Remembering Mahatma

Today was the day Mahatma Gandhi (fondly known as Bapu, meaning father) was killed fifty-eight years ago. There is an excellent article, Remembering Gandhi by Uma .This article is very moving and well written. All I can say is that I wish I had written it!

Having grown up in India, I used to hear about Gandhi a lot, especially at school. When I was in sixth grade, some organization sponsored a contest where we had to read the book “My Experiments with Truth” and then take a quiz. My school made it mandatory for us, and that in itself made the task laborious. Anyway, I read the book and did not really appreciate him much then. During the quiz, some of the students (including yours truly in a small manner) did not maintain high ethical standards (let us just say that we were too helpful to one another than we should have). This made our teachers very mad. One of the teachers (who was a big inspiration to me throughout my school life) was deeply saddened that we would do something like that in something related to Gandhi.

The one thing I remember vividly about the book is how one night he heard the animal making sounds inside his stomach, since he ate some meat, that he was not supposed to. I was not mature enough to understand the hidden meaning behind this. I also was not impressed then that he did not fight against the British but did fasting and marches.

As I grew up though, my understanding and admiration for Gandhi grew as well. Here is a guy who got freedom for a country as diverse as India without resorting to arms. To me, this statement by Gandhi (shamelessly stolen from Uma’s post) summarizes everything that is so great about him.

“I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill”. Wow!

Just the words make it a profound statement but his following it up with actions all through his life makes it even greater.

Working out issues through peace seems like the best approach to me, which is not something people seem to be doing these days. It would do them good to remember Gandhi’s sayings and life. Violence begets violence (as we are seeing in a certain country right now) and there is no end to it. No cause justifies killing thousands of people. I will stop here, as this post is not about non-violence, although it goes hand in hand with Gandhi.

Let us all remember what this day is about – practicing what one preaches, patience and tolerance, and what this day is not about – world dominance, killing and wars.

Mahatma Gandhi ki jai (Victory to Mahatma Gandhi)!