Gandhiji: His Mission And Message : Sri Swami Chidananda
Opinion
24/03/2019
1737.
Gandhiji: His Mission And Message : Sri Swami Chidananda
Today is a day of great auspiciousness and great significance in that it is that memorable day on which the Lord gave to us more than eighty years ago a glorious gift in the form of a blessed and glorious son of His, a son, who was the embodiment of all the great divine virtues which flow forth from the seat of Godhead, the virtue of wonderful compassion, the virtue of absolute purity, the virtue of absolute truthfulness and loyalty and Dharma, all of which go to make a man almost divine. For, this is that day upon which Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi saw the light of the day in fortunate and proud Rajkot in Saurashtra.
SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA
We call it a blessed and glorious day, because through his advent into this world, he created a wave of a renascent Dharma, of a new view of things, a new and sublime sense of values, and a new attitude towards human life and man’s activities upon this physical, eternal world. For, when this child grew up and became a man, the world saw in him a dauntless champion of all that is noble and great, of all that goes to impart dignity to the human species and of all that is idealistic and of eternal, not merely of a passing temporary value. Mahatmaji, the great soul as he came to be rightly revered in later years, became to India, and through the Indian context to the world at large, a symbol of the good, the glorious, the noble and the near-on-divine. This living symbol of loftiness, of Daivee-Sampat or divine Aiswaryas became the source and fountainhead of a new conception of life in the hearts of the peoples of Bharatavarsha. He gave to India a new pattern of individual as well as public, personal as well as collective, social, as well as political living. This pattern which Mahatma Gandhi gave was one based upon the Sanatana Dharma, upon the purest essence of all great religions. For he was a man endowed with a great breadth of vision and a great universality of vision, and this vision he worked into the pattern which he gave to India and to the world through his own glorious personal life.
This day, we recall with very deep gratitude the gift, which God bestowed upon us, and also the services which Mahatmaji, the Father of the Nation, himself lovingly and spontaneously gave to the last day of his life for the renaissance of Dharma and the regeneration of Bharatavarsha, and for the establishment of permanent peace in this world, through his great doctrine of Ahimsa in all spheres of human activity. In thus expressing our gratitude, we shall also do well to bring before our mind’s eye, a picture of what this great soul was made of. For in thus doing, we shall be better able to pay at least an infinitesimal part of the great debt we owe to his great soul—the most effective way, in which we can express our gratitude and pay back at least a part of our indebtedness to any great soul, is by keeping the ideal set by him before us vividly before our mind’s eye and also by trying to the best of each one’s ability to conform to that pattern and to follow in his foot steps.
Therefore, by recalling upon this memorable day what Gandhiji stood for, lived for we shall be able to be enthused, inspired and filled with an inner strength and urge to strive a little more earnestly and with greater sincerity to make ourselves also a little model of the ideal, which he has placed before us. In thus trying to see Mahatmaji as he really was, we shall find that though outwardly the activities of the great soul were in the sphere of the nation’s politics to a great extent, that underneath it all this activity, which was but the apparent shell or framework into which he worked out in all the details his quest after Truth. Though it appeared like politics to people observing from outside, yet to him his political activity was, but the form which his quest after Truth took. He has very clearly stated that politics was but the least part of his life and that the real part of his life was a ceaseless quest after the great Reality in and through all activities, through all names and forms that he contacted. He said: "My service in the form of political activity to the apparent visible mankind is in reality my worship of the one truth which I tangibly feel and see enshrined in the hearts of all men. This Truth I wish to realise by worshipping it through my selfless, motiveless, loving action." He was a great Karma Yogi, who regarded all activity as worship and thus through his worshipful activity he sought to realise the Truth enshrined in the heart of all, the lowly, the downtrodden, the oppressed, the depressed. Thus it was that his entire life’s activity constituted his Sadhana for the realisation of Truth, his Yoga for the realisation of the Truth immanent in the whole world.
Once we are able to realise this great fact of Mahatmaji’s life, we shall be able to understand the apparent paradox of his mixing such absolutely unpolitical elements as Ram-Nam, Gita, Prayer and such apparently spiritual and religious factors into his life. Not a little criticism has been directed against this great soul both in his lifetime and later on, for the seeming hash he made of things by mixing religion and spirituality with politics which the ordinary man considered to be diametrically opposite to each other and even mutually contradictory and exclusive. But they do not reckon with the view which Mahatmaji had as a true Hindu. For the true Hindu, all life, whatever sphere it may occupy—social, political, business or anything else—was but a means to the eternal end. The entire genius of Hindu culture is that man’s life in this world is regarded as a means for the attainment of the spiritual goal, for which he has been given this rare human birth. With this view-point if you analyse the entire structure of the Hindu nation, the social structure, the structure of caste and all the aspects of the Hindu life, you will find that they are all pervaded by this purpose of spiritual realisation. Various customs, traditions, all laws,—everything—directly or indirectly makes man move towards this one supreme end, viz., that of attaining Self-realisation and getting rid of the trammels of the earthly existence. This view was already there deep-rooted in the heart of Mahatmaji. Therefore, he knew his life was but a means of attaining the supreme Realisation. He chose politics as the special type of means for attaining this end. Therefore, we find that his entire life, personal as well as public, was based upon the bedrock of the fundamentals of Sanatana Dharma. He had the essence of Sanatana Dharma always in his heart.
For, the guiding scripture of Mahatmaji’s life was the supreme universal scripture—The Srimad Bhagavad Gita—which has been declared to be the very quintessence of the lofty Upanishads, which the Hindus revere as the ultimate revelations, the Bhagavata, the Mahabharata, and all the Puranas. Basing his life upon the Gospel of the Gita throughout his life, he clung to that two-lettered Taraka Mantra, the Divine Ram-Nam. People were puzzled to know whether Mahatmaji was a politician, whether he was a doctor of the body, mind or soul, whether he was a social reformer, or moral reformer—what he was people did not understand. When they approached Gandhiji deeply, they found that he was a man-of-God. He was a seeker supreme; he was a devotee and a Yogi. For, his source of strength, of intuition and of his wondrous peace and sublime calmness, the tranquillity which he always created wherever he went, lay in Ram-Nam. Take the writings of Gandhiji; take his letters; take any issue of the Harijan; take the record of any of his conversations, you will always find that he again and again stressed as the panacea for all personal problems and difficulties, sorrows and tribulations, Ram-Nam. To the student, to the elderly householders, to the youth, to the politician, to everyone he said: "If you are facing an insurmountable difficulty or problem, take recourse to Ram-Nam; and Ram-Nam will come to your rescue." This prescription he invariably gave to everyone whatever the trouble may be. Even to people in physical disease or illness, who approached him for a remedy, he outlined some naturopathic way, but said: the cure is ultimately from Ram-Nam whatever measure you may adopt, remember the Ram-Nam, the Word which is the source of the entire world, that divine word will ultimately bestow upon you happiness and welfare.
In addition to basing his life upon the Gospel of the Gita and clinging to the sacred Ram-Nam through the thick and thin of the struggle of life, sunshine and rain, through all troubles and difficulties throughout his life, another sublime mode of ever keeping contact with the Goal of Self-realisation, with the Indwelling Truth, he gave to man in the form of his daily prayer. Mahatmaji was a man of prayer and throughout his life, throughout the most stormy periods of his political career, wherever he might have been in jail or outside, travelling and in whatever condition or state of health, his body might have been, never for a single day did he miss his daily prayer. At the close of the day when the sun was about to set and all nature became hushed in the silence of eventide, when twilight was stealing over the land, then this great soul withdrew himself for a time from all external activities and we see Mahatmaji with bowed head and in reverence sunk in the depth of earnest prayer. We see Mahatmaji sitting in deep contemplation of the Creator, of the Supreme Spirit, which was his one and only goal and this daily contact with the Supreme, communion with the Eternal Reality, with the Truth of man, through prayer he never missed even for a single day. Food he might miss; rest he might miss; and all comforts of the physical body he might miss; but this nourishment to the soul, this fresh communion with the Eternal Reality, the Indwelling Truth, he never, missed even for a single day.
By this three-fold means he has given to the whole of Bharatavarsha as well as to the world, a true pattern of a seeker’s life. Thus, we see that under the surface of apparent activity the real fact of the Mahatma was the factor of his being a true seeker, a lover of God, a devotee, a man of prayer, a man of faith in the divine name and a man following in the footsteps of the great gospel of the Blessed Lord.
Throughout his life he was firm in his adherence to the three cosmic principles of perfect purity, perfect truthfulness and perfect harmlessness, even to the least of the Lord’s creatures. He was ever firm in his adherence to the universal laws which form the fundamental unifying basis of all the faiths, religions, all cults and creeds. In whatever land, through whichever Prophet whichever religion might have come into this world, these fundamental virtues are found to be the common basis, the heart, the core and the essence of each and every religion, each and every utterance of the great Prophets. To show these universal laws, he became a living embodiment, a perfect personification of these three fundamental virtues throughout his life; and ceaselessly, at every opportunity, he has been advocating a life based upon Ahimsa, Satyam and Brahmacharya. Thus we find that this is the pattern and this is the way of realisation through Ahimsa, Satyam and Brahmacharya; through prayer through the practice of the Divine Name and through following the religion of worshipful action—it is this pattern that Mahatmaji gave the world through his exemplary life. We are heirs to this great ideal, which he has bestowed in his turn as a boon to humanity.
Therefore, let us pray to the Lord as well as to Mahatmaji and the other saints and sages and the Prophets, who are eternal, that we may also prove worthy of this great heritage left to us by this great soul and that we may be able to live up to this sublime pattern and make ourselves also real seekers, devotees, remaining firm in the adherence to the universal virtues and ever devotedly practising the Divine Name and living a life of worshipful activity, and that we may also be fortunate enough to realise the Supreme purpose for which we have been born as human beings upon this earth.
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NOTE :-
Did Mahatma Gandhi Really Want a ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’? : The Quint.
"In reality, instead of willing to wind up the Indian National Congress, what Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of was to make it stronger and better prepared to play a greater role in nation building, especially in the face of emerging challenges before a newly independent India."
"The so called last wish of Mahatma Gandhi often quoted in support of the political slogan of "Congress mukt Bharat" is actually based on a note written by Gandhi ji. This note was published after his assassination on 15 February 1948 in Harijan magazine under the heading "His Last Will And Testament."
1. "Before getting into the contents of this write up, it’s imperative to note that the heading “His Last Will And Testament” was given by Mahatma Gandhi’s close associates saddened by the sudden and brutal murder of their beloved Bapu. This heading is also somewhat responsible for the wrong connotation and misquotes generated out of this note. In Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, the same document is available under the heading of “Draft of Congress Constitution,” which is more apt and relevant to its contents."
Now coming to the contents of this draft, here are the often misquoted lines Gandhi had actually written:
2. "India having attained political independence through means devised by the Indian National Congress, the Congress in its present shape and form, ie, a propaganda vehicle and parliamentary machine, has outlived its use. India has still to attain social, moral and economic independence.... The struggle for the ascendancy of civil over military power is bound to take place in India’s progress towards its democratic goal. It must be kept out of unhealthy competition with political parties and communal bodies. For these and other similar reasons, the AICC resolves to disband the existing Congress organisation and flower into a Lok Sevak Sangh."
*Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi ji had prepared this draft during the night of 29 January 1948 and the very next evening he was brutally killed. It's very much possible under these circumstances, that it might be the last document written by Mahatma Gandhi. But when it's called "His Last Will And Testament" it indicates a level of finality, which is not justified. A person’s last will is generally a very private and final document, which cannot be changed after the demise of the person who has signed it. Whereas this note written by Mahatma Gandhi was a draft of constitutional amendments, being proposed for a political party and open for further discussion.
Actually, immediately after India’s independence, a need to change the Congress Constitution was being felt within the organisation. On 16 November 1947, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) also passed a resolution in this regard, which said:
3. "As the goal of complete independence from foreign domination has been achieved, and in view of the new role the Congress organisation will have to play under the changed circumstances, the AICC appoints the following Committee to revise the present Congress Constitution, including the objective as contained in Article I and to submit the revised draft Constitution prepared by it to a special session of the All India Congress Committee, to be convened for the purpose... and pending the final approval of such a Constitution by the AICC to postpone all Congress elections under the present Constitution."
*The AICC resolution
In pursuance of this resolution, a process of deliberations on the possible constitutional amendments was going on within the Congress, at various levels. Gandhi's draft was also a part of this constitutional amendment process.
Gandh ji's private secretary Pyarelal has given a very interesting account of how and under what circumstances this draft was prepared by Bapu on 29 January 1948:
4. "The whole of the 29th had been so cram-full with work that at the end of the day Gandhi ji felt utterly fagged out. “My head is reeling. And yet I must finish this,” he remarked to Abha, pointing to the draft constitution for the Congress which he had undertaken to prepare, and then, “I am afraid I shall have to keep late hours.”
*Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi’s secretary
The next morning Gandhi ji revised the draft and gave it to Pyarelal to "go through it carefully." He added: "Fill in any gaps in thought that there might be. I wrote it under a heavy strain."
This draft was then released for press by the then AICC General Secretary Acharya Jugal Kishore on 7 February 1948, with this note:
As something has already appeared in the press... regarding the proposals which Mahatma ji had made concerning changes in the Congress Constitution, I am releasing the full draft as was handed to me on the fateful forenoon of 30th January"
5. "It is quite obvious that Mahatma Gandhi had given this draft to the existing AICC General Secretary in order to make it available for further deliberations as part of the already under way organisational process for the proposed constitutional amendment. This makes it again amply clear that this was only a draft which was required to be presented in the special session and AICC for final decision. This was not a last wish which Gandhi ji wanted to be implemented at any cost and in all eventualities."
* Tribute to Mahatma Gandhi
More importantly, Gandhi never wanted to wipe out Congress from India. On the contrary, he was interested in further expansion and strengthening of the organisation, even if under a new name and structure. Consider these words once more to get to the essence of his idea:
“AICC resolves to disband the existing Congress organisation and flower into a Lok Sevak Sangh...”
"No doubt Gandhi talks about disbanding of the “existing Congress organisation,” but in the same breath he also wants it to “flower into” another organisation, which in his opinion should be more potent and all pervasive. Gandhi advocates this metamorphosis of the existing Congress organisation in order to make it more able in fulfilling its duty towards ‘social, moral and economic independence’ of the masses."
It was a time when Gandhi was fully immersed in dousing the fire of communal violence all over the country and he also saw the changes he proposed for Congress organisation as an effort to keep congress "out of unhealthy competition with political parties and communal bodies". Perhaps he felt that an organisation not involved in party politics would be in a better position to fight the spread of communal hatred and could be more effective among the common masses.
Mahatma Gandhi's views on the relevance and importance of Congress party in national life are also reflected in a column which he wrote on 27 January 1948, merely three days before his assassination. This column was published in the 2 February 1948 issue of Harijan, where in Gandhi wrote:
6."Indian National Congress, which is the oldest national political organisation and which has, after many battles, fought her non-violent way to freedom, cannot be allowed to die. It can only die with the nation."
He further explained his views on the future role of the Congress : -
7."Congress has won political freedom, but it has yet to win economic freedom, social and moral freedom. These Freedoms are harder than the political, if only because they are constructive, less exciting and not spectacular."
Now, what was his recipe for achieving this economic, social and moral independence? Raising the Congress organisation to a completely new level:
8."The Congress must do away with its special register of members, at no time exceeding one crore... Its register should now be co-extensive with all the men and women on the voters’ rolls in the country."
He also enlists his expectations from every Congress worker in this regard; whom he calls a servant of the people.
9."These servants will be expected to operate upon and serve the voters registered according to law... Many persons and parties will woo them. The very best will win. Thus and in no other way can the Congress regain its fast-ebbing unique position in the country.... If I have the time and health, I hope to discuss in these columns what the servants of the nation can do to raise themselves in the estimation of their masters, the whole of the adult population, male and female,” Gandhi wrote."
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It is really important to note here, that just two days before 29 January, when he suggested to "disband the existing Congress organisation and flower into a Lok Sevak Sangh".
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