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Introduction
ОглавлениеMahatma Gandhi continues to be an ongoing subject of worldwide interest for writers, readers, academics, movie makers, and playwrights, as well as for most laypeople in general. Surprisingly, however, despite a plethora of books on Gandhi already in the market, in addition to the fresh new ones which keep coming every year, one critically important topic still remains unaddressed or is addressed only perfunctorily!
In this book, I intend to bring up this overtly neglected subject which is crying out for attention. To put it in Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “it is an idea whose time has come”; I’d say, it is overdue. What, then, is the subject of this book? Before I answer the question, I must first observe that unfortunately, the “spiritual Gandhi” is not as warmly received as the political Gandhi, especially in the West. And even among those who revere Gandhi as a “Mahatma,” only a few understand what the title entails. Most people seem to have a misconception that Gandhi was a “born Mahatma,” meaning that the “Mahatma-hood” came easily to him. On the contrary, as Gandhi himself admitted, he was quite an ordinary, erring, and falling human being like any other human on this planet with, however, one big difference: being a morally upright and deeply conscientious person, Gandhi was determined to overcome his character flaws by rigorous self-striving; given his immense passion for self-perfection and self-realization, he wanted to search for God as Truth only. Above anything else, Gandhi was an ardent and earnest seeker of Truth. Yet, he could not have done it single-handedly. At the threshold of youth, the London-returned barrister Gandhi needed spiritual guidance, and needed it desperately.
This is where Shrimad (Honorable) Rajchandra, or the “kavi” (poet), enters the stage. Just when a student feels hopelessly lost, the teacher appears to lead him as if from “darkness to Light!” Rajchandra is that teacher, who, when Gandhi met him first, was not completely self-realized but was still moving rapidly in that direction; or, as Gandhi put it in his Preface to Shrimad Rajchandra (November 5, 1926), “he was flying towards it with the speed of wind.”
As we shall see further in the book, there will be three major spiritual contenders to vie for Gandhi’s pupilage during his long pilgrimage of faith. However, among them all, Rajchandra alone would win Gandhi’s heart and soul because in his judgment, the kavi’s influence on him was far deeper and internal in comparison with that of Ruskin and Tolstoy. As Gandhi would gratefully acknowledge later, he was forever indebted to Rajchandra for “molding his inner life,” for shaping his character, and for forming his spiritual principles and ideals, thoughts, attitudes, and actions. Ever since Gandhi came closer to Rajchandra, he aspired to be like him and to live like him. Not only would Gandhi live by the beatific ideals imbibed from Rajchandra, he’d also incorporate them later in his Satyagrahas (truth campaigns) based on truth, nonviolence, and self-suffering for truth. Thus, the student will surpass his teacher one day by downloading some of his lofty, ethereal ideals onto the earthly, political plane!