'It is not your fault' - Mahatma Gandhi.

Today is Mahatma* Gandhi's birthday. Love him or criticize him but you cannot ignore him, nor deny his incredible impact on humanity. Based on the highest of principles, blended with a singularity of purpose, a purity of heart and sharp intellect Gandhi ji was and remains a powerful influence on many people. 

The Mahatma has enriched our world with his greatness, and humility.  His unconventional and yet truthful approach is an example of how to Channelise a vision into action to achieve great impact. 

A defining feature of a Mahatma (great soul)  is the humility and compassion for all beings and God's creation. Born out of great spiritual courage and truthfulness a Mahatma is always courageous in thought, utterances and deed. 

Often harsh in their truthful criticism,  there is never the slightest trace of malice in what a Mahatma says and does. 

A Mahatma would blame himself rather than anyone else for their situation. This is a hallmark of a great leader, who never blames others but accept ownership and responsibility of all problems.

Here is an example, for your learning pleasure.

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Gandhi ji started his professional and mission for universal brotherhood and justice in South Africa in 1903. A Mahatma inevitably undergoes great hardships, but their spiritual courage prevails.

Gandhi ji had many supporters and one of his great admirers and followers was a German industrialist named Hermann Kallenbach. In 1912 Kallenbach bought eleven hundred acres of land near Johannesburg and gave them to Gandhi ji, who founded a settlement called Tolstoy Farm (Gandhi ji was a great admirer of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy and they corresponded frequently.)

One day Gandhi ji, had to travel from Tolstoy Farm to Johannesburg for some meetings and the car that they used at Tolstoy farm needed to be serviced at the garage. He asked his son Manilal to accompany him to town. Gandhi ji instructed Manilal that while he attended the meetings Manilal should get the car serviced and then return to pick up Gandhi ji for the journey back home at 5:30 pm.

After delivering the car to the garage young Manilal decided to pass the time by going to watch an entertainment show, where he lost all sense of time. When Manilal had failed to arrive at the appointed time Gandhi ji had contacted the garage and had been informed that the car was ready since 4:00 pm and they were waiting for it to be picked up.

Manilal panicked when he suddenly realised it  was 6:00 pm as  the show ended. He hurried to the garage to collect the car and then Gandhi ji.  His father Gandhi ji would be waiting and Manilal thought it best to just tell an innocent lie. He told Gandhi ji that he was delayed because the garage staff could not finish the servicing in time.

Gandhi ji looked at his son with dismay and said; " That you must lie,  disappoints and deeply saddens me. However I do not blame you, it is all my fault. There must have been some lapses or deficiencies from my side and I must have made some mistake in your upbringing." "I will have to atone for my mistake  and I wonder what I must do?" Gandhi ji continued.

Manilal felt ashamed, and apologised. However Gandhi ji refused to accept Manilal's apology saying that it was not Manilal's fault and blamed only himself. After a minute spent deep in thought Gandhi ji declared; "I will punish myself by walking home rather than drive there. Manilal, you take the car home and I will come walk home." Gandhi ji immediately started walking toward home which was 27 kilometres away.

Understanding parents is normally a challenge and understanding a Mahatma almost impossible. Manilal sought his father's forgiveness and kept apologising profusely. Gandhi ji simply turned a deaf ear and kept on plodding along.

After walking for many hours all night long, Gandhi ji arrived home early in the morning with Manilal trailing in the car the entire way.  Gandhi ji did not complain about Manilal to anyone, and offered no explanation for the reason for the delay to the questioning residents of Tolstoy Farm.

The ashamed Manilal confessed to the worried residents of Tolstoy farm of what had transpired. Manilal was filled with remorse by his poor conduct, and vowed never to tell a lie again. From that day on Manilal devoted most of his life spreading the message of the Mahatma.

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My thanks to the compassionate and talented Dr. Naresh Thukral who also happens to be my brother in law for narrating this incident to me.

*Why do we call Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi a 'Mahatma'? 
We are all just little souls 'athma' and tiny fragments of the one soul, 'Param Athma,' the Creator. With divine blessing an ordinary soul becomes a 'Maha Athma,' a great soul. Ordinary souls may touch you now and then but a Mahatma transforms you.

Time to use Ostrakas?

One of the objectives of writing this blog is to force myself to think out of the box, or think differently within the box.

Protests all over the world including India on how a few individuals destroy the peace of mind of the vast majority. Provided below is a 2600 year old concept borrowed from history.

Long ago there existed in Europe several powerful city states. A fine example was Athens, which had with great difficulty got rid of the petty tyrants and introduced a very successful democracy which lasted several hundred years.

As is well known democracies give rise to a peculiar problem.  Some people claiming to work in the  interest for the people but really working for themselves game the system. They distort the basic goodness of democracy and corrupt democracy and entrench themselves completely. 

Once in power these self centered power maniacs are almost impossible to eliminate.  The Athenians recognised that such people left to their antics would divide the people into factions  and unnecessarily cause anxiety to the people. They had to find a solution.

The solution the people of Athens evolved was the system of 'ostracism', wherein each year one high profile person, mostly a leader, who become haughty, rude, inconsiderate, scheming etc and was likely to cause anxiety to the people, was banished into exile for 10 years from Athens.

The simple procedure required the Athenian citizens to gather in the market place and write the name of the person who they thought should be banished on ostrakas (pieces of broken pottery) which were used as voting tokens. At that time papyrus was imported from Egypt and hence expensive whereas  ostrakas were abundant and cheaply available.  The citizens scribbled the name of the person they wanted on their individual  ostraka and the person who got most number of ostrakas ( but with a minimum of 6000 ostrakas) was exiled for 10 years.

Many powerful people such as Astrides the most powerful general who defeated the Persians at Marathon was exiled in 490 B.C. and as was the famous and powerful general Themistocles in 472 B.C because they became haughty and did not care for the people but only about themselves.

The selfish system is slightly odd because the person is exiled even without being guilty. The citizens decide to punish someone first and then decide who it had to be.

This unusual practice forced leaders to take into consideration the opinion of most of the citizens and those that were socially inferior to them. Ostracism was a simply a pragmatic preventive measure that ensured no one ever became to big for his boots. The exiled person did not suffer any monetary loss or property confiscation etc, he or she just had to remove their presence from the community. 

Would it not be a great idea if each year the citizens could banish one person who they believe is causing anxiety to the people from a village, taluka, district, municipal corporation, state and at the national level.

If this idea were ever implemented I wonder;

• In this age of technology distance may not be a barrier anymore for troublesome people to cause anguish 
• Who would provide residence and asylum to these wretched people who would be exiled.