We all know Mr. Gandhi, our father of the nation, as a physically weak, dhoti clad, wise man; the man who drove a large nation to its independence; an ideal disciple of Ahimsa (non-violence), and truth; a firm believer of God. From our history books, to Richard Attenborough’s movie ’Gandhi’, we all know Gandhiji’s story from being humiliated, by an Englishman, at Pretoria’s railway station, to the Independence of India, via Satyagraha, Avagya Andolan (non-cooperation movement), Dandi march, Khadi, etc.
But there is a lot more about him, and that’s his autobiography all about. I would like to suggest another name for his book (The story of My Experiments with Truth), and that’s The Making of Mahatma.
The Autobiography :
In his book, Mr. Gandhi has described his life as a series of experiments, he performed, on truth, non-violence, brahmacharya, dietetics, hydropathy, naturopathy etc.
He completed his law from England, and after that spent most of his life in South Africa. Its there he did lots of experiments with his life. And, these were which made the changes in him. It’s worth studying the adversaries he faced in there, but he never compromised with his ideologies and believes.
I gave such an odd subject to my review, because it was Mahatma Gandhi’s ’’arrogance’’ which influenced me the most. It’s easy to make ideologies and beliefs for one self, but it’s very difficult to follow them to the extreme, and this is what makes difference between a common man and a Legend. As you’ll read this book, there’ll be several places where your ’common’ mind won’t agree with his thinking. The difference is that you’re susceptible to change your thinking with time, situation, or reasoning. But Mr. Gandhi didn’t, this is what made all the difference.
When he believed that non-vegetarian (including milk and its products) is not for humans, then he followed his ideology to his death bed, while all the doctors around him kept on shouting.
I call this arrogance. One may see it as a very haughty attitude, but there’s a glimpse of ’positive arrogance’ in it. He lived, and subsequently died, believing in his ideologies. Every legend (be it Hitler, Mao Ts Tung, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin etc.) had some arrogance in him/her (whether good or bad, positive or negative), and that’s why history (and we) remembers him/her.
I would suggest everyone to read this book, as it’s a live example of how modesty, wisdom, and humiliation adapt themselves in making of a MAHATMA.