Arun Gandhi carries ‘Grandfather’s’ torch to MHCC

Gandhi began his visit to Mt. Hood by holding an informal Q-and-A session in the Town and Gown (T&G) room.

Entering the T&G room, the anticipation was practically palpable. Gandhi was already there, which explained the guests’ tension. They were already scurrying for the seats nearest to him.

Silence engulfed the room for a good minute as the gravity of who was sitting before them sank into the people’s minds. Finally, one soul braved the silence to ask a complicated question about how one could choose between the lesser of two evils involving the government and humanity.

Gandhi smiled and answered in kind: “If the government is for the people by the people, of the people, it (the answer) should be to get smarter; the fault is ours.” This went on, back and forth, for an hour.

Afterward, Gandhi joined close to 50 MHCC benefactors and supporters to enjoy a nice meal. Guests were chatting and laughing as he took his seat.

The meal that was prepared was vegan, out of respect for Gandhi, a Hindu. The main course was fettuccine pasta topped with mushroom Bolognese, with salad and steamed veggies for side dishes. Even the cake was vegan, drizzled with fresh fruit.

Some people were timid to eat at first, but joined in after seeing the other guests cleaning their plates. As for how good the food was, all that can be said is that the dishwasher’s job was going to be very easy this night.

As the guests finished, Gandhi was introduced by MHCC President Debbie Derr, who said, “I’m a little star struck … we are so fortunate to have him here.” Derr also could not help but embarrass her daughter in the audience by telling all she is a big fan of Arun Gandhi’s.

As Gandhi took the podium the room fell more silent, as if the guests might miss a syllable if a penny dropped. The only two who did not seem engrossed by Gandhi were two little girls dressed appropriately in bright pink, too busy to look up because they were allowed their cake.

He broke the ice with, “You are lucky you were not hosting Grandfather,” explaining how the Mahatma would mix together different nutritional foods in a pot, cook them, add no spices, and eat it as his meal. Gandhiji (Mahatma) “did not eat food for taste,” but solely for sustenance, his grandson said.

After speaking, Gandhi went to the main College Theater to discuss how humanity can overcome its current culture of violence through nonviolent means.

Arun’s message remains unchanged from that of “Grandfather,” the Mahatma. Nonviolence is not just a philosophy; instead, it is a way of life that teaches a mindfulness of all things no matter how seemingly inconsequential. Nonviolence is to be practiced in all things, not just the physical forms of violence, but also, its passive forms.

So pervaded is our culture by violence that we take its presence for granted. Whether the waste of a three-inch nub of pencil thrown out by a 12-year-old Arun, or the mismanagement of a nation’s assets, the violence is the same, he explained. It is violence against the resources of the world, and it becomes violence against the people who are deprived of their necessities by our excesses.

The answer is not sending aid to these people. Gandhi said that such acts are born of “pity, which we do not need. Rather, we (poorer nations) need compassion.” Compassion, he said, is finding how those who need help are strong and reminding them that they are strong – building them up, educating them, and showing them they did it themselves.

The answer is to stop the violence we are committing; stop the excesses, stop the pity. Start the love, start the compassion. These are fundamental tenets of all faiths. No faith teaches hate or violence, rather they teach mindfulness and compassion, labor, and reward.

Like the simple farmer he once was, Gandhi’s message is framed with farming terminology. His message, most fundamentally, is to cultivate that place inside yourself where you are free from violence of any kind, and pour all of yourself into it. It will not be easy. It will take work. You will need to pull weeds. It is uncomfortable, but necessary. It will be worth it, he said.

He told of meeting a member of the South African parliament, a proponent of apartheid, and spending a week with the man and his wife. Though Gandhi said his initial instinct was to rail against the man for the evils he had supported, he instead treated the man with love and compassion.

Gandhi and his wife, who was Indian-born and hence disallowed from accompanying her husband to the man’s home in South Africa, spent the week with the man and his wife. They discussed apartheid in depth, and when it became “too delicate” they simply changed the subject to other topics. They did not try to force the issue.

By the end of this week, though, the South African Nationalist – defender of apartheid – and his wife both wept with remorse and begged forgiveness. They vowed to return home, to fight to end apartheid, and they did. Gandhi said the man’s change of heart cost his seat in parliament, as well as his party membership, but gained him something much more valuable – compassion for humanity.

To break the cycle of violence in a very real way, Gandhi compares anger to electricity, a lesson from Grandfather. “Anger, like electricity, may be harnessed to benefit mankind if we first transform it into compassion and love, and channel it back into the world.” Otherwise it becomes dangerous and destructive. “Keep an anger journal,” he says, “and don’t just pour your anger into it, but change it into intelligence.”

As an example, Gandhi, related his effort to obtain his grandfather’s signature. Around this time, the Mahatma began selling his autographs for 5 rupees (Indian currency) in order to generate revenue for social programs. Not having any money, young Arun thought to deceive his grandfather.

He slipped in his own autograph book with no money inside. When the Mahatma came to this book, he asked, “Why is there no money?” Young Arun told him that it was his own book, and that since the Mahatma was his grandfather he was not supposed to have to pay. Mahatma, in his own gentle way, challenged his young grandson to a contest of intelligence.

He forbade his grandson from obtaining the money from any source other than his own work, and set him to the task. (Arun Gandhi relates this story with a soft smile and the twinkle of his eye tells you he is reliving the moments as he shares the tale.) Young Arun had the audacity to repeatedly interrupt negotiations with high-ranking politicians and world leaders in the hopes of getting his grandfather to sign his book in haste to be rid of him. Instead, Mahatma would graciously tolerate the boy, and only when Arun became particularly raucous, would the Great Soul gently place his hands over the boy’s mouth and press his head lovingly to his chest and hold him there while continuing to talk politics.

This radical approach to nonviolence, while not a quick fix, will work if given time and effort, Gandhi told the MHCC audience. He said that our job is to be like the farmer and plant seeds of peace in the minds of people that will blossom into compassion in the world.

Following the presentation, the Advocate met with Arun Gandhi, along with Derr and Bruce Battle, Mt. Hood marketing director. Gandhi elaborated on the culture of violence, pointing out one of the sources: early childhood. “What the kids learn in the first five years of their life makes a big impact on them.”

The discussion then was diverted to how people control others. Gandhi observed, “The more fear that you can put into a person, the more control you have.” And this just causes further escalation, he said.

Gandhi ended the encounter by addressing how people can overcome sadness.

“If we feel sorry and do nothing about it, it is bad, or if we feel sorry and seek revenge for it, it is even worse.”

Click here to hear his full talk.