The nation is gearing up
to celebrate the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi with an array of
year-long programmes. Undoubtedly the great soul deserves the celebration.
Gandhi was one of the greatest souls that ever walked on the earth. India has
been converted into a quagmire that inevitably submerges any Gandhian value or
principle that dares to make its presence palpable.
Gandhi was religious but
genuinely so. For him religion was a tool to make himself a better human being
day after day. It was his spiritual sustenance. It helped him see other human
beings as sparks of the divine. It enabled him to love every person as his
brother or sister. He had no enemies. Even the British were not his enemies, as
he declared time and again. Religion would never make Gandhi sectarian; on the
contrary, it gifted him with universal love.
Truth was the foundation
of Gandhi’s morality. Every genuine life is an endless quest after truth and
Gandhi’s life was nothing else. He experimented with truths as the title of his
autobiography says. Such experiments are learning processes meant to understand
the reality better and better. Gandhi knew that truth was not something given
to us readymade in the scriptures or anywhere. Truth reveals itself to us every
day if we care to see it. Gandhi would never concede to claims about our age-old
scriptures as the ultimate sources of truth including scientific truths.
As in the case of every
genuine saint, compassion was an integral part of the Gandhian vision. He never
forced anyone to do anything that went against his own conscience or
fundamental inclinations. If you cannot give up certain things such as, say, a
particular food, you needn’t. If you force yourself to do something and then
become a surly person, it is of no use. Gandhi’s infinite tolerance arose from
his infinite compassion.
Gandhi envisaged an India
in which every citizen – irrespective of differences born of religion or
language or whatever – is a free and happy person; free from narrow prejudices
and silly superstitions. Free from the shackles that enslave the human soul’s
potential greatness. Genuine happiness is a product of that inner freedom.
India today is just the
opposite of all that Gandhi envisaged. We are given tall promises and beautiful
slogans. Pretence has become the national character. Chicanery is the most
legitimate political tool. Religion is poison.
While we start the great
celebrations in the name of the Mahatma, it will be good to try to understand
what he really was.
Gandhiji had what is "courage of conviction", which is not easy to have. He also practised what he preached. He was also a master strategist, who caught the opposition by total surprise, with disarming but very powerful moves.
ReplyDeleteVery correct. He was a visionary and a strategist at the same time.
Delete