Mahatma Gandhi strived and struggled all his life to uplift the character and awaken the ‘Chetana’, enlightened consciousness, of the people of India making them true human beings. Freeing us from the shackles of British Empire was just a means.
There is not one aspect of human life - from diet to Moksha - that Gandhiji did not meditate upon and present us with the results of his remarkably original thinking and hard practice which he called his experiments with the truth. To him, Truth was God. He never taught us anything without first practising it. That is why millions followed him and even 73 years after his departure he remains a powerful force for the entire human race.
Sadly today, systematic efforts are being made by forces of hatred and violence to throw his legacy into the dustbin of history by means, both cunning and cruel. But the old frail man refuses to go away, so much so that even his detractors dare not come out openly against him and have to resort to subtle tricks, taking circuitous roots even while paying routine and customary tributes and garlanding his portraits and statues.
Gandhiji has always amazed us by his fearlessness. Fearlessness is not mere courage. Courage can be momentary and transient, audacious and heroic. Fearlessness is calm and composed, enduring and indestructible. It is an everlasting state of mind which comes from enlightened consciousness. Willingly and smilingly one suffers pain and torture and even welcomes death for the sake of a cause which he or she is convinced is based on the truth and therefore, is just and righteous.
Think of Gandhiji travelling in the 3rd class of a train, cleaning a stinking toilet with his hands, freely mingling with the crowd at a station or during a pad-yatra. Now, look at a VVIP of today, surrounded by NSG commandos and disconnected from the people. He thinks he is enforcing his authority and flaunting his status and power. In reality, he is parading his cowardice and feeling of insecurity.
When asked about the recipe of success of a struggle, Gandhiji said: “Just and right objective, capacity to bear immense, limitless pain, determination never to indulge in violence nor harbour any hated or ill-feelings.”
Our world today is marching towards its own extinction. We have nuclear arsenal capable of destroying Earth ten times over.
The poison of prejudices, hatred, lies, violence, cunning, arrogance, the feeling of ‘us’ and ‘them’, rotten extreme selfishness, astounding insensitivity, etc. have torn the moral fabric of man, turning him over into the hands of Satan.
No historic figure has done as much to edify and uplift the dignity of physical labour as Gandhiji. He never wasted one minute of his life. He showed indifference towards none.
We are have yet to see a more disciplined life. Soft heart, strong will, unbelievable fearlessness, burning desire to confront injustice, love which encompassed the entire human race, compassion which cried out for the weak and the deprived, the lowest, the lowliest and the lost.