January 29, 2013
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The Anniversary of the Death of Gandhi
Today is the 65th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s death in 1948.
Gandhi is in the top three people that I adore the most. I know everybody is familiar with Gandhi and his work, so I won’t insult you with an overview of his life. Instead, I am just going to post my favorite of his quotes:
1. Man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.
2. You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
3. Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.
4. It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
5. What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
He is one of the most influential and inspiration people in history. When he was a lawyer in South Africa, he was thrown from a train (though he had a first class ticket) because Indians were seen as less than human. Despite spending 20 years in a hostile environment, or perhaps due to it, he was well known for his opposition to violence. He preached tolerance, acceptance, and love.
I took a moment tonight to remember him and his work, and to be grateful that he was in the world to begin with.
Who is your favorite historical person?
Comments (24)
I think he’s my favourite person too. I have to think the human race can’t be beyond hope if it can produce a person like him. Wonderful post!!
@EmilyandAtticus - For every Gandhi we know about, there are millions that we don’t. I am with you, there’s hope for us.
One of those in history I respect most, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.maintained a strong connection to Gandhi. King’s passive resistance was based on his study of Gandhi. There is a powerful connection between Gandhi, Thoreau, Emerson, King and Daisaku Ikeda, the man I call my mentor. An exhibit which traveled around the world brought forth the connection between them.
@TheSutraDude - What exhibit? Now I am going to have to look up Daisaku Ikeda
@BoulderChristina - It was an exhibit called “Gandhi, King, Ikeda” I think. Daisaku Ikeda has been honored with over 300 honorary doctorates and professorships from all over the world. He is a recipient of the U.N. Peace Award, the U.S. Congressional Award, the Rosa Parks Humanitarian Award, the International Tolerance Award of theSimon Wiesenthal Center, National Order of the Southern Cross of the Republic of Brazil, the Honorary Cross of Science and the Arts from the Austrian Ministry of Education, Medal of the Grand Officer of Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture…there are many more. After their first meeting to which Ikeda was given the longest time to talk to then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, 90 minutes Gorbachev met two more times with Ikeda. The second meeting marked the first time a Soviet leader went to Japan. He went there to meet with Ikeda again. I could go on and on…like published dialogues between Ikeda and Arnold Toynbee, Norman Cousins, physicists (he’s an honorary member of the Club of Rome) doctors and philosophers. He’s the most prolific human I know and the most determined for world peace I know.
can’t say, but he’s a good role model.
I hope somebody mentions Thurgood Marshall. He worked through the courts to eradicate the legacy of slavery and destroy the system of Jim Crow. It was Marshall who ended legal segregation in the United States, winning Supreme Court victories breaking the color line in housing, transportation and voting, all of which overturned the ‘Separate-but-Equal’ apartheid of American life. It was Marshall who won the most important legal case of the century, Brown v. Board of Education.
@we_deny_everything -You should write a post about him. I am not very familiar with his work?
@PocketfulOfDreams -He’s pretty good, isn’t he?
@TheSutraDude - Now you know one of us needs to write about him?
@BoulderChristina - That would be you. As a member of the lay Buddhist organization he has spearheaded for over 5 decades I am a biased party.
Gandhi would be in my top five along with Martin Luther King and
Karma Ura, President, Centre for Bhutan Studies (for information about him click below)I think the concept of reporting Gross National Happiness makes a lot more sense than GNPhttp://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/I would have to include Margaret Mead and Betty Friedan who have greatly influenced my thinking.
great post
I always think I’d like to meet Gutenberg and Luther because of all they did for the written word and all the upheaval they brought on the world.
@vexations - @godfatherofgreenbay - You guys are making me feel so uneducated! I have no idea who they are? I am going to spend some time reading about these new heroes
I loved reading about him in school he was just too cool for words
Thanks for sharing. I heard of him of course, but never read anything he wrote or said. I was a kid when he was famous. I think Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an admirer of him.
frank
Albert Einstein and Marie Curie.
The King…
Elvis baby…
All this thinking and pontificating makes me want to go move my hips…
This was a lovely little post, Christina and he is certainly at the very top of my list of favorites. His thoughts were quite simple yet deeper than the ocean & always well worth a read. Wonderful share, my dear. Thanks a bunch!!!
My favourite would be that silly carpenter, J.C. He has some beautiful and profound quotes, as well.
I don’t agree with everything Gandhi believed, but I do think he had some great pieces of wisdom for us that I appreciate. He was an inspirational person.
As for my favorite? Besides Christ, it would be very difficult to narrow it down to just one. There are so many people from the past that I admire.
I did not know it was the anniversary of his death – what an influential person for good he was. and he still is influential through those he influenced. just like you, Christina – you influence us around you for the good, constantly. : ) (hugs!)
I’m not sure I have a favorite historical person. is this odd? I hold no one above anyone else, even if they are someone like Gandhi. no heroes. I see many lives who one time were good, in other lifetimes perhaps they were not so good. we are all one life – like a mote of pollen with numberless protrusions. I know it’s an odd answer. love to you, my friend.
Dear Christine,
Don’t believe I’ve visited in a while. Noticed your username in my “ubox’ as I took a break, so thought I’d pay you a visit. (I’m here at work, alone, trying to get some sense of accomplishment on a project which seems to be stuck forever in neutral, or the mud, or pick a metaphor. On Super Bowl Sunday as well, but I don’t really care about Super Bowls anymore. Unless of course I win the office pool. LOL.)Gandhiji has to up there as among my favorite “historical” people.Along with Siddhartha Gautama, Jesus Christ, and Groucho Marx. Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
Gandhi died? fuck!!!
I never knew he was a lawyer at a point in his life; very interesting. i know this is going to sound cliched but ive always been a big fan of lincoln