the power of non-violence

Dr Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi & founder of the M K Gandhi Institute for Non-violence, in his June 9 lecture at the University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story:

I was 16 years old & living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, S Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country & had no neighbours, so my 2 sisters & I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies.

One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, & I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list ofgroceries she needed &, since I had all day in town, my father asked me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced. When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, "I will meet you here at 5 pm, & we will go home together."

After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest movie theatre. I got so engrossed in a John Wayne double-feature that I forgot the time. It was 530 before I remembered. By the time I ran to the garage & got the car & hurried to where my father was waiting for me, it was almost 600.

He anxiously asked me, "Why were you late?"

I was so ashamed of telling him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said, "The car wasn't ready, so I had to wait," not realizing that he had already called the garage.

When he caught me in the lie, he said: "There's something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn't give you the confidence to tell me the truth. In order to figure out where I went wrong with you, I'm going to walk home 18 miles & think about it."

So, dressed in his suit & dress shoes, he began to walk home in the dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads.

I couldn't leave him, so for 5 1/2 hours I drove behind him, watching my father go through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered. I decided then & there that I was never going to lie again.

I often think about that episode & wonder, if he had punished me the way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at all. I don't think so. I would have suffered the punishment & gone on doing the same thing. But this single non-violent action was so powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday.

That is the power of non-violence.