ON MARTYRDOM DAY/Gandhi: Fighter without a Sword

The teachings of Gandhi are still relevant today, will remain for posterity and his wider significance to a world torn with violence may yet await their fulfillment.

Gandhi, the Mahatma, was truly a citizen of the world though he worked for the freedom of the Indian nation from foreign yoke.  He was Brahmin by birth but humanity was his religion.

Truth for him was God and non-violence or sour force, his only means of fighting the ills of life.  He was not a nationalist in the narrow parochial sense in which the word is used.

By sacrificing political gains, he bought peace like all true thinkers and philosophers.  He was above all the frivolities of political life as he drew his strength from what he termed ‘soul force an inner strength that comes only when one believes in non-violence, truth and abiding faith in innate goodness lurking in all fellow beings.  It was this quality of Gandhi that made him a leader of the world leaders. 

Gandhi was at pain to explain to American writer Jeanette Eaton that his nationalism was in reality intense internationalism.  “Our nationalism can be no peril to other nations in as much as we will exploit one, just as we allow none to exploit us”.

Without a doubt, Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most extraordinary men of the 20th Century. One of the things that made him so extraordinary was his humanness.

The first time he read Bhagvad Gita and its words went straight to his heart. This book became his spiritual reference book through all the lessons he would face the rest of his life. It was these teachings that guided his conduct, and he referred to it daily.

Gandhi had the courage of a statesman for initiating reforms.  He, however, did not live long enough to see his ideas implemented as the life of his saint who advocated no-violence was cut short by the most horrendous and heinous act of violence on January 30, 1948.