Mahatma Gandhi had his own ideas of what constituted “non-violence” and “non-violent resistance,” and he did not truly understand the gist of Baba’s message on the subject. Baba sent Chanji again to Delhi to see Gandhi, which he did on April 3rd. Chanji returned to Dehra Dun and several letters ensued between himself and Gandhi about this subject. Gandhi had been shocked to read Baba’s views justifying the use of violence in certain situations, and called them “wholly inapplicable.”
Gandhi’s views were totally impractical for those on the Path; his idea of non-violence could only be achieved in the God-Realized state of a majzoob, whereby it is attained automatically.
While discussing Gandhi and his resistance movement, on April 9th, (1942) Baba further clarified:
Real non-violence, like truth, love and selfless service, is the guide to God-Realization. My non-violence includes violence under certain circumstances when it is done one hundred percent for others and without the slightest feeling of malice, hatred, revenge or self-gain. I call it “non-violent violence.”
Non-violence, pure and simple, is the Beyond state of God. It is the goal of humanity. It cannot exist where one is still in the stages of a seeker. The seeker can, however, reach this goal through the means of “non-violence of the brave,” or of “selfless violence,” which means non-violent violence.
Beloved God is the Goal. Love is the means. The lover can reach the Beloved through love. God in the Beyond state of Paramatma is love, light and life infinite. He is everything. Unless one realizes God and has love infinite, one cannot be purely and infinitely non-violent. God does not include violence, just as love does not include lust. Non-violence, pure and simple, is love infinite.
A lover, who is longing to see the Beloved, is in the same stage and category as a seeker on the Path. A majzoob, who has become one with the Beloved through love, is in the same state as God.
The difference between these stages may be explained in the following manner: Suppose you are slapped or kicked by someone. If you do not retaliate but keep quiet and do nothing, it is the category of a seeker who practices “non-violence of the brave.” In a similar case of a majzoob being slapped or kicked by someone, it is quite different. He has neither the necessity to keep quiet or control himself, nor has he to make an effort for the same. Because, in his state as a majzoob, which is divine bliss, he does not at all feel the slap or the kick. He has gone beyond that state of feeling.
The question of feeling, even after God-Realization, comes only when the God-Realized being again comes down to the world of phenomena with normal consciousness. There, he can use non-violence, pure and simple, which is based on divine love, and try to persuade the aggressor – the one who slapped or kicked – through infinite love. In his Beyond state, where all souls are One, he is himself both the striker and the stricken, the aggressor and the aggrieved.
It is either Unity – Oneness – or duality. There is no stage in between.
Lord Meher, Original ed., Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 8, p. 2787 – 2788.