Satya is Sanskrit for Truth, and Agraha is used to describe an effort, endeavor. The term itself may be construed to mean any effort to discover, discern, obtain or apply Truth.
It is NOT based on brute force or hatred. It does not aim at destroying the tyrant. It is a movement of self-purification. It therefore seeks to convert the tyrant. It may fail because India was not ready for mass non-violence. Ahimsa is the foundation of Satyagraha, the "irreducible minimum" to which Satyagraha adheres to. Ahimsa can be translated as "nonviolence," but the meaning goes beyond that. Ahimsa is derived from the Sanskrit verb root hims, witch means "desirous to kill," and the prefix a- is negation.
So a-himsa means literally "lacking any desire to kill," this is central to Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist morality.
That strength can come only by following the path of truth with non-violence as is emphasized in satyagraha. He distinguished self-suffering from cowardice. He said: 'Where there is only one choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. Emancipation from human misery was an essential precondition for social transformation. He was not attempting any piecemeal social engineering, but a total transformation of both man and society.
Gandhi's fundamental belief is in satya, 'truth,' which he also calls God. Satya is the ruling principle of the universe. Satya manifests itself in all living beings, especially in humans, as self-consciousness or soul or spirit. According to Gandhi, love is the law of our being. And by love he means what one may usually call compassion that is unconditional practical concern for the welfare and happiness of others.
Such love implies ahimsa, non-violence, as a principle of social and political action. The achievement of political and moral ends through ahimsa is what Gandhi called satyagraha, 'truth force' or non-violent action, which is not passive or sullen.
It calls for courage, strength of character and positive contribution to a righteous cause. Gandhi's doctrine of non-violence is absolute. In some circumstances, he thinks, it might be better to choose violence than submit to injustice. For Gandhi, civilisation is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty. Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible terms. To observe morality is to attain mastery over our minds and our passions.
Gandhi proclaimed ancient civilisation of India to be the best. The tendency of Indian civilisation is to elevate the moral being. Gandhi saw the state as the antithesis or how human beings should be organised.
It institutionalises violence. It commands, compels, constrains. It encourages dependence and undermines self-reliance. In a word, the state dehumanises human beings. Yet it is indispensable because human beings lack the capacity to govern themselves. Gandhi's answer to this predicament is plea for a 'minimal state. The ends of such a state will be achieved not through threats and force, but through persuasion and consensus. Crime will be regarded not as wrong-doing to be punished, but as an illness to be treated with help and understanding.
On various occasions, Gandhi clarified the difference between passive resistance and satyagraha. Satyagraha is a more dynamic force than passive resistance because it contemplates prolonged mass action in resistance to injustice. Secondly, satyagraha can be practised at all levels-domestic, national and international, while passive resistance is contemplated at a political level only. Thirdly, satyagraha offers continuous purification of mind.
It has no place for hatred, while passive resistance may be compatible with internal violence towards the enemy. Gandhi said: 'Satyagraha differs from passive resistance as the North Pole from the South.
Passive resistance may be offered along side of arms. It, often, is looked upon as preparation for arms. Passive Resistance was conceived as a weapon of the weak and does not exclude the use of physical force or violence for the purpose of gaining one's end, whereas satyagraha was conceived as the weapon of the strongest and excludes the use of violence in any shape or form.
End-Means continuum is the base of the Gandhian Way. Satyagraha inculcates agraha or moral pressure for the sake of truth. Gandhi states: 'The world rests upon the bedrock of satya or Truth. Asatya, meaning untruth, also means non-existent; and Satya or Truth means "that which is".
If untruth does not so much as exist, its victory is out of the question. And Truth being "that which is" can never be destroyed. This is the doctrine of Satyagraha in a nutshell. I saw in later life that this spirit was an essential part of Satyagrah. Suffering serves three purposes: it purifies the sufferers; secondly, it makes a direct appeal to the soul of the oppressor; thirdly, it intensifies favourable public opinion. Satyagraha has various forms. Fasting can be one extreme form of satyagraha.
Gandhi held that fasting and prayer give the required discipline, the spirit of self-sacrifice, humility and resoluteness of will. Fasting can be applied against those who are responsive to moral persuasion. Gandhi held that fasting sets the soul free for efficacious prayer. He firmly believed that the great teachers of the world have derived extraordinary power for the good of the humanity and attained clarity of vision through fasting and prayer.
Complete peace is three dimensional: manasa meaning maintaining peace in heart, vacha meaning maintaining peace in thought, karmana meaning maintaining peace in action. One who is fearless, free of enmity, impartial and aspires for supreme public interest that is truth can be a satyagrahi.
One does not surrender before power based on coercion and violence. One who is determined to fight evils and one who accepts truth and truth only can be a satyagrahi. A Satyagrahi should not have any vested interest to protect. For westerners, non-violence may appear as a negative word. They easily comprehend love, justice, freedom etc. However, it introduced a novelty into the dominant thinking of the western tradition, since it leads to different logical thinking.
Non-violence, by lacking a corresponding positive word, leads westerners to think differently, which is based on a deductive method governed by classical logic. Jawaharlal Nehru at the time of the Non Co-operation Movement had grasped its spirit.
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