It’s a story of a simple man who lead millions by his strong character and great leadership.
Though I have to be honest that some of the characteristics of Gandhi; like his experiments with home medicine; are kind of hard to swallow. His small seemingly craziness however is instantly forgotten when you read his adventures esp the ones before he was well known. He was a definitely a shrewd man who knew the value of networking with key people in the society – he was very well connected with both the Indian leaders and British officials at his time.
However none of his adventures would have been so successful if they were not backed by Gandhi’s strong character and genuine love for people & most importantly his belief in the righteousness of his work. “disinterested service of the people in any sphere ultimately helps the country politically”
If he did not get something one way, he tried another way and yet another way till he got what he wanted. In spite of his strong perseverance, he was a simple man with a simple life. “Truth is like a vast tree which yields more & more fruit, the more you nurture it. The deeper the search in the mine of truth the richer the discovery of gems buried there in the shape of openings for an ever greater variety of service”
Like every great leader, he always led people by example. First time when he attended Indian Congress annual event, he was shocked to see how dirty toilets were at the event so he started cleaning them. This is just one of many examples when he did things with out worrying about how people would judge him. He was always guided by his own principles.
He loved everyone the same regardless of nationality, religion, gender. “What barrier is that love can not break” He had this extra ordinary ability to see people/situation in a positive & forgiving light. “God can never be realized by one who is not pure of heart. Self purification therefore must mean purification in all walks of life. Any purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to the purification of one’s surroundings“. “But the path of self purification is hard & steep. To attain to perfect purity one has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech & action; to rise above the opposing currents of love & hatred, attachment & repulsion.”
He was a disciplined person who had complete control over his mind, body & soul. “No matter what amount of work one has, one should always find sometime for exercise, just as one does for one’s meals“. “How heavy is the toll of sins & wrongs that wealth, power & prestige exact from man!” “civility does not mean the mere outward gentleness of speech cultivated for the occasion, but an inborn desire & gentleness to do the opponent good”
And of course, he believed in non violence. After reading this book you can see how one man can actually change the world and people around him with out using any weapons. We need many more like him in today’s world.
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
sarojyadav.org – cool!!!!