200 A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE
could not do unless I took part in politics. The whole
gamut of man's activities today constitutes an indivisible
whole. You cannot divide social, economic, political and
purely religious work into watertight compartments. 1
do not know any religion apart from human activity.
18. No man could be actively non-violent and not
rise against social injustice no matter where it occurred.
19. To practise non-violence in mundane matters
is to know its true value. It is to bring heaven upon earth.
There is no such thing as the other world. All worlds
are one. I hold it therefore to be wrong to limit the use
of non-violence to cave-dwellers and for acquiring merit
for a favoured position in the other world. All virtue
ceases to have use if it serves no purpose in every walk
of life.
Non-violence — Virtue of the Strong
20. I do believe that where there is only a choice
between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.
21. My creed of non-violence is an extremely active
force. It has no room for cowardice or even weakness.
There is hope for a violent man to be some day non-vio-
lent, but there is none for a coward.
22. Non-violence presupposes ability to strike. It is
a conscious, deliberate restraint put upon "one's desire for
vengeance. But vengeance is any day superior to passive,
effeminate and helpless submission. Forgiveness is high-
er still.
23. Forgiveness is more manly than punishment.
Forgiveness adorns the soldier. But abstinence is forgive-
ness only when there is the power to punish; it is
meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless;
creature.
24. Non-violence is without exception superior to
violence, i. e., the power at the disposal of a non-violent
person is always greater than he would have if he were
violent.
25. Man for man, the strength of non-violence is in
exact proportion to the ability, not the will, of the non-
violent person to inflict violence.