Week 4 -- Yield & Prevail

“Freedom from all attachment is the realization of God as Truth. . . .by detachment I mean that you must not worry whether the desired results follow from your action or not, so long as your motive is pure, your means correct.  Really, it means that things will come right in the end if you take care of the means and leave the rest to Him.”  – Mahatma Gandhi

Affirmation:

I let go of my attachment to outcomes. When I am nonresistant, my good runs to meet me. 

Study Questions: Yield and Prevail  (Review the book Gandhi the Man, page 49 and Chapter 3, Mother and Child, pages 102 - 122)

Is there value in this kind of detachment (described in the Gandhi quote above)?  Notes for discussion:

• Gandhi said the secret of his life was “renounce and enjoy”.  This means “in order to enjoy life, we cannot be selfishly attached to anything – money, possessions, power or prestige, even family or friends.  The moment we are selfishly attached, we become their prisoner.”  (p. 105)

• “In the language of the Bhagavad Gita, detachment is ‘skillfulness in action.’  A person who is worried about the outcome of his work does not see his goal; he sees only his opposition and the obstacles before him.  Feeling unequal to the difficulties of his situation, he becomes resigned or resorts to violence out of frustration and despair.  But the man who is detached from results and tries only to do his best without thought of profit or power or prestige does not waver when difficulties come.  He sees his way clearly through every trial, for his eyes are always on the goal” (p. 105)

Do you have resistance to Gandhi’s statement above?  If so, why?  Discuss.

What does Gandhi mean by “pure motive” and “correct means?”  Notes for discussion: 

• “Select your purpose . . .selfless, without any thought of personal pleasure or personal profit, and then use selfless means to attain your goal.  Do not resort to violence even if it seems at first to promise success; it can only contradict your purpose.  Use the means of love and respect even if the result seems far off or uncertain.” – Gandhi         (p. 49)

• “Often what we think is best for others is distorted by our attachment to our opinions: we want others to be happy in the way we think they should be happy.  It is only when we want nothing for ourselves that we are able to see clearly into others’ needs and understand them.”  (p. 106) 

Imagine a situation in your own life and how it would be different if you did your best and left the results in God’s hands?  Notes for discussion:

• Gandhi said “satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment.”  For Gandhi, “full effort”, using pure motives and correct means, “is full victory.”  The outcome is in God’s hands.   (p. 102)

Jesus spoke of non-resistance in a number of ways.  One of which, found in Matthew 6:25-34, teaches us of the futility of worry.  Discuss this passage in light of the principle of non-resistance.  Notes for discussion:

• ²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  ³⁴“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.