Meaningful Coincidence?

I've been reading a lot lately about Veda, the ancient Indian philosophy from which came yoga and Hinduism, so I was pretty excited when I heard last week that Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma K. Gandhi, would be speaking at the local university.

I was afraid I would miss part of his speech, since this is my month on rotation for working the Tuesday "late shift" in my department preparing three area weekly newspapers for the press and sending them to our printer. Sometimes, it means staying at the office til 7:30 or so, and Gandhi was to speak at 7:30. Fortunately, all the work was done by 7, and I got to hear his hour-long speech; I also stayed for the meet & greet afterwards til they wrapped it up about 9:30. Even asked him a question and shook his hand!

I'll probably write more on his speech and my thoughts, but it's getting late and no late shift tomorrow at work, so I need to head to bed. But I thought I'd share some of the things that struck me tonight.

• Anger is not a bad thing. It fuels us into action. Learning to channel that anger into something positive is the key to nonviolence, however.

• Scholars have said Mahatma Gandhi's approach of nonviolence is a tool for conflict resolution. Arun Gandhi said he disagrees — you either accept nonviolence or you don't.

• Passive violence fuels the fire of physical violence. In all our actions, in the things we do and say and think — we should ask ourselves "If someone were to do this to me, would it hurt me or help me?"

• I think this was one of my favorites: Arun Gandhi said his grandfather once told him your mind should be like a room with many open windows. Allow the breezes to blow in, but do not be blown away by any one of them.