May 5, 2006

‘Carry the Vision’ Conference emphasizes peace and non-violence

Ghandi’s grandson Arun Ghandi speaks

By Donna H. Eliason
Staff Writer

During the annual Carry the Vision conference at Evergreen Valley College on April 22, the keynote speaker, Arun Gandhi, shared stories about his grandfather, the legendary Matahma Gandhi from India. This year’s focus centered on non-violence and peace within our world, community and families.

During the annual Carry the Vision conference at Evergreen Valley College on April 22, the keynote speaker, Arun Gandhi, shared stories about his grandfather, the legendary Matahma Gandhi from India.

Gandhi’s grandparents married at age 13, the custom then. Being unsure of his role as a husband, Mahatma Gandhi read library books on the subject. One morning he announced to his wife that she must ask his permission to leave the house. The next morning she got up and continued her work as usual. After several days he asked her why she didn’t obey him. Her answer was his first profound lesson in non-violence.

“I was brought up to obey the elders of the house,” she said. “If this isn’t how we should do it, we’ll tell your mother.”

Two choices with his legacy
At his parents’ request, Arun Gandhi lived with his grandparents between the ages of 12 and 14. His mother said, “You have two choices. You can run away from your legacy or use it to shine light on your path.” There he learned lessons of love, understanding and mutual respect.

Arun Gandhi

One time, Gandhi wanted a new pencil for school so he threw the old one into the bushes. His grandfather said he committed violence against nature by wasting resources. He insisted that Gandhi find the discarded pencil even though it was dark.

The guilty will go free
Gandhi shared how his grandfather at 23 years learned the importance of forgiveness in South Africa. After being a victim of prejudice, the police took him to the station to file charges. Mahatma Gandhi refused, saying he forgave them and hoped they’d learned a lesson. The police replied that if he forgave them, the guilty would go free.

Mahatma Gandhi agreed but said that hate and prejudice were bad. “Violence is not the right way to seek justice,” he said.

As a result, three-fourths of the guilty men became life-long followers of Gandhi. “It’s important to learn how to forgive,” said Arun Gandhi.

“We’ve created a culture of violence, so that we believe that being violent is our nature,” he added. “Violence is a learned experience that we need to replace. If it were inherent in our nature, we wouldn’t need marital arts classes.” In his own life, Arun began to understand non-violence by understanding violence.

He asked audience members to pick a partner. One person clutched an imaginary gem in their fist. The other person’s goal was to see the gem. After several minutes, Gandhi polled the audience. “How many people just asked their partner to open their fist?” When few hands went up, Gandhi said, “See, this shows how violent we are. Unless we become non-violent we can’t work for peace.”

The King kept the grain in a small box.

Gandhi told the story about an ancient king who searched for the meaning of peace. He went to an old sage (wise man) who gave him a grain of wheat. Since the king didn’t see any relationship between the wheat grain and peace, he put the grain into a small box. Periodically, he opened the box and looked at the grain.

A friend said that as long as he kept the grain in the box, nothing would happen. He had to plant it before it would sprout. From the seed of non-violence, peace and harmony grows. Mahatma Gandhi said, “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.”