For this paperback, Thomas Merton selected the basic statements of
principle and interpretation which make up Ghandi's philosophy of
non-violence (Ahimsa) and non-violent action (Satyagraha). For many,
throughout the world, Mohandas Ghandi stands as the greatest figure of
the 20th Century. In his long introduction to this book - and it is one
of his most challenging essays - Father Merton shows how Ghandi linked
the thought of East and West in his search for universal truth, and how,
for him, non-violence sprang from realization of spiritual unity in the
individual. Merton relates Ghandi's "Ahimsa" to traditional Hindu
"Dharma," to the Greek and our own concepts of personal freedom, and to
the thinking of Thomas Aquinas and later Catholic theologians on
conscience, good-and-evil, and peace.