REMEMBER GANDHI FOR THINGS SMALLER

REMEMBER GANDHI FOR THINGS SMALLER

-Rajshekhar Pant

pant.rajshekhar@gmail.com

Let me share one of my recent experiences with you. It is all about my losing temper over a trivial issue. Probably I was a little upset because of certain problems; probably, I at that moment of time was a bit more receptive, more sensitive -the fact of the matter was that I lost my cool. And as you all know it is your reasoning, your sense of judgment that normally has to bear the brunt of your blowing into rages. You start speaking in a manner, behaving in a way which is least expected and quite unbecoming of you. Such unfortunate incidents actually give an opportunity to your baser self to pop-out. Following all this I could not be my normal self for a couple of days. Much depressed and low spirited did I remain till I was reminded of an instance from the life of Mahatma Gandhi 'when he was in the Tolstoy Farm in South Africa. Struggling through all possible odds once he did lose his cool because an incorrigible boy, arrogant and rowdy as he was, would not listen to him. He beat that boy hard with the ruler he had in his hand. What followed was a sense of defeat. He never tried to defend and justify his anger and the next day the first thing he did was 'he went to that boy apologized and he writes in his memoirs that this confession made him feel better and the sense of defeat which was eating him up the previous night melted away all of a sudden. I thought of trying it out the next day. I went to that person whom I had unjustly been so rude to and apologized straightway. And believe me, it was like unburdening me. I had a sense of relief and also the realization that Gandhi did never make a tall claim in his biography.

My dear friends, don't ever consider Gandhi to be a figure from the remote corridor of history, who mobilizing the masses finally succeeded in expelling the colonial power. Don't ever consider him to be an unearthly figure, a commodity that deserves to be dusted, polished, cleaned, garlanded and so on and so of on his birthday. Don't canonize him for God's sake because such an act distances us from him. More than being a liberator of India Gandhi needs to be remembered for reestablishing the values we had forgotten. For telling us that small things like having the courage to speak truth, desisting from having an inflated ego; keeping your conscience clear and having faith on the essential goodness of human heart make life an enjoyable experience. For impressing it upon us that face to face with a dilemma, with a to be or not to be situation the best way out is to turn inward and listen to your conscience and also for reminding us again and again that that a dichotomy between words and deeds is self destructive and pretensions don't last long. More than for his political profile, I personally feel that Gandhi deserves to be remembered for these small things. His entire leadership, may it be political social or even religious is a testimony of the faith and values he lived by. Gandhi of course was not infallible; no mortal can ever be so and Gandhi indeed was a mortal. He did make blunders as a political leader. His views and approach on issues like economy, family planning, celibacy etc at times appear to be myopic. But his greatness lies in being and knowing to the core what he was. He never asks you to do something which he himself could not do. He unlike many of those who in his name have been ruling the country was a man of examples and not of precepts.

By raj pant – October 3, 2008