Mahatmas and their sacrifices

My dear blog readers,

This blog is coming after just 14 days after my previous blog :-). I got the next idea sooner this time.

This month I was fortunate that I got 8 days off to spend my time with my parents in my native place. Whenever I go home I will be having a task of going through good articles collected by my Mom and Dad. My dad is a voracious reader, two daily news papers (one in kannada and another in English), one monthly Reader's Digest and a Kannada health magazine act as proofs. The same thing can’t be said about my Mom but she reads Kannada daily "Vijay Karnatak" whenever she finds time in her busy daily schedule. Whenever they find a good article they keep it aside for me so that I can read when I visit home next time. This time a series named "Harilal, innobba Gandhi" was waiting for me. It is appearing in the weekly edition of "Vijay Karnatak" from the past one and half months. By the time of writing this blog 6 episodes are over and it is still continuing.

"Harilal, innobba Gandhi" means "Harilal, another Gandhi". Harilal was the first among the four sons of Mahatma Gandhi. The series is the story of eldest son of Mahatma, his tragic life, his troubled relationship with his father, his rebellion against his father and the trauma and turbulences he faced throughout his life. Also the series has tried to bring out the humanness of the great Mahatma. My scope is not the story of Harilal but another facet of sacrifice made by Gandhiji. When Gandhiji jumped into the Indian freedom movement in the effort of uniting India against British Empire he had to sacrifice his family interests to a great extent. Though his wife and other sons supported Gandhiji in their own ways, his eldest son Harilal couldn't come to his terms. Harilal claims that he had his own ambitions which were not supported by his father. He also accuses that his father didn't allow his family members to lead their life as per their wishes. As a result he emerged as a rebel. He became drunkard though Gandhiji advised the countrymen not to taste alcohol; he converted himself to Islam though it was against his mother's wishes. He was in news for all bad reasons. He was unknowingly used by Gandhiji's critics against his father. His rebellion acts used to bring shame to his parents. The gloom of sorrow used to fill their mind and heart whenever they came to know about their son's irresponsible acts. Gandhiji when asked about his son by a media person, sorrow fully admitted his mistake of not taking enough care of his son and claimed responsibility of his son's fate. But meanwhile he also mentioned Harilal as a sole exception since all his other family members were following his principles.

After reading the story till date, I agree with Harilal to some extent. As a human being he had his own ambitions and it was his parents’ responsibility to nurture them. As he didn’t get support from his parents especially from his father he turned rebel and rest is the story which I covered in brief above. But Harilal would have looked at the larger picture. Since the country was in slavery and his father was fighting against British to attain independence which was the utmost priority for one and all Indians at that time. As Gandhiji was concerned, Harilal was one of the sacrifices he made for India and her freedom. By looking at history anyone can agree that the liberation of a country is a big saga of sacrifices and the leader has a big contribution in that. We have to salute the sacrifices of the great man though we can sympathize with what happened to his son.

Not only Gandhiji, I have heard people questioning the sacrifices of Lord Ram and Lord Gautam Buddha also. One of my friends questioned Lord Rama's decision to leave Goddess Sita for exile after a fisherman questioned her purity when she was held captive by Ravana. Ramayana is a great mythological epic and according to that Lord Vishnu had taken the incarnation of Rama to kill the evil in Ravana and to set an example of an ideal ruler of people. The exiling of Goddess Sita might be an act of God to set an example where a ruler should always be for his people and fulfill their wishes. He might just have shown what kind of sacrifices an ideal leadership expects. The same was with Lord Buddha. If He wouldn’t have left his wife and children, "Buddhism" which is apostle of peace wouldn’t have taken birth.

After recalling such instances which I could, I am convinced that the History and Mythology is full of such sacrifices. Restricting only to history, we can see many people who have achieved greatness with respect to their selfless contribution either towards the betterment of their countrymen or towards betterment of entire mankind. But ironically one or some Harilals were missed by them.

Thanks for reading,
Chetan

Mera Bharat Mahan

Hi Indians,

"Mera Bharat Mahan"
Whenever i hear or read this quote (Chant), there arises a mixed feeling in me. Emotionally my heart gets delighted when I hear the Hindi quote which means "My India is Great". But in the next moment, my mind starts questioning - "Is the quote correct? Is my India great?” This article is a short introspection of both the thoughts on the eve of 6oth Independence Day.

First analysis of mind's reaction - Yes, I have a lot of reasons to prove that the quote is incorrect. The list of reasons includes but not exhaustive of the following - Ever Increasing Population, Poverty, Hunger, Illiteracy, Non obedience of law/rules, corrupt government officers, corrupt politicians, Non effective governments, bad infrastructure in Cities as well as villages, Infiltration, terrorists, increasing crime and ever hostile neighbors. Tonnes of Newsprint, miles of reels of films, billions of seconds of air time of News and Radio channels are testimonials of all these. Whenever one reads a daily or watches a news channel he/she will get abundant incidences (I don’t want to name any incidences since my scope of the article is small and they are self explanatory) proving the above reasons. These incidents make one not only question the quote again and again but also force another to quit the country on the first chance for a better living abroad. There is lot of helplessness in the society and greater amount of hopelessness about the future of the nation. There are questions from almost everyone - "Where we are heading to? Do we have a future in India?", but my question is "Is India great?"

My friends, when my mind asks this question suddenly the answer comes from heart "YES, Why not?” Reasons, yes there are many. First re-look at the quote "My India is Great". It doesn't speak about the Indians (residents of India) but India as a nation. I agree a nation mainly consists of her people but she has more that. If we see India geographically it is situated at a proper place on earth where there is almost equality in Day time and Night time in the stipulated 24 hours of a day. The country is blessed with the proper sunlight throughout the year which is essential for life of many species. Half part of the country is surrounded by sea and oceans due to which the country gets adequate rainfall. The country is blessed with numbers of life supporting rivers, gigantic Himalayas making the half of the rivers ever flowing throughout the year. Also the country has a lot of forest area which makes it greener. Historically also very few nations boast the greatness like India. So many great kings like Asoka, Akbar, Prithviraj Chouhan and Krishnadevaraya ruled the country. We have great epics in Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagvad-Gita. India boasts so many medical inventions like Ayurveda and Yoga. But the country bore the brunt of the Afghan invaders and British rule for 4 centuries when the countrymen were treated like slaves. But again in the leadership of Gandhiji, Indians waged a totally different war which was not only unique but the most effective. During Independence struggle, India showed the world the war can be won without using a weapon which became the norm to follow. The independent India has seen a lot of development through green revolution, white revolution and most recently IT revolution. In Indians also, there are lots of current achievers in all aspects of life who makes India really proud and great.

In the above paragraphs we could see lot of problem areas but also had a glimpse of the greatness of India. My point is if we have so many great things in our stride why can't we get inspired by them solve the other problems. It is not easy but not impossible also. If all well (socially, financially, educationally) placed Indians contribute (in there own way) a bit towards other under privileged people and the other biting problems, I think we can really make India "Mahan" in all aspects. I hope that time will come when one (probably me also) hears or reads the quote "Mera Bharat Mahan" there won't be any questions :-) in his/her mind.

Happy 60th Independence Day,
Jai Hind.