Volume 25, Number 3    December 2003

Arun Gandhi: What grandfather taught me

The grandson of Mahatma Gandhi shared with CTA audiences what he learned about nonviolence when he went to live with his grandfather at age 13. Arun learned that every time we throw away anything useful, we do violence against the earth and against humanity. He learned to ask himself at the end of every day: What violence have I done today to another person, my family, community, employer, church, environment, the common good, by my thoughts or words or deeds?

Arun shared his grandfather's list of the Seven Sins of the World:
1. Wealth without work.
2. Pleasure without conscience.
3. Knowledge without character.
4. Commerce without morality.
5. Science without humanity.
6. Worship without sacrifice.
7. Politics without principles.
Arun himself added an eighth sin:
8. Rights without responsibilities.

Arun and his wife Sunanda work at the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence which they founded in 1991 at Christian Brothers University, Memphis, Tenn. www.gandhiinstitute.org