[world-vedic] "MAHATMA"??? GANDHI

[Guest guest]

Hello Aditi Chaturvedi,

 

I read your reflections. My first encounter with Gandhiji was when I read

his book - My Experiments with Truth.

 

Gandhiji was certainly no mahatma. He was an ordinary man like us. Of

course, a garlanded portrait, a statue on a crossing and father of nation

was all thrust upon him, maybe as you say, by Indian National Congress.

 

In his book he seems to a honest person with lots of flaws and fancies(of

course, like all of us). I want to recall a passage from the book. I often

wonder what degree of honestly to self, what degree of desire to know truth,

what degree of trust in one's conscience, what degree of sensitivity, what

degree of curiosity to test oneself must have taken for a man to recount a

tale such personal shaming and pain.

 

His father was ill and every evening he used to press his feet and legs to

comfort them. One evening he cut short his duty because his lust wanted him

to be near his wife. Soon he sliped from his father's room and went to his

bedroom. After some time there was a knock on the door and he was irritated

on the disturbance and did not want to open the door. But the knock

persisted. On openning the door the came to know his father had expired. He

had missed the chance to be at his father's feet at the time of his death.

All because of his lust. His account of what went through his mind at that

moment make me realise, he was not a mahatma. He was human. Simple thoughts.

And a clear conscience.

 

That is the importance of Gandhiji in my life. In my work, in my waking

hours, in my solitute, on road, in home I always test my sincerity to my

work, my honesty to my duty towards my society and my family and my

morality. The Gita teels me to be like it. I see him also try to be like it.

We humans can only try.

 

Tell me, how many of humans who had such visibility have come out with such

honesty to tell about their experiences with life. Share them to tell others

to find the way of honest karma too. He was not fighting for India's

independence. He listening to his conscience and helping others to listen to

their's. His faults are his, there faults are theirs.

 

> "Bapu" who represented the ultimate personification of peace and

> non-violence.

>

Why not? He believed that there was strength in peace and preached it.

 

> policies of the Indian National Congress, they are also waking up to

> the fact that the Father of the Nation was nothing short of the Man who

> ensured the Dismemberment of this Nation as well.

>

You are not the first one to say like this. And you are like all of them who

just say and simply fail to tell why so. "ensured"? Do you even realise the

enormity of the statement?

 

> His death was perhaps the greatest asset to the Congress, for they have

> repeatedly extracted an incredible amount of sympathy by portraying the

> incident as the martyrhood of their patron saint.

>

So? I will not hang Gandhiji for it. Tell me one place where he wanted it?

It reminds me of what he said once, all are ready to garland me but no one

is interested in listening to me. You lead. Stop calling him mahatma, stop

calling him father of nation and start listening to him. If you believe in

karma, you will find him to be a believer too.

 

> This "Hindu Fundamentalist" stick is constantly used by the

> pseudo secularist media to force Hindus to relive over and over again,

> the guilt of bearing the burden of Gandhiji's murder.

>

I am a hindu and I carry no burden of his death. I neither bear the "stick"

of "pseudo secularist media " nor lack of sight of those who run to blame

Gandhiji for everything. To be frank I feel even you are like the congress

campaign. If Congress say all independence is due to him, the take the share

of contribution of millions of indians from them and dump it on him, you

take the blame of millions of indian gone mad and dump it on him.

 

Read him. You may not agree with him, fine! But at least you will realise he

himself tells you all about him. Listen to him before you listen to others.

He ended his life the way he wanted to, with Ram's name on his lips. It is

we who have to realise our mistakes and undo them and not blame them on

others, Gandhi, INC or Hindu fundamentalist or Pseudo-secularist.

 

All this reminds me of what Einstein had once said. I don't remember the

exact words. Future generations may find it hard to believe such a great man

walked on this earth. We may not be finding his existence hard to believe,

but we surely doubt his being even remotely great.

 

It seems you are angry the way India has progressed in last 50 years. The

promised glory of self-rule has rotted down to corrupt rule. You seem to be

disillusion with Indians. We all want to reach the glory we were in the

past. But for that we have to rise above illusions, leaders, personality

worshiping to personality bashing and freting.

 

What India went thru during partition and during many roits that followed

over years is pure insanity and violence. Each individual who was part of

the riot was rsponsible. Unless we learn to think and listen to ourselves,

we will never be a great nation.

 

Dinker Charak

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Software Consultant, Web Applications / Open Systems Group

 

> Time is an illusion perpetrated by the manufacturers of space.

>