How Nonviolence Works Summary and Analysis

In the final section, entitled "Self-Satyagraha", Flinders makes the point that satyagraha is an individual attitude, like love, and can maintain its power even when only one person is still holding to it, like a lamp in darkness pointing to what is true. It is also important, Flinders points out, to remember that satyagraha is a discipline that begins with the removal of self-interest. Gandhi taught that the process of striving for purification and ahimsa is as legitimate as arriving at the state itself, quoting Jesus' words that if one seeks first the kingdom of heaven, everything else will be added. The kingdom of heaven is ahimsa, Gandhi taught, so every effort at attaining it is time invested in the only eternal thing.

Gandhi's appeal to people to purge themselves of their self-interest is one he is...