***** Gandhi on Leo Tolstoy: "No one in the West before him or since has written and spoken on non-violence so fully or insistently and with such penetration and insight . . ." (MORE)

Gandhi on Leo Tolstoy

From "The Essential Gandhi," Louis Fischer


[When] I was passing through a severe crisis of scep-
ticism and doubt ... I came across Tolstoy's book
The Kingdom of God Is Within You, and was deeply
impressed by it. I was at that time a believer in violence.
Its reading cured me of my scepticism and made me a
firm believer in [non- violence]. What has appealed to
me most in Tolstoy s life is that he practised what
he preached and reckoned no cost too great in his pursuit
of truth. . . .

He was the greatest apostle of non-violence the present
age has produced. No one in the West before him or
since has written and spoken on non-violence so fully or
insistently and with such penetration and insight . . .

[His] remarkable development of this doctrine puts to
shame the present-day narrow and lop-sided interpre-
tation put upon it by the votaries of Ahimsa in this land
of ours. . . . True Ahimsa should mean a complete
freedom from ill will and anger and hate and an over
flowing love for all. For inculcating this true and higher
type of Ahimsa amongst us, Tolstoy's life with its ocean-
like love should serve as a beacon light and a never-
failing source of inspiration. . . .

[No Tolstoy?  No Gandhi.  No Gandhi?  No MLK Jr.
No Jesus?  No Tolstoy  Repeat....  "If you Love me,
you will do greater works than these [because I die
now, and you can continue to grow, and build on my
Teachings,"  Jesus said in John.]