The Message

Recently, we were at Chintpurni temple, Himachal Pradesh. After a soul-filling darshan and prashad, we came back to our taxi via the usual markets selling memorabilia that every temple-goer in India is familiar with. My wife stopped over at a shop selling bangles and I was generally eying the shop. The 40+ shop keeper told her the price of various articles and as she became busy with the wares, he asked me to step in and sit down. Tired as I was, I accepted the offer readily. Out of politeness, I told him that we were from Chennai and were blessed to have a grand darshan at the temple. He smiled at me and asked:

Do you know the meaning of Maa's name (Chintpurni)?

Well, the one who fulfils our desires, I said. Widening his smile, he said that it is just the other way around.

"Kaam karo apna - ghar ke liye, bhacchon ke liye, daftar mein aur society ke liye. Saara chinta unko deido. Woh karegi chinta kyoon ki woh jaanti hai aap ko kya chahiye. Chinta bhi wohi karegi and poora bhi wohi karegi. Aap sirf apna kaam karo".  Do what your dharma is.

I just sat there looking at the shop keeper, spell bound and suddenly with so much reverence as I had felt in the temple. Perhaps tempting my wife to buy thrirty rupees worth of bangles was just Her way of making us understand the purpose of our life. She was teaching.

As Paulo Coelho says, signs and symbols are always present. We need Her grace to recognize and understand their meaning.

Believe.

The other day, I was browsing the net. With my son about to complete his school, one of the things I did daily was to check out on various colleges. In this instance, the homepage of one of the leading management schools was in front. I had opened the page that lists the faculty with their profile and as I scrolled down, my cursor stopped. There was no photograph but the name and profile was that of a colleague-friend-philosopher who years ago (18 years at that time!) I had the privilege to befriend. As my luck would have, we had parted ways in pursuit of each other’s dreams. While both of us had become successful in our own field, the affection and respect for each other had lingered on in our hearts. It was just that we had had no communication and we were unaware of each other’s whereabouts. Since the photo was not there, I was not sure whether the surge of exhilaration rising in my heart at reading the name was misplaced.

Long ago in my childhood, I remember my father telling me that there is nothing more anyone can trust than the voice of one’s own heart. So, I had to find this person whose photo was not on the net. A few calls to my friends across the country and one of them volunteered to check out since he happened to be going to the management school.

I waited.

And the friend called to say that indeed it was my long lost friend at that school and gave the telephone number also.

I do not know how many of us experienced the sheer elation, the way one’s heart sings with joy when you meet a long-lost friend. I did and even though it was ten years back and ever since we have remained in constant touch, it is still difficult for me to explain that moment of joy!

Did someone say that there is nothing called ‘fate’? Oh, you have not seen life then

.

There are no explanations to many things that happen in our life. If we put them through the test of ‘science’ as we know it, we will only end up drawing puzzles. A careful blend of science to the extent that we need to enhance our standards of life and understanding of the things that surround us AND faith to fill in all those spaces unfilled by ‘science’ is needed in life. 

We exist because we believe. We aspire because we believe. We achieve because we believe.

Everything else, including science, is just a tool to demonstrate our belief.

Believe.

Not just a birthday to remeber....

It is 1045 h on 02 Oct 13. World Non-Violence Day. From New Delhi to Timbuktu (this place actually is in Mali, Africa. Google it and you will know) across the globe, scores of idols of the man whose belief in non-violence led to the downfall of the greatest empire the world has seen would have been garlanded. Bhajans would have been sung or would be in the process of being pitched for closure. From commoners to ambassadors to presidents and kings would have bowed their head as a mark of respect and said whatever most appropriate thing to say on this occasion is. The listeners or the crowd if at all would have hummed and hued their ‘yeah, yeah’. By around noon, purportedly the great believers in the cause that this man espoused would have retired to their more important assignments of the day, satisfied that they have marked this man’s 144^th birth anniversary in the most appropriate manner that would be convincing enough to those who saw them on TV or heard them on radio. In so far as the millions who nether watched TV or heard radio, yet another day in their lives would be trudging towards wherever it takes them to.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the lawyer who could not stand and speak two sentences; the man whose legs where so shaky that he dropped his brief and ran from the court to hide;

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the man who would take the blows of police lathi with a smile during anti-Rowlett protests; the man who went on a fast that brought the bloodshed in Naokali to a stop; the man even his bitterest opponents would not hesitate to meet; the man whom a nation of 33 crores called “Bapu” (father); the man who took his assailant’s bullets with just two words (calling on his favorite God);

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the man who forever was seeking to know his own self; who in the process of which found a people of 33 crore thirsting for an identity;

The man whom we call Mahatma.

There are as much we can see as human fallibilities in Gandhi that we find in our selves. There are as many similarities too. But the only thing that makes him Mahatma and rest of us as ordinary mortals is his un-assailable faith in his own self. Where he believed, he went irrespective of the consequences; where he believed, he did irrespective of the consequences; where he believed, he gave and received irrespective of the consequences. So, that which sets him apart is a simple aspect called: Belief.

There is one more aspect that must be mentioned about him – his utter selflessness. But then what can we say about someone who wanted nothing for himself; not because he had no needs; not because he had no family; not because he wanted to be bigger than life; just because he was always in search of something that would define him as he was. The one who is content in himself has very little need for others.  In mammoth crowds, he could stand alone; in solitude, he could be heard. Actually there is very little of this Gandhi that we know. We are content calling him ‘Bapu’ once a year and perhaps more content being oblivious to his persona. As they say, simplicity is the most complex thing to understand.

It is not his person that is at debate. What appalls is the utter ignorance amongst us on his understanding of this country. Gandhi saw the nation as he would see himself – with utmost criticism that was aimed at discovering its strength. No one understood (though we all quote) when he said ‘India lives in its villages’. What a thousand economists cannot say in two hundred thousand volumes, he said in one line. In case of doubt, consider the following:

·      More than 60 % of India lives in villages. They remain home to the largest population and of course, vote banks. (That is why you see the ilk’s of Laloo going overboard to fool the village folks with their electoral gimmicks)

·        While caste and creed may appear to be ruling the village roost, villages remain one of the most coherent units of Indian society where everyone is an integral part of its socio-cultural-economic life

·    Inspite of the industrial economy that we have built as a nation, in a billion ways the cottage and village industries remain part of our everyday life. Over 80% of Indian households depend on what is produced in villages and rural areas.

·     The economy IS (in capital, underlined and never-out-scored) agrarian and try what we may, will remain so.

With this background, look at Gandhi. All his reform agenda was always aimed at villages – be it social causes, economic causes or what may be. He was not playing to the gallery. He was stating facts, seeing the truth and therefore advocating for the same. Say, 65 years of governance had consistently focused on basics like electricity, water, sanitation and education for the villages of India, the India of today would be far different than what we see. If the orientation for village industries, land reforms and agriculture had been blended correctly and implemented, we would not be seeing the rural upheavals that we see today. This would have meant a more contented country-side and a stronger economy. This also would have meant lesser slums, crime and demographic pressure on urban areas.

It is not possible to debate and understand Gandhi in a couple of pages. He needs more time and devotion. It is not to say that he is to be reinvented as a panacea for all the ills of our society. But, his relevance to a world that is ridden with poverty, violence and purposelessness can never be understated.

We need Gandhi. Not as a fossil of yester years to be cherished in a museum, but as a living idea that we need to nourish in our minds and apply in our daily lives. We are also Gandhis, if we can find the strength to discover our follies, rid our biases and unite for an India that will rise as the phoenix does from the ashes of its ambiguities, fears and uncertainties.

We need Gandhi.