Revision as of 06:08, 30 January 2014

How spirituality shaped Mahatma Gandhi

IANS | Jan 29, 2014

Title: Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography

Author: Arvind Sharma

Publisher: Hachette India

Pages: 252

Price: Rs.550

This work captures the spiritual side of a man who played probably the most important role in helping India to become a free nation. The weapons he used were unique: truth and non-violence. This, author Arvind Sharma says, was part of his innate spirituality.

For Gandhi, morality and religion were synonymous. He made it amply clear that what he wanted to achieve was self-realization, "to see God face to face, to attain Moksha". His earliest influences came from Hindu lore. His parents were devout worshippers of the god Vishnu. It was part of this influence that Gandhi learnt to repeat the name of Rama - a Vishnu 'avatar'- to get rid of his fear of ghosts and spirits!

But Gandhi was no Hindu fanatic. He respected all religions equally. The New Testament made a definite impression on him. Theosophy made a deeper impact. He battled for Muslims. He was a true religious pluralist. But "if he did not find Christianity perfect, neither did he find Hinduism to be so". It was his faith in spirituality that clearly gave him the courage to act the way he did on so many occasions, even when it looked as if he was treading a lonely path.

Gandhi would say that the thread of life was in the hands of God. But unlike most Hindus he did not believe in idols. At the same time he worshipped the Bhagavad Gita - calling it his "mother" in later life. Even Nathuram Godse saw Gandhi as a saint - but a saint gone wrong and deserving to die.

The book has one gaping hole. There is surprisingly no reference to Paramhansa Yogananda, an iconic Indian saint whose "Autobiography of a Yogi" (published in 1946) is still considered a spiritual classic. Yogananda moved to the US in 1920 and for three decades preached Kriya Yoga and meditation to tens of thousands. On a short trip to India, he spent time with Gandhi at Wardha and taught the Mahatma and his aides Kriya Yoga. It was probably the only yoga Gandhi learnt. A self-realized guru, Yogananda called Gandhi a saint. I am surprised how Sharma overlooked this important spiritual chapter in Gandhi's life in an otherwise informed book.

Did Mahatma Gandhi see his death coming?

The Times of India

TNN | Jan 30, 2014

AHMEDABAD: Did Mahatma Gandhi have a premonition of his death just hours before he was shot at by Nathuram Godse? Strangely, there were a number of instances in the last 48 hours of Bapu's life in Delhi's Birla house when the Mahatma indicated to near and dear ones that he wouldn't remain amid them for long.

On the afternoon of January 29, 1948, the day before the assassination, an agitated member of a group of villagers who had been recently rendered homeless due to communal clashes, confronted Gandhiji and claimed that he had done enough damage. "You have ruined us utterly. Leave us alone and take your abode in the Himalayas," the angry person had said. This disturbed Bapu very much. That same evening, while walking to his prayer meeting, he had confided to his grand-niece Manuben, "The pitiful cries of these people is like the voice of God. Take this as a death warrant for you and me."

A few hours later, that afternoon, a four year old Rajiv Gandhi accompanying Krishna Hutheesing, Jawaharlal Nehru's sister and Indira had called on Bapu. Rajiv placed some flowers at Gandhi's feet. To this, Gandhi had playfully chided the little boy and said, "You must not do that. One only puts flowers around dead people's feet." These recorded incidents are part of a new book by Pramod Kapoor, 'My experiment with Gandhi', that explores these and lesser known aspects in the Mahtama's life.

On January 30, Gandhi battled thoughts of death more than just once. Bapu was feeling unwell and had woken up at 3:30 am. He was 'unusually disturbed with the 'darkness' that surrounded him. The darkness being, partition woes and infighting in the Congres. At about 3:45 am, he had surprisingly asked for a rendition of a Gujarati bhajan, 'Thake na thake chhatayen hon/Manavi na leje visramo,Ne jhoojhaje ekal bayen/Ho manavi, na leje visramo (Whether tired or not, O man do not take rest, stop not, your struggle, if single-handed, continues.)," claims Kapoor's book.

Few hours later Bapu was asked to take some penicillin pills that his doctor had left for him to cure a bad cough. "If I were to die of disease or even a pimple, you must shout to the world from the house tops, that I was a false Mahatma. Then my soul, wherever it may be, will rest in peace. But if an explosion took place or somebody shot at me and I received his bullets on my bare chest, without a sigh and with Rama's name on my lips, only then you should say I was a true Mahatma."

Later that day Bapu was in a crucial meeting with Sardar Patel when two leaders from Kathiawar came to visit him unannounced. On being informed of their coming, Gandhi had said, "Tell them that I will see them, but only after the prayer meeting and that too if I am alive."

After finishing his breakfast Bapu rested for a while and got up on his own. When he started to walk towards the bathroom, it was a strange sight for Manuben, his grandniece who helped him walk. "Bapu, how strange you look?" she said, a reference to the fact that he had not gone anywhere recently without her. To this, Gandhi had quoted Rabindranath Tagore, saying "Ekla chalo, ekla chalo (Walk alone, walk alone)". This was eerily accurate as the walk towards the prayer meeting was, in fact, his last lone walk.

Murder of the Mahatma: The Mumbai trail

Let’s Kill Gandhi

Tushar Gandhi

Rupa &Co

Dawn

Mahatma Gandhi was shot in Delhi. But the plot to assassinate him was hatched here, in what was then called the Bombay Province. It followed, therefore, that the investigation of the murder was placed under the direct charge of the Bombay deputy commissioner of police, Special Branch, J D Nagarwala.

Jimmy Nagarwala was a dashing Parsi officer whom the eminent writer Manohar Malgonkar described in his book The Men Who Killed Gandhi as having a film star’s cut of features.

He was chosen as Special Investigation Officer not only for his investigative skills but also because, fortuitously, he was neither Hindu nor Muslim and therefore had the crucial trump card of communal neutrality. After all, the Mahatma’s killing was as much an act of religious hate as a political one.

But to wind back to the plot itself. It was not as if Nathuram Godse had broken from the crowd in a sudden fit of impulse and fired three bullets into Gandhiji.

The radio announcements, ‘A madman has shot the Mahatma’ gave the erroneous impression of an extempore, wildcard attack, and Godse too, in his statement to the police, claimed that he had acted alone. This was of course proved to be completely untrue.

As it soon emerged, the young Nathuram, who shot, from a crouch of obeisance an old man hurrying to prayer, was no more and no less than the human trigger: behind the barrel of that 9mm Beretta lay months of planning and logistics, and a supporting cast of players.

Bombay, as it turned out, was the city in which three of the conspirators were apprehended; it was also the city in which key links in the assassination plan had been forged, and where the weapon was purchased.

A number of buildings in which the conspirators stayed before and after the murder, where they were arrested, and which were associated with the trial in some way, still stand.

In Tushar Gandhi’s provocatively titled new book Let’s Kill Gandhi (Rupa & Co), which is being launched at the Delhi Habitat Centre on Tuesday, there is detailed information on the Mumbai murder trail.

Tushar Gandhi, with the help of local history scholar Sharada Dwivedi tracked some of the buildings whose names have changed. All the facts in the book are mentioned in police records.

On the anniversary of Gandhi’s death, we go back in time and through this building trail—of hotels, lodges, offices, and even a temple—trace the footsteps of Nathuram Godse and the others from Marine Drive to Parel to Crawford Market and Carnac Road. The information here is from the book.

See also

Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi: In South Africa