Gandhi Before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

Page 73

A GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
Third: "Right faith in the truth". Many understand the truth (liberation but do not believe in it. They feel it is an honor to doubt everything.
of the forces around us. This takes a long time and we are likely to be stationary. We may be attracted by worldly things, and be retarded. If we put efforts the path is short. It is in the power of every individual to take this decisive step. Choice is ours.
Fourth, "Practice of the truth". We must go step by step in this direction. There is only one way and that is to do it, and it must be done by our own will. Nothing can compel us. The smallest seed of Spirit within us is always trying to unfold. Obstacles are self-created. We must remove them by our own force. Similar views are found in all Indic religions.
There is a knot of worldly desires impeding us
In the history of a soul's evolution there is a critical point of the human incarnation that decides for us whether we stay there, go down or progress upwards. There is a knot of worldly desires impeding us; cut the knot by mastering desires and go forward. This done, progress is assured. A philosopher has used as an illustration of his thought where a group of ants are climbing a tree. Some get tired and drop back; others are entangled in the viscid exudations of the tree, while others go to the top and partake of the fruit.
Ways to progress
The physical body has been formed through the habit of thinking that the body itself is the self. After understanding the whole elements of the human being the next step is to gain the mastery over our desires, to change them into higher forces. With regard to the progress, there are two ways of making it. One is natural, the other is with efforts. The natural method means to make no exertion but to resign ourselves into the hands