
05/07/2025
Happy Interdependence Day!!!
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“Be the Change via Interdependence!” - excerpts of the newest blog in yesterday’s newsletter by Marc Morozumi:
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Most credit Mahatma Gandhi with the quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. Part of the passage actually written by Gandhi in a 1913 article for Indian Opinion: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.”
As a Yoga practitioner, teacher, and activist, I find continuous insight from Gandhi’s journey. Gandhi’s commitment to ahimsa, a Sanskrit word meaning non-violence, does not mean passivity. Ahimsa requires a vigorous shift in word, thought, and deed that manifests in all efforts towards peace. And this only is possible when we change from our divided mind of ‘us vs them’, and do the difficult, sometimes painful but rewarding work of acknowledging our self-seeking tendencies and habitual patterns that can transform and lead us to sustain a direct mission for greater equity, compassion, and love. Yoga is much more than postures on a Yoga mat. It’s the way to change ourselves so that the world we co-create is a more just, kind, and caring world.
A major concept that Gandhi developed is known as Satyagraha. “There are three basic precepts essential to Satyagraha: Truth, Non-violence and self-suffering. These are called the pillars of Satyagraha. Failure to grasp them is a handicap to the understanding of Gandhi’s non-violence.” (read more at mkgandhi.org)
As we just passed Independence Day AND an emerging holiday, Interdependence Day celebrated today on July 5th, may we remember the importance of honoring our strengths and weaknesses, may we review our moments of personal battle and collective triumph. We can be the change. In a USA article from 2021, Peter T. Coleman wrote, “A national holiday will not heal our more selfish instincts or deeper divisions, but it could offer a symbol and a catalyst to set us off down a better path together.”