Louis Campana
President, Gandhi International, France
First of all, let me thank all of you for joining this
online international fellowship programme on nonviolence and peace organized by Sevagram Ashram Pratishthan,
coordinated by the Jamnalal Bajaj Memorial Library and Research Centre for
Gandhian Studies in association with Gandhi International, Academic University College
for Non-Violence and Human Rights-AUNOHR, MGM University and International Centre of Nonviolence, Durban
University of Technology
I would like to thank Joseph Siby for his ability to
promote Gandhian thought as well as other members of associating universities
especially our friends Younan Ogarit, Ettang Dorcas and John Chelladurai for their contributions in making this program a
reality . May they be honored! I also apologize for my absence I would have
loved to be with all of you.
Lanza del Vasto came to India to meet Gandhi in 1937, it
was not to
see someone who was telling insipid nonsense like all
politicians do to win voters; votes. No,
he came to meet a fighter for truth, as the subsequent
events have shown that Gandhi,
recognized as the Great Soul, was not on the same level
as his political adversaries. He did
not want to harm anyone, but rather questioned each one
on their motivations, allowing
each one to free themselves from their cultural,
religious, and sociological bindings.
Today, the desire to globalize all the peoples of the
planet under a single motif of
consumerism led by Davos and its billionaires, by taking
away each people’s unique, local,
and millennial culture, has shown its limits. I wrote in
a preface to a book by Joseph
Siby, Lanza del Vasto, the Messenger of peace , this
short text:
Every turn of the spinning wheel is a revolution,
Every tree planted is a revolution,
Every vegetable garden is a revolution,
Everything that is small, sober, slow, local, and
friendly is good, beautiful, and sensible.
So here, in a nutshell, is this Gandhian thought as an
alternative ?. We must
now make it a reality, not by asking others to do it, but
by doing it ourselves, by encouraging
our friends to do the same. By doing this, we will harm
no one, we will declare war on no
one, we will not have to arm ourselves since we will not
intend to invade anyone, and we
will not fear to arouse greed since our sobriety will be
our only banner. Of course, it is about
positioning ourselves, like Gandhi and Lanza del Vasto,
as passers-by, pilgrims with few
belongings.
I propose to you the beginning of this prayer by Lanza
del Vasto around a fire:
We are all travelers and pilgrims
So let us light a fire at the crossroads to the address
of the Eternal
Close the circle and make a temple in the wind
Let us make this place any a temple
For the time has come to worship in spirit and truth
To give thanks in all places and at all times.
Let us put an end to time,
A center to the outer darkness,
And let us be present in the present.
This present that we have vainly pursued in our days,
Because it was far from us when it was.
Here it is before our eyes and in our hearts, the
present.
The fire, it is the present that burns and shines,
It is the present that prays.
This is therefore a solemn invitation to free ourselves
from false values, to resist by all means
the sirens of progress, which progress has not in any way
changed the heart of man since this
progress has led us from the stick to atomic disaster,
from the self-governing village to the
megacity with mega-problems, to the subjugation of each
individual, subject to constant
control by authorities, intense and diabolical
colonization.
What do cities really need?
Do they make the wheat for the bread they eat?
Do they make the wool for the cloth they wear? Do they
make milk? Do they make an egg?
Do they make fruit?
They make the box. They make the label.
They make the price. They make the politics.
They make the advertisement. They make the noise.
They have taken away the gold of the obvious, and lost
it.
Lanza del Vasto, Principles and Precepts of Returning to
the Obvious, Chapter 54.
Friends, let us resolutely walk on this path, and
tomorrow the world will change from within.
Yes!
I see India with 500,000 independent, autonomous, and
supportive villages, with one flag!
This is Gandhi’s vision... it is also Lanza del Vasto’s
vision. For India and for the World.
Jaï Jagat !
Peace, Strength and Joy to all of you...
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