Bapu in Our Times |
- By Dr Sudarshan Iyengar*Gandhi in his autobiography referring to his ‘experiments with truth’, said that if it was possible for him to do, it should be possible anyone. Even a child could do it. In this context how do we see Bapu in our times? Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Governor of West Bengal and a scholar in his own right has expressed that Gandhi was inconvenient to some. Maybe he is inconvenient to most of us in these times. Why is Gandhi inconvenient especially to the younger people? Largely he is inconvenient because even at the age of 58-59 when he wrote his autobiography, he claimed, in the preface, that his self-evaluation made him feel that his search for the Truth / God was incomplete as his efforts fell short. He quoted a devotional poet Surdaas who says about selfassessment as: मो सम कौन कुटिल खल कामी | Generally, most of us are afraid to use the above yardstick for selfassessment. Gandhi could so because he started it as a child Mohan. Let us remember Mohan, Mohandas, and then Mahatma. There is a danger that like we did in the case of the human Krishna to turn him into a god and interpret his acts as ‘Leela’, we may as well, turn Mohandas into a god sooner! But Mohan understood his journey well from childhood and with continued self-assessment and being ever vigilant he became 'Bapu' to all of us. And I think Bapu is a very lovely word to use because the word Bapu itself represents a culture. Bapu is a word spoken with intimate love. ‘He is mine’ to all. So becoming that Bapu itself is an exercise that Bapu performs since he was Mohan. Bapu the mumukshu – a seeker of moksha is a seeker from his childhood. Interestingly, he was not religious in the traditional sense, he was not into rituals. On the contrary, when he read Manusmruti a classic in Hindu religious text, he turned agnostic. Mohandas the seeker did not isolate himself in a cave in Himalaya, but he was in the thick of 'this worldly' affairs with his heart and mind working towards his search for the Truth. He has as if understood Kabir's message. माला फेरत जुग भया, This couplet is not easy to translate and I do not wish to do so. Let the people of India understand the nuance of it and the nuance of what Bapu’s effort was. We are shouting from the rooftop that the youth has aspirations and we should not stop them. What are these aspirations? The aspiration is for achieving everything material that is in reach and quick. For that, I aspire for freedom, a licentious freedom. One must have the freedom to choose, that is fine. But the clamor is ‘It’s my life’- who are you to interfere? I will kill myself if I wish; I will blast the world if I don’t like it; I will do anything that I like; It is my freedom and you don't come in my way; I will buy anything; I can do anything; I can eat, drink anything...' Here is where Bapu said that listen I tried some of them and they appeared to me not good; because, material achievements are not satiable, they should be limited to meeting only our necessities. He also said that he was not anything new. The distilled wisdom of our culture has been conveying this to all ages. Bapu may have been familiar with Kabir’s following couplet. गो-धन, गज-धन, This distilled wisdom has been there with us for centuries. The scriptures said it. Ishavasya Upanishad starts with ईशावास्यम इदम् सरवम् Buddha said it. He said ‘sammaajiva’ economy based on karuna - compassion. Mohandas Gandhi reiterates in the 19th century and the 20th Century and reminds us of the same. Yet we continue to aspire for licentious freedom and unlimited material wealth. For achieving this I have invented enemies outside in castes, religions, and sects. I do not want to look at the enemy inside. I look for these enemies outside. Muslims are at fault they keep us deprived, how dare Dalits and tribals take our share? They don't work, they don't deserve it. And then there is Pakistan and China who stop us from reaching our full potential. We have created Frankenstein ourselves. We have never looked inside our hearts. We have never looked at ‘Manka Manka’. We are in the Kar ka Man ka. So we fight for the temple of Rama or a Mosque. That is the point. What is more important? The problem is not new, but we had been warned in past as well. Kabir had challenged, काकर पाथर जोड़ के Kabir was telling us in those days. We had learned to live in peace. Kabir had the courage. Mohandas Gandhi had similar courage. Therefore, he was the one-man army walking at the age of 76 in Bengal and reprimanding Muslims for their atrocities on Hindus and in Bihar reprimanding Hindus for committing a crime against Muslims. Such effort by a lone person with conviction made Mountbatten say that Gandhi was fighting like a oneman ground force in Bengal and was able to bring peace, whereas in Punjab an army of 55,000 failed. This is the person who achieved the swaraj – self-regulation as he defined. The 75th year of celebrating Indian freedom – aazadi is still pending from Gandhiji's point of view. It was pending then on 15th August 1947 when Gandhi said this is not the Swaraj he was fighting for. He said that his swaraj was still to come. The youth needs freedom and autonomy for what? To hate? How can I respect freedom and autonomy if I hate others? Our wisdom says, यस्तु सर्वाणि भूतानि How can I hate anybody if I can see all the bhutas (living being) in me, and, if I can see all the bhutas as I see myself. Bapu has understood and was striving to actualize. That is practicing swaraj. Bapu in our times is most relevant for his three main contributions to humanity. Constructive work, Satyagraha, and personal swaraj. The last of which is the most neglected one today, because it is inconvenient. It is because I want to make money very fast and by any means; because, I want to get higher and higher packages, I am not happy with whatever I am given. I feel that I deserve more. You deserve more for what? It is for acquiring and not giving up. When you lose the quality of giving you have to have a law in the country for giving! I am ashamed to say this as a citizen of Bharat – Gauravmay Bharat–Vishwaguru Bharat. I am ashamed as I was saying that we have to bring in a law called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). India was and still is a country of Mahajans who treat their wealth as the wealth of society. Bapu could have thought about trusteeship only in India because of the Mahajan tradition. I want to tell the youth that yes, this is an aspiration worth having. A few have but that is not enough, because most want to take and not give. I don’t want the Government to tell me to use 5% of my profits for good of the people. The government is not so much bothered about how the profits are earned. You can use foul means and not get caught, you can pollute with impunity and you can evade taxes even when the rates are reasonable. The Protestant ethics told the world about honest labour for creating worth for family and humanity was not a sin but did not advocate using dishonest means. Do we require CSR? If the individual felt that the individual responsibility did not matter, then we require the state coerced CSR. Bapu has shown us how building one’s character would pave way for great transformation. This is precisely the crisis of humanity today. Why am I calling it a humanity’s crisis? Because character is the foundation of all harmony. Without making any intense effort at individual level to build one’s character, one cannot achieve harmony with self, society, and soil - nature. Scriptures guide us in seeking integrity or harmony between Vyakti, Samashti, and Srushti. We hear that the modern individual is gravely disturbed from within. This is a warning; lack of inner harmony will disturb our harmony in society and with Srishti or nature, adversely. It is already being affected. The solution to the war, that humanity has found, is in raising brute force or annihilating atomic ammunition. The manifest violence is controlled by this brute force. But the structural violence comes in force in our economic, social, political, and cultural behavior. We are witnessing the centralization of political power led by centralization in economic power. The nexus between these two unleash brute forces in the social and cultural behavior of people. Exploitation and injustice are the results. We get away from our promise that we have made to ourselves in the Constitution, Freedom, Justice, Equality, and Fraternity. Mostly because our inner peace and harmony are giving way. We have aspirations and we want to play with these aspirations of the youths of our country. We promise them that we will take them to new heights. Which heights? To the American heights. Is that the standard we pine for? If such heights are aspired for in the area of knowledge, science, and inner development, it is welcome. But it is for material gains in one's life, the physical standard of living. There are hardly any serious question raised against such an aspiration. Bapu would have continued to ask those questions without any delay. Therefore, Bapu is inconvenient. That is where the conflict starts. It is the conflict over resources. Why am I fighting with or why am I calling names – the name of religion or castes? It is because I want to garner the resources to gain power. That is the crisis. I am not striving for my individual swaraj. I have the inner harmony which comes from making my character strengths. Unfortunately, it is not only on the agenda of education – the new education policy 2020 notwithstanding. And when this does not happen, when the individual is limitlessly thirsting for material resources and when the society is fighting for these resources alone, we have a geopolitical battle ground. We are competing to destroying natural and physical resources that are limited. They cannot any day satiate humanity's unlimited wants. Therefore we have total disharmony. Mohan from his childhood built his character for the quest of truth in speech, truth in work, truth in behaviour, and the truth in living. His walking the way of truth led him to Ahimsa and he called it love force or Truth force. This love force is his message and when I build this love force within me, then I become कबीरा निर्मल हो जाना, तज कर मान गुमान | The inner self of all of us has to become pure. When this inner journey begins material aspirations begin to shrink. I have been wearing slippers most of my life. This footwear protects my feet sufficiently. No demand for fancy shoes. Nobody has stopped me or bothered me with this as he does not wear even shoes. I am fine and I am comfortable. I have not even applied talcum powder now for 20 years. Please understand this. So when we reduce our requirements, we on our own draw others. Our conflicts with others come down. When one becomes nirmal, then I see all in me and me in all so I do not hate. So Bapu told us in the seventeenth chapter of Hind Swaraj that he understood love force from Tulsidas. दया धर्म का मूल है, With intense force of love willing up in you for others, you are ready to lay your life. I have talked about Bapu in our times in this context because our main host, Pratibha Prahalad, a classical dancer of international acclaim has brought us together to discuss Bapu as she feels his deed and thought can get us out of this deep ecological and humanitarian crisis. The art presents harmony and she has chosen not mythology for a change but Bapu's life and values to present in a dance form and convey harmony – Samvadita. Therefore, we should all try to communicate this to young people who are listening. This is the key to real freedom. Gandhi became free. We are not going to become Bapu, no one should, Bapu would not have recommended. We try to go his way through our insights and the values he tried and recommended. If we don’t want this, then Bapu is inconvenient. Otherwise, Bapu in our times continues to be easy even for a child and of course for all of us. Reference1) This is a text version of the speech delivered on 30 March 2021 in an online Colloquium organised by the Prasiddha Foundation, New Delhi to celebrate India@75. Courtesy: 'Khoj Gandhiji Ki', May 2021, Published by Gandhi Research Foundation Dr. Sudarshan Iyengar is one of the director of Gandhi Research Foundation. |