Satyagraha – A forgotten stream of true spirituality

suffragette

Last week Lois and I watched the film Suffragette: an extremely powerful portrayal of one woman’s part in the non-violent struggle for women’s rights; and, interestingly, a pertinent exploration of the parallel processes of alienation and grooming that accompany any form of radicalisation. The main (fictional) character, Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan), gradually finds the courage to speak out and act against the violence, abuse and oppression that she and so many of her contemporaries were suffering in early 20th century Britain.

Alongside the grim reality of gross injustice, and the moving, personal story of one family, what struck me most in all of this was the powerful testimony to the courage required of a non-violent struggle against oppression. While the suffragettes may have gone beyond non-violent resistence in some of their methods, the testimony of many of them stands strong. This is a testimony mirrored in the lives of people like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, Aung San Suu Kyi, Malala Yousafzai, or the unknown man who, on June 5th, 1989, stood in front of a column of tanks in Tian an Men square.

05 Jun 1989, Beijing, China --- A Beijing demonstrator blocks the path of a tank convoy along the Avenue of Eternal Peace near Tiananmen Square. For weeks, people have been protesting for freedom of speech and of press from the Chinese government. --- Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

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Re-imagine

Are you willing to take a step of faith, and re-imagine how God wants to work in and through you?

Are you prepared to step out of your comfort zone?

Will you allow the poor to be your teacher?

How about joining a Servants internship in a slum community in Northern India next summer?

Click here to find out more

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A Raja of the Road

Balvinder Singh, son of Punjab Singh, Prince of Taxi Drivers, may your moustache never grow grey! Nor your liver cave in with cirrhosis. Nor your precious Hindustan Ambassador ever again crumple in a collision – like the one we had with the van carrying Mongo Frooty Drink.

Although during my first year in Delhi I remember thinking that the traffic had seemed both anarchic and alarming, by my second visit I had come to realize that it was in fact governed by very strict rules. Right of way belongs to the driver of the largest vehicles. Buses give way to heavy trucks, Ambassadors give way to buses, and bicyclists give way to everything except pedestrians. On the road, as in many other aspects of Indian life, Might is Right.

 

Yet Mr Balvinder Singh is an individualist who believes in the importance of asserting himself. While circumstances may force him to defer to buses and lorries, he has never seen the necessity of giving way to the tinny new Maruti vans which, though taller than his Ambassador, are not so heavily built. After all, Mr Singh is a Kshatriya by caste, a warrior, and like his ancestors he is keen to show that he is afraid of nothing. He disdains such cowardly acts as looking in wing mirrors or using his indicators. His Ambassador is his chariot, his klaxon his sword. Weaving into the oncoming traffic, playing ‘chicken’ with the other taxis, Balvinder Singh is a Raja of the Road.

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The pounding waves

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For me, sitting relaxed in a beach-front café, watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean, the fishing boats setting out for the night present an idyllic scene: life in all its richness, there for all to enjoy.

For the stripped-down men, battling their way against the incessant, pounding waves, the reality is so, so different. Night after night the beat goes on. Every four seconds another wave builds , curves, and crashes down, hungrily sucking up the warm salt tide. On and on, a relentless cycle, heedless of the sultry weather, the oppressive thunder, the tranquil beauty.

Give us this day our daily grind.

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Beautiful Morality

In his book, Eager to Love (I am only part way through, but this is fast becoming my number one book of the year), Richard Rohr explores what he refers to as ‘beautiful morality’ in the lives of St Francis and St Clare. In contrast to much of the religiosity of their day (and ours) he sees in Francis and Clare a new self and a new way of living:

The self they became was humanly believable and beautiful, and that also made their moral choices trustworthy and true.

(p63)

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Rohr goes on to describe what this beautiful morality looks like:

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Maslow’s Fallacy and a Community Right to Beauty

I have a bit of a problem with Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Need. It’s not that I disagree with his classification of different types of human need, nor his emphasis on the importance of ensuring that all people, everywhere, have a right for their basic physical needs of nutrition, water and safety to be met. But I do wonder whether presenting these, along with other, ‘higher level’ needs as a hierarchy risks condoning inequalities, fragmenting our view of ourselves as human beings, and demeaning those who are less privileged?

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Dear Pope Francis

I may not, strictly speaking, count myself laudato-si-enone of your ‘flock’. Nevertheless, I thought I would write a response to your recent Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’[1]. I do this for three reasons: first, because you have addressed this Encyclical not just to members of the Roman Catholic Church, but to ‘every living person on the planet’; second, because the issues you touch on in your Encyclical are so crucial to the wellbeing, hope and survival of our planet – as you put it, we need to ‘acknowledge the appeal, immensity and urgency of the challenge we face’; and finally, because I see, in the clear links you make between care for creation, social justice, and personal spirituality and lifestyle, a strong resonance with my own journey of discovery.

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Going Green

Frustrated by the outcome of the general election, the apparent pervasiveness of what comes across as an inward-looking, focus on ‘what’s best for me’ in our society, and the gradual merging of the main political parties into a somewhat right-of-centre common ground, I decided this week to join the Green Party.

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Having spent some time before the election reading through some of the Party manifestos, it seemed to me that the Green Party was the one party that is actually prepared to challenge the status quo of global capitalism and exploitation, to question whether protecting our economy really is the most important value for our society and government, and to dare to suggest that there could be alternatives. There is something about the principles on which the Party is founded that resonates with the values to which I aspire: a concern for justice for all; care for our planet; care for those in our global society who are most vulnerable; an emphasis on health in its fullest sense; and a commitment to non-violent approaches to tackling the problems we face.

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