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Well, that was what Gandhi said. Isn't that beautiful? All the people I have shared this text with are unanimous that Gandhi's Message is simple, direct, most effective, and highly relevant to the present time, even more than it was seventy years ago when it was first delivered.

Public perception about Gandhi has gone round a full circle. When he was alive, he was revered. Later, people began to slowly forget him, besides dismissing his various ideas as fads. But now, slowly the realisation is beginning to dawn that Gandhi was in fact far ahead of his times.

Let me explain all this. But first, I should perhaps draw attention to certain facets of his personality. Gandhi was a highly disciplined person, totally against wastage, of time, money and paper, in particular. Where paper was concerned, he would, for example, preserve little bits of paper to write notes on. Where money was concerned, he always travelled third class in train. And where time was concerned, he had a famous pocket watch tucked into his waist that he frequently consulted. Ten days before he was assassinated there was a bomb attack in the prayer meeting that he invariably addressed in the evening. This bomb attack took place in Delhi where Gandhi was at that time. In the confusion that followed, Gandhi lost his watch. When this became known, a famous watch company immediately gifted him another watch. In fact on that fatal 30th January, 1948, when Gandhi came out for his usual evening prayer meeting, he was about five minutes late, and he was commenting on that even as the assassin pumped bullets into him.

This brings me to the next important point that I wish to make. In the Gita, Krishna says that man must leave his mortal coil with the name of the Lord on his lips. And that precisely is what Gandhi did. He fell down saying "He Ram" twice. Gandhi was a great one for Namasmarana that Swami recommends to us so often. With Gandhi, chanting the name of the Lord was almost an obsession. Stressing how firmly he was committed to Namasmarana, Gandhi once declared, "My breath may stop, but my chanting will not."

Swami often says, "Follow the Master. Your Conscience is the Master." That precisely is what Gandhi did all the time. An example. In the early thirties of the twentieth century when Gandhi started the famous Satyagraha or Non-Co-operation movement, he envisaged it as a totally non-violent struggle. But within days of the start of Satyagraha, some extremist elements participating in the freedom struggle attacked a Police Station in Chauri Chaura, torched the building, and burnt alive many Policemen. Gandhi was very much upset by this incident. He immediately called off the struggle, went on a fast for self-atonement - Gandhi often did this - and declared that he had committed a Himalayan blunder in ordering that particular campaign. The phrase Himalayan blunder thereafter became a part of the Indian lexicon.

Gandhi can be remembered for any number of things. After reading the Gita, I will always remember Gandhi for actually spiritualising life, every moment of it. What is remarkable is that though Gandhi was immersed in a political struggle to liberate India, even that political struggle became a spiritual journey for him. Let me give a few examples.

At one time, Gandhi decided to agitate against the punitive salt tax imposed by the British, which caused great hardship to the poor. He then launched what has since come to be known as the Salt Satyagraha. He asked people living all over India, especially those close to the coastal regions, to march to the sea shore, collect some sea water, evaporate it and make salt. This was to be the sign of protest and the declaration that when God had gifted the sea, man had no right to levy punitive taxes and amass wealth. So, protest marches to the sea-shore were organised all over the long coast line of India on a particular day, and Gandhi himself prepared to lead one such march from the village of Dandi in Gujarat. This event has since come to be known as the Dandi March.

At the beginning of the Dandi March, Gandhi addressed the marchers and in that speech he drew pointed attention to the importance of the means as well as the end. These days, many people try to justify illegal and even immoral actions on the ground that the end objective is good. Gandhi correctly held that the means are as important as the end and that BOTH must be good. To emphasise this, he quoted the last Sloka of the Gita, comparing Krishna to the Pure End, and Arjuna to the sacred means. Gandhi declared that the Gita says where Krishna and Arjuna are both present there would be victory. In practical terms this means that the means as well as the end must both be good - not for him the cliché that all is fair in love and war.

Gandhi was always meticulous in his observance of Dharma, even in political matters. As we all know, British India was partitioned into Pakistan and India in August 1947. Everything had then to be divided between the two countries, starting from the Army to the railway and the cash in the Reserve Bank. It so happened, that India had to pay to Pakistan 550 million rupees - that was a lot of money in those days. But before this money could be transferred, there was so much trouble between Pakistan and India that the Government of India decided to withhold transfer of this money. Gandhi was of course not in the Government, but he publicly declared that it was wrong on the part of India to hold back what belonged to Pakistan, no matter what the differences. Gandhi was severely criticised for his views, but he stuck to his guns, defending himself by citing Dharma.

This brings me to Gandhi and Independence. Gandhi always wanted unity and strongly voiced it. But the forces of separation grew stronger and stronger, day by day. Eventually he had to resign himself to the partition of the country. Thus, on August 14th 1947, Pakistan was born and on the following day India became free from British rule. There were violent riots all over North India preceding this historic day - in fact violence continued even after, for quite some time. Anyway, on 15th August, people all over India rejoiced in celebration of the moment they had waited for, for nearly a hundred years in fact. But Gandhi was no where near the festivities. He was in Noahkali in rural Bengal, the scene of violent atrocities. Gandhi who was then well past seventy, walked on the fields from village to village to comfort the grieving ones. I still remember vividly the photos from that time, showing Gandhi walking across the fields.

I do not want to give you the impression that Gandhi was just a great Dharmic politician. Rather, he was one who showed how the Gita could be applied even in politics. For him, God and spirituality came first; the world was a mere platform to show his love for God.

Gandhi realised quite early that a true spiritual seeker must avidly practice sense and Mind control, which Bhagavan Baba draws our attention to so often. He led a much disciplined life, and also an extremely spartan one. As I told you earlier, he was very particular about time. Once he gave an interview to an American correspondent. The American arrived on the dot. Gandhi welcomed him into the hut where he lived, and with a smile asked the correspondent to sit on the floor - there were no chairs. It was a bit uncomfortable but the correspondent sat down. Gandhi was spinning on the charka as he often used to, while the America sat transfixed, lost in the aura that surrounded Gandhi's gentle face. Five minutes passed and the correspondent had not asked a single question thought he had come with many. Gandhi glanced at his pocket watch that was by his side, smiled and said, "You know, five minutes of your time is already over and you have not begun the interview yet!"

The Gita says that one should not hate anybody. Gandhi meticulously followed this injunction of the Lord. He always asserted that his quarrel was with only British Imperialism and not the British people. Thus, for example, when he went to England for the Round Table Conference, he made a special trip to Lancashire to address the mill workers there. What for? There is an interesting story behind this visit.

Everyone knows that the average Indian wears a dhothi. In the old days, the dhothi used to be made in India by Indian weavers using the yarn produced by villagers. When the British started ruling India, they saw a huge market for the sale of dhothis. Thus, many mills sprang up all over Lancashire to make dhothis for sale in India. Thanks to the finer quality and aggressive marketing, literally millions of Indians lost their livelihood till Gandhi came and launched a strong movement urging people to buy only Indian-made dhothis. It was now the turn of the British textile industry to go out of business and the mill workers of Lancashire who became jobless began to hate Gandhi. That is why Gandhi made a special point of visiting Lancashire and explaining the correct facts to the mill workers so that they understood that Gandhi did not hate them or have anything personal against them.

Incidentally, when the present Queen of England got married in 1947 [or was it 1946? I don't exactly remember], Gandhi sent her a wedding gift, a table cloth made out yarn he had personally spun. No wonder there was always a natural admiration for Gandhi amongst the intellectuals even though they sometimes disagreed with him. Thus, for example, when Gandhi once appeared in a court to be tried for sedition before a British Judge, the Judge spontaneously rose in his seat when prisoner Gandhi was brought in! Imagine that!! A Judge getting up to show respect to a prisoner. This is a true incident, beautifully captured in the famous film on Gandhi by Attenborough.

Gandhi can be remembered for many things. But I personally believe, he should be remembered for his devotion to God. About his unshakeable faith in God, he said that even if the whole of humanity rallied against him, asking him not to believe in God, he would not flinch. Such was his faith.

Gandhi strongly believed in ceiling on desires, which Swami so often commends to us. Thus Gandhi declared that the Earth has enough to meet the needs of the entire population, but not enough to satisfy the greed of just one man! In those days when Gandhi said this, people laughed. But now, with the concern for the environment etc., people are beginning to realise that Gandhi's model for sustainable development had much merit in it.

Gandhi was not born a Mahatma; for many years he was just like most of us. But one fine day, he resolved firmly that he would be wedded to Truth. And that was the turning point. That is why he titled his autobiography as MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH.

If there is one lesson to be learnt from the life of Gandhi, I would say it is one-pointedness. For Gandhi, the twin objectives in life were Sathya and Dharma. Everything else was secondary, even the Independence of India for which he struggled so much.

JAI SAI RAM.