American antiques thinking and wisdom influenced India in it's path towards freedom from Britain through Thoreau to Gandhi. In this series we discuss 7 tips from Gandhi, the great freedom fighter for India in it's search to freedom from being The Jewel in the Crown of British rule and authority. The amazing fact is that a fresh new nation of discovery could produce an independent thinking individual who could inspire liberation of an ancient society a century after his death says much of both peoples and the evolution and liberation of people everywhere. Even via India, it took an American to liberate others.



And when you think of it, this flow of Indo European peoples out of India in their westward migration complete this westward journey of discovery around our common mother earth. And to the extent that today this journey flows eastward as educated Indian youth complete their post graduate work now in America and Canada and Australia and then often stay on or want to. Each new citizen brings the vast range of their cultural richness to a fresh and continually renewing America.

And it began really with the educated in law Matahma Gandhi and his emulation of the American Henry David Thoreau in his essay and life behavior On Civil Disobedience. To be an American was to be free, and yet the people of India found themselves saying yes master to a snobbish Englishman. And in a caste system that had held intact for thousands of years, the British now merely reigned supreme, with the assistance of the various maharajas in each district. Divide and conquer like the Romans had always done, send in sons of Gaul as Roman legions when you attack Spain or Romania.

And so for Gandhi to allow the people of India to take off their blinkers and see what could be was a life's journey of challenges. Here are seven tips from Gandhi that may help you in your jouney to liberate your own soul during these trying times of economic uncertainty.

-Refuse to pay for what you do not consume.

-Make your own.

-Wear it even when fashion changes.

-If it has a brand name that hurts others, deny it.

-Sew your way out.

-Craft your own answers.

-Save, conserve,recycle,preserve, cherish.

That these seem commonplace to observe now can cause our eyes to roll and feel inwardly, yes that is fine if you a lower caste member of your vast society, but I aspire to more always and I cannot see how I can reach down to empathize with a thin man at a spinning wheel showing others how to create their own cotton shirts. Well, that may be where you have not yet lost your pride enough to know that the lower we stoop the higher we can see to yet attain.

And so Gandhi did attain more than Thoreau and yet while Henry David did not stop the soldiers from shooting innocents all the way and back to Mexico City, the Matahma did free his turbulent people while they fought each other they often had difficulty seeing that the enemy held power while the serfs fought amongst themselves. To feel yourself from the tyranny we have all had imparted into us through the systems of life, we need to reach deeply inside ourselves to find that srength to free ourselves truly.

And when that is done we are never completed in our tasks of life. And that is just how it should be: loved babies become loving grandparents and that is just how life should always be at it's finest. And the sooner we find our ways to reach inside ourselves in uiet moments to feel the organic truths of life. Then sooner we reach our destinies that we have placed out there and that we strive for, can be ours. Really truly ours. How you find your ways will contintue to reflect who you are and the power you have found within you.

The Three Wise Men knew some eternal truths. We should recall they were most likely historically followers of Buddha. To this day in the mountains of Tibet, when a new Christ in the form of a new Dhali Lhama is anticpated to be born, three wise men may spend years to travel and search. They will look into the eyes of all newborn babies in Tibet until they all nod in agreement and bow before their new earthly representation of God, who they will take and nurture to become their new leader.

And it is this amazing modern continuing our greatest western dream. Three WiseMen from the East grant their confirmation: a new Christ is born. But before this, to confirm they look into the eyes of God. Even more than is seen in the eyes of you or I. And how those two realities have come to be seen by many is a contrast of knowledge and legend. This was the mind and soul of a Gandhi, who saw the closeness of life, death, tragedy and joy as eternal and changing truths as the sands by the sea.

How you make use of these applications of simplicity and purity in your life says it all.