I give below an English translation of what M. K. Gandhi,
popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, wrote in ‘Harijan Bandhu’ on 30th
April, 1933.
“I wish to tell all those who laboriously read my articles
and take interest in them that I am not at all worried if I appear to them as
someone with inconsistent thoughts. In search of truth, I have discarded many
of my own thoughts and have learned new lessons. Although, I have grown old,
but I do not think my internal growth has stopped. I also do not think that my
growth would stop even after I leave this body.
I am deeply concerned about my commitment to follow the path
of truth in every passing moment of my life. I, therefore, request my readers
that if they observe some contradiction and inconsistency in my thoughts
conveyed by me in my two articles, and if they trust me in my understanding of things, they should
accept the thought expressed by me later as my valid thought.
M. K. Gandhi”
The incarnations of the God, the great saints, the learned
and the wise people with impeccable character have made several references
about the ‘absolute truth’ or the ‘ultimate truth’; and have concluded that it
is unchangeable and eternal. It is ‘the ideal’, they all agree. It is the ideal
for them, and also the ideal for the smallest of the illiterate farmers. Even
the wisest of the men have preferred to talk about the ‘practical truths’ or
the ‘immediate truths’ that we all can try to understand, and, thereafter, to
mould our lives accordingly.
Changes occur in the universe according to the space and the time;
and the man also becomes an instrument and cause for change in his effort for
survival. The ‘practical’ or ‘immediate’ truths that are important links to the
‘ultimate truth’, therefore, vary with space, time and circumstances. What a
farmer in a remote Indian village needed to do in the year 1933 and what an
executive head of a big corporate living in New York City, U. S. A. has to do
in 2015 to come closer to the ultimate truth may be quite different. Similarly,
the collective efforts needed by the people of India in 1933 for living a
meaningful and purposeful life, and the collective efforts needed by the people
of the U. S. A. in 2015 for achieving the same objective must also be very
different. By any stretch of anybody’s imagination is it possible that one wise
man or an esteemed group of wise people delivers a thought, a thought needing
no correction or revision, for the benefit of the people of a village, city,
state, country or maybe, the entire world?
Perhaps, today’s world has the largest population of
‘educated’ people the world ever had. Perhaps, we are not blind followers of a
few, like the people of olden times, but we have adopted a ‘celebrity’ culture and
tilt our positions from one side to another, fascinated by ever renewing
thoughts in terms of their forms, not the content, without even bothering about
the ‘intentions’ of the ‘owners of the thoughts’ and about what efforts such ‘owners
of the thoughts’ have made to arrive at their thoughts.
It is high time that we, ‘the branded citizens of the modern
world’, start thinking like human beings, lest the future generations do not
accuse us of belonging to the ‘Dhritrashtra’ cult.
(Dhritrashtra, is the name of an important character from the
ancient epic ‘Mahabharata’. He was a blind king, so attached to his throne and
his sons that he never took a right decision in his lifetime. The greatest
battle of that period referred as Mahabharta causing great damage and
destruction to the kingdom and people became inevitable due to his in-actions, in-decisions and ill-decisions.)
PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA
[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A
Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]
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