Gandhi for current day crisis

The other day I was listening to a welcome address by an octogenarian Gandhian. He was talking about his experience of Indo-Chinease war period. During the 1962 Chinease aggression, he was doing some social work in one of the north-east provinces of India. After the news of Chinese aggression, people started talking of "how Gandhi would have reacted to such a condition". There, this person made a nice remark. "All the time no one ever thought of how things would have been done in a newly independent country had Gandhi been alive. Suddenly when we faced a problem people started thinking of Gandhi."

Hence, in this article we will not talk about how to solve the current generation crisis through Gandhian ways. This will drag down the status of Gandhian ways to that of some pain killer medicine! You have some pain, you take a few pills. Gandhian philosophy is rather like naturopathy, where there is complete thrust on the holistic way of life. This is a way of life, to be led, to be practiced and ,above all, to be enjoyed. This is not a quick solution to some of your personal problem which you have brought across of your own accord!

Still, all is not doomed or lost yet. We may not solve the current problem, but we can always stop making new problems. This reminds me of a nice word from Sanskrit, "sanskara", for which I could find no English equivalent. Sanskara is the set of acquired characteristics that we gather over the years. Sanskara determines our attitude, disposition and our personality. It can be either positive or negative. Building of sanskara takes years and its a Herculean task to break a person's sanskara. However, seers say that with constant practice sanskara can be changed! Similarly, current day problems are acquired sanskaras of our society. We cant suddenly get rid of them. A determined and constant practice can only turn it round.

Hence, as far as my understanding goes, there is no solution for the current day crisis. There is no revolution that can give a not-so-temporary solution. We have to depend upon evolution.

Here, we shall discuss about three of the most easily practicable philosophies of Gandhi, viz. Satya, Ahimsa, and Iswar-bhakti.

Satya or truth is one of the most adored principles of Gandhi. Truth not just only means speaking the truth. Truthfulness, as I understand it, is the lack of hypocrisy. Its a condition where your mind, words and action are in unison. Its very interesting to mark here that if my mind, words and action all advocate some so-called-bad action, then also I am a man of truth. In this I am sure many of you will agree to the fact that a hypocrite gentleman is worse than a sincere, if I may use this adjective, goon!

Ahimsa or nonviolence is an excellent ideology of Gandhi, which I could partially comprehend after reading a book called "Vinoba on Gandhi". Its not simply not harming anyone. Its about loving everyone and everything. There is a subtle difference between not hating and loving. Gandhi's Ahimsa springs from the ideology of loving all. And if you love some one then you cant harm him. Even if you harm him, it will be like a father's punishment to his son, meant for his well being only. Interestingly if you really love everyone, then all other principles follow automatically. A loving person can not be a hypocrite. One particular practice helps me a lot in my tryst of loving all, viz. having empathy. With empathy, you try to be the person or thing you are looking at or are interacting with. Automatically love and compassion will flow of its own accord.

Lastly we come to Iswar-bhakti or bhakti for God. And please mark that I am not telling about Hndu or Muslim or Christian God. God, I am sure, has no religion! I have nothing against my agnostic or atheist friends. However, I feel, at my level, that it helps. I don't care if I can not prove the existence of God or not. As a matter of fact I don't have to! You just love God. And if you love God, how can you hate his creation? And once you love God and his creation, there is bliss and only bliss for you under all conditions! Whatever I do, if I shall do for the good of God's creation, then all my action will be purified. I don't have to fear of any failure or expect any jubilant success. I know that whatever I am doing is by the grace of Him and for His creation. Personal success or failure has no position there! Hence as you mark, Iswar-bhakti is the more subtle principle, after which the above two follow automatically.

Out of many original and innovative principles of Gandhi, I found the above three simplest and practical enough to be implemented in day-to-day life. Of course practicing them again needs the building of new sanskars. It by building new sanskaras only, that we can get rid of the old and not-so-good sanskaras.

Till now, I talked about the application of Gandhan philosophy at a personal level. What about the whole society? I think society is well capable of taking care of itself. Lets fix our own sanskaras. If sanskaras are strong enough they will spread like an epidemic! And believe me or not, if you practice the above three principles, you will find nothing but bliss in this creation. Problems will melt down as if they never existed! Hence, there wont arise any need to search for a solution.