Glimpse of Gandhi : Part II
Monday, 6 October 2014
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Glimpse of Gandhi : Part I
Of course, I had no intention of hurting anybody. I was fighting my own fear.
“Yogesh…Shyam Lal…” I screamed at
the top of my voice, as they were the only peons present on that day after
everyone had left. They didn’t respond. I got up again to shut up this nuisance
but the moment I stepped out of my cubicle, something cracked under my feet and
I slipped and was dragged a few metres till I clasped the corner of a table and
caused my head to bang against the adjoining wall. I could see myself lying on
the floor in a pool of salt, white salt. What the hell was happening in the
office? What was driving me insane? I failed to comprehend. Suddenly a strong
gust of air caused the curtains to blow violently and the windows cracked open,
bringing in shards of glass. The wind made whistling sounds as it passed
through an orifice and scattered all the papers that were lying on the table.
My heart throbbed as the memories of the brutality carried out at Dharasana
Salt Works during Gandhi’s Dandi March raked up. I pinched myself for thinking
‘out of the box’ and started praying again to the Almighty. The God obliged and
all these sinister movements calmed. A rat, as big as the size of a kitten,
hopped over the table and disappeared into a hole in the wall. Gosh! I was so
terrified that I could have mistaken a rope for a snake. It was only an
illusion. Wasn’t it? I got up by myself and ran to my desk.
But it was not over. I had just
finished a few reports when the lights went off. There was absolute darkness
everywhere and the crickets came out to have a gala time. None of the peons
turned up to set the generator in motion, leaving me at unease with myself. I
decided to close my eyes and wait for the power to be restored.
“Tuck… Tuck… Tuck…” I could hear
somebody’s footsteps followed by the striking of a wooden cane against the
floor.
“Who’s there…who’s…?” I shouted.
“Security…Guards…!” I shouted
again for help before I could run for my life.
“Don’t be afraid of me, son…”
I heard a sound consoling me as
an old, lean figure emerged from the darkness. Terrified, I cursed myself for
choosing this day to work when I should have been enjoying out with my friends.
I wished I could find my friends in the darkness who would come and embrace me
and help me get rid of this fear. But nothing of that sort happened. I was left
deserted. Quite surprisingly, the figure didn’t intend any harm to me. All it
wanted to do was a bit of talking. It came closer and closer to me and what I
saw next made me suspicious of my own sight. It was Mahatma Gandhi; yes Bapu
himself, clad in a khadi dhoti-kurta with his spectacles. Was I hallucinating?
Yes, I was. No. I wasn’t.
“Bapu…?” I inquired in a breaking
voice and was reciprocated with a toothless grin.
“Help me Rama. Help me.” I
stuttered, still not able to believe what was there in front of my eyes.
“Prayer is not asking, my son”,
Bapu began. “It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one’s
weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words
without a heart.”
How legitimate these words seemed
to me. Why was I begging the all-powerful for help when I didn’t require any!
Asking God for everything has become a human prerogative. Am I not supposed to
help myself on my own? I started experiencing turmoil in my mind.
“Please get away from here”, I
warned with a paper weight in my hand.
“Nobody can hurt me without my
permission. You too can make an attempt”, Bapu replied in a soft voice.
Of course, I had no intention of hurting anybody. I was fighting my own fear.
“You got hurt, didn’t you? You
were assassinated, weren’t you? Your assailant didn’t seek your permission, did
he? ” I mustered some courage and began a conversation, now with some interest.
“Could he kill my thoughts? Nay.
Could he wipe off my teachings? Nay. He took away my flesh but could not take
away my soul. It was an act of cowardice.
But I forgave him. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the
attribute of the strong”, Bapu explained in the most convincing tone. These
powerful words left me spell-bound and made me wonder how easy it is to douse
the fire in the heart of a person by trampling over his ideas, by subjecting
him to adversities, by stripping him off his resources. But his passion still
lives on. Given an opportunity, this supressed flame rises from the ashes and
brings the unfulfilled dreams to fruition.
Bapu could see through my mind.
He could peep into my conscience. He shared some more words of wisdom as he
continued, “When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of
truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a
time, they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it –
always.”
The fear in my mind subsided and
I started enjoying the conversation.
“How am I to prepare myself if I
want to realise my dream and sing the song of my watan?” I asked.
“A man is but a product of his
thoughts. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is
possible that I may end up really becoming incapable of doing it. On the
contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I can surely acquire the
capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” Bapu hit the
right nerve with each of his golden words.
“Does my destiny have a role to
play in my endeavour? What if I fail even when I work to the best of my
ability?” Bapu had aroused my curiosity and I started feeling more and more
inquisitive.
“To believe in something and not
to live it, is dishonest”, he said as he moved his cane from one hand to the
other.
“Keep your thoughts positive
because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your
words become your behaviour. Keep your behaviour positive because your
behaviour becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits
become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”
In five brief sentences, Bapu had
summed up all my apprehensions and provided me a remedy to all my fears. He had
charged up the atmosphere with his noble words and had instilled a sense of
self-importance in me. Seeing me cribbing about my work, he added, “Remember son, wealth without
work is as deadly a sin as worship without sacrifice. Your future depends on
what you do today.”
After a long time, I thanked my
stars for introducing me to arguably the noblest soul that had ever lived in
this world. I felt elated at being able to learn the lessons of life from a
person whose life is itself an example to emulate. As I turned to Bapu to
express my gratitude, he had already turned away to return.
“Stop Bapu. Please don’t leave me
alone. Stop, please…” I pleaded. By now, I had hunkered down on the floor, on
my knees. But he didn’t stop walking.
“Listen to the little voice
inside you that wants to talk to you”, he mumbled. “This voice is easy to
ignore but it tells you what you really want. This is the voice of the God.”
With these words, he disappeared
into darkness and I found myself drowned in a delirium of ecstasy at being
sermonised by Bapu himself.
The next thing I remember about
the day is my journey back home in the evening. I am not sure about the
truthfulness of my encounter with Bapu, but I am sure about the fact that he
reiterated his teachings to me on his birthday. The message that he wanted to
convey to the entire world, had been conveyed to me, that too individually!
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