Peace through nonviolence is an important and obtainable goal for the world, Mohandas Gandhi’s grandson told a large crowd in a packed Culp Center ballroom at ETSU Wednesday night.
Arun Gandhi, grandson of late pacifist Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi also called Mahatma – which means Great Soul – by his followers, spoke of his grandfather’s teachings to a crowd of hundreds at ETSU last week.
The speech consisted of many stories of the younger Gandhi’s childhood from when he lived in India with his grandfather, a world-famous peace activist who helped liberate India and was assassinated in 1948.
Gandhi, who founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis, explained to the crowd that his grandfather’s teachings are still as important to the promotion of peace now as they were in the early 20th century.
“Dealing with anger, understanding anger and dealing with that anger effectively is a very important aspect of the philosophy of nonviolence,” Gandhi said.
Anger is like electricity, it’s just as powerful as electricity but only if we use it properly, Gandhi said. People must learn to intelligently channel anger into positive action.
He suggested keeping an anger journal, where a person writes down everything that upset them in a given day, with the intent to find a solution to their anger.
Gandhi also suggested to the crowd, as his grandfather suggested to him, that people should create a violence tree, much like a family tree, with violence in the parent position and physical and passive violence as the offspring. At the end of the day a person would fill in their violent actions of the day in the corresponding area.
He said physical violence is composed of actions of physical force against other beings – passive violence is actions that have no physical force but are still hurtful to others.
“Passive violence is committed consciously and unconsciously everyday, it creates anger and leads to physical violence,” Gandhi said. “We must cut off passive violence.”
One story Gandhi shared was about a tiny pencil from his youth and its effect on his life and how his grandfather used it to teach him how to perceive the world differently. The young Gandhi threw the pencil, which was no more than a few inches long, away when he deemed it useless.
When he asked his grandfather for a new pencil he was told that to throw away a pencil just because it was small was an act of violence against nature and humanity. The pencil, his grandfather explained, was made from natural resources, and to throw them away would be an act of violence against nature.
To waste the natural resources that made the pencil would further society’s overuse of natural reserves, which would cause other humans to suffer when they had to do without those reserves, and would be an act of violence against humanity.
The lesson in the story was to show that all things are connected and that selfishness leads to violence.
Gandhi also told the crowd that in America alone over 260 million pounds of food are thrown away every day and that 20 million people go hungry every night. The wasteful attitudes many people take only beget violence because those who live without begin to fight for what they need, he said.
Gandhi also explained that by keeping a positive outlook, a person could better himself or herself.
“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words – your words become your behavior – you behavior becomes your habits – your habits become you values – and your values become your destiny,” he said. “Positive thoughts equal a positive destiny, negative thoughts equal a negative destiny.”
Gandhi also spoke of nonviolent parenting as an important tool in creating peace. He told the crowd that punishment is not the answer, but that penance is important in raising children.
“We use authority, but we don’t want to sacrifice,” he said.
Another story told to Gandhi by his grandfather was one about a young boy who loved sweets but couldn’t eat them. The child’s parents came to Mahatma seeking guidance about their son, who had developed a rash from eating so much sugar.
Mahatma told the family to return in 15 days, and when they did he spoke to the child, who immediately gave up sweets. The parents, thankful but confused asked Mahatma what he had told the child.
He replied that he had simply explained to the boy that in the 15 days between visits he himself had given up sweets and that he would not eat them again until the child stopped eating sugar.
Gandhi said that his grandfather understood that while it was important that the child stop eating sweets, it was just as important that the parents stop as well. He believed that by sacrificing with their children, instead of just ordering them on what to do and not do, parents could help stop violence.
“Nonviolent parenting is important to break the cycle of violence,” he said.
Gandhi told the crowd the annihilation of the ego is also necessary for nonviolence and that people must become humble for nonviolence to succeed.
When asked by a member of the crowd whether or not he believed some violence is necessary, Gandhi said that he believed violence can work in situations where a person is confronted by another individual, but not between countries. He said that war is only a way to inflict revenge, an eye for an eye.
“An eye for an eye only leaves the whole world blind,” he said using one of his grandfather’s famous sayings.
He told the crowd that violence is not the answer and that people must liberate themselves from the fear that controls them. He explained that people must come to peace with themselves before they can challenge the views of the world around them.
“We must be the change we wish to see,” Gandhi told the crowd. “We must focus on the means, not just the end.”
Additional information on Mohandas Gandhi, his teachings of nonviolence and the institute founded in his honor can be found on the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence web site at www.gandhiinstitute.org.

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