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The Gandhian Way of Life - Prof. Ramjee Singh |
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My Life is My Message |
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When a journalist had persisted in asking for a message from the Mahatma, he wrote in newly learnt Bengali script : Amar jeevan amar sandesh, My life is my message’. He said: `It is better to allow our lives to speak for us than our words’1. It is only in this context that he had spoken in a rather different vein that his ‘message was more important than his life2’. In fact, Gandhi was a man with a mission. To him, ‘life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after perfection which is self-realization3.’ He lived a life of purity and in the nature of yajna because he believed that ‘the secret of happy life lies in renunciation. Renunciation is life4’. To him, ‘that law which governs all life is God5.’ He had an unflinching faith in God. God as Truth had been for him a treasure beyond price, hence, ‘devotion to Truth is the sole justification for our existence6.’ His own experience had led him to the knowledge that the fullest life is impossible without an unshakable belief in a Living Law in obedience to which the whole universe moves. A man without that faith is like a drop thrown out of the ocean, bound to perish. Every drop in the ocean shares its majesty and has the honor of giving us the ozone of life7.’ God is that indefinable something which we all feel but which we do not know. ‘ We are not, He alone is8.’ |
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Life as Art |
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Life is greater than all art9 and a life of sacrifice is the pinnacle of art10. Life is neither pain nor pleasure; it is a serious business to be entered upon with courage and in a spirit of self-sacrifice. Hence, Gandhiji says that `a life without vows is like a ship without an anchor or like an edifice that is built on sand instead of on solid rock11.’ Life rests on the law of harmony. To know music is to transfer it to life. Let not the music of life be in danger of being lost in the music of the voice. |
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Human life is a series of compromises, and it is not always easy to achieve in practice what one has found to be in theory. Life is not like a straight line or a shrill or a short music. It is like a harmonium. There are trials and tribulations which are the salt of life. It is a long and arduous quest and the soul requires inward restfulness to attain its full height. Absolute calm is not the law of the ocean. And, it is the same with the ocean of life12. Hence, life needs an art to sail its boat on the turbulent waters of ocean of life. Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. The web of life is of a mingled yarn, good and bad, virtues and vices together. Life is hardly respectable if it has no serious task, no duties and no affections. It is a series of surprises and shocks, achievement and attainments. We never live, we are always in the expectation of living. Hence, he lives long who lives well in the midst of pleasures and sorrows, praise and blame, victory and defeat. Life is a gift of God for performing our duties to the society and the world. Hence, Gandhi was never disdainful towards life and according to the Vedic-Upanishadic tradition, he wanted to live for one hundred years – nay for 125 years, so that he might fulfill his task of serving mankind. Hence, he treated life seriously. To him life was a quarry, out of which he tried to mould and chisel and complete a character. His life was like an open book; so he invited everyone ‘to watch my life, how I live, eat, sit, talk behave in general13.’ |
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References |
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© ''The Vedanta Kesari'' (December, 2000) pubished by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004. Reprinted with permission. |
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