Written Messages

Paris - France 

25 March. 2014

South Africa Kriya programs were held from 19 Feb. to 11 March 2014 --- soon after the passing away of an Apostle of Freedom from "White Idiosyncrasy"; who was not available to reaction, but always found himself in the measured and middle-path response in every situation, however even or odd it might have been. He was always in the firmness of "forgive and forget" rather than in the realm of "remember and retaliate". He was always calm and contended rather than being excitable or exciting. Nelson Mandela was always in the fragrance of the Presence without the pressures of the Past. He never formulated any fancy for his future. That is why he retired from power soon and thereafter he even retired from his retirement! His utterances, from time to time, are quoted below for Kriyabans to meditate upon: -

1. What a sweet euphemism for self-praise the English language has evolved –“Autobiography”!

2. The body is able to look after itself. What you must do, you know, is to encourage the body to have the resources to deal with any indisposition and I believe in that.

3. One of the most difficult things is not to change society - but to change yourself.

4. The most powerful weapon is not violence but it is talking to people.

5. Human beings like to be associated with a hard-working, disciplined and successful person and, by carefully comprehending these qualities you will win yourself many friends.

6. Discussion sharpens one's interest in any subject and accordingly inspires reading and corrects errors.

7. To go to prison because of your convictions, and be prepared to suffer for what you believe in, is something worthwhile. It is an achievement for a man to do his duty on earth irrespective of the consequences.

8. Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.

9. A blind pursuit of cheap popularity has nothing to do with revolutionary energy of comprehension.

10. Age and a conservative cultural background do not make it easy for me to discuss in public such intimate feelings or emotions.

11. I do not like killing any living thing, even those creatures that fill some people with dread.

12. I have never regarded any man as my superior or inferior, either in my life outside or inside prison.

13. One should also do regular physical exercises, especially trotting in a track-suit. Track running or walking has the advantage of exercising all parts of your body and giving you a feeling of well-being.

14. To overthrow oppression has been sanctioned by humanity and is the highest aspiration of every free man.

15. The purpose of freedom is to create it for others.

16. Freedom is not only the absence of being in jail, just as it is always said that peace is not merely the absence of war.

17. True enough, my blood and brain do not often synchronise. Very often reason induces me to approach cautiously what excites my feeling.

18. If I have cold, I just sweat it out because I don't believe very much in medicine.

19. I must be satisfied with my life as it is.

20. My father was a polygamist with four wives, nine children. I grew up in that atmosphere where we played together, fought against one another but ate from one dish.

21. Where poverty exists, there is not true freedom.

22. Victimisation of prisoners for one reason or another is a daily affair in the prison.

23. The meanness of the prison officials was staggering but we were not surprised.

24. To spend twenty-seven years in prison, you see, you lose a lot, but at the same time although prison is not a place for any human being, one was able to reflect, to think, and this has been rewarding.

25. Gossiping about others is certainly a vice; a virtue when about oneself.

Post-script:

Sensations must not become all-dominant. Experiencing is a movement without the interference of the "experiencer". The longing to repeat a sensation reinforces the separative psyche. Sensations can be repeated, experiencing cannot!

Jai Nelson Mandela