One of Mahatma Gandhi's abiding virtues is how he could manage to rally the support of the entire country for his beliefs. Masses responded to him instinctively and classes curried favour with him all through the long freedom struggle the country participated in Gandhi's principles, if applied at the workplace, can potentially yield the same results. On the Occasion of Gandhi's birth anniversary, here are five principles from the great leader's life for your office.
While at the personal level Gandhi's four principles are:
- Respect
- Understanding
- Acceptance
- Appreciation
Mahatma Gandhi's four principles of nonviolence to be practiced by individuals begin with Respect. We must respect ourselves, respect others and respect our relationship to all of creation. A myth persists, especially in the West, that we are independent individuals with no responsibilities towards others. A cohesive society cannot be built with each individual pulling in different action.
Understanding is reached when we learn who we are and what is our role in creation. In our arrogance we believe that humans are not a part of nature. We are here to conquer nature. In our attempt to conquer nature we are destroying our habitat and cannot expect to survive for very long.
Acceptance is reached when we accept the differences, physical and philosophical, between human beings. When these differences begin to melt away then we accept each other as human beings and can dispense with the labels that keep people apart.
Appreciation of our humanity is achieved at this stage.
The best way, however, to understand Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence is to first understand the extent of violence that we practice, consciously or unconsciously, every day of our lives. He said: "Violence has two children - Physical and Passive. Now, everyday before you go to bed I would like you to write under each heading everything that you experienced during the day and the relationship of the violence with each other.