Mahatma Gandhi – India’s Gift to the World.

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Mahatma Gandhi – India’s Gift to the World.

Anytime, to anyone – puzzle is something of great interest. It at once catches attention; instantly challenges the intellect and straightaway gets into the mind and remains a pleasure to share with anyone who has never had a chance to come across the riddle. Mahatma Gandhi is a puzzle.

When I first came to know about him in my early school days , as in the case of every other Indian, he was none other than ‘Thatha’ meaning Grandpa. We all in the class believed that he was indeed our own ‘Thatha’ and that we were all but his grand children. When it dawned later on that he was not our Thatha but the Father of Nation, it was a bit of disappointment rather. It took some time to reconcile ourselves to accept our Thatha to be a common leader; a ‘public’ figure and not someone ‘our’ own!!

Till the time I completed my degree and came out of the ‘curriculam’ years, I had not learnt much about him except that he was a leader, took part in many struggles, was jailed and kept in prisons, spoke Truth and Ahimsa and finally secured Independence. Honestly, the words ‘Truth’ and ‘Ahimsa’ did not impress so much as my childhood ‘Thatha’.

During the college days when I started reading books on many other leaders and their fights against the oppressive rulers, they took over the place of the heroes pushing Gandhi to sort of oblivion. Now I could understand that this temporary ‘truce’ with Gandhi would have happened to almost every one. This transitory attitude is more like losing one’s heart at someone too charming – while on travel.

Mahatma shows his different Avatar only after one is ‘graduated’ in life – it does not surely mean an educational qualification. Life starts throwing more serious challenges. Concerns of more intensity and compulsions of most urgent ones arise. They lead to an ever agitated mind that is set to propel the character to all the evils of a commercial world.

All that was taught in schools, in the class rooms refuse to die down. The teachings keep producing strong resistance to doing anything wrong. The mind yearns for something that can bring about the much needed succour. Enters the ‘Gandian Philosophy’. The ‘Avatars’ manifest.

The ’saint’ in Mahatma Gandhi is the most powerful of them. His talks about austerity, his acts of compassion and his readiness to sacrifice all his personal desires to reach a much higher pedestal slowly creep in and stir the mind to search for more about him. It happens to every right thinking person. It occurred to me too.

As Mahatma Gandhi puts it – “one thing took deep root in me – the conviction that morality is the basis of things, and that truth is the substance of all morality. Truth became my sole objective. It began to grow in magnitude every day, and my definition of it also has been ever widening.” (My experiments of Truth Chptr X – Glimpses of Religion)

It all erupted suddenly. It struck to me that this ‘fakir’ has much more to offer than mere political discourses and administrative theories.

A few days later, I stumbled upon these great words of him – again in his autobiography. The concluding paragraph of chapter XXI gave a totally different insight into all that was religious to me till then.

“Worship or prayer is no flight of eloquence; it is no lip homage. It springs from the heart. If, therefore, we achieve that purity of the heart when it is ‘emptied of all but love’, if we keep all the chords in proper tune…. It is in itself independent of any sensuous effort. But it must be combined with the utmost humility.”

It was not the entire paragraph but the last two words that created a sort of ‘havoc’ inside – ‘utmost humility’! What a great finding! Humility plays its magic everywhere with everyone on every occasion.

The greatest advantage with ‘humility’ is that it does not demand anyone to acquire anything; but only induces to ‘shed’ whatever one possesses. It is not renunciation but is too close to it. It does not activate or accelerate; it does not slow down and smoothen too. It simply prompts us to amend our policies and affirm our principles. It all takes place in as gentle way as the gentle fragrance of a flower goes through the nostrils, fills the heart and pleases the mind.

‘Simplicity’ is the greatest virtue that brings in every other quality of a good human being. It is the only attribute that keeps all the social and personal evils at distance. Simplicity burns desires and beacons the righteous path. Where there is no greed, naturally, there is no undue expectation as well. Corrupt practices disappear without anyone having to drive away.

Honesty, transparency, accountability, responsiveness and every other requisite of a public servant emanates on its own through one single human factor – simplicity. No other politician in the world has been able to identify this unique way of enforcing probity in public life. Of course, it requires a ‘Saint’ in a leader to achieve it. Mahatma Gandhi is the only one in the History to have been both. That is the reason that he stands apart.

The ‘economist’ in Gandhi is all too well known. His sheer conviction that only the village and cottage industries would help the poor in their fight against poverty is now firmly established. Gigantic industrial houses with huge investments could create jobs but can never really rid the society of its economic slavery. The poor should be capable of running the life of their own, entirely on their own without having to look forward to someone to give them some jobs and their share of ‘coolie’.

Self sufficiency is the ultimate goal of Gandian economy where everyone would stand on his / her own. It is the most important in the field of Women’ Liberation. It is the economic freedom that alone can spell a real freedom to the women.

Gandhi, as a true democrat, is a colossus. He wanted ‘People’s democracy’ where the power should flow form downwards to the top. In his scheme of things, Village Panchayats are the real centres of power and they would never depend upon the State or the Centre for their revenues and must have all the administrative authority of a Government. How many leaders today are ready to devolve power as the Father of our Nation wanted?

Mahatma Gandhi is not a symbol; not just an icon. He is much more.

He is not one for reverence. He is a ‘reference’.

He is not a source of inspiration from outside. He is an internal, integral force.

Mahatma, in short, is not a great ‘Father’ but a true ‘Self’.

 

Author –

-Baskaran Krishnamurthy.

• Baskaran Krishnamurthy
• [email protected]