A beautiful account of an autobiography. The first biography, I have read, that has been written with an objective and Mahatma Gandhi, not once lost sight of it. The lesser learned, like me, would begin reading the Father of the Nation's autobiography with an expectation of having a first hand account of the Indian freedom struggle. But to my surprise, it was written with an objective of telling us the ' THE STORY OF HIS EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH'. dot to dot. And ended where the freedom struggle began, as according to him that point onwards his life had already been public.
A few paragraphs on what left me spellbound and my mind’s take on the matters.
I have come to learn that Gandhiji's work in vegetarianism was much wider, more inward and much more difficult as compared to his work in the freedom struggle of India. His work in the sphere of national independence slowly and steadily found ground, a following and unshakable personal commitment of very powerful people. But his struggle and vow to be a vegetarian was primarily focused on self, thus not much following, not much external encouragement or moral boosting. On the contrary he found ridicule time and again and again. The friend and foe of vegetarianism was nature itself. The essence of that consumed would determine Gandhiji's health without being liberal. And nature can be very ruthless, I mean very non-discriminatory. Not a British rule that could be spoken to and whose reaction could be predicted and twisted with the power that our leaders personified.
He has written in the book of his wrong doings and eccentricities which would be rare possibility in any autobiography. His poor performance at times was boldly written too. And knowing him through his book, I can assure you that, it surely was not done in the light of the fact that he eventually had become a Mahatma and would be forgiven for his misdeeds.
He spent his life almost up to his middle adulthood without a blind belief in any religion. Mind you, though religion and vegetarianism were his favorite subjects. He read, and heard and confirmed what he heard and discussed with those who had faith in their own religion like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and grew up to believe in the Gita. He took Gita to be a guide to a wholesome being and at every point in his life he personified the teachings in the Gita. His life is an example of living in the true spirit of Hinduism, our culture, the essence of the Maharishis.
He developed The faith - the BLIND FAITH
Gandhiji's life can be described is the shortest way as
'Experiments with Truth'. Truth not just in words, but also thoughts and deeds. We learnt at school in Moral Studies, the lesson on speaking the Truth. But Truth has many more dimensions than only sound. And Gandhiji taught that not only through his speeches but more so through his deeds. The fact that he was a believer of truth left no room for an adjustment or a compromise. Standing on such difficult ground he did public work involving thousands. How many of us can maintain the same level of Truth within our families. Speaking the truth to the society does not even cross our mind.
In such a difficult terrain of Truth, he watered the thought of Satyagraha. To explain the right and duty of Truth was not an easy task. And to withdraw a national level campaign that was half way through, due to the lack of understanding of the rights and duties of truth, of uneducated and the educated masses sure won him many brickbats. But Gandhiji publicly accepted his mistake of premature delivery of Satyagraha and decided to begin the task of educating the masses of their duties and responsibilities towards the Truth. This meant quietly gulping the atrocities of the British Empire and exaggerations to begin with. He thus issued pamphlets, made speeches, prepared instructors and teachers on the subject and issued a code of conduct. And so went on his search for Truth.
Gandhiji is a practical guide to our culture. my regards to the Utmost Supreme. And thank you God for dropping in our lap this son of yours.
