Mahatma Gandhi

The Seven Spiritual Laws

'The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree, and there is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree.
The Peace Formula is one very positive offering to drop into the ocean of life. Its ripples can have far-reaching effects because it contains all the secrets you need to know in order to find your own inner harmony. Anyone who studies and lives by this formula will find their life becoming increasingly successful and harmonious. Why? Because it is based on deep spiritual principles that really work.

The ripples that this one peace-filled pebble will create must inevitably continue to expand and affect everything and everyone around us. It is a basic law of life that we cannot separate ourselves from the consequences of our actions. The theory of chaos tells us that the tiny movement of a butterfly's wings can have a spectacular influence on the weather systems on the other side of the globe. Small changes can have big effects. Whatever we do as individuals carries a consequence in society, and whatever societies do affects the world. We cannot truly enjoy 'personal peace' without the deepest concern for the world in which we are living. Just as we can add to the pain and suffering on the planet through neglecting this oneness, we can contribute substantially to its healing through focusing our local efforts on positive global change.

My father had always wanted to leave me with something I could use to carry on Gandhi's vision for global harmony. About two days before he passed away, as I was sitting with him in the early hours of the morning, he said to me, 'Mansukh, I have seven sacred seeds to give you that have lain dormant for a long time. And remember,' he said mysteriously, 'it is said in our tradition that when you hold a seed in your hand, you hold the whole tree. I would like you to bring them to life so that future generations will be able to survive by eating the fruits of these trees. Become a torch bearer for others to walk by your side.' He explained that these laws had been a part of Gandhi's dream for social success. By the beginning of 1948 Gandhi had worked the principles out in detail and was ready to start implementing them on a mass scale. Everything was in place to begin the process. He had called a meeting of all his closest satyagrahis from throughout India to help him formulate the practical means to put them into operation. It was only two weeks before the meeting was due to take place, however, that Gandhi came face to face with Maturan Godse as he walked to his evening prayer meeting. Godse broke through the crowd and bent down in an attitude of reverence before producing a gun from the folds of his robe and shooting four or five bullets into Gandhi's heart. As he fell to the ground Gandhi blessed Godse-and died.

But Gandhi's vision did not die with him. His main message was that we each have the power to control our own destiny and the following seven principles are the means by which we can each take control of the direction in which our society is moving. The Seven Laws for Social Success contain the vital link that will help us all to connect our own inner harmony to the whole. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to these principles. The decisions for affecting global harmony, and therefore the future of the human race, will not be made by politicians or governments, but rather by the thousands of different human interactions we make with each other every day. Everything we do from morning till night has a direct bearing on this global unfolding. Every smile, every kind word, loving touch and moral decision contributes to the harmony of the world we live in. this means we each bear a great responsibility- for we hold the destiny of our planet and its people in our own hands and it is up to us to take the positive, pro-active steps that destiny. And it is up to us to take the first step.

1.Pleasure with Wisdom
Our whole society is based on people fulfilling their desires in the pursuit of pleasure. It is also based on creating more and more desires. I once heard of an advertising manager who proudly declared that his life's purpose was to make everyone in society discontented with who they are and what they have. Can you imagine spending all your time devising ways to make everyone in the country unhappy? And unhappiness is the result of pleasure without wisdom. The entertainment industry is one of the most significant influences on our thinking today. Entertainment that is designed to inspire and uplift promotes empowered and intelligent people who can think for themselves and shape their own destiny. Used unwisely, the entertainment industry can promote an attitude in which violence and corruption are acceptable. It is up to us to demand TV programs, films, books and magazines which are wholesome, inspiring and full of hope. If we can promote and encourage pleasures that benefit us all individually and collectively we will definitely be able to reshape the consciousness of society.

2.Knowledge with Character
'The final forming of a person's of a person's character lies in their own hands.' Anne Frank
Gandhi talked about 'knowledge without character'. He was referring to our ability to ignore what we know to b harmful to ourselves and everyone else. We all know, for instance, that cars pollute the air we breathe, but how many people are prepared to cut down the use of their vehicle-even if not doing so means that their children will suffer in the future?

We pollute the soil with herbicides and fertilisers in order to produce more and more food that is denatured. We may smoke knowing we are endangering our health and overstrict ourselves at work to earn more and more money, even though it is becoming apparent that it isn't making us happy. We finish up completely unable to disentangle ourselves from the situation we have created as a result of giving in to that initial desireful thought. To Gandhi it was obvious that it is up to the individual to reverse the situation. Even one person acting with integrity can make an enormous impact.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, Frederick Josef Rotblat, was the first man to have the idea for the atomic bomb. It came to him while he was working in the UK soon after the start of World War II. The way he dealt with this is a perfect example of knowledge with character. He was so appalled by the idea that he kept quiet about it for over a year in the hope that his silence would prevent the bomb from ever being made. During this time he became increasingly worried in case Hitler should also develop the atom bomb. Eventually, knowing that the only way Hitler could be prevented from using the bomb would be for the allies to have one first, he explained his idea to the allied military. Rotblat joined the Manhattan project and was instrumental in developing the physics of the bomb, all the time wishing that such a device should never be made. On the day he learned from intelligence sources that Hitler had abandoned the bomb as too difficult he walked out of the Manhattan project, knowing that he would be branded as a traitor and his career ruined. For nearly a decade Rotblat was shunned by his field, but eventually built up a new career in medical physics leading to stunning advances that created many of the diagnostic machines used in hospitals around the world today. He never gave up his idea for peace and was instrumental in bringing Russian and American scientists together to search for ways to end the cold war. In simple terms, our great knowledge, applied without character, has the power to destroy the world. With character, it has the power to heal the world.

3. Wealth through Work
Gandhi had a vision of a world in which everyone was self-supporting and self-reliant. Our get-rich-quick society values gaining wealth without effort but the result of this is that more value is being placed on greed than on need. What are some of the ways we can gain wealth without effort? Inheritance, gambling, exploitation, dishonesty, crime and corruption. Every one of these lead people away from a state of self-sufficiency and self-reliance and a sense of valuing themselves and the people around them.If we have not worked for our wealth we will not value our own efforts and if we exploit others, we are not valuing them.

In our modern world of high-powered advertising and credit card consumerism we have created an environment in which we tend to expect instant gratification of our desires without putting in the necessary effort to create the wealth beforehand. This attitude can only lead to discontent, because where there is little effort there will be little satisfaction. When we are standing on our own total efforts, however, we will find that at the end of the day we feel fulfilled and satisfied by our achievements. When we can find deep satisfaction in doing even the smallest of jobs we will lose the idea of wanting to exploit people and the earth because the real reward of work in not financial. Our reward lies in the love of the work itself and the satisfaction of living in an harmonious and connected way with those around us. As Gandhi said, 'Full effort is full victory'.

4.Politics with Principles
'Behind every noble life there are principles that have fashioned it.' David Lorimer
Politics with Principles what made Gandhi such a great politician was his ability to relate equally to everyone from the richest to the poorest? This was his power. He made every person feel empowered and renewed in strength by his interaction with them. Politicians with principles are trusted by their electorate to look after the best interests of the people and to withstand the temptation to exploit others. If you have ever been exploited by someone you will never forget the pain of it. Politicians without principles lose the trust of their electorate. The people then lose interest in the political process and end by becoming indifferent to the future direction of their society. A society in which people no longer actively participate in their future is on a slow road to disaster. There is a well known saying, 'Where there is no vision the people perish'. Principles in politics enable the whole of society to regain its vision and is a way of recreating our harmonious future.

5.Worship with Giving
When we can truly love on another, God will become a living reality for each one of us.
What is worship? Our need to worship comes from a deep and intrinsic longing to touch the very highest part of ourselves. Real worship is charged with sincerity, enthusiasm and aspiration together with an outpouring of unconditional love. The fact that many of the wars on this planet have involved religious differences indicates very clearly that there may not be many people experiencing genuine worship. It is not religion that is responsible, however, but rather woship without giving. St Fancis captured the essence of worship in his famous prayer when h said, 'It is in giving that we receive.' The world today seems to be advocating another prayer:' it is in taking that we receive.'

Self-seeking automatically closes us off from the highest, most divine part of ourselves and this creates a very deep pain within us. How sad it is that people have forgotten this simple law of life. It actually contains the secret to everything they are looking for. In their desperate search for love people have forgotten how to love and an inability to love is the root cause of suffering and spiritual deprivation. If we could just decide to make giving a priority in our daily interactions everything we do could become an act of worship and a means to connect to the very highest within us. Our greatest wealth, therefore, lies in our capacity to experience worship in giving, loving and thinking of other' needs before our own.

6.Scuebce with Humanity
'Science sometimes runs the risk of not seeing the truth, because it does not want to know about miracles.' Jacques Cousteau

Science is the tool by which humanity explores its place in the universe. My professor at university used to say, 'Science is the discovery of truth'. As such, it is supposed to give us the means for making our lives more harmonious and intimately connected with the flow of life around us. At its best, science gives us the tools to achieve the health and comfort necessary to fully explore the human quest for happiness and fulfilment. At its worst, science can access knowledge which, if abused, could be responsible for the destruction of life on earth. More and more commonly science is used to take us into a technological world where we may end up living in tiny rooms in which we become de-natured and disconnected from each other and therefore from the natural flow of life. Science in this form contributes to isolation and separation and this breeds fear between people and nations. Our humanity rebels at the thought.

The UN has calculated that every human being could be given enough food, shelter, sanitation and education to live comfortably for no more than the money spent annually on golf and only one thirteenth of what is spent on cigarettes. Just imagine if science were to b diverted from supporting military destruction to methods of living in harmony with our planet. We do have the power as individuals to influence such a move, because it is we who decide which projects are funded. We are each responsible for the supply and demand which dictates them through the things we buy. Many scientists like Einstein heard the call of humanity and altered the course of science's contribution to the evolution of peace. As Eknath Easwaran once said, 'We have never before had more cars and machines to save time, but we had such pollution to spend two to three hours a day commuting in a car filled with toxic fumes. We have never before had such excellent medical equipment, but neither have we had such pollution to endanger our health. We have never before had nuclear power and never before have we had nuclear accidents.' We really do have the power to shape the world of technology. Science is serving our wants and needs which means that if we each decide to simplify those needs we can direct our technology towards healing and restoring the earth.

7.Commmerce with Morality
'There's enough in the world for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed.' Mahatma Gandhi

The driving force behind commerce is that we all strive to be successful and to have all that we want to achieve happiness. But if our business dealings are based on greed and exploitation rather than helping people to live successfully and happily the result can only be suffering for everyone concerned. Happiness that is built on the suffering of others can never last because outer exploitation leads to inner deprivation.

We human beings are the only creatures on the earth that take more than they need. The emerging crisis is that people and their human dignity are becoming less important than producing goods to sell in order to make more and more money. The temptation to sell more instant and fragile products at cheaper prices can easily go beyond healthy competition to exploitation of all the people involved. The buying and selling of goods to make profit at very step ultimately leads to a greed which eliminates any benefit to the human being. And if we are not careful mechanisation could eliminate the human resource altogether.

The reward for businessmen and women working at fever pitch in the high pressure world of commerce is not always success and wealth. It is often cancer, heart disease, brakdown and depression. Is it really worth it? We are not all helpless victims of this commercial madness, for we hold the power to change things in our own hands. At the time of writing this I received a letter from a large food company in which they described a major shift in policy as a result of letters they had received from the public. We really can make a difference. We can each take time to find out which companies promote fairness and which ones contribute to inequality. We can reject the greed and exploitation of certain companies by refusing to buy their goods. We can also support initiatives based on a philosophy of caring for people and the environment.

Is it really worth it?
We are not at helpless victims of this commercial madness, for we hold the power to change things in our own hands. At the time of writing this I received a letter from a large food company in which they described a major shift in policy as a result of letters they had received from the public. We really can make a difference. We can each take time to find out which companies promote fairness and which ones contribute to inequality. We can reject the greed and exploitation of certain companies by refusing to buy their goods. We can also support initiatives based on a philosophy of caring for people and the environment.

In Conclusion
Once these seeds of clarity and real fulfilment have been sown in our minds, each one of us must contemplate deeply upon the living truths they contain. They are at the same time practical, essential and an absolute necessity for our present and our future. Although Gandhi's dying words, as he fell to the ground were 'Bless you', the responsibility lies with us to turn that blessing into a formidable force which can shape our destiny and the destiny of our children.

As we enter this millennium, we prepare to enter a new phase in the history of our humanity. And as the human family becomes more acutely aware of the fragility of its survival, there has never been a time more suited to reviewing where we are heading. The effort that we need to make has now been considerably reduced because the answers have been given to us. We should be delighted and excited about the great possibility this presents. As Gandhi said, 'those people who say that politics and religion do not mix, do not know what religion is about.' Similarly, I would like to say that human spirituality and religion involves our interaction with each and every one of these seven spiritual principles. Half a century has passed since that noble figure collapsed onto the ground, but his vision lives on. Now is the time to pick up the torch which symbolises the flame of our own vision and commitment and to walk ton together.