મહાત્મા ગાંધીએ પોતાની આત્મકથા 'સત્યના પ્રયોગો'ના ચોથા ભાગના ૧૮માં પ્રકરણ 'એક પુસ્તકની જાદુઈ અસર'માં લખ્યું છે, "આ પુસ્તકને લીધા પછી હું છોડી જ ન શક્યો. તેણે મને પકડી લીધો. જોહાનિસબર્ગથી નાતાલ ચોવીસ કલાક જેટલો રસ્તો હતો. ટ્રેન સાંજે ડરબન પહોંચતી હતી. પહોંચ્યા પછી આખી રાત ઊંઘ ન આવી. પુસ્તકમાં સૂચવેલા વિચારો અમલમાં મૂકવાનો ઈરાદો કર્યો … આજ લગી પણ એમ જ કહેવાય કે મારું પુસ્તકોનું જ્ઞાન ઘણું જ થોડું છે … પણ જે થોડાં પુસ્તકો વાંચ્યાં છે, તેને હું ઠીક પચાવી શક્યો છું એમ કહી શકાય. એવાં પુસ્તકોમાં જેણે મારી જિંદગીમાં તત્કાળ મહત્ત્વનો રચનાત્મક ફેરફાર કરાવ્યો, એવું આ પુસ્તક જ કહેવાય." આ પુસ્તક એટલે જ્હોન રસ્કિનનું 'અન ટુ ધિસ લાસ્ટ'. મહાત્મા ગાંધી પર આ પુસ્તકની જાદુઈ અસર થઈ હતી. તેમણે આ પુસ્તકનો અનુવાદ કરીને દક્ષિણ આફ્રિકાથી પ્રકાશિત થતા 'ઇન્ડિયન ઓપિનિયન'માં તેનો સાર આપ્યો હતો, જેની 'સર્વોદય' નામે પુસ્તિકા પણ તૈયાર થઈ હતી. ગાંધીજીએ આ પુસ્તકનો માત્ર અનુવાદ જ નહોતો કર્યો પરંતુ તેનું તાત્કાલિક ધોરણે અનુકરણ શરૂ કરી દીધું હતું અને ફિનિક્સ આશ્રમમાં મજૂર-ખેડૂત જેવું જીવન જીવવાનું શરૂ કરેલું.

૮ ફેબ્રુઆરી, ૧૮૧૯ના રોજ જન્મેલા જ્હોન રસ્કિનનો આજે જન્મ દિવસ છે. હાલમાં સમગ્ર દેશમાં ગાંધીજીની વતન-વાપસીની શતાબ્દીનું વર્ષ ઊજવાઈ રહ્યું છે, કારણ કે વિદેશ ગયેલા મોહનદાસ મહાત્મા બનીને દેશમાં પાછા ફર્યા હતા અને અહિંસક આંદોલન થકી દેશને આઝાદી અપાવી હતી. મોહનદાસને વિદેશની ધરતી પર મહાત્મા બનાવનારાં અનેક પરિબળોમાં સૌથી મોટો ફાળો જ્હોન રસ્કિનના 'અન ટુ ધિસ લાસ્ટ' પુસ્તકનો પણ ગણવો જ રહ્યો. ગાંધીજીએ રસ્કિનને પોતાના ગુરુ ગણાવ્યા હતા. રસ્કિનની જન્મ જયંતી નિમિત્તે તેમના 'જાદુઈ' વિચારો જાણીએ …

ચિત્રકાર અને કલાકાર એવા જ્હોન રસ્કિન કોઈ અર્થશાસ્ત્રી નહોતા, પણ તેઓ એક વિચારક હતા, દાર્શનિક હતા. લાગણી, માનવજીવનનાં મૂલ્યો, ધાર્મિક સદ્ગુણો વગેરેને ચાતરીને ચાલતું અર્થશાસ્ત્ર તેમને મંજૂર નહોતું. પશ્ચિમનું અર્થશાસ્ત્ર જ્યારે વધુ લોકોના હિતની વાતો કરીને સમાજના કેટલાક વર્ગનાં હિતોની અવગણનાને યોગ્ય ઠેરવતું હતું ત્યારે રસ્કિને પોતાના પ્રખર વિચારો દ્વારા ભલભલા અર્થશાસ્ત્રીઓની બોલતી બંધ કરી દીધી હતી. રસ્કિને તે વખતે આર્થિક અસમાનતામાં સબડતા સમાજને જોઈને ચિત્કાર કરેલો, "જોનારને લાગે કે આ તો સંપત્તિ એકઠી થઈ રહી છે, પણ હોય છે એ તો લાંબા ગાળા સુધી પથરાયેલા વિનાશની કેવળ પારાશીશી. એનો ચળકાટ નકલી છે. મુઠ્ઠીભર સિક્કા માટે તે કપટ કરાવે છે. ખરેખર તો એ છેતરામણી દોજખ જેવી ખતરનાક ખાડી છે. ત્યાં સંપત્તિથી ભર્યું વહાણ ભાંગીને ભુક્કો થઈ જાય છે. મરણ પામતા સૈનિકોનાં કપડાં ખેંચી લેવા જેવી સંપત્તિ એ છે. એ તો માનવ અને માનવતા બન્નેને દફનાવતી ખાઈ છે." તેમના મુજબ તો "આજના અર્થશાસ્ત્રીની રીતે તમારી જાતને ધનવાન બનાવવાની જે કલા છે તે તમારા પાડોશીને ગરીબ રાખવાની કલા પણ છે."

મૂડીવાદી અર્થવ્યવસ્થામાં મૂડી જ કેન્દ્રસ્થાને હોય છે ત્યારે મૂડીપતિઓના હિતનું પોષણ અને મજૂરોનું શોષણ કરવામાં આવતું હોય છે. આ અંગે રસ્કિને લખ્યું છે, "માણસની લાચારી અને ગરજનો લાભ ઉઠાવીને તેની મજૂરી, તેનો શ્રમ, તેનાં માલમિલકત ઓછા ભાવે લેવાં તેનું નામ વેપાર ગણાય છે. સામાન્ય ચોર, ડાકુ કરતાં ઊલટી લૂંટ થઈ. એ કંગાળ છે અને તેથી શાહુકાર-શેઠને લૂંટે છે. જ્યારે અહીં તો આ શાહુકાર-શેઠ પોતે ધનિક છે તેથી લૂંટે છે."

આજે શહેરોમાં લૂંટફાટ સહિતના ક્રાઇમ વધ્યા છે તો બીજી તરફ ગ્રામીણ વિસ્તારોમાં નકસલવાદે નાકે દમ લાવી દીધો છે. સમગ્ર વિશ્વ આતંકવાદ અને મંદી સામે ઝઝૂમી રહ્યું છે અને શાંતિની ઝંખના કરી રહ્યું છે ત્યારે રસ્કિનના આ શબ્દો ભીંત પણ કોતરી રાખવા જેવા છે ઃ "શાંતિ અને ન્યાય એકબીજાનાં સહોદર છે. શાંતિ માટેની ઝંખના સેવનારને હાથે જ ન્યાયની વ્યવસ્થાનાં બીજ રોપાય છે. એવી શાંતિ સ્થાપનાનું આ કામ તો શાંતિનો બંદોબસ્ત રાખનારાને આધારે થઈ શકશે નહીં. તે તો જાતે પોતાની અંદર પામવાની શાંતિ છે … કોઈ ધંધાદારી નિયમો વડે એ પામી શકાતી."

આતંકવાદ અને અંધાધૂંધી પાછળ સામાજિક-રાજકીય-આર્થિક વ્યવસ્થાને કારણે સર્જાતો અન્યાય જવાબદાર છે. રસ્કિને દોઢસો વર્ષ પહેલાં ન્યાયની બાબતે કંઈક આવી ફરિયાદ કરેલી, "ભલભલા પેઢી દર પેઢી સતત એક ભૂલ કરતા જ રહે છે. ગરીબને ભીખ વડે રાહતની મદદ કરવાની, તેને આશ્વાસન વડે આશા અને ધીરજ ધરવાની ઠાવકી શીખ આપવાની ભૂલ તે કરતા જ રહે છે. અન્ય તમામ ચીજ તે આપતા જાય છે, પણ ઈશ્વરે તેમને માટે આદેશપૂર્વક નિર્ધારિત કરેલી એક જ ચીજ એ તેમને આપતા નથી, અને એ ચીજ તે છે, ન્યાય." રસ્કિને ન્યાયના સંદર્ભે પ્રેમની સુંદર વ્યાખ્યા આપેલી છે, "પ્રેમ એટલે ખાલી લાગણીવશતાની વાત નથી. એ તો તમામ વ્યવહારમાં ન્યાય સચવાય તેમાં રહેલો છે, ન્યાયને જ પસંદ કરવામાં અને તેને જ મોખરે રાખવામાં એ સમાયેલો છે."

e.mail : divyeshvyas.amd@gmail.com

સૌજન્ય : ‘સમય-સંકેત’ નામે લેખકની કટાર, “સંદેશ”, 08 ફેબ્રુઆરી 2015

http://sandesh.com/article.aspx?newsid=3040144

GRIM REMINDER: “January 30, the day Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi, is the starkest reminder in the history of humankind of how the same text can be read differently.” Picture shows Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral procession in in 1948.

Both Nathuram Godse and Mahatma Gandhi read the Bhagavad Gita but one became a martyr and the other a murderer January 30 reminds us of the fact that even the holiest of texts can have subjective and differential meanings.

The sacred Indian verses of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita has been in the news for various reasons in recent months. Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to United States President Barack Obama when he visited the White House last year and one to Emperor Akihito of Japan. He has declared that the Gita would be the gift that he would carry for all world leaders. More controversially, Union Minister Sushma Swaraj advocated that the Gita may be declared the national book of India. Most recently, the BJP government in Haryana declared its intention to teach the Gita as part of the school curriculum.

To say that religion and politics should not be mixed has not only become a cliché, but may be missing the point altogether. Many tall leaders found the reason for their political action in their religious faith. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr are examples. President Obama mentioned in his town hall speech in Delhi last week that his faith strengthened him in his life. It is also true that many kings and emperors of the past used religious faith to justify killings and destruction.

Martyr and murderer

Many individuals and organisations advocate and indulge in violence today, and justify it on the basis of religious texts. January 30, the day Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi, is the starkest reminder in the history of humankind of how the same text can be read differently. Both read the Bhagavad Gita. One became Gandhi. The other became Godse. One became a martyr. The other became a murderer. Jawaharlal Nehru, for whom the Gita was “a poem of crisis, of political and social crisis and, even more so, of crisis in the spirit of man,” wrote in the Discovery of India: “… the leaders of thought and action of the present day — Tilak, Aurobindo Ghose, Gandhi — have written on it, each giving his own interpretation. Gandhiji bases his firm belief in non-violence on it; others justify violence and warfare for a righteous cause …”

What is curious is the fact that the two opposite interpretations of the Gita that Nehru refers to were responses to the same shared reality that their respective proponents encountered —  colonialism and Christianity. Two strikingly different responses emerge to the same situation. The divergence is evident from the debate between Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. In 1920, Tilak wrote to Gandhi: “Politics is the game of worldly people and not of Sadhus, and instead of the maxim, ‘overcome anger by loving kindness, evil by good,’ as preached by Buddha, I prefer to rely on the maxim of Shri Krishna, ‘In whatsoever way any come to me, in that same way I grant them favour.’ That explains the whole difference.” Gandhi replied: “For me there is no conflict between the two texts quoted by the Lokamanya. The Buddhist text lays down an eternal principle. The text from the Bhagavad Gita shows to me how the eternal principle of conquering hate by love, untruth by truth can and must be applied.”

For Tilak, the Gita was a call for action, political and religious. He declared that the Gita sanctioned violence for unselfish and benevolent reasons. While Tilak’s interpretation of the Gita that he wrote while in prison inspired a generation of warriors against British colonialism, it also informed Hindutva politics. Godse used similar arguments to justify the killing of the Mahatma, and quoted from the book during his trial. For Gandhi, the Gita and all religious texts were not excuses for exclusion and bigotry, but inspiration for compassion and confluence. In The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi — incidentally, the book that Mr. Modi gifted Mr. Obama — the Father of the Nation wrote: “But there is nothing exclusive about the Gita which should make it a gospel only for the Brahmana or the Hindu. Having all the light and colour of the Indian atmosphere, it naturally must have the greatest fascination for the Hindu, but the central teaching should not have any the less appeal for a non-Hindu as the central teaching of the Bible or the Koran should not have any less appeal for a non-Christian or a non-Muslim.”

Challenged by Christian missionaries, Gandhi learned more about his own religion, but more importantly, he imbibed Christian values rather than rejecting them. “Gandhi integrated several aspects of Christianity in this brand of increasingly redefined Hinduism, particularly the idea of suffering love as exemplified in the image of crucifixion. The image haunted him all his life and became the source of some of his deepest passions. He wept before it when he visited Vatican in Rome in 1931; the bare walls of his Sevagram ashram made an exception in favour of it; Isaac Watts’s ‘When I behold the wondrous Cross,’ which offers a moving portrayal of Christ’s sorrow and sacrifice and ends with ‘love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all,’ was one of his favourite hymns…” Bhikhu Parekh writes. Gandhi was accused of being a ‘closet Christian’ and ridiculed as ‘Mohammad Gandhi’ by Hindu radicals.

Support for Godse’s reading

Godse’s reading of the Gita appears to gather more supporters in contemporary India. BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj knew what he was talking about when he praised Godse. Several individuals and organisations have become active in propagating the ideas of Godse. There is also a move to build a temple for him.

After gifting the Gita to the Japanese emperor, Mr. Modi wondered whether his act would irk secularists. The greatest of Indian secularists, Nehru, had this to say: “During the 2,500 years since it was written, Indian humanity has gone repeatedly through the processes of change and development and decay; but it has always found something living in the Gita…The message of the Gita is not sectarian or addressed to any particular school of thought. It is universal in its approach for everyone… ‘All paths lead to Me,’ it says.”

But then, it is all about reading it like Gandhi.

e.mail : varghese.g@thehindu.co.in

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/gita-gandhi-and-godse/article6835411.ece?homepage=true

"Just an old man in a loincloth in distant India: Yet when he died, humanity wept." This was the observation of a newspaper correspondent at the death of Mahatma Gandhi. The tragedy occurred in New Delhi as the gaunt old man walked to a prayer-meeting and was engulfed by one of history's great ironies – a life-long pacifist and promoter of non-violence struck down by an assassin's bullet.

Gandhi's violent death came just months after the realization of his long sought-after goal – the independence of India from Great Britain. It was a bittersweet victory for Gandhi because along with India's independence came the partitioning of the sub-continent into two separate states – Muslim-based Pakistan and Hindu-based India – an action he thoroughly opposed. Gandhi did not take part in the celebration of India's independence.

Death of the Mahatma

Vincent Sheean was an American reporter and author who had covered trouble spots around the world in the years prior to and during World War II. In 1947, Sheean traveled to India and became a disciple of Gandhi in an attempt to find meaning in the violent and disruptive events he had witnessed during his years of reporting. We join his account as he rushes to join a prayer-meeting with Gandhi in the heart of New Delhi in the early evening hours of January 30, 1948:

"I got a taxi and went out to Birla House in time for the prayer-meeting. This time I was alone. I stationed my taxi under a tree opposite the gate of Birla House and walked down the drive to the prayer-ground. It was not yet five o'clock and people were still streaming in on foot, in cars and with tongas. As I came on to the prayer-ground at the end of the garden I ran into Bob Stimson, the Delhi correspondent of the B.B.C. We fell into talk and I told him about the journey to Amritsar and what had taken place there. It was unusual to see any representatives of the press at the prayer-meeting; Bob explained that he had submitted some questions to the Mahatma for the B.B.C. and thought he might as well stay for the prayers since he was on the premises. He looked at his watch and said: 'Well, this is strange. Gandhi's late. He's practically never late.'

We both looked at our watches again. It was 5:12 by my watch when Bob said: 'There he is.' We stood near the corner of the wall, on the side of the garden where he was coming, and watched the evening light fall on his shining dark-brown head. He did not walk under the arbor this evening but across the grass, in the open lawn on the other side of the flower-beds. (There was the arbored walk, and a strip of lawn, and a long strip of flower-bed, and then the open lawn.)

It was one of those shining Delhi evenings, not at all warm but alights with the promise of spring. I felt well and happy and grateful to be here. Bob and I stood idly talking, I do not remember about what, and watching the Mahatma advance toward us over the grass, leaning lightly on two of 'the girls,' with two or three other members of his 'family' (family or followers) behind them. I read afterward that he had sandals on his feet but I did not see them. To me it looked as if he walked barefoot on the grass. It was not a warm evening and he was wrapped in homespun shawls. He passed by us on the other side and turned to ascend the four or five brick steps which led to the terrace or prayer-ground.

Here, as usual, there was a clump of people, some of whom were standing and some of whom had gone on their knees or bent low before him. Bob and I turned to watch – we were perhaps ten feet away from the steps-but the clump of people cut off our view of the Mahatma now; he was so small. Then I heard four small, dull, dark explosions. 'What's that?' I said to Bob in sudden horror. 'I don't know,' he said. I remember that he grew pale in an instant. 'Not the Mahatma!' I said, and then I knew.

Inside my own head there occurred a wavelike disturbance which I can only compare to a storm at sea – wind and wave surging tremendously back and forth. I remember all this distinctly; I do not believe that I lost consciousness even for a moment, although there may have been an instant or two of half-consciousness. I recoiled upon the brick wall and leaned against it, bent almost in two. I felt the consciousness of the Mahatma leave me then-I know of no other way of expressing this: he left me. …The storm inside my head continued for some little time-minutes, perhaps; I have no way of reckoning.

… lt was during this time, apparently, that many things happened: a whole external series of events took place in my immediate neighborhood – a few yards away – and I was unaware of them. A doctor was found; the police took charge; the body of the Mahatma was, carried away; the crowd melted, perhaps urged to do so by the police. I saw none of this. The last I saw of the Mahatma he was advancing over the grass in the evening light, approaching the steps. When I finally took my fingers out of my mouth and stood up, dry-eyed, there were police and soldiers and not many people, and there was Bob Stimson. He was rather breathless; he had gone somewhere to telephone to the B.B.C. He came with me down the steps to the lawn, where we walked up and down beside the flower-bed for a while. The room with the glass doors and windows, by the rose garden at the end of the arbor, had a crowd of people around it. Many were weeping. The police were endeavoring to make them leave. Bob could not tell me anything except that the Mahatma had been taken inside that room. On the following day he told me that he had seen him carried away and that the khadi which he wore was heavily stained with blood."

http://www.mkgandhi.org/newannou/assassination-of-mahatma-gandhi.html