I D Soni
Not yet has India assimilated his message. Nor the nations. His message has, I believe, a value for the world. He wanted a return to the simple life. He wanted a brotherly civilisation. The dream in his heart was that of Khadi White, not blood red liberty. It was a moving song we heard a little band of men and women sing in the early hours of the morn: “Bring back quick, O Lord! The day when Bharata may turn to charkha again”. And chakha, as is interpreted, to mean as death not of the machine but, of the tyranny of the machine over man. The machine as a servant of civilisation will stay. The machine as a tyrant must go. And can it be denied that the danger of these days is that machines ride mankind? The charkha, he interpreted, as a symbol of simple life.
Buddha, the Blessed One and Mahavir the latest of the mighty prophets of the Jain Dharma proclaimed the doctrine of simple brotherly civilisation. That doctrine in its application to contemporary life, was reaffirmed by Tolstoy. He took it mainly from teachings of Christ.
Gandhi has in our days re-uttered the ancient doctrine – of Buddha and Mahavir and Jesus. Neither India nor any other nation has yet assimilated the doctrine. Humanity yet is young! But there are groups of men and women in different parts who believe in the doctrine and try to practise it.
WHO IS MAHATMA GANDHI
The race of heroes is not dead. Gandhi made life triumphant. Gandhi Ji showed how to face life in accordance with the teaching of Krishna, Buddha and the Christ: he showed how one might cast out fear and take his stand in the battle field of life.
Mahatma Gandhi went forth, again and again, to face death, and in the face of death he sang a noble song of life. “The seeker’s after”, Gandhi says, “must conquer all fears. And fear has no place in our hearts when we have shaken off attachment for wealth, for family and for the body.
All these are not ours but God’s. Nothing whatever in this world is ours. Even we ourselves are His. Why then, should we entertain any fears”?
This sacred day we lay at his feet a few flowers of our heart and we bow down to him with reverent love and we ask of him to pour his benedictions on us. What is the supreme declaration of this, the greatest son of modern India? Are we wrong in saying that Mahatma Gandhi matched his simplicity and spiritual strength with a great Empire, and he faced the difficulties of the task in the spirit of a true hero, with the courage of the brave, the courage of Jesus and the Beatitudes? He was a lover of Tolstoy and St. Paul, of the Gita and the “Sermon on the Mount”, which he said, “Competes with the Gita on almost equal footing for the domination of my heart”. Yes – he argued that the Sermon on the Mount” should be taught to Indian students in Indian school. He said, “That renunciation is the highest expression of religion, made a tremendous appeal to me”.
Gandhi Ji was a hero: yet over and over again have I said to myself, the secret of this great one was even this that he forgot his greatness. In his daily life, his activities and aspirations, his daily struggles and strivings, Gandhi Ji forgot his greatness. He went about as a little one. And this day, as I pay him my humble homage, I wish to salute him as a little one. He was a lover of the little ones. Clothed in humility and filled with love he moved about amongst men as a little one. Mahatma Gandhi Ji taught us the truth that the meaning of life, the meaning of true life is service and sacrifice. May this lesson of the radiant life of Mahatma Gandhi Ji go into the hearts of some of us who listened to him: the purpose of life is dedication to the Eternal. The meaning of life is consecration to the eternal values of life. And may the benedictions of Gandhi Ji’s shine upon us for ever and for evermore! Like the Buddha of the long ago, Mahatma Gandhi Ji was a prophet of compassion, an apostle of lokasangraha, a servant of the poor. The message of his life is an urgent need of India and the nations, today. For, today, the human race is facing crisis-perhaps, the greatest crisis in history.
Mahatma Gandhi Ji was a man of truth and compassion, of silence and daring – at once a hero and a saint! He led India: he bled for India. In him was revealed, in a richer measure than in any other man of his generation, the spirit of India.
Religion, to Gandhi Ji, was not creed but right life – a life of sympathy and love, of fellowship with poor. His leadership was deeply rooted in his life. He bore witness to the spiritual values of India’s ancient heritage. His life reflected reverence for God and for all prophets and saints, and love for all creatures – men and birds and beasts. His life reflected the spiritual outlook which, indeed, was ever a mark of India’s rishis and saints. When Gandhi Ji appeared on the Indian scene, so many of us were living a life of ease and indifference. He came – he in whom the spirit of India revealed itself – Gandhi Ji came: he went from village to village, from cottage to cottage: and in answer to his affectionate call, the people woke from slumber and said: “We are here, Master! To follow thee! He awakened millions in a quiet way. Everything truly great is a quiet thing. Institutions may rise or fall. Kingdoms make noise, crush and crash in noise. But the quiet power of this singular man – a hero of the silent way – continues challenging attention, and moves on from strength to strength. Gandhi Ji served India and clung in faith and reverence to the Lord of Love. Mahatma Gandhi Ji gave the message which is Ancient India’s message to the modern world. The message was a call to New Freedom! And the call came from the depths of dedicated heart: “O children of God! You cannot build a welfare state, until you cultivate the soul”!
GANDHI JI – THE WORSHIPPER OF THE POOR:-
I wonder if ever we asked ourselves the question: what is the meaning of the word “Gandhi”? the word “Gandhi” means one who is “fragrant”, and fragrance – filled is the life of Brother Gandhi. His fragrance lay just in this that he identified himself with the broken ones, with the neglected ones, with the indentured labourers, with the out cast – the “Untouchables”, the Harijans – with the poorest, the lowliest and the lost, with all those whom the world, intoxicated with power, tramples upon every day. Gandhi Ji was a champion of the poor against oppression, injustice and insolence of might and power. I, therefore, salute Gandhi Ji as a servant of the poor, as a brother of the poor, as a devotee of the poor and as a worshiper of the poor. The key-note to his wonderful life – a life of heroic deeds, of heroic achievements, of heroic aspirations, of heroic attainments – the secret of his life is his spirit of ‘Seva’, the spirit of service and sacrifice.
Gandhi Ji’s has been a dedicated life – a life dedicated to the service of the poor. This martyred man, adored by millions, gives us the mantra of sacrifice. This prophet of peace had to spend many years within the area of challenge and storm. But his life never failed to bear witness to that new freedom which is fellowship with the poor and oppressed.
It is the appropriate time for us to strive to understand the life and teaching of that great soul. He has become one of the shining lights of humanity. And the light of his life, the light of love, shall grow from more and more in the days to come. We heard Gandhi Ji saying, “Brothers are ye all! All the races of the earth are brothers! All the religions of the world are brothers. These hearts are given us to love, not to hate. Brain and science and machinery and civilisation and all our technical equipments are giver us for the service of the poor, and needy, the lowly and the lost: for the service of our broken, bewildered humanity”.
INDIA NEED GANDHI JI:-
Among the great ones, I have read about, I saw the ideal of ‘Gita’ reflected in Gandhi Ji more, perhaps, than in any one else. I may well speak of him as a bhakta of the Gita. He did not exaggerate, I feel sure, when he referred to the Gita as his “Mother”. Much he owed to the Gita, much more than many seem to be aware of. In his weekly journal, young India, Mahatma Gandhi Ji wrote: “When disappointment stares me in the face, and all around I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavad Gita. I find a verse there and I invariably begin to smile in midst of overwhelming tragedies; and my life has been full of external tragedies and if that they have left no visible, no indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavad Gita”.
Gandhi Ji, we can call him a man of Light. He led his country-men through darkness to light. I do not regard Gandhi Ji as essentially a politician. To all of us the problem of India is not merely political. There is a biology of the nation. This must be studied. No life without creative shakti! Until this is realised, India may not hope to achieve her real freedom. The new shakti which India needs will be developed in the measure in which we enter into disinterested fellowship with the poor. Hence, the significance of Gandhi Ji’s message. He is a bhakta of the Gita, a bhakta of the great Revealers of the human race of Rama and Krishna, of Tusli and Tuka, of Buddha and Jesus. My patriotism”, Gandhi Ji said, “includes the good of mankind in general. Isolated dependence is not the goal: it is voluntary interdependence. I see nothing impossible about our expressing our readiness for universal interdependence rather than independence”.
Where among India’s distinguished patriots is there, today, a true disciple of Gandhi, inspired by his love of rishis and saints; his reverence for the village-folk, his readiness to share the dirty work of untouchables our aching eyes behold the tragedy of the East and the tragedy of the West and we exclaim. “Beloved Gandhi! India hath need thee! And the world health need thee”!
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