How To-1: "How to Follow Gandhi's Principles"

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How to Follow Gandhi's Principles
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"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." Mahatma Gandhi from India.

Steps

1. To understand what the principles are. There are 6 principles that Gandhi followed:
   
   • Truth: learning from your own mistakes and conducting experiments on yourself
     
   • Nonviolence: nonresistance connected in a way to religion
     
   • Vegetarianism: carved in the Hindu and Jain traditions in India
     
   • Brahmacharya: spiritual and practical purity
     
   • Simplicity: giving up unnecessary spending
     
   • Faith: belief in a Higher power and that all religions are equal
     
   
   
2. Understand what is different of where and when Mahatma Gandhi lived and where and when you live
   
• He lived in India during the '30s and '40s when he was following these principles.
  
• We live in a society and amongst a generation that has a lot more technology, is more materialistic and we are not fighting for the same reasons (we have 'freedom'(opportunities to do what we want to do))
  
3. Manipulate the principles to not lose the meaning behind them but be able to apply them without feeling restricted. Here is an example:
   
• Truth: fight your own inner demons, fear and insecurities. Everyone is unique in this world and therefore, one should not compare with others. Be honest with yourself of who you are and what you want. If you think there is something to fix, then fix it.
  
• Nonviolence: control your temper and also your thoughts. What we think, we become and therefore if you always are thinking of hurting someone or feeling extremely angry at someone, those are the vibes you'll be giving to others. Best way to be nonviolent is to think positive and believe that whatever happens, it is for a good reason.
  
• Vegetarianism: not everyone can resist meat, but you can control your consumption. For health reasons, avoiding eating a lot of red meat is a good idea.
  
• Brahmacharya: many of us want to get married and have children or be intimate with someone. Therefore, becoming a brahmacharya might not be possible. However, you could reduce thinking of the opposite sex as an object. You could also wait to be intimate with someone till after marriage.
  
• Simplicity: life in the western countries tends to be quite fast. Do you need the latest fashion clothing or can you wear the clothes you already have? Do you need 50-100 pairs of shoes? Do you need the latest gadgets? Do you need a brand new BMW? Simplicity doesn't mean foregoing all your desires, but not buying something right away or something you don't really need. Simplicity also means being happy with what you are given and have.
  
• Faith: believing that there is someone or something higher than you. You don't need to believe in God, but believing that everyone is equal and you are no less or more than someone else. It is knowing your values, ethics and morals. Faith is not following others blindly especially when someone else is doing something that your heart says is not right.
  

Tips

• Understand what you want out of life and know who you are; in this way you will be following these principles.
  
• Not all 6 principles need to be followed exactly the same way because your desires and wants also matter.
  
• See how these principles can fit in your lifestyle and make modifications to your lifestyle where you see it requires
  
• You can also modify the principles without losing the meaning behind what Gandhi was trying to teach.
  
• Have patience because it is easy to learn a bad habit, but hard to let go of one.
  
• Watch film 'GANDHI' (English film) on Mahatma Gandhi and 'Lage Raho Munna Bhai' (Hindi film)
  
• Read books on Mahatma Gandhi.

Warnings

• If you have decided to change a part of your life, you will need to be patient because there are days when you might fail and then you will need courage to start again.
  

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