Gandhi’s Famous Quote About the Value of Meditation
And how Jerry Seinfeld and my personal trainer back him up.
Mahatma Gandhi was a civil rights activist best known for his nonviolent approach to securing India’s independence from British colonial rule in 1947. His work ethic was legendary.
Which is where his dedicated meditation practice came in. Gandhi meditated every day to help himself stay calm, composed and focused.
This is Gandhi’s quote about meditation that became famous:
“I have so much to accomplish today that I must meditate for two hours instead of one.”
I love that! What does it mean? It means that the extra hour Gandhi lost through meditating longer was more than made up for by the increased productivity it yielded.
Meditation and productivity
What sort of productivity does meditation create? The first is obvious: Meditation strengthens focus. So if Gandhi had 25 letters to write some morning (correspondence was a substantial part of his workload), his ability to stay present on the task (letter) at hand was invaluable.
Meditation also gives us more energy. This is hard for me to explain scientifically, but my layman’s anecdotal evidence would be that I find it exhausting and…
