Sooooooo I’m still trying to figure out this whole life after college thing. I’m looking into internships with organizations in DC related to peace or development work. I’m also starting my application for a Fulbright grant to go back to India and study. Fingers crossed.There are a few other options in the works, graduate school for conflict resolution or sustainable development within the next 3-4 years for example. Peacecorps is also a possibility (that I could do+get a masters, its called Masters International).
Ok, enough talk about the future…its scary.
Lets talk about Gandhi. This is one of my favorite quotes from his autobiography. I like this passage where he talks about his vow of celibacy.
“I realized that a vow, far from closing the door to real freedom, opened it. Up to this time I had not met with success because the will had been lacking, because I had had no faith in myself, no faith in the grace of God, and therefore, my mind had been tossed on the boisterous sea of doubt. I realized that in refusing to take a vow man was drawn into temptation, and that to be bound by a vow was like a passage from libertinism to a real monogamous marriage. I believe in effort. ‘I do not want to bind myself with vows’ is the mentality of weakness and betrays a subtle desire for the thing to be avoided. Or where can be the difficulty in making a final decision?
I vow to flee from the serpent which I know will bite me. I do not simply make an effort to flee from him. I know that mere effort may mean certain death. Mere effort means ignorance of the certain fact that the serpent is bound to kill me. The fact, therefore that I could not rest content with an effort only, means that i have not yet clearly realized the necessity of definite action. ‘But supposing my views are changed in the culture, how can I bind myself by a vow?’ Such a doubt often deters us. But that doubt also betrays a lack of clear perception that a particular thing must be renounced.” (207).
