Ghandi's teaching of nonviolent resistance (or passive resistance) is based on the Hindu teaching of ahisma. Ahisma is generally translated as nonviolence, but goes quite deeper than that. Ahisma refers to the interconnectedness of all living beings. It is the notion that to harm another being is to harm one's self. Ahisma presents a concept of self that is inter-related to other selves, rather than cut off and distinct from other selves. This concept deeply informs Hindu virtue, ethics, and cosmology.
Ghandi was also influenced by the Hindu virtue brahmacharya, variously translated as: willful determination, earnestness, or discipline. Brahmacharya means to invest all one's energy into the pursuit of good. This means to engage in practices, study, and virtues that bring peace and integrity to one's self and the world. Traditionally, brahmacharya also caries the duty to remain celibate, a duty Ghandi took up later in life and one which he would advocate right through to his death.
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