I write this piece today because, its Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi’s birthday. A day when we remembered the great leader for his sacrifices as we sang praises as schoolchildren in India. I’ve always had a great bit of admiration for his persistence and simple approaches to solving problems.October 2nd celebrated in India as Gandhi Jayanti (Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday). Gandhi ji is lovingly referred to by many Indians as Bapu or the Father.Instrumental leader against India’s Independence movement against the British and is one of the most popular Indian figures.He gained prominence when he fought against discrimination in South Africa when he was practicing law there and then moved to India to fight for the independence. He is most well known for preaching non-violence and perhaps his best known quote is “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” Many Indians around the world take a lot of pride in the fact that Gandhi ji was an Indian.The role and contribution of Mahatma Gandhi in the freedom movement of India is noteworthy, extraordinary and exemplary.Here is a short description along with few instances of his life where he too committed mistakes but had the courage to admit them and that gave a new direction to his life.
Many people will admit that they made a mistake. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve changed their mind about anything in particular. It doesn’t mean that they are now able to avoid that mistake.One can improve himself by making mistakes, and learning from his mistakes. The lessons learnt must be remembered for a long time.There's nothing wrong in being wrong as long as you're able to correct yourself next time. Asking questions is an integral component of learning, and one must never be afraid of asking questions.
Gandhi ji
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born into the Hindu Modh family in Porbandar, in 1869. He was the son of Karamchand Gandhi, the diwan (Prime Minister) of Porbandar, and Putlibai, Karamchand's fourth wife, a Hindu of the Pranami Vaishnava order. Karamchand's first two wives, who each bore him a daughter, died from unknown reasons (rumored to be in childbirth). Living with a devout mother and surrounded by the Jain influences of Gujarat, Gandhi learned from an early age the tenets of non-injury to living beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance between members of various creeds and sects. He was born into the vaishya, or business, caste.
'Gandhi' is a family name. The Gandhi’s had been merchants for many years. They lived in a town called Porbandar. It now belongs to Gujarat State. The town had stone walls around it. As the stones shone in the sun, the town was known as 'Shwetapuri' (the White City).
Karamchand Gandhi was a very practical man. Gandhiji describes his father in his
autobiography as follows: 'My father was a lover of his clan, truthful, brave and generous.'Often there used to be readings from the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha in his house.There used to be religious discussions also among Jain,Parsi and Muslim scholars. Young Gandhi listened to all this with attention.
Putlibai was in the habit of visiting temples every day. She used to take Gandhi also with her. She used to keep stern vows and fasts. Religious practices were her very life breath. Her influence on the son was great. Many years later,Gandhiji, recollecting his early years, said, 'If there is any purity in me, it is all due to my mother.' The son imbibed from his mother the qualities of service, sacrifice and affection for others.
On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was shot and killed while having his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan (Birla House) in New Delhi. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu radical with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan.[17] Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted; they were executed on 15 November 1949. Gandhi's memorial (or Samādhi) at Rāj Ghāt, New Delhi, bears the epigraph "Hē Ram", (Devanagari: He Rām), which may be translated as "Oh God". These are widely believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot.
He was nominated for the Nobel peace prize five times, in 1937, 1938, 1939,1947 and finally in 1948, few days before his assassination. However he was not awarded the Nobel Prize because he was “neither a real politician nor a humanitarian relief worker" [4]. The Executive Director for the Nobel Foundation Michael Sohlam has gone on record to state that not awarding him the Peace Prize was "a big regret" of the Nobel Foundation.
Few Instances of his life....
Young Gandhi ji had his primary education up to the seventh year at Porbandar. Then his education continued at Rajkot.He was a very shy boy. He never found fault with elders. He was very obedient.
Once an Inspector of Schools visited the school. The teacher dictated someEnglish words. Gandhi ji had miss-spelt the word 'Kettle'. The teacher noticed this, and made signs to the boy to correct it by copying from his neighbor. But Gandhi ji did not do so. He also felt that the same teacher, who had taught him that copying was bad, was not right in prompting him to do so. Still, the respect he had for his teacher did not grow less.
At that time, Gandhi ji had occasion to see two plays. They were 'Shravana Pitribhakti' and 'Harishchandra'. These two plays left a deep impression on his mind.The devotion of Shravana to his aged parents was a model in itself. Harishchandra suffered great misery for the sake of truth. Gandhi ji began to consider if he could not also live like them.On the plastic mind of the young, example and company act as powerful forces. When Gandhi ji joined the High school in his thirteenth year, he fell into evil company. But he soon realized his folly and returned to the right path.Sheik Mehtab, a classmate of Gandhi ji, was a strong boy. He always excelled all the boys in games and sports. Gandhi ji came to believe that, in order to expel theEnglish rulers from our country, it was necessary that one should become strong like Sheik by eating meat. This false belief took deep root in his mind. He tried to eat meat in secret. He found it distasteful. In the same way, he smoked cigarettes. He also stole a piece of gold to pay his brother's debts. He felt sad because he had not the free- dom to act as he wished. In a moment of despair, he tried to kill himself, by swallow- ing Matura seeds (an effective poison). But he lost courage and could not do so. At last he felt sorry for his conduct. He confessed his guilt in a letter and, with trembling hands, handed it to his father. The father did not say even a word, and simply shed tears of sorrow. This melted Gandhi ji's heart. He touchingly refers to this incident in his autobiography: 'Those pearl-drops of love cleansed my heart, and washed my sin away.'
Gandhi ji was married to Kasturba in his thirteenth year. Kasturba was also a girl of the same age.The immediate result of this was that a year's studies were spoiled. By the time Gandhi ji's High School education ended, a child was born, and died, and another was born. A boy of fifteen or sixteen years had already become a father. By that time Gandhi ji's father also had passed away.
Gandhi ji was only nineteen years old then. He was to leave for England on September 4,1888.The elders of his caste learnt this.They opposed his journey. But Gandhi ji disobeyed them and left. The elders declared that Gandhi ji was an outcaste.Gandhi ji had learnt from some elders about life in London as also about manners to be
observed in English society. Friends had told him that it was difficult to live without drinking wine and eating meat, in a cold country like England. But Gandhi ji tried hard to keep his promise to his mother. He went in search of vegetarian hotels, and was content to eat whatever food he got there. Every day he had to walk a long distance from his residence to the hotel. But he never felt it a hardship. In the end, he decided to cook his food himself.Gandhi ji also tried to practice English gentlemen's ways and manners and to learn to speak French, dancing and the art of public speaking. His expenses increased. Neither could he learn any of them. And then the realization came to him that his brother was struggling hard to send him money. Then he gave up all needless expenses, and began to live a simple life. His studies became his sole aim.Gandhi ji developed great intimacy with an English family. He pretended to be an unmarried man. He used to be quite free with the two-grownup daughters of the family. It looked as if the friendship would go beyond the proper limits. It was a testing time for Gandhi ji. At that hour, he remembered the promise he had made to his mother. It saved him from a moral fall. He felt repentant, and wrote a letter of apology to the lady of the house, confessing that he was a married man and the father of a child.
Gandhi ji stayed in England for two years and eight months. He obtained the degree of Barrister-at-Law. Without staying even for a day more, he started on the return journey to India, on June 12, 1891.During his stay in England, he tried some experiments in vegetarian diet.He came to the conclusion that a human being should not eat non-vegetarian food for any reason. He got acquainted with some great persons of the day, like Dadabhai Naoroji and Dr. Beasant. But there was no indication at all that some day Gandhi ji would become a great man. For the first time Gandhi ji read the Bhagavad Gita, in the company of two English Theosophist friends. Together they studied 'The Song Celestial' (the English translation of the Gita) by Sir Edwin Arnold. This roused Gandhi ji's interest in the Holy Books of the Hindu religion and his interest grew with time.The teaching of the Gita was a source of spiritual strength to Gandhi ji.
One should contemplate what went wrong and makes changes accordingly.And that’s how one regain the Gandhian pathway. After all, making postive changes in yourself is one of the Gandhian principles. Even the Mahatma was ‘born’ in a similar way.We all must know Gandhiji was not born a ‘Mahatma’. Like us, he also committed mistakes. But he transformed himself, by learning from his mistakes. A practice not followed by many.
Two influences, similar in nature, have led me in my own learning. One was a book by Mahatma Gandhi, his autobiography: My Experiments with Truth. From this book, I learned that the pursuing of the inner journey should not be separated from the pursuing of the outer and social journey, because we are not two separate beings. If we remove ourselves from the world, believing that we can follow our own individual enlightenment, irrespective of the world around us, then that is a delusion. We must find a way of life that combines the spiritual and the social, the inner and the outer — in a balance.In the end i would conclude that the freedom to make mistakes is important, but perhaps more important is each person's choice concerning what to do about the mistake once it's been made. Remorse may be appropriate, or regret or sorrow, but these reactions are all weak and timid in comparison to learning from the mistake. Take chances, make mistakes, but do so with a mindset that allows you to reflect on what went wrong, figure out why it happened, and make a plan to improve future outcomes of similar situations.Trial-and-error may not be the most effective way of solving problems, but it's often the only way that will work, so it becomes a necessity. Mistakes are an important part of the learning process, and many great things have been accomplished inadvertently through these means.
