Hundreds of people stretched from the doors of Pruis Hall to McKinley Avenue on Monday night only to be denied entrance after Pruis Hall exceeded capacity.
About 640 people were lucky enough to pack into Pruis for Arun Gandhi's speech, "Lessons Learned From My Grandfather."
Gandhi is the co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence at the University of Rochester.
In 2008, he established the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute which gives financial support to programs giving children and their parents in economically-depressed areas an alternative to exploitation through vocationally-focused education.
Gandhi's speech marked the beginning of the Week of Action.
He was brought to the university by the Office of Student Life, which organized the week.
"Obviously Gandhi is someone who comes to mind when you think of nonviolence," Amy Jobst, graduate assistant at the Center for Student Life, said. "We just think that this is a great kickoff event for the whole Week of Action."
Gandhi discussed, through stories of encounters with his grandfather, the various manifestations of violence, the meaning of nonviolence and ways to practice it.
"I believe that nonviolence has to be a way of life," Gandhi said. "Unless we live it and make it a part of our life, unless we start thinking nonviolently and behaving nonviolently and creating a nonviolent atmosphere around us we can't really practice nonviolence. It has to become a part of our nature."
Gandhi said the first step in practicing nonviolence was channeling the energy of anger into positive action.
Practicing nonviolence must be a part of the way people build relationships and the way people raise their children, Gandhi said.
Creating a peaceful world is not impossible, people must act and do something to make it happen, he said.
"Violence is not human nature," Gandhi said. "If violence was human nature we wouldn't need military academies and martial arts institutes to teach us to how to fight and kill."
Durk Pebley, a Ball State Alumni who lives in Anderson said he had been an admirer of Mahatma K. Gandhi for years.
As a student he lead two student peace groups at Ball State.
"The speech was probably the best lecture I have heard in my entire life," Pebley said. "To have a chance to see the living descendent of the man who influenced me, that's priceless, absolutely priceless."
The Week of Action focuses on civic engagement, social justice issues and peace and nonviolence.
All week, the Citizens Scholars will be having a canned food drive for the Muncie Mission Ministries Inc., a non-profit organization helping the poor in East Central Indiana.
TEAMwork for Quality Living will be hosting a poverty simulation.
On Wednesday, the Ball State chapter of Free The Slaves, a non-profit organization aiming to end slavery worldwide, will be presenting "PBS Frontline: Sex Slaves," a film about the sexual slave trade around the world.
A candlelight vigil will be held for countries in conflict around the world later in the night.
On Thursday, "Paint 4 Peace," hosted by the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, will be held.
To wrap-up the week, President Jo Ann Gora will host a nonviolent academic communities discussion panel.
Jobst said she hopes students will walk away with a greater awareness of what is going on outside the United States.
"Maybe that awareness will turn into some sort of social action at some point in their lives," Jobst said.
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