Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. & Mahatma Gandhi
How to have courage, calmness & confidence
January 21, 2013 is the thirteenth year that Ananda in
Seattle has presented a tribute to these two great men. We combine excerpts from
their talks, writings, and biographies with the music of Ananda (written by
Ananda’s founder, Swami Kriyananda). This program is free and begins at 7 p.m. at
the East West Bookshop in Seattle (www.eastwestbookshop.com).
We are planning to stream it live at www.ustream.com
(search on AnandaSeattle on or around 7 p.m., Monday night).
Most people are generally familiar with their lives. This
tribute to King and Gandhi emphasizes not so much their biographical facts or
accomplishments but the spiritual foundation for their courage and inspiration.
This aspect is often ignored or only given passing acknowledgement in community
programs, books and documentaries.
The public inauguration of President Obama takes place on
the day set aside for commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr. and the President
has announced that he will take the oath placing his left hand upon two Bibles:
one owned by Abraham Lincoln and the other owned by Martin Luther King,
Jr. This year our tribute includes a
segment of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural address, a short time before his
assassination. I would like, therefore, to include Lincoln in my thoughts here.
There are many books on Abraham Lincoln but one of
particular interest to me is Elton Trueblood’s, “Abraham Lincoln: Lessons in
Spiritual Leadership.” This book seeks
to reveal the spiritual life of a man otherwise an enigma even to his closest
associates. But it is clear from this book, and so many others, that Lincoln wrapped
his deep and personal relationship to God in a combination of humor and
humility. The courageous acts he took were not born of pride or bluster but were
weighed in the crucible of intense self-examination, painstaking attention to
their impacts upon others, the highest interests of the nation as a whole, the
framework of the U.S. Constitution, the duties of the presidency and the
highest standards of ethics and idealism. All of these facets he looked to as indicators
of God’s will. He offered up his deliberations for Divine guidance in the inner
silence of his meditations. Lincoln trembled at the prospect of his own
vulnerability to pride or ego and to the ease with which one could mistake
guidance with desire, or subconscious prejudices.
Abraham Lincoln’s life of faith was rooted in humility and
openness to a wisdom far greater than any man might hope to possess or
confidently express. But this is precisely the entry fee for intuitive, divine
guidance. The evolution of Lincoln’s decisions and policies during the Civil
War reveal, in retrospect, the unfoldment of inspiration, calmness, and courage
given to him as a divine grace and born of inner guidance. True prophets are
keenly aware of their human shortcomings and their potential for self-delusion,
more so in the glare of public acclaim or condemnation and more so on the cusp of
decisions that can affect the lives of millions and change the course of
history. Such examples, then, teach us that from caution and calmness spring
the full measure of confidence and courage if born of true, spiritual insight
and wisdom.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was thrown into his first civil
rights campaign in Montgomery, Alabama by what could only be described as
casual circumstances, aka divine destiny. In the mix of those who responded to
the black community’s response to the arrest of Rosa Parks, people turned to
King on the spot, with no prior background or planning. King showed that inner
tentativeness and self-questioning which is like fertile soil from whence a
seed sprouts and grows to a magnificent tree. This fertile soil knows that it
must wait for the rain of divine guidance to prompt its emergence.
King, like Gandhi, held strictly to the call of divine love
even while also fighting his self-styled enemies with cunning, with courage,
and with intelligent strategic purpose. Both King and Gandhi were highly
educated, extremely intelligent and deeply compassionate. They were
unquestionably chosen by, and in time acknowledged, a higher Power to serve as
an instrument of a higher Purpose. Each accepted their role but only as it
unfolded. Often they would hesitate to act or speak if that inner guidance and
inspiration failed to materialize.
The actions of prophets always confound supporters and
enemies alike. King’s seemingly sudden interest in and opposition to the
Vietnam War, for example, caused consternation among his peers and followers
and earned the antipathy and opprobrium of the Johnson administration. Gandhi’s
efforts to reassure the Moslem people of India of their place in the rising sun
of a new Indian nation outraged Indian nationalists and ultimately was the
cause of his assassination.
At the same time
there exists the paradox that the realization by the prophet of his God-given
role and responsibility clashes with his frail humanity and causes feelings of
burdensomeness and even periods of discouragement and depression. In each of
these three men: this “melancholy” is evident in their lives. A more
ego-affirming person (image a dictator) would revel in his power and only his
subconscious would undermine his egotism in an effort to balance him out.
At the end of their lives, especially Gandhi and King, this
discouragement and loss of clarity of direction is evident. For Gandhi the
communal violence that attended India’s independence and partitioning was, to
him, a sign of the failure of his efforts. For King, the impatience of young
blacks and their increasing interest in choosing violence over nonviolence,
together with fractious in-fighting among civil rights leaders, added to
government distrust of King, and lack of progress in his selected campaigns,
caused King to doubt himself deeply. Lincoln’s agonies, by contrast, peaked during
the losses and setbacks of the civil war. But by the time he was assassinated,
he had just won reelection and General Lee had just surrendered. For the first
time he felt a quiet sense of contentment. But the work of reconstruction was,
he knew, going to be as difficult and, indeed, more complex than the war
itself. Moreover, Lincoln had a premonition of his impending death. Nor was it in
his nature to revel in victory.
Another characteristic of these three great men was the
universality of their religious faith. Of the three Lincoln kept his distance
from orthodoxy even as he was notably a man of deep and earnest faith and
prayer. King and Gandhi were more aligned with specific faiths but each had a
view of religion that we, today, would call true spirituality, unfettered by
sectarianism.
All three men viewed their efforts in two important and
expansive ways: as benefiting their entire nation, not just the group of people
for whose rights or upon whose side they struggled; and, each saw the benefit
of their goals and victories as benefiting all peoples, far beyond their own
nation’s borders. Each of them had the vision far into the future of the
importance of their ideals and their methods.
Though each struggled against foes and self-styled enemies,
each courageously expressed respect, friendship, love, and concern for them,
whether as individuals or as a group. Lincoln was famous for bringing into his
cabinet, administration, and military leadership his competitors.
Lincoln had an abiding faith and vision in the destiny of
the United States to be an instrument of God’s will in championing a new way of
life, liberty and pursuit of freedom and happiness. Mahatma Gandhi saw his work
as an a new model for helping oppressed people find the means to effect freedom
and justice without violence. King, similarly, saw that Lincoln’s work was not
yet finished and that the well-being and destiny of the United States
necessitated that the eradication of prejudice of race be overcome. He saw in
the example of Christ, the unfailing power of love and the redemptive power of
self-sacrifice. He, too, saw the importance for the United States to serve as
an example to all nations and all peoples and understood that this required
that the nation help black Americans be “free at last.”
The lives of these three great men are inextricably linked.
King, as stated above, saw the civil rights movement as an extension of
Lincoln’s emancipation of slavery and preservation of the Union. King was
deeply inspired by the life and lessons of Mahatma Gandhi. King travelled to
India in 1959 and received a hero’s welcome and a reception worthy of a head of
state. People of color throughout the world followed King’s work eagerly. King
quipped that he thought the Indian press gave more attention to his campaigns than
did the white, American press.
King saw that Gandhi gave his beliefs the tools and means to
elevate love for one’s enemies to a broader level than one to one. Lincoln held
national days of prayer and fasting, asking the nation to acknowledge its
errors and to make penance to atone for the evils of slavery and war. Although
no writer than I know of viewed Lincoln as an advocate of non-violence in the
Gandhian sense of this, it is clear from the testimony both of Lincoln and his
biographers that he was deeply pained by the necessity to conduct an unwanted
but necessary war.
There are connections, too, to the work of Ananda and to the
life of our preceptor, Paramhansa Yogananda. In the practice of yoga, nonviolence
is one of the core precepts that comprise the foundation for meditation and
spiritual path and practice of yoga. In addition, Paramhansa Yogananda
initiated Mahatma Gandhi into Kriya Yoga and thus created and established a deep
and abiding spiritual connection between their two works. Yogananda, when a
young man and before coming to the United States in 1920, was approached by
Indian revolutionaries to lead them in their fight against the British.
Yogananda declined, saying that this was not his work but predicting that India
would find freedom through nonviolence during his lifetime. When coming to
America in 1920 and becoming a resident (and later a citizen), Yogananda faced
numerous instances of racial prejudice as a “colored” man. He spoke
passionately about the colonial exploitations of the nations of Asia and
Africa, people of color. He viewed World War II as a just war that would be the
divine means of throwing off the yoke of colonialism.
The power by which these three changed the course of history
has its roots in prayer and dedication to doing the will of God, as best as they
could perceive it and doing so with faith and humility.
Courage, calmness and confidence derive not from
ego-affirmation (for the ego is brittle and shallow, for self-involved and
easily shattered by life’s many opposing egos) but from aligning one’s self
with the Divine Will. Through prayer, meditation and right action, and by the
habit of asking and praying deeply for divine guidance, we find the still,
silent voice of God guiding us in all that we do. In this we feel divine
strength, power and wisdom but at the same time we know that it isn’t ours and
that we must “remain awake” at all times. Divine consciousness is eternally
awake, omnipresent and omnipotent. Our consciousness, then, must approach the
Infinite if we are to partake in the life and spirit of God.
This is a tall order but we begin right where we are.
Lincoln studied the Bible from an early age and read it daily. King and Gandhi were
intimately familiar with the words of their respective scriptures (Bible and
Bhagavad Gita) as guidelines for daily life and right action. But it was the
habit of meditation that brought each into the Divine Presence. This we, too,
can do each and every day.
The testimony of the scriptures of east and west affirm that
God is present and actively guiding the course of history through those who
willing offer their lives to His guidance and will. Our world is changing at an
increasingly rapid pace with dangers to life, liberty and health at every turn.
God needs willing instruments. Gandhi termed the life he offered to such people
Satyagrahis (expressing Satyagraha: dedication to Truth and Purity).
Those who are part of the worldwide work of Ananda see this
living example in the life of Swami Kriyananda. He has been a spiritual warrior,
standing calmly amidst calumny, physical suffering, opposition and seemingly
impossible obstacles. His life of dedication to the work of Paramhansa
Yogananda has earned for him a state of bliss — the grace bestowed upon those
who live for God alone.
We don’t start by wanting to be heroes in the eyes of
others. We begin, rather with humility and openness to God’s presence and
guidance, taking life step-by-step, day-by-day. Meditation, selfless service,
and fellowship with others of like mind are essential. Truth is not complex.
Let us then be Lightbearers in this world of change, danger,
confusion, chaos, and ignorance.
See you Monday night at East West Bookshop!
Nayaswami Hriman
