Gandhiji’s Last Days and Bhagavad Gita

Gandhiji’s  Last Days  and Bhagavad Gita

Excerpts from “ Gandhiji’s Last days “ By Tushar Gandhi in Readers digest  dated  January 2008. He wrote on how  the greatest Indian of the 20^th century met his end.

Quote :

 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi woke up at his usual time of 3.30am on January 30, 1948. It was bitterly cold, but the Mahatma  and  his entourage said their  morning prayers in the open verandah of New Delhi’s Birla House, where they had been staying for the last four months.

Later that morning  Gandhiji  asked for his correspondence file. Among the letters he had to attend to this morning was a note of condolence to a co-worker who had recently lost his daughter. “What comfort can I give you?” Gandhiji wrote. “Death is a true friend. It is only our ignorance that makes us grieve. Sulochana’s  spirit was yesterday , is today and shall continue tomorrow.”

Unquote :

Gandhiji’s words are true.  I reproduce the verse from Srila Prabhupada’s  “Bhagavad Gita As It Is “.

                                              Chapter 2. Contents of the Gita Summarized

TEXT 11

sri-bhagavan uvaca
asocyan anvasocas tvam
prajna-vadams ca bhasase
gatasun agatasums ca
nanusocanti panditah

SYNONYMS

sri-bhagavan uvaca--the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; asocyan--that which is not worthy of lamentation; anvasocah--you are lamenting; tvam--you; prajna-vadan--learned talks; ca--also; bhasase--speaking; gata--lost; asun--life; agata--not past; asun--life; ca--also; na--never; anusocanti--lament; panditah--the learned.

TRANSLATION

The Blessed Lord said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead.

PURPORT

         The Lord at once took the position of the teacher and chastised the student, calling him, indirectly, a fool. The Lord said, "You are talking like a learned man, but you do not know that one who is learned--one who knows what is body and what is soul--does not lament for any stage of the body, neither in the living nor in the dead condition." As it will be explained in later chapters, it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both. Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics or sociology, but he did not know that knowledge of matter, soul and the Supreme is even more important than religious formularies. And, because he was lacking in that knowledge, he should not have posed himself as a very learned man. As he did not happen to be a very learned man, he was consequently lamenting for something which was unworthy of lamentation. The body is born and is destined to be vanquished today or tomorrow; therefore the body is not as important as the soul. One who knows this is actually learned, and for him there is no cause for lamentation, regardless of the condition of the material body.

Mahatma Gandhiji’s  65^th death anniversary  falls next month ,  on 30^th January, 2013. We pay homage on his death anniversary , which is also declared as  Martyr’s Day in India .  His views on Bhagavad Gita  in his own words given below :

Gandhi on BhagawadGita:

The Gita is the universal mother. She turns away nobody. Her door is wide open to anyone who knocks. A true votary of Gita does not know what disappointment is. He ever dwells in perennial joy and peace that passeth understanding. But that peace and joy come not to skeptic or to him who is proud of his intellect or learning. It is reserved only for the humble in spirit who brings to her worship a fullness of faith and an undivided singleness of mind. There never was a man who worshipped her in that spirit and went disappointed. I find a solace in the Bhagavad-Gita that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavad-Gita. I find a verse here and a verse there , and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies -- and my life has been full of external tragedies -- and if they have left no visible or indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavad-Gita.

An ISKCON devotee's opinion  on Mahatma Gandhiji’s view on Gita :

                  Read" Bhagavad Gita As It Is " , along with the purports, and you get a good understanding of what he ( Srila Prabhupada )  meant. Gandhi did have the right to his own interpretation, as does everyone, but he was a political leader, and Prabhupada was a spiritual master. Politics have no place in submission to God according to the Spiritual Master point of view. 

My view on both of the above :

A devotee of  ISKCON movement accepts his Guruji’s  instructions and follow his guidance in reading Bhagavad Gita As It Is. But not all common person neither knows that there is a book like that nor  knows about the Krishna Conscious movement . So each and every individual who likes to read Bhagavad  Gita  , reads any interpretation of  any scholar’s  book they get in the pursuit of learning.  Ultimately their wish is to adapt themselves to follow the teachings. No interpretations  gives a wrong direction or deviation from the writings of Acharyas.

The Bhagvad Gita is perhaps the greatest work of practical Indian philosophy. Among the various interpretations of the Bhagvad Gita, the one by Mahatma Gandhi holds a unique position. In his own words, his interpretation of the Bhagvad Gita is designed for the common man 'who has little or no literary equipment, who has neither the time nor the desire to read the Gita in the original, and yet who stands in need of it's support.'

 In his last days too,  his condolence message to a co-worker , reveals his ideology on Gita.

Opinions , translations , purport  differs from person to person but Bhagavad Gita remains

 “ As It Is “ .