Power Profile #2: Mahatma Gandhi
August 13, 2007 – 3:06 pm | by Carl Zetterlund
Power Profiles showcase successful people who you can learn from. If there is any golden rule to follow, take advice from people who already there.
Mahatma Gandhi is a legend known around the world. Even for ignorant Americans like myself, Gandhi is near the top of the list of people who we would have at least been familiar with. Gandhi has single handedly influenced how the world is today with his amazing leadership and his philosophical ideals.
Gandhi was the major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He started by fighting for civil rights for Indians living in South Africa. He then managed to get rid of the oppressive British control of India. Although there were other leaders, it was his message of satyagraha that finally led to freedom, which is the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience. He then inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the rest of the world.
He was an incredibly character. He committed to non-violence and truth in the most extreme conditions (more on this later). He was completely self-sufficient in which he made his own clothes and ate a simple vegetarian diet. He simply acted according to his principles, which is quite extraordinary especially if you see what he went through.
While in South Africa, he was thrown off stagecoaches when refusing to go third class while holding a valid first class ticket. He was beaten by a driver for refusing to travel on the foot board to make room for a European passenger. He was barred from many hotels. He faced these countless acts of racism, prejudice, and injustice day in and day out. When he finally got into high gear in leading the revolution in India, he went through countless fasts (no eating until death unless goals achieved), multiple imprisonments, and many assassination attempts.
He was simply amazing. He is a living ideal. He proves that you can do anything with strong enough beliefs and actions.
It doesn’t even end at the independence of India. Then there was the Muslim and Hindu separation issue in India. His own supporters disagreed with him because he had respect for all people of all religions. Unfortunately, he was killed by a Hindu radical from an a group that did not believe Pakistan (Muslim partition) should get the money they were promised when the British left.
The main point I want to get across is that he lived and died by his principles. He is a martyr, and lives forever in the minds of people around the world because of it.
His two main principles were truth and nonviolence.
“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”
He was a man of simplicity in which he made no unnecessary expenditures, washed his own clothes, and returned gifts given to him. He even refused reading the newspaper since it caused him more confusion than good. He even studied all religions.
“Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such”
When asked if he was a Hindu, “Yes I am, I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, and a Jew”
He influenced Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Khan Abdul Ghaffer Khan, Steve Biko, Aung San Suu Kyi, John Lennon, Al Gore, The Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa, Cesar Chavez, Benigno Aquino Jr., and Desmond Tutu. That is only naming a few.
He was the 1930 Time man of the year. He was the runner up to the Time person of the century in 1999. He should have won the Nobel Prize, but he was killed in that year.
So what can we learn from Gandhi?
Idealism can be turned into reality by your actions. Just imagine how many doubters and critics he had even on his own side! He was doing the seemingly impossible, but he accomplished it. He focused on what he wanted and acted accordingly even though his will was tested multiple times. There is power in living life on your own terms and your own principles. He was always ready to die at any moment for what he believed in.
He just may know a thing or two about real power. Now stop running around with your head cut off and do something great.
Carl
P.S. I am absolutely a huge fan of reading auto-biographies. You can only truly get the essence of a person through their own words. Gandhi’s auto-biography is called Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth. Buy it now from Amazon
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