We know from Mahatma Gandhi’s experience, as also from Nelson Mandela’s experience, as too from the life story of Mother Teresa and others like her, that if even one man or woman comes forth with his/her liberating experience, he/she becomes a liberating force, a beacon for all.It was Gandhi, a single individual, who demonstrated in his time, through his satyagraha movement, the potency of suffering and non-violence, of forgiveness and conciliation. People cannot follow such a route, such a movement, unless they see it existing in a living form. When spirit becomes flesh, they can see and understand and heed its call. Non-violence, forgiveness and reconciliation cannot be preached, they have to be lived through to be followed.Gandhi showed in his life and in his politics that violence cannot be obliterated by more violence. Violence can only be fought with non-violence. An eye for an eye, he said, ends up making the whole world blind. Paradoxically, freedom and happiness are only won when we work for the freedom and happiness of others.While in prison Gandhi made a pair of sandals for General Smuts — who had earlier in his negotiations gone back on his word and sent him to prison. Twenty years later Smuts, returning the sandals, wrote to Gandhi: ‘‘I have worn these sandals for many a summer even though I feel I am not worthy to stand in the shoes of so great a man. It was my fate to be the antagonist of one for whom I have the utmost respect.’’For Gandhi those who opposed him were not enemies, but friends yet to be made!I hope US President George Bush and his administration can learn how to transform their enemies into friends — as Gandhi did a century ago, as South Africa did through their Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It takes real courage to reach out to the enemy, to heal their hurt, than to pull the trigger. President Bush needs to learn from Gandhi.In our world of violence, bombs and missiles have become symbols of power and progress. Must we live with the threat of such violence and destruction? If we are to make progress, we must not repeat history but make new history. The historian Arnold Toynbee pointed out that most civilisations die 200 years before they acknowledge their end. One hopes that our past colonial and violent civilisation is on its way out. And that the voice of Gandhi will be heard — because it is the voice of the age to come.Peace requires peace within the human heart. Peace also requires compassion, a sense of connectedness with other humans as also with other species. Buddha, like Christ, like Gandhi, like Nelson Mandela, and such others, taught us, ‘‘No matter how fiercely a fire of hatred burns, when it meets a great river filled with calming waters, it must die out. The fire that blazes within will lose its power when met by self-restraint.’’ Gandhi found the great river filled with calming waters in South Africa, which helped him set the stage for peace and forgiveness, and also helped lay the foundations for abolishing colonialism and redefining progress and development.Healing of wounds — wounds of inequity, of brutality, of violence and of aggression — is what we have learnt from Gandhi’s experience in South Africa; as also about satyagraha, non-violence, reconciliation and overcoming of evil with good. Gandhi’s story can be told in many ways — essentially his story is the story of the inner growth of man. In the 21st century we are in desperate need of such leaders who can provide a moral force that will give shape to a future sustained by peace.We are at the crossroads. If this world is to survive at all in any civilised form, Gandhi’s voice must be heard and acted upon. On Gandhi’s tenth death anniversary Radhakrishnan wrote: ‘‘His is the voice of the age to come and not that which is fading away and should fade away. Gandhi is that immortal symbol of love and understanding in a world wild with hatred and torn by misunderstandings. He belongs to the ages, to history.’’
