A Worthy Read". - The Power And The Force of Non-Violence.

Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K.Gandhi Institute for Non-violence, during one of his lectures at the University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story:

I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and we had no neighbours; so my two sisters and 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, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, 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 5:00 p.m., and 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 5:30 p.m . before I remembered what I was supposed to do at 5.00 p.m. But by the time that I had to run to the garage, to get into the car, and to hurry over to where my father was waiting for me, it was almost 6:00 p.m.

My father anxiously asked me, "And why were you late?"

I was so ashamed of telling my father that I had been watching a John Wayne western movie, that I instead said, "The car was not ready as yet, and so I had to wait for some more time," not realizing that my father had already called the garage to check on the car.

When he had caught me lying, my father sadly said, "There must be something wrong in the way that I had brought you up, so that you did not have the confidence to always tell me the truth. Hence, in order to figure out where and how I had gone wrong in my bringing you up, I am going to walk all the way home, 18 miles, and think about it."

So, dressed in his formal suit and shoes, my father began to walk home, and that too in the dark, on a mostly unpaved and unlit road.

As I could not leave him, for five-and-a-half hours I drove slowly behind my father, watching him go through the agony and pain, just because of a stupid lie that I uttered. I decided, then and there, that I was never going to ever lie again, be it to my father or to anyone else.

I often do recall that episode and wonder, if my father had straightaway punished me in the same way that we tend to punish our own children, whether or not I would have learned any lesson at all. I really do not think so. I would have simply suffered and tolerated the punishment for a while, and then would have still continued with my lying. But the single non-violent-action of my father was so impressionable, that it does remain fresh and clear in my mind even today, as if it had happened only yesterday.

That is the power and the force of non-violence.