Why Gandhi gave his speech without any notes

During a visit to Britain in 1931, Gandhi — an anti-colonial activist who sought to free India from British rule through nonviolent resistance — spoke eloquently before the UK Parliament for two hours. Eknath Easwaran described what happened next:

After he had finished, the London reporters clustered excitedly around Gandhi’s secretary, Mahadev Desai. “How is it,” they demanded, “that he is able to speak so well for such a long time without any preparation, without any prompting, without even any notes?”

Desai replied, “What Gandhi thinks, what he feels, what he says, and what he does are all the same. He does not need notes.” Then he added, smiling: “You and I, we think one thing, feel another, say a third, and do a fourth, so we need notes and files to keep track.”

What a beautiful statement. What a resonant idea. What a perfect definition of authenticity.

How did Gandhi develop this authenticity?

Some of us believe that all it takes to be true to ourselves is to give free expression to our thoughts, feelings, values, personality and desires. But by indulging whatever urge arises within us, we entangle ourselves in the web of instant gratification. We might feel authentic, validated and free in the moment, but over time this approach increasingly traps us in our impulses, habits and weaknesses, keeping us far from our full potential.

We must first establish what our “self” really is.

Take a moment to reflect. When you say, “I want to be true to myself,” which “self ” are you referring to?

For I will confess that I have many selves. A part of me wants to please others; another part wants to please myself. I call these my please-others self and my please-me self. Then there is my indulgent self, my disciplined self, my habitual self, my aspirational self. And I’ve only just begun. These different selves all clamor for my attention, every moment of every day. Should I express the frustration or anger I feel toward someone, or should I bite my tongue because I know that venting may backfire? Should I linger indulgently in bed, or whip myself into disciplined action? Should I procrastinate on a task I find tedious, or stick with it to serve my team?

I invite you to take an honest look inside yourself. Don’t you feel at times like there’s a war going on within, that you are listening to a cacophony of conflicting entreaties from your many selves? How can you be true to your “self ” when you have multiple parts within you jostling for influence?

The path to inner success lies in discovering your true self and manifesting it in your every thought, feeling, word and action.

This requires you to become an inner warrior, to vanquish the many false selves that are holding your true self hostage. When you allow one of your false selves to seduce you, it may not bother you in the moment — in fact, it might actually feel good to gratify an impulsive desire, feeling or thought. But one day, you will wake up to regret that you did not live a life true to the truest part of you.

What is your true self? I offer that it is your inner core — the space of highest potential within you, your best self.

When you operate from your core, you are free from ego, attachments, blinding beliefs, limiting habits and insecurities. You are at peace with yourself. It reflects the purest part of who you are and your noblest intentions. If you’re like most of us, you sometimes operate from your core, sometimes drift away from it, and sometimes (sigh) veer far, far away. And yet, that part of who you are is always there for you to come back to and connect with more deeply.

By pursuing a path of inner mastery for years, Gandhi had arrived at a point where the thoughts and feelings that arose in him were in harmony with his inner core, so he could express these freely in his speech and actions. In moments where we, too, are anchored in our core, we can trust our own thoughts and feelings and express them freely, knowing that in such moments they arise from a place of noble intention and calm perception.

Every such experience is like an inner victory. An inner victory of our true self over our false friends. This is the essence of Principle 2.

But what about outer success? That is going to be the subject of our next newsletter.

Note: Parts of this newsletter are excerpted from my book, Inner Mastery, Outer Impact: How Your 5 Core Energies Hold the Key to Success.