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Einstein on Gandhi 
I believe that Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time.We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.
Einstein's letter to Gandhi - Courtesy: Saraswati Albano-Müller
Translation
Respected Mr. Gandhi ! I use the presence of your friend in our home to send you these lines. You have shown through your works, that it is possible to succeed without violence even with those who have not discarded the method of violence. We may hope that your example will spread beyond the borders of your country, and will help to establish an international authority, respected by all, that will take decisions and replace war conflicts. With sincere admiration, Yours A. Einstein. I hope that I will be able to meet you face to face some day.
Gandhi's letter to Einstein - Source: Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 54
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LONDON, October 18, 1931
DEAR FRIEND, I was delighted to have your beautiful letter sent through Sundaram. It is a great consolation to me that the work I am doing finds favour in your sight. I do indeed wish that we could meet face to face and that too in India at my Ashram.
Yours sincerely, M. K. GANDHI
Notes by Einstein on Gandhi - Source: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Translation:
Mahatma Gandhi's life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the conciously thinking human being of the entire civilized world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces. Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works. We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come.
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| Reviews: Joyce Ann Edmondson |
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Saintly Politics, a Study of Mahatma Gandhi, by Bhawana Verma, is a scholarly book about the spiritual values of Gandhi, and the way he put them into political practice or action in India during a time of oppression when his people were reduced to passivity under British rule. In reading Saintly Politics, one realizes that the spiritual values of Hinduism form a true approach to truth at this moment in history as well.
This book will give the reader a way to achieve an understanding and balance in thinking between east and west, Hindu and Christian, that can inspire and uplift one to a new way of contemplating God––one that goes beyond the materialism that permeates western culture. It was not always so. Gandhi can remember the time before the industrial revolution that a more spiritual approach to life was prevalent in all cultures.
The first qualification a Satyagrahi (a seeker of truth) according to Gandhi is to have a living faith of the axiomatic truth that God exists, therefore, he exists. He (Gandhi) is only instrumental in fulfilling His wishes. Gandhi believed that “The very foundation of the training in Satyagrahi is faith in God and if that is absent, all the training one may have received is likely to fail…” One can see why he said in a famous quote: “There is nothing wrong with Christianity except that it has never been tried…”
It is interesting to see the many similarities in this book between the pure truth that Christ taught of loving one’s fellow man to show the love for God, and the search for pure truth as the Satyagrahi and Gandhi view it.
The author's knowledge of English is excellent, although sometimes the style in which it is written makes evident English is her second language. This in no way deflects from the truth of the book's message, but makes it real to the reader. Anyone who wishes to know the real Mahatma Gandhi will find him in this book. _________________ Joyce Ann Edmondson http://home.bellsouth.net/p/pwp-fallingpetals
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