My life is my message!
On the occasion of 152nd Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, I extend my warm greetings to all the peace loving souls of the world.
A very happy happy Gandhi Jayanti to all of you!
I see Gandhi Ji ( ‘ji’ is used to show respect in Hindi) as a light in darkness. Gandhi came on the scene when Mother India, as well as, many other Powerful Nations of the world was steeped in darkness. There was darkness of ignorance and darkness of knowledge; darkness of illiteracy and darkness of education; darkness of poverty, darkness of riches.
These hurdles to world’s prosperity were spreading like cancer, killing the conscience of the people leading to a chaotic fervor that culminated in the atomic blast at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The whole world was so fear-ridden that there was a mad, frantic rush to become the most powerful; weapons of destruction were being produced, developed and invented.
Fear creates its own phantoms. The fear of losing power; the fear of maintaining reputation; the fear of losing friends; the fear of gaining foes; the fear of the ruler; the fear of the ruled; and the fear of the oppressor ; the fear of the oppressed -- these phantoms were greater than the fear itself.
Gandhi was the first citizen of the world to realize that we were not enslaved by our physical world we were rather enslaved by our own fear.
Indeed, fear has its own phantoms. Gandhi was the first enlightened soul who realized this – the crux of the matter.
He sat about doing away with it across the boundaries of his motherland. He experimented with it on himself in South Africa and emerged manifold stronger , manifold ready to use his twin weapons of truth and non-violence.
His magic potion of truth and non-violence was tested on 7June 1893 when he was on his way from Durban to Pretoria. It turned out to be a huge success with both, the oppressed and the oppressor. The former acclaimed it; the latter were irritated, rather troubled by it.
The more Gandhi was opposed; the more the flame of truth and non-violence spread like wild fire. First in its epicenter then to the rest of the world, it spread to the extent that the greatest mind the world has ever witnessed, the towering pacifist , Einstein was affected by its heat, by its radiation. In 1931, he wrote to Gandhi:
You have shown through
your works, that it is possible to succeed without violence even with those who
have not discarded the method of violence.
On 7June 1893, after being thrown out of the train, stranded on the railway station, Gandhi was afraid for his own life! Gandhi quailed?? Today, no one would have believed this , had he not admitted it in his “Experiment with Truth”. But his belief in truth was stronger and with the help of the tremendous support of the masses he metamorphosed into a world leader of truth and non-violence. He showed the way, to all the freedom fighters of South Africa to struggle against the racist government in a peaceful yet a bold and effective way.
It is said that oppression brings out the best in man. We are indebted to the Oppressive White Government of South Africa whose furnace brought out the pure gold in Mahatma Gandhi.
He had gone to South Africa just as a barrister but after two decades he returned as a steward, as a guardian saint who loved even his enemies.
After returning to India he embarked on a new voyage; Mission India. He met with people travelling by train and on foot. He met with poverty; with ignorance; with illiteracy; with hunger; with sickness; with unrest; with oppression; and above all with overwhelming fear. In the process he purged into a half clad latter day saint. The staff in his hand reminds of Moses facing the Egyptian emperor, his own brother.
And in the wilderness of fear a voice rang and reverberated ; Know the truth and truth will set you free. It worked magic, and the pal of darkness that had taken 200 years to fortify it self proved a castle of cards that could not endure the hurricane of truth, and non-violence.
His magic mantra, ‘Know the truth and truth will set you free’ descending straight from heaven affected the heart, mind and soul of India. For the first time in 200 years, it led the masses to introspect , to peep into their souls. For the first time, they realized their fears were baseless. For the first time they realized their shackles , their chains were not made of iron , rather they were the phantoms of fear, the chains that had captured and tortured the soul in an effort to kill the conscience of Mother India.
The simple yet straightforward appeal of Gandhi -- know the truth and truth will set you free -- took India by storm. It not only dispelled the fear along with its hosts of phantoms, but it also helped the Indians to come to terms with their own selves; to see the reality with their won eyes which had been blindfolded for 200 years of oppression.
The result of encounter with truth was beyond expectation. The struggle for independence plummated to towering heights. There was a new enthusiasm, a new fervor to redeem mother India using the most powerful tools of truth and non-violence.
Dear fellow citizens of the world and free India the purpose of the day is to introspect and remove the binding chains of darkness if any and emancipate to serve our brothers and sisters without fear and become true partners in the mammoth task of building a strong , beautiful and prosperous world by following the path paved by the half-naked apostle of peace.
Long live the world .
Long live India.
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