Remembering Mahatma Gandhi




Remembering Mahatma Gandhi

Incredible things are done in the world simply out of commitment. A great example is that of Mahatma Gandhi. If we look at this man, he was not talented or anything special, please see. As a child he did not show great potential. He was not extraordinarily intelligent. He was not an artist, scientist, or even a very good lawyer. He could not successfully practice as a barrister in India, which is why he went to South Africa for a better opportunity. Even there, he was not very successful. But suddenly, the man made a commitment towards something. He got so committed that he became a giant.

Only with just one incident in his life, suddenly all his identities broke.

He had gone to South Africa to make a living and he was doing okay as a lawyer. One day he bought a first class ticket in a train, got in, and traveled some distance. At the next station, a white South African got in. This man did not like a brown-skinned person sitting in first class, so he called the ticket collector. 

The ticket collector said, “Get Out!” 

Mahatma Gandhi said, “I have a first class ticket.”
“It doesn’t matter, just get out.”
“No, I have a first class ticket. Why should I get out?”
They threw Gandhi out of the train along with his luggage and he fell on to the platform. He just sat there for hours. “Why did this happen to me? I bought a first class ticket. Why was I thrown out of the train?” he thought. It was then that he identified himself with the larger predicament of the people. Till then his survival, law, and making money were important to him. But now, he identified with a much larger problem that existed. He just broke that little identification and moved into a much larger identity.


A man once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same idol?"

"No," said the sculptor without looking up, "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage."

The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage. "Where is the damage?" he asked.

"There is a scratch on the nose of the idol." said the sculptor, still busy with his work.

"Where are you going to install the idol?" The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high.

"If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?" the gentleman asked.

The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, "I will know it."

The desire to excel is exclusive of the fact whether someone else appreciates it or not. "Excellence" is a drive from inside, not outside.


Many humans who are historically known as great beings; this is all that happened to them. They were living with a limited identification. All of a sudden, an event occurred that broke their identities and they were able to relate to a larger process happening around them. They did things that they themselves could not imagine possible.
Gandhi moved millions of people just like that. Not only in India, anywhere in the world just take the name of the Mahatma and there is a sense of respect. All this happened at a time when there were so many leaders who were true giants in India. They were more talented, better orators and better educated. Yet, this man stood above them all, simply because of his commitment.
"Whatever happens, life or death, commitment must not change." That is the mantra of Mahatma Gandhi ji. Truly committed, you express yourself totally, in every possible way. When commitment is lacking, somewhere you lose your purpose. When the purpose is lost, there is no question of fulfilling our goals. The goals remain totally unfulfilled.
So being committed is just something we have to decide within ourselves. If we are truly committed to whatever we have taken up in our life, then the results are plenty.  If results don’t come for a committed person there is no such thing as failure. If I fall down 100 times a day, what to do? Stand up and walk again, that’s all.
Commitment does not mean aggressiveness; this must be understood. This is where Mahatma Gandhi’s example is so suitable in the circumstances. He was committed to India’s freedom struggle, but at the same time he was not against the British people, only because of his humanity. That was the best part, wasn’t it? This shows the maturity of that man.



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