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The Ways of the Mahatma
Maaya
Mahatma Gandhi has had an undeniable influence on my life. In childhood, his Birth Anniversary celebrations meant endless, often not-understood speeches sweetened by the distribution of handful of chocolates in school; an arrogance-filled youth that dismissed him and his methods as goody-two-shoes for the more hot-blooded response of dashing Bhagat Singh and Bose.
As the days go by, and as (hopefully) a semblance of maturity seeps into my psyche, Gandhi, his lifestyle, his principles seem more and more relevant and real, and an appropriate method to counter the madness that has taken over the world.
The 7 deadly sins according to Gandhi were Wealth without Work, Pleasure without Conscience, Knowledge without Character, Science without Humanity, Politics without Principle, Commerce without Morality and Worship without Sacrifice. Though really timeless, these seem more than relevant today in a world which seems drunk on its own hubris of wealth, power and success, teetering on the edge of a self-induced destruction. A world where religion, science and politics have gone berserk, where unbridled knowledge has gained a momentum of juggernaut like proportions, and a Market place that has sold out its morality and responsibility to unmerciful Profit, Gandhi’s seems a voice of sanity. The world today calls for the use of, what he unarguably demonstrated, in words of Albert Einstein, “the practical truth of applied Soul force using non-violent techniques as the most powerful, political tool we have today”. A demonstration that showed in no uncertain terms, that Soul Force, can change the course of reality and history.
The beauty of the virtues propounded by Gandhi (as opposed to the 7 deadly sins), does not deny the need or importance of wealth, pleasure, science, politics, commerce or worship. It gives these aspects the place that they have in society, progress and growth. What it does warn us against is its practice without boundaries – boundaries that would enable to maintain a balance in justice, equity, inclusion, and co-operation. What we see today and suffer from is the erosion of these boundaries that makes progress-at-any-cost seem right.
Gandhi’s proposal and the recognition of the Law of Love above all was one of his most profound; which can be understood when we have sufficiently explored within ourselves, and accepted for ourselves the contradiction of frailty and strength of our human nature. He said, “Whether humanity will consciously follow the law of love, I do not know. But that need not perturb us. The law will work just as the law of gravitation works, whether we accept it or not…”. And it is this Law of Love that has maintained Life amidst destruction, demonstrating the working of much greater and higher power which is not visible to us. Which results in a Politics of Hope and not in Politics of Fear.
This is seen, in the words of Robert Wilkinson, in the current Quantum Reality that morphs even as we live it. For even though the world is gripped in violence and fear, there are plenty of signs of an approaching better time. We see signs of much greater awareness than ever before. We see our understanding of time, space, energy, soul and spirit has evolved to a much greater degree than ever before.
We see this Law at work in how, for every person who deranges into divisive actions, there are ten others who counter and demand for a more cohesive approach, for tolerance, for inclusion, for open-mindedness and transparency. We can see this more so in our current young generation, the Gen Y, a strong-willed, passionate, and optimistic generation which fundamentally believes that the world will be a better place if we grow together; that helping our friends, neighbors and those in less fortunate situations create jobs and stimulate economies and can impact the world and help everyone grow their bottom line. But more on Gen Y later.
Did Gandhi visualize a future such as today's that enabled him to propose his methods for living?
I believe that the Great Souls are gifted with an ability to witness the flow of the River of Life. And it is this witnessing that generates within them a well-spring of trust in the higher laws – much, much larger than the puny efforts of humankind – that results in a surrender that goes into the making of a Mahatma.
commonsense
October 3, 2009
09:27 AM
i think we should all emulate his spartan lifestyle by buying the $24,000 Mont Blanc limited edition Mahatma pen released on the 2nd of October.
Maaya
October 3, 2009
11:04 PM
Pleasure without Conscience?
I wonder which deadly sin this falls into. :)
Maaya
October 3, 2009
11:05 PM
Pleasure (consumption) without Conscience?
I wonder which deadly sin this falls into. :)
Anamika
October 4, 2009
09:31 AM
Or we could follow M.K Gandhi's example and get idiotic followers to destroy "obscene" statues and frescoes in ancient temples...never mind that these are essential aspects of that grand Indian spirituality he banged on about! (Funny how none of the "Gandhians" ever like talking about this Talibanistic side of the "mahatma.")
commonsense
October 4, 2009
10:38 AM
Anamika,
Where have you been?
I had no idea about this aspect of the "mahatma"! He did advocate the destruction of "obscene" temples?? Any more info on this would be welcome...
Morris
October 4, 2009
11:54 AM
Hey CS, if you had aquired some wealth without work buying that pen becomes a little less painful or perhaps no pain at all. Otherwise, $24000 is a lot of work.
I am not sure about all those sins. A sin is defined as offense against God. Worship without sacrifice. Is that offense against God if you are worshiping him/her to begin with? I wonder whether they are not all issues of morality. When it comes to politics without principle, one wonder whether they can ever go to gether.
Maaya
October 4, 2009
01:50 PM
It is interesting that politics without principle almost seems like a contradiction. Just imagine that we can no longer imagine principled politics ... But given a choice one would like politics to be principled? Especially since we cannot do away with it? And since we crib so much about the lack of integrity in politics?
Maaya
October 4, 2009
01:58 PM
Morris, yes, these "morals" and "sins" used to make me uncomfortable too. Sounds too prescriptive. One of the reasons, why I took so long to even begin reading Gandhi.
But somewhere along the way, if one removes the "preachy" aspect of it all, one would like to live in a world that practices most of these principles? wealth without work, commerce without morality - would simply eliminate scams like Satyams. I could definitely do w/o inhumane science.
Worship w/o sacrifice is still not totally understood by me .. but then I was never very much for 'religion' per se ...
Morris
October 4, 2009
04:45 PM
Maaya, Gandhi certainly was a great human being. He believed that most if not all of us mandane people are capable of rising to his level of greatness. That I think is a wishful thinking.
You are right. If we practice these principles it will be a much better world to live in. But to think that is possible is to simply ignore the reality of our human failings.
We are made with these contradictions. Desire to aquire wealth but we are also made greedy. Temptation is every where to make us deviate from Gandhi's teaching. What we should go after is to try to make our inter realtionships structured by laws in such a way that trnsgressions become more and more difficult. Capitalism is driven by greed. But unctrolled greed encourage us to become shoplifters. And that is what happened in the US banking system. We cannot count on most or all of us voluntarily becoming gandhis. Very very unlikely. Education and and refinemnt of social structure must go hand in hand. We got to fine tune our society by various checks and balances. And that is where we got to work in addition to trying to improve quality of human beings. I think some western contries are slowly moving in that direction.
Maaya
October 5, 2009
08:29 AM
Anamika, do give some details ... haven't heard of this earlier ... maybe 'gandhians' (though i don't claim to be one, am only an admirer) are deaf along with being dumb too !
Anamika
October 6, 2009
04:25 PM
Sorry - travelling with limited net access. Dont have the references right now but anyone with access to a university library/Gandhi's speeches/google scholar should be able to find this.
Back in the 1930s he asked his followers to rid "sacred places" of obscene art and pornography. Fortunately few of the "followers" were fanatic enough devotees of Gandhi to try desecrating temples. The few who tried were deterred by the lack of local support.
There is a specific incident - mentioned by various scholars - regarding the temples at Khajuraho. Gandhi initially thought the "indecent and embarrassing statues" were affronts to Indian culture and should be removed. Something his particularly pious followers were ready to do. Tagore interceded arguing that these were priceless heritage of Hindu art and history. At that point, the Mahatma wavered and initially suggested that the temples ought to be covered with mud so no one could see the statues and be polluted. Eventually was convinced to back down (or lost interest).
The one reference I do remember: Alain Danielou mentions it in the introduction to his comprehensive translation of the Kamasutra and related commentaries (best translation I have found yet in English as it doesn't sensationalise and actually includes a lot of the commentaries). But its only in passing and for details, one may need to look up specific works on Gandhi.
Sorry to not be of more help but no chance of getting access to reference resources for the moment. Cheers
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