Tag: raj ghat

Praying through Asia

Posted on by Daniel Gauss

by Daniel Gauss

The guillotine at Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi. All photos taken by Daniel Gauss.

When I went to Hanoi for the first time, I began a travel ritual I now follow in every city I visit.

I had grown up reading about the Vietnam War, mostly from our perspective, but still grim and unflinching, full of failed policy and the atrocities our military carried out. It was not just the insane level of the violence but its cruel senselessness that affected me, that so much suffering and death had been meted out gratuitously and malevolently by military and political leaders who knew we could not win. We kept killing innocent people and sacrificing our own troops, long after it was clear we should have stopped.

Because it was my country that inflicted the egregious pain and my own compatriots who were harmed by the war, it unsettled me deeply and tore apart the benevolent image of my country I had been taught. I knew that going to Hanoi would be more emotional than any trip I had taken before.

I felt I couldn’t just show up in Hanoi, I needed to go somewhere meaningful on my first day and offer a type of silent prayer. I now find a meaningful place in every city I visit to offer a prayer for those who have suffered. Read more »

Sunday, May 24, 2026

Gandhi and the Move from Micro to Macro-morality

Posted on by Daniel Gauss

by Daniel Gauss

Raj Ghat in New Delhi, India (all photos by Dan Gauss)

Standing at Raj Ghat, the memorial for Gandhi in New Delhi, near where his corpse was cremated, I began to think about a problem I’ve been grappling with for a long time. With all the good, kind-hearted and sincere people in the world, why is the world not becoming a substantially more humane place?

I am surrounded by incredibly sweet people. I’m often deeply moved, and genuinely amazed, by how generous and compassionate they are, and the lengths they go to in order to be helpful. If you were to judge the world solely by these folks, you would think it to be a gentle, caring place. Comedian Patton Oswalt wrote (after the Boston Marathon bombing), in regard to those causing harm in the world, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.” So, then, why are the good people losing?

It’s pretty clear that the world is not a gentle, caring place. There are at least 50 state-based armed conflicts right now, corruption and duplicity thrive, greed runs unquestioned and unchecked and our climate is deteriorating. In the USA our prisons are full, children struggle to read, income inequality is outrageous and people are barely scraping by paycheck to paycheck. We are in another war. Many of our cities are still racially segregated and class divisions cause unjust treatment and disparate life opportunities and outcomes. Our cities are filled with homeless. The news seems like an unending sequence of cruelty and incompetence.

Standing in silence before the eternal flame at Raj Ghat, reflecting on all that this man did, I felt that his determined effort not only to become more humane, but also to challenge the larger systems that produce suffering, provided the beginning of an answer for me.

After visiting Raj Ghat, and wandering through the nearby Gandhi museum, which traces his life from infancy to death, my big theory now involves what might be called “micro-morality” and “macro-morality.” I think most people shoot for and are largely satisfied with micro-morality…politeness, kindness, volunteering, controlling their temper, forgiving, being nice.

Gandhi demonstrated that micro-morality is essential, but not good enough. Read more »