, DC. The course presented by the Gandhi Center: “India, Culture, Traditions and Gandhi” offers an introduction to the wide range of cultural and traditional arts of India. Members of the community with areas of expertise in art, literature, music, film, dance and philosophy voluntarily share their talents and expertise through the weekly sessions. Each ses-sion is greatly enjoyed and appreciated by the participants.

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Recent Events at the Gandhi Center: Art Exhibition

AKSHARA

By Shanthi Chandrasekar Displayed at Gandhi Memorial Center March - June 2014

Opening remarks and lamp lighting to inaugurate the “Akshara” exhibition on March 22, 2014.

Bottom photo (Left to Right): Namrata Dalela, Jeffrey Bauer, Srimati Kamala, Shanthi Chandrasekar,

Carrie Trybulec, Aishwarya Chandrasekar.

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Sridharan Madhusudhanan, Minister for Press, Information and Culture at the Em-bassy of India in Washington, DC offers remarks on inauguration of the exhibit.

Photo Left: The Chandrasekar family: Aishwarya, Shanthi, Chandrasekar and Aaditya pose in front of one of the pieces from the “Akshara” exhibition. Photo Right: Senthamil (Acrylic on Canvas - 2008)

Akshara is a series of paintings that visually connects sounds, symbols and the subtleties in mark making in different languages from around the world. In this series, Shanthi explores the shapes of the letters in connec-tion with the culture and its origin. Some of the languages are ancient and some are dying. Some of the languages were written on thousand year old temple walls and the inscriptions told the glories of the kings and queens that constructed the temples, their contributions to the arts or just an ex-pression of thanks to the various donors. Shanthi focuses on the shapes of the letters of the alphabets rather than copying texts. She explores the idea of unity in diversity, the uniqueness of each syllable and the beauty of sounds and symbols. Shanthi received support for this series in part by funding from the Montgomery County government and the Arts and Hu-manities Council of Montgomery County, Maryland.

For more about the artist: www.shanthic.com

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Elementary & Montessori Student Visitors to Gandhi Center ...

Arts and Technology DC Public Charter School - January 31, 2014

Shining Stars Montessori School and MOMIEs TLC - February 1, 2014

Crestview Montessori School - February 21, 2014

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Maury Elementary School - February 21, 2014

Miner Elementary School - May 23, 2014

Brightwood Education Campus - February 28, 2014

... From the Washington, DC area

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Urdu Script from “AKSHARA” Series

by Shanthi Chandrasekar