Ghandhi - Inner Voice & Vows

There come to us moments in life when about some things we need no proof from without. A little voice within us tells us, `You are on the right track, move neither to your left nor right, but keep to the straight and narrow way.' (The Leader, 25.12.1916)

I am but a poor struggling soul yearning to be wholly good - wholly truthful and wholly non-violent in thought, word and deed, but ever failing to reach the ideal which I know to be true. I admit it is a painful climb, but the pain of it is a positive pleasure for me. Each step upward makes me feel stronger and fit for the next. (Young India, 9.4.1924)

I know the path. It is straight and narrow. It is like the edge of a sword. I rejoice to walk on it. I weep when I slip. God's word is: `He who strives never perishes.' I have implicit faith in that promise. Though, therefore, from my weakness I fail a thousand times, I will not lose faith, but hope that I shall see the Light when the flesh has been brought under perfect subjection, as some day it must. (Young India, 17.6.1926)

For me the Voice of God, of Conscience, of Truth, or the Inner Voice or `the Still Small Voice' mean one and the same thing. I saw no form. I have never tried, for I have always believed God to be without form. But what I did hear was like a Voice from afar and yet quite near. It was as unmistakable as some human voice definitely speaking to me, and irresistible. I was not dreaming at the time I heard the Voice. The hearing of the Voice was preceded by a terrific struggle within me. Suddenly the Voice came upon me. I listened, made certain it was the Voice, and the struggle ceased. I was calm. The determination was made accordingly, the date and the hour of the fast were fixed. (Harijan, 8.7.1933)

My experience tells me that, instead of bothering about how the whole world may live in the right manner, we should think how we ourselves may do so. We do not even know whether the world lives in the right manner of in a wrong manner. If, however, we live in the right manner, we shall feel that others also do the same, or shall discover a way of persuading them to do so. (From a letter to Bablabhai, S.N. 9449, 4.8.1932)

I am firmly of the view, and it ismy experience too, that, if a person has violated a moral principle in any one sphere of his life, his action will
certainly have an effect in other spheres. In other words, the belief generally held that an immoral man may do no harm in the political sphere is quite wrong. And so is the other belief that a person who violates moral principles in his business may be moral in his private life or in his conduct in family affairs. Hence, whenever we do an evil we should overcome the tendency towards it. (From a letter to Parasuram Mehrotra; CW9437, 22.4.1932)

All of us are far away from our ideal and will remain so. Our duty lies in striving to reach it. Man's ideal grows from day to day and that is why it ever recedes from him. You are ever striving and that is all that you can do. Our effort should be pure and unremitting. (From a Letter to Gangabehu Vaidya, CW8751, 30.6.1930)

A vow has the effect of raising us exactly because, in spite of it, there is a chance of our falling. If there was no such danger, there would be no scope for striving. A vow serves the same purpose as a light house does. (Navajivan, 1.8.1926)

Taking vows is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. To do at any cost something that one ought to do constitutes a vow. It becomes a bulwark of strength. A man who says that he will do something `as far as possible' betrays either his pride or his weakness. (Yeravda Mandir, Ashram Observances)