Gandhi (1869- 1948)
"Truth finally will become the rudder and love the fuel" by Valérie Mallet.
What messages for the world? (interview from January 2019) On the ground, barefoot, I trod the earth, was pushed back. In silence and solitude, the richness of time smiles, the flowers perfume. Alone against all, then all united ... I have lived, suffered, then transported the crowd. I would like to talk about movements of crowd, because the human tide, like a wave, can sweep away the destiny of a country, change the course of events, make itself a devastating groundswell for the evil but also for the common good. Faced with that, the unity, the indivisible, the individual must occupy his stature (1). The silence helps to find this unity of the start again, the point of origin of the creation, the seed, the essence that you are made of, and that, alive, one does not look at enough. It is in isolation and in silence that one can find it, speak to it and understand that it is from it that our roots, our influences can extend their arms. The return to the hard kernel of the creation which resides in all thing. So I would like to talk about dispersion, dilution, the loss of the essence, like in a perfume. Living from fumes is volatile (2). The essence of the perfume is eternal and acts on our animal part, the one which is cut off from the mind.
Tell me about the freedom of peoples… I always come back to the same thing: the individual freedom. In India, there was much to be done to get rid of the yoke of colonialism, but the freedom comes above all from the freedom of everyone, this is where the work is the most powerful. The inner freedom, released from ties, chain reactions of the instinct and the affect. The independence is to not have to defend yourself, this means to never feel attacked, neither to feel the need to be protected. Feeling strong enough to steer your boat.
How does one free itself up then? Obedience to oneself comes from the heart. The self-love and not the dependency. One believes itself dependent on the air, the food, the temperatures, but in reality only the body is dependent on these parameters, not what constitutes the essence of who you are. It is the soul that tells you that it feels trapped in this body that you have chosen for it. But it is simply the inescapable state for an alchemization of its course. Souls draw their mandala (3), choose the configuration of their being, in fact it is to yourself that you have chosen to obey in the first place, but you forgot about it. So freedom is what you give to yourself, not the one that may have been taken away from you. The soul itself, by choosing the desire to live, the right to incarnate itself, withdraws itself from its eternal essence, feels cramped in its body, so it is necessary to remind it that it will go back home one day. In fact everyone is the father and the mother of their essence. They must therefore ensure its comfort and its education.
How man can educate himself? By understanding this vertical axis which constitutes him. As much from the Earth as from the sky. He strides his lines, educates himself by writing his story, every gesture, word, feeling is a word of this education, the cause and the effect of all the elements that constitute this path. Nothing matters less or more, everything is equal. That’s why the ant is as big as the tiger. The infinitely small plays its divine part. So many centuries of suffering and preconceived ideas to erase, even in the memories of the body ... so it can take time, unless it is done quickly!
How? For what reasons ? Because you will not have the choice, no longer the choice, it will not be a personal choice or an ideological one, but a vital necessity, men will feel themselves facing adversity and will join the cause.
What adversity? An external event, inescapable, that will show that man cannot control everything.
Of what nature? I do not know it.
You think that the human race can fade away? I think that it can migrate and that the Earth will be like a conservatory. Nature will then recover over man, and the Earth will then be saved for a few millennia. Wanting to push back the death: a deviance, a coquetry, which could cost a lot to the the divinity of the man. A way against the grain.
Tell me about the ecology … It was made a school principles, it should be an attitude as present as the instinct to breathe. To take care of the Earth is to ensure the maintenance of life. There is no wall in the living. The living belongs to one same system of organization and development. Ecology is not a philosophy, an ethics, a religion, a policy. Man and the living should not be in the protection, but in the respect. If respect is the driving force of every act, every thought, then respect of the life that inhabits us becomes an attitude as natural as that the one of breathing. Life is the best of all gifts. You do not realize the power of the life, you believe in the power of the dead because it is of a different nature, but do you realize the power of the living men. The new perception of ecology would be this: respect and justification (4 ) of the living, whatever and wherever it is. Even in a sculpture, there is some living. Anything that is not alive, that goes against the life, should be condemned, whether it is food, thoughts and even objects. The promises of the living must be praised. The energy that can save the human nature is to be found there. Afterwards, to each his own way to access and celebrate it. Here again, the diversity creates the richness of Earth's history.
What is your point of view on the religions? The abuses of power had their time, now what does matter is what connects men.
Is that God? Certainly something out of reach, but is that what’s called God? The common core today is the soul of each one, the part of the treasure that each one finds in himself, this divine part precisely. The animals: look at them like your brothers and sisters. Look deep into their eyes, seek their soul, you will there find yours.
What do you have to say about what we are living right now? (interview of May 5, 2020) The outcome finally of our efforts and our marches. The union of peoples. What I have advocated and which is taking place before your eyes. The realization of an aspiration that was dear to me, that men walk hand in hand. What is happening is even more important than what I could have imagined or could have federated. This unity to which I longed for, you do not see it yet, but it is on the horizon, it is this rising sun, towards which all the humanity is striding with great steps. Finally, the dawn of new times, towards peace and justice. This is what I want to tell you: the truth will finally become the rudder and love the fuel. The two essential vectors for the achievement of men. Paradigm shift of course, new horizon. It was about the survival of the human race. The deadline had been reached, the clock has now struck, the wheel is on, no reverse gear. Those who do not want this horizon will get off the train en route.
You were talking about civil disobedience ... What would it be today? I would indeed like to come back to this term. It may not be disobedience, but rather the choice of a freedom, because obedience in a short time will be so ridiculous that you will laugh at it like you would do about a teacher (understand an authority) that you no longer respect. There will be obedience only to yourself, to your values, those that you will have recognized, the values of authority will have collapsed, so good students will no longer answer the call in presence of disorder, counter orders, misunderstandings, confessions and disavowals. No totalitarianism, because the despots will lose their leverage of pressure. No one will longer be able to make men sing as soon as they will have begun to sing for themselves… the song of their lives, and no longer the national anthems of the blackmailers. The coherence of peoples versus that of nations. The body and not the constituted bodies. Authority will no longer work because you will no longer be slaves to your masters. So maybe I should speak of a phase of resistance, of non-pollution, as if you had to close yourself off from what you are told in order to remain in the discerning. By being lugged around between facts stated as truths that become untruths, you will take your side. This is the policy of tomorrow: a citizen oriented policy, democratic in the true sense of the people. The power will be different and certainly not that of domination. There will be no more dominated and dominant. The power will be in the individual ability to obey one's heart.
1- Its size, its full dimension.
2- Understand: whose content is erased, evaporates very easily.
3- Drawing your mandala is a way of touching your profound intimacy.
4- Understand: the place.
To read and see:
All men are brothers. Ghandi. Life and Thoughts of Mahātmā Gandhi from his Works, Folio Essays, Gallimard
Gandhi film by Richard Attenborough