Heart Gift 13: Baba Amte
In continuation of my Heart Gift yesterday, today, I wanted to share words of wisdom from my ‘adopted Grandfather’ Baba Amte. Baba was the most incredible person I’ve been lucky enough to know in life. He was called the ‘Conqueror of Fear’ by Gandhi. He lived his life by Gandhian principles, being the change he wanted to see in the world. I remember his presence viscerally — I always knew I was in the presence of greatness.
Baba always said to me ‘Look to youth to change the world’. He gave me confidence that nothing is too precious in our world that it cannot be changed. I loved him deeply and respected him more than any person I’ve ever met. I often think about the relationship he had with my father and what influence that had on my worldview. There is something extremely powerful for a child around the role models their parents choose. I am remembering this lesson as I think about being the best father I can be to our daughter (who is expected to arrive in March).
I am sharing my favourite quotes from Baba below. If you would like to read more about his life see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Amte.
- Happiness dies when not shared.
- Charity destroys, work builds. Give them a chance, not charity.
- Compassion has no utopia, party or ideology.
- Consider the honey-bee. Its treasure is nectar, obtained even from the chilly plant. It is not at the cost of the flower. In fact, its act of extracting honey contributes to the progress of the flowers. You need not learn from Kahlil Gibran, Marx or Gorbachev, not even from Gandhiji. Choose instead to learn your lesson from the honey bees as your silent partners: they will show you how to develop without destroying.
- The future belongs to the common man with uncommon determination.
- I don’t want to be a great leader; I want to be a man who goes around with a little oil can and when he sees a breakdown, offers his help. To me, the man who does that is greater than any holy man in saffron-colored robes. The mechanic with the oil can: that is my ideal in life.
- Happiness is a continuous creative activity of imaginatively comparing your experiences to things that aren’t as good and thereby feeling happy and grateful.
- I took up leprosy work not to help anyone, but to overcome that fear in my life. That it worked out good for others was a by-product. But the fact is I did it to overcome fear.
- If you are through with dreams, then progress halts.
- Once you are in the orbit of your destiny, weightlessness is the only result.
- Joy is more infectious than leprosy.
- I haven’t the arrogance to say I can carry the mighty load of His Cross, but I do try to walk in its shadow. He wants to carve your life like a crucifix. Every calamity is a crucifixion, crucifying your ambition, your lust. Each is a tiny lesson, and then the imprint of the crucifixion is on your life. What is your plan of sacrifice today? You and I, petty souls, sacrifice for our children. Christ sacrificed for tomorrow’s whole world. Whenever I see slum-dwellers, with their hunger and poverty, that obscene poverty, I feel He is crucified like that. When I come across a person suffering from leprosy, foul smelling, ulcerous, I can see the imprint of His lips, His kiss. What did they not do to sufferers of leprosy in His time, yet the carpenter’s son cared for them and touched them. That hand is an emblem for me, that hand which cared for the loneliest and the lost. The Christian is … he who not only lights the darkest corner in the world but also the darkest corner in his own heart.
* Heart Gift is a community of people who give from their hearts. You are invited to join to be inspired and, when ready, to share your favorite quote, letter, joke, prayer, advice, music, art piece, story, song, ritual, Grandma’s recipe — anything. We can all help create a more beautiful world when we are Permissionaries — giving each other permission to be authentic, vulnerable and heart led.
