Saturday, July 02, 2005
Excerpt/The More Things Change...
Times change and systems decay. But it is my faith that in the end, it is only nonviolence and things that are based on nonviolence that will endure. Nineteen hundred years ago, Christianity was born. The ministry of Jesus lasted only for three brief years. His teaching was misunderstood even during his own time, and today's Christianity is a denial of his central teaching, "Love your enemy." But what are nineteen hundred years for the spread of the central doctrine of one's teaching?
Six centuries rolled by and Islam appeared on the scene. Many Muslims will not even allow me to say that Islam, as the word implies, is unadulterated peace. My reading of the Koran has convinced me that the basis of Islam is not violence. But here again thirteen hundred years later are but a speck in the cycle of Time. I am convinced that both these great faiths will live only to the extent their followers imbibe the central teaching of nonviolence. But it is not a thing to be grasped through mere intellect, it must sink into our hearts. - Gandhi
|
