“Satyagrapha. Satyagrapha. Satyagrapha …”
Our global prayer of lament these months echoes a resounding, world-wide plea for satyagrapha, meaning “truth force.” Engaging this energy of passive political resistance has been advocated by many activists throughout history, particularly noted was Mahatma Gandhi in liberating India from oppressive power.
Today the pandemic invites us to yet another evolution of satyagrapha—of truth seeking. Our desperate search for truth darts through every image and action that we see, read, pen, eat, sleep, sing and enact. Systemically uprooting entrenched, oppressive power in favor of truth originates in each person fortunate enough to reside on this beautiful sphere of a planet. How do we challenge our personal and collective, moral imagination in times like these when oppression and injustice continue to rise?
As we journey to truth, we might be inspired by a beautiful, old spiritual song sung by the late Odetta Holmes, lyricist and civil and human rights activist. Odetta’s April 13, 2008, performance of “Glory Halleluja” at a conference entitled “Satyagraha: Gandhi’s ‘Truth Force’ in the Age of Climate Change” invites us to ask our brothers and sisters across the world and Earth to help us “lay our burdens down,” to surrender our fear, anxiety, self-righteousness, dualistic thinking … This song invites us to join in one great, collective intention to change our thoughts, to imagine, to co-create … to transform the world into a place where all of creation is free of oppressive injustice.
May this deep spiritual pray us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLfE7p75g2g&feature=youtu.be
—Ann Jackson, PBVM, Prairiewoods spiritual services coordinator