One hundred and forty years ago, yes—140 years ago-- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born. In a celebration of his birth and as a reminder of what the world was given in the way he chose to live his life, his own words will speak for themselves. I had never read this poem before today, but I’m glad to have found it. The way this poem has been published, it reads as one long paragraph and in an effort to make it current, I've taken the liberty to edit it with breaks that suit the way I read this in my mind. I hope he would approve.
From the pen of the then 59 year old Gandhi:
There is an indefinable mysterious Power that pervades everything.
I feel It, though I do not see It.
It is this unseen Power which makes Itself felt and yet defies all proof,
because It is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses.
It transcends the senses....
That informing Power or Spirit is God....
For I can see that in the midst of death life persists,
in the midst of untruth, truth persists,
in the midst of darkness light persists.
Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is love.
He is supreme good.
But he is no God who merely satisfies the intellect
If He ever does.
God to be God must rule the heart and transform it.
By Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
(From “Young India,” October 11, 1928)
No comments:
Post a Comment