Eknath Easwaran grew up in Gandhi's India and was deeply inspired by him. As a young man, he read Gandhi's weekly articles and visited his ashram, walking with Gandhi and observing him in deep meditation during his prayer service. What fascinated Easwaran was Gandhi's magnificent spiritual transformation - from a shy, ineffectual lawyer to the Mahatma, the great soul who led millions of Indians in their successful nonviolent struggle for independence.
In this series of talks given for the University of California at Berkeley, Easwaran tells the story of Gandhi's life, recounting the key events that led to Gandhi's spiritual evolution and the dramatic turn of events in India. Easwaran is a gifted storyteller and these talks are compelling, culminating with the account of Gandhi's assassination. The key message throughout comes from Gandhi himself: if we make the same effort he did, we too, in our own small way, can transform fear into fearlessness, anger into compassion, selfishness into selfless service for the world.
Listen to these talks if you are interested in the spiritual side of Gandhi's life, in the concept and/or practice of nonviolence, or in spiritual living in general. As Easwaran points out, we need nonviolence now more than ever before. We need to practice Gandhi's teachings to build harmony in our homes and at our work, to restore peace in our communities and in the world today.
Eknath Easwaran (1910-1999) is respected around the world as the originator of passage meditation and as an authentic guide to universal wisdom. More than 1.4 million copies of his books are in print around the world, including his spiritual biography, Gandhi the Man: The Story of His Transformation. Easwaran lived what he taught, giving him enduring appeal as an author and teacher of deep insight and warmth.
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"Good read. Didn't reveal more about Gandhi than I already knew - but I appreciated how it was written to not instruct readers to be more like Gandhi - but to apply his lessons to our individual lives and be more like ourselves, but better. I felt that the format could have integrated the two parts, instead of separating them (historical/instructional)- the reference back to particular events discussed many pages before was a bit cumbersome. That said, overall decent account of a life that sparked world change and how it came about."
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Rachel (4 out of 5 stars)