1.Title The Kingdom
of God is Within You
2.Author Leo Tolstoy
3.Publisher Rupa
& Co.(2006 reprint)
4.First Published in 1893.
5.ISBN 81-7167-515-8.
6.Format Rupa
Paperback
7.Page Count 407.
8.Price Rs 295.
9.Genre
Essay
10.Part of series No.
11.Translator
Aylmer
Maude
12Rating *****
This book was one of the two books which inspired MK Gandhi
to fight for freedom of India
from British rule, the other book being
Unto This last by John Ruskin.
Jesus
Christ said,” Ye have heard that it was said , An eye for an eye , and a tooth
for tooth.But I say unto you ,Resist not
him that is evil ;but whosoever
smiteth thee on thy right cheek ,
turn to him the other also .And if
any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat , let him have thy cloak also.”We are
not to resist evil by evil, but by all just means.
A
Christian must not voluntarily pay the
taxes .He must not participate in elections , in the law court or the government , for such a
participation is participation in governmental violence.The crimes of our
rulers are our own if knowing them to be
crimes , we promote them by our
co-operation .The government and
ruling classes base themselves on four
methods of violence:
1.Intimidation.
2.Corruption.
3.Hypnotization of people
, with superstition of patriotism.
4.Selecting public servants (civil servants , police ,
soldiers) and making them submissive
instruments for carrying out all the cruelties and brutalties needed by the governments.
Those who possess power (by inheritance, by army or by
elections) differ in no way from other
men .They are more disposed than others
to subordinate public interests
to their own .
The
purpose of life is to fulfil the law of God. This deprives all human laws of their right to restrict man .He cannot be
in bondage and be forced by any
threat of external harm to commit an action which is contrary to his conscience.Man
cannot serve two masters.How can a soldier kill people when the law of God says;”Thou shalt not kill.”A
true Christian integrates Principles into every action of his life and
refuses to co-operate with any thing
that is contrary to those Principles.Some of these Principles are contained
in the Five Commandments of the Sermon on the Mount.
1.Have no ill-will towards any one , not to provoke ill-will but to love all men. Not to offend any one
by a word.
2.Refrain from adultery.
3.Not to take an oath , not to promise any thing for the future.
4.Not to return evil for evil but to endure wrongs.To give up one’s shirt.
5.Do no evil to our enemies , to speak well of them and not to make distinction between them and our compatriots.Only abidingby
Principles and not by any external efforts
can we safeguard our life.
“The sole
meaning of human life lies
in serving the world by promoting the establishment of the Kingdom of God
It is not
that all the arguments given by Tolstoy
are perfect .In a way , he advocates a society without government because government is essentially based on violence and force
in the form of Police , Army , Civil Servants , Courts and Judges.But he does
inspire us to follow our conscience and not to
become an instrument of oppression in the hands of rulers who invariably rule by intimidation , corruption ,
hypnotization and controlling the police
, army , civil service and courts.
As a former civil servant , I know that Tolstoy is right .I
wish I had read this book much earlier.
No comments:
Post a Comment