"The root of Satyagraha is in prayer. A Satyagrahi relies upon God
for protection against the tyranny of brute force. Why should you
then be always afraid of the British or anybody playing you false?
If someone deceives you, he will be the loser. The fight of
Satyagraha is for the strong in spirit, not the doubter or the
timid. Satyagraha teaches us the art of living as well as dying.
Birth and death are inevitable among mortals. What distinguishes the
man from the brute is his conscious striving to realize the spirit
within. The last eighteen verses of the second chapter of the Gita
which are recited at the prayer give in a nutshell the secret of the
art of living. It is given there in the form of a description of a
sthitaprajna or the man of steady wisdom, i.e. a Satyagrahi, in
reply to Arjun's query to Lord Krishna.
"The art of dying follows as a corollary from the art of living.
Death must come to all. A man may die of a lightning stroke or as a
result of heart failure or failure of respiration. But that is not
the death that a Satyagrahi can wish for or pray for himself. The
art of dying for a Satyagrahi consists in facing death cheerfully in
the performance of one's duty. That is an art which the people of
Bombay apparently have not yet learnt. It is not enough not to want
to hurt or take the life of your enemy. You are no Satyagrahi if you
remain silent or passive spectators while your enemy is being done
to death. You must protect him even at the cost of your life. If
thousands in India learnt that art, the face of India would be
changed and no one would be able to point his finger of scorn at her
nonviolence as being a cloak for weakness. We would not then try to
shift blame for ugly happenings on the hooligan elements. We would
convert and control the hooligan elements too."
Uruli,
24-3-'46
Harijan, 7-4-1946