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TRANSMUTATION OF THE MIND (2)
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discussion and analysis. To try to establish non-violence through violence is altogether vain. Non-violence cannot be established until a serious effort is made to dissolve the inner restlessness of the mind.
There are many who are concerned with the propagation of non-violence. They sincerely want that non-violence should spread everywhere, that self-discipline should be the order of the day, that the whole world should tread the path of non-violence and selfdiscipline. It is a laudable wish. Every sensible person will approve of it. However, it should be very clear by now that nothing is accomplished by wishful thinking; theory without practice is absolutely futile. It was so in the past, it is so now and it will be so in the future. We all have to seriously follow one course—that of lessening tension and restlessness. The first thing to be done is to obviate all perturbation.
Some people decry meditation. They assert that nothing is gained thereby. They would rather do something practical and useful'. No purpose is served by sitting idle—that is what meditation appears to be to them-losing oneself in abstraction. And truly meditation, if it be nothing but losing oneself in abstraction, is a futile undertaking. According to such critics, those practising meditation do no productive work. They do not cook, nor do they weave cloth, nor do anything useful. They do not labour at all! Just sitting cross-legged with closed eyes scrvcs little purpose. The poor labourers breaking stones in the hot sun are real workers. Office workers too, moving their pens from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. accomplish something. What do those sitting in meditation achieve? Nothing whatever! According to these critics of meditation, action, movement is work, and inaction, tranquillity, sitting without any movement, mere idleness. As long as this false approach continues, no social transformation is possible. We must scek the truth. Without seeking the truth, without coming to know it, our problems will never be resolved,. The truth is that in our life, action and inaction must be sinely balanced. Sitting still, without any movement in so far as it reduces tension and restlessness, is the first step towards accomplishing useful work. Indeed, inaction is the highest form of action.
After having crossed the stream by boat, two travellers came to the roadhead and inquired of the people there what distance they had as yet to cover to reach the village. Four miles, they were told. One of the travellers further asked, "Shall we be able to reach the village by evenfall?" "Oh, yes. Slow and steady wins the race," a wise old man answered. Now one of the travellers rode a horse and saw little point in going slow. The other, a pedestrian, moved slow and went at a steady pace. The four-mile track was uneven, stony,
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