INSCRIPTION
THE DIFFERENCE ONE LIFE CAN MAKE
MAHATMA GANDHI
LEADERSHIP WITHOUT POSITION – MORAL POWER; THE INFLUENCE THAT TRANSCENDS GENERATIONS.
“Whether humanity will consciously follow the law of love; I do not know. But that need not disturb me. The law will work just as the law of gravitation works whether we accept it or not”
-MAHATMA GANDHI
Can an individual lead a whole nation to a mass movement without any political or formal position against British rule? Can an individual’s influence shake the very foundation of British rule and bring the oppressor to surrender and compelled them to leave the nation without any form of violence or weapon but by moral power?
Can an individual change the course of the freedom struggle that inspired the world and set the example for such great leaders as Martin Luther jr. to accomplish same? How could an individual without any formal leadership position guide the India nation towards Independence ridding them from the British rule of over 250 years?
A MODEL OF INTEGRITY
“Integrity is not an outdated idea rather it is an updated version of living without regret”
-UDEME ARCHIBONG
“My life is an indivisible whole, and all my activities run into one another…My life is my message”.
–MAHATMA GANDHI
Once upon a time, Mahatma Gandhi was invited to speak before the House of Commons in England. He appeared small and weak, he held no political office and had no great wealth in tangible terms but he possessed moral power deeply rooted in integratedness with an all engulfing vision.
Gandhi stood up and spoke for two hours without the help of notes and caused the hostile audience to a rousing standing ovation which lasted for minutes.
These were people who enacted laws to suppress and subdue his people; these were people who imprisoned him. At the end of his speech a transformation had taken place in the minds of the British Statesmen; some of them even jumped up on their chairs and started stamping their feet.
After his speech reporters interviewed his secretary, Mahadev Desai, and expressed their amazement on how Gandhi astonished his audience for such a length of time without the aid of notes and caused the officials to embrace Gandhi in so much that there was no space for the reporters to interview him. Desai gave a revelatory lesson in integrity by his response:
“You don’t understand. You don’t understand Gandhi. You see, what he thinks is what he feels. What he feels is what he says. And what he says is what he does. What Gandhi thinks, what he feels, what he says, and what he does are all the same. He does not need notes. You and I think things, which sometimes may be different than what we feel. What we say depends on who’s listening. What we do depends on who’s watching. It is not so with him. He needs no notes”.
The above statement exemplifies the true meaning of integrity-to be integrated; congruent, whole and seamless void of duplicity. When your values, beliefs, what you think,what you say and what you do are all on the same page you have the Ultimate Influence.
When you have the Ultimate Influence you become a Powerful force for good – That is True Power and this True Power changes people. You don’t need to threaten, manipulate or try to control people to change. Infact, the only person you should strive to control and change is yourself because when you can control and change yourself you can inspire people to change willingly on their own accord.
The more integrated you become, the more Powerful you become to influence people for positive change and situations for good.
Jesus Christ did not just have the Ultimate Influence, He is the Ultimate Influence –absolute integrity, with absolute Power for good.
Being disintegrated makes you powerless to effectively influence people and situations. When what you think, what you feel, what you say, what you do, your beliefs and values are on different pages-you become Powerless irrespective of the position you attain, your financial statement or status in the society.
The Ultimate Influence which breeds True Power causes people to willingly change positively from the inside-out and situations to change for good.That is Power!
THE FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING–Overturning the Weakness into a Power Voice
Mahatma Gandhi perceived the world over as one of history’s most transformational and inspirational figures had for a long time suffered from an acute fear of public speaking known as glossophobia. In fact, he had a humiliating experience when he faced a Judge for his first Court Case as a young lawyer, he froze and fled from the Courtroom in panic.
What you fear the most could be what you were created to do to make changes for the best; it could be your soul’s code for a positive impact on the world and a legacy of influence on human lives that can transcend generations if you get activated into a space of action to deactivate the fear.
However, in the process of time Mahatma Gandhi built in his inner core an invincible moral power and overtuned his supposedly weakness to become an excellent listener, whose humility and empathy empowered him to channel the dreams and and aspiration of the masses in what could be termed the Defining moment of his life…
THE DEFINING MOMENT
“In a gentle way you can shake the world”
- Mahatma Gandhi
On a train journey in Johannesburg in 1893, Mahatma Gandhi boarded a first class ticket compartment, being a young lawyer then, he was manhandled off the train in Petermartzburg after a white traveller complained about his presence. In that defining moment he made the shift from being a timid newly graduated barrister to becoming a fearless advocate and campaigner for the rights and dignity of all people most especially the Indian people with an invincible promotion of non-violence as a tool to win over hearts and minds and leave his thumbprint on the document of destiny.
What you cannot tolerate could be what you were created to transform; what you cannot confront will leave you confound. And until you resolve to live by a higher standard that taps into your essence you become powerless and succumb to anything and everything that comes your way.
Unleashing your essence empowers you to seek to help others unleash their essence and when it becomes an all consuming obsession, transformation takes place in human lives and destiny is actualized.
THE STRATEGY
Born Mohandas karamchand Gandhi but he was later nicknamed “Mahatma” meaning “great soul.”
Mahatma Gandhi believed in Satyagraha – the philosophy means soul force; it meant meeting force with non-violent resistance which was not a weapon for the weak. Satya means truth and agraha means firmness.
The practice of this philosophy won Gandhi thousands of supporters, organized through the Natal Indian Congress. This campaign of civil disobedience filled the prisons with thousands of supporters as a result their sacrifice won him thousands more.
The purpose of the campaign was not to break the law but to fill the prisons through civil disobedience. According to Gandhi’s plan the arrests and imprisonment were meant to attract the attention of the British authorities to view their unjust and uncivilized laws for what they were.
Gandhi’s exceptional and powerful belief was that Satyagraha was powerful because it required enormous strength to not retaliate violently while beaten. He continually reminded his people that the campaign was that of a more powerful force raging against the weakness of unjust laws.
Mahatma Gandhi also engaged in fastings to advance his noble cause.
The Power of good ultimately overcomes the forces of evil. And the greatest Power in the universe is Love.
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong”
- Mahatma Gandhi.
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at the age of 78 on 30thJanuary 1948 by a Hindu fanatic. His assassin by name Godse was captured and later executed with a death sentence by hanging considered Gandhi to have been too accommodating to Muslims during the partition of India of the previous year.
There are seven things according to Gandhi’s teaching that will destroy us:
- Wealth without work.
- Pleasure without conscience
- Knowledge without character
- Commerce without morality
- Sceience without humanity
- Worship without sacrifice
- Politics without principle.
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.
- Mahatma Gandhi.
