Join Us On The Gandhi Legacy Tour!

www.gandhitour.info

“The Gandhi Legacy Tour, led by Gandhi’s grandson, Arun Gandhi, and great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, for the past several years is unusual in that it does not focus on places of tourist interest but places of human interest. It is designed to educate …

” … in the essence of Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence and how individuals can apply it to bring about socio-economic change. The tour visits rural India and urban slums to see and compare projects helping to make the change we wish to see in the world. Gandhi believed in creating a “Sarvodaya” society — a society where everyone would enjoy a reasonably good standard of living with attendant rights and privileges.

“This can be created by compassionate citizens constructively helping the less fortunate gain the ability to make it good. His final Talisman to the citizens of the world was: Whenever you are in doubt or when the Self becomes too much apply the following test: Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest person you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to the person. Will the person gain anything by it? Will it restore control over her/his life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj “Independence of self” for the hungry and the spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your Self melt away!

“Join the tour and … 

Become the Change You Wish to See in The World![Read more…]

Remembering Gandhi’s Second Son: Manilal Gandhi

Manilal Gandhi 1952

Manilal Gandhi 1952

 

Today was the birthday of Manilal Gandhi, Arun Gandhi’s late father and the second son of M.K. Gandhi.  Here is a brief look at Manilal’s own life and legacy drawn from a few select sources:

Listen to a 1954 interview w/ Manilal Gandhi 

Manilal Mohandas Gandhi (28 October 1892 – 4 April 1956) was the second of four sons of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. Manilal was born in Rajkot, India. In 1897 Manilal traveled to South Africa for the first time, where he spent time working at the Phoenix Ashram near Durban. After a brief visit to India, in 1917 Manilal returned to South Africa to assist in printing the Indian Opinion a Gujarati-English weekly publication, at Phoenix, Durban. By 1918, Manilal was doing most of the work for the press and took over in 1920 as editor. Like his father, Manilal was also sent to jail several times by the British colonial government after protesting against unjust laws. He remained editor until 1956, the year of his death.

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Gandhi Day: Gandhi’s Poignant Legacy

Gandhi Birthday Flowers

Children offer flowers to Mahatma Gandhi statue on His birth anniversary in Shimla India

 

On the 143rd birth anniversary of my grandfather I am reminded of a poignant statement he made to a journalist who asked: What do you think will happen with your philosophy after you die? With sadness in his voice he said: “The people will follow me in life, worship me in death but not make my cause their cause.” How right he was!

We have either rejected the philosophy of nonviolence as impractical or we have reduced it to a weapon of convenience and misused it. The philosophy is about personal transformation changing greed, anger, frustration and other negative attitudes into love, respect, compassion, understanding and acceptance. We have the capacity to act either way but we chose to suppress the positive and display the negative in order to project ourselves as powerful. What we forget is that the greatest power in the world is LOVE. It is also the basis of all civilization. We are materially wealthy, but morally bankrupt. Can we Become the Change We Wish To See In The World?

Arun M. Gandhi
www.gandhiforchildren.org – Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute
www.gandhitour.info – Gandhi Legacy Tour
www.arungandhi.net – Arun M. Gandhi