Mahatma Gandhi, a crowning example

On the 64th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, it would be in the interest of the nation for all of us citizens to do a soul-searching whether we are following the principles of ahimsa and commitment to truth and justice espoused by the Father of our Nation as tools for India’s deliverance from foreign domination, as well as its progress and growth.

Or is our nation, too, caught in the aggressive self-aggrandizement that ruled world politics in the early years of this millennium when the militarily mighty nations unleashed ruthless and brutal attacks on smaller nations like Iraq, setting back the clock on human civilisation by centuries to the primitive principle of “might is right”?

It is time for all thinking people in our ancient and blessed land, with its innumerable places of worship, to keep the relationship between humans and God alive; to seek all possible avenues of persuasion and action to arrest the retrograde journey, and strive for a new world order where a more equitable distribution of ample resources will benefit all God’s people.

Ideologically, this was the guiding principle in establishing the United Nations in San Francisco, the city named after Francis of Assisi, one of the greatest lovers of humanity, whose life, like our own Gandhiji’s, has inspired generations of people.

And all the wise men of the world, who gathered there for the noble endeavour, laid down an inviolable safeguard for peace that the sovereignty of the member nations be scrupulously honoured. And yet, that has been ignored unscrupulously in the new millennium.

It is the bounden duty of our nation to stem the tide of senseless and suicidal violence, and allow nations with their own value systems and traditions to live by them.

Obviously, through the interaction among nations made possible by the facilities of  fast air travel, changes will occur in national perspectives in a natural and normal way, as has occurred during the entire human history.

The Unesco has made a significant contribution in this direction. And it is to our credit that there are in India thousands of charitable trusts, which carry on this sort of activity to uplift the less fortunate.

However, there is an immediate need for thousands of more such organisations to be established throughout the land by leaders of all prominent religions which advocate fraternal charity as an essential principle of life, which is pointed out in the proverb: ”Paropakaartham idam shariram.” (“Our body is for serving others”).

Gandhiji’s life remains one of the most eminent, crowning examples of such a commitment.