Let Me Hug All of You

Having flung aside the sword, there is nothing except the cup of love I can offer to those who oppose me. It is by offering that cup that I expect to draw them close to me. I cannot think of permanent enmity between man and man, and believing as I do in the theory of rebirth, I live in the hope that if not in this birth, in some other birth, I shall be able to hug all humanity in friendly embrace. Love is the strongest force the world possesses and, yet, it is the humblest imaginable. Love has the special quality of attracting abundance of love in return. Ahimsa means the largest love, the greatest charity. As a follower of ahimsa, I must love my enemy. I must apply the same rules to the wrongdoer who is my enemy or a stranger to me, as I would to my wrongdoing father or son. This active necessarily includes truth and fearlessness. As man cannot deceive loved ones, he does not fear or frighten them. Gift of life is the greatest of all gifts; a man who gives it disarms all hostility. He has paved the way for an honourable understanding. And none who is fearful can bestow that gift, He must, therefore, be himself fearless. A man cannot practise ahimsa and be a coward at the same time. The practice of ahimsa calls for the greatest courage. My creed of non-violence is an extremely active force. It has no room for cowardice or even weakness. There is hope for a violent man to be some day non-violent, but there is none for a coward.

Source: 1/10/2018