There are many armed conflicts going on all around the world everyday. Many countries have amassed so many nuclear weapons that they can destroy all life on earth many times over. Some nations have already used these weapons of mass destruction to kill hundreds of thousands of civilian children, women, and men. Too many nations are spending enormous amounts of money and other resources on developing, acquiring, and using their military might while hundreds of millions of their citizens go hungry. The ‘military industrial complex’ and powerful media are manipulating and / or controlling major policies in many democratic and not so democratic governments to spend billions of dollars in acquiring arms and creating conflicts.
A lot of us would like to change the world for better but do not know ‘how’. Life of Mohandās K. Gāndhi can be a good ‘role model’ to study and emulate. He was a very scared, shy, scrawny, ordinary child and a failure as a young lawyer. By his own admission he was:
“I claim to be no more than an average man with less than average ability.”
How did he transform himself from a tongue-tied lawyer to a fearless leader of four hundred million people in their successful fight for independence from the brutal, well armed, and established British Empire? His transformation was so great, Albert Einstein said:
“For generations to come...people will scarcely believe that such a one as this, ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”
Who guided him? Who were his guru-s (teachers)? Can we learn from his life? He said:
“I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.”
He did not have one single person who can be called his guru. A guru gives us knowledge and removes the darkness of ignorance. A lot of people, experiences, books, his own self-analysis, determination, and perseverance transformed an ordinary Mohan in to a Mahātmā (a great soul) and a bold leader of 400 million Indians. His ideas in the fields of politics, philosophy, economics, education, etc., more than half a century after his death, are still being taught in universities all over the world . Eknath Easwaran, a professor at University of California Berkley has said that:
“Historians of the future, I believe, will look upon this century (20th) not as an atomic age, but as the age of Gāndhi”
World leaders like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., President Barak Obama have quoted from Gāndhi’s writings and have tried to follow in his foot steps.
“Throughout my life, I have always looked to Mahātmā Gāndhi as an inspiration, because he embodies the kind of transformational change that can be made when ordinary people come together to do extraordinary things,”
President Barak Obama in an interview with ‘Outlook’ magazine.
When I was in school, I had seen Gandhiji only once, that too from a distance. Many adults in India, including some of my family members, had taken part in the struggle for India’s independence. I was 12 years old and in high school, in 1948 when Gandhiji was assassinated. In school and all over the country, we had celebrated India’s independence a few months before that. At that time I did not realize the sacrifices and contributions of so many Indians in this struggle or the reasons for it. Later I read his autobiography, other books about him, and saw Gandhi movie by Sir Richard Attenborough. After retiring from work, I had the opportunity to volunteer with a committee that celebrated his birth day, Gandhi Jayanti, by inviting people who had distinguished themselves by following the path of public service to improve the lives of less fortunate people. I came to learn more about Gandhiji, his work, and influence he was having in the world. I was impressed by his humble beginning and how he rose to such eminence, and decided to write about his evolution from quite an ordinary boy in to man of the century.
He wrote his autobiography to tell people about his life and called it “the story of my experiments with Truth”. It is actually a study in the ‘art of living’ for all of us. It is one of the most honest and truthful personal account written by anyone. He debated for a long time about whether to write his autobiography or not. The story of his earlier years when he had struggled to develop his own character and the methods he used to bring about changes in society — experiments in the spiritual field — were not well known. The main reason for his writing the autobiography was the hope that people will try some of the experiments in their own lives and live according to the highest values common to all mankind. Later part of his life had become an open book.
We all have a desire to improve ourselves at sometime in our life. The questions most of us face are ‘What to change’, ‘How to decide’, ‘How to go about improving ourselves’, etc. Lots of books, videos, seminars, and experts are available to guide us. Sometimes learning from the life of a real person who changed, evolved, metamorphosed himself may help. This book is about an ordinary boy with no unusual talents, who changed himself and in turn, improved lives of millions around the world. What can we, ordinary people learn from his life? This book is a study of the life of Gāndhi to find some ways to see ‘How he transformed himself’ and ‘see if we can learn from his methods’. It may help us transform our own lives and make this planet earth a better and safer place to live for all creatures. There may be some repetition of ideas and incidents in this book. I do not expect anyone to read this book from cover to cover in one day. It would be preferable to read small portions, think and digest the idea or incident and try to see if that is something applicable to their life and change accordingly.
A brief history of India and biography of M. K. Gāndhi is followed by how he transformed himself from Mohan in to a Mahātmā. I have used Mohan, Gāndhi, Mahātmā Gāndhi, and Gāndhiji depending on his age and how people addressed him during that period. Modern day children are bombarded by TV, iPod, rap music, Hollywood and Bollywood movies, video games, etc. They learn their values from these sources which create their fantasy world. Study of the life of Mahātmā Gāndhi may redirect their attention to other better and more important things in life.
Mohan’s evolution is very much a part of the history of political struggles of Indians’ in South Africa and India and hence both, history and biography, are considered simultaneously. Since this book does not report events as they took place in chronological order, a time line of Gāndhi’s life and other relevant dates are included. There may be some repetition of events and quotes because of their relation to two different topics.
Author sincerely hopes that some of the readers will be inspired to learn more about the life and work of Gāndhiji, and fulfill one of his dreams for a non-violent, peaceful world.
Some words like Mahatma are spelled as Mahātmā to help with pronunciations - a is pronounced as in again and ā or Ā to be pronounced as in graft.