Page 10 - GANDHI A Biography for Children and Beginners

GANDHI – A Biography for children and beginners

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Einstein was not the only one to see that Gandhi was a unique and incredible

kind of human being. All those who came in contact with him including those

who were ranged against him perceived that there was something unique about
Gandhi. General Smuts whom he 'fought' in South Africa, successive

representatives of the British Crown whom he 'fought' in India, the planters in

Champaran, the mill-owners, the landlords, the orthodox fundamentalists
whom he 'fought', on the question of untouchability or communalism,—all saw

this uniqueness. He fought, but he loved even those whom he fought. He did

not fight them out of anger or hatred or jealousy; he fought them because he

loved them, and did not want them to persist in doing what was harmful and
injurious to themselves as to others.

Yet, he was felled down by an assassin, by one of his own countrymen, one of

his co-religionists. On hearing that Gandhi had been assassinated, George
Bernard Shaw, the well-known British playwright and litterateur said that the

assassination showed how dangerous it was to be too good. Gandhi wanted to

be wholly good. To be wholly good one not only has to renounce what is not in
the good of all, but also be active in the defense of what is in the good of all,

through means that were consistent with the good of all.

How can one be wholly good? Ours is a world of attractions and temptations.
One sees and experiences suffering, and wants to seek freedom from suffering.

One feels tempted to believe that the easiest way to escape suffering is to seek

pleasure; to possess what can give pleasure: to seek the power that can enable
one to acquire and retain possessions; to dominate so that one may forestall

and thwart possible challenges to one's possessions.

Yet, Gandhi wanted to be wholly good, wholly truthful, wholly loving. He did

not seek possessions. He did not seek power. What he wanted to do in life,

what he wanted to do with life was to "realize" the power that was latent in all

human beings — the power to know or see god, or the law that governs the

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