something about him touched Hearts all over the world people who didn't know where India was didn't know what the issues were there was something about him that touched their lives he was a man of many faces he had this tremendously packish sense of humor and very mischievous and could be very it sounds a disrespectful to say naughty or Wicked leader of One fifth the world's people he had the extraordinary capacity to talk to this massive crowd on a onetoone basis I think everybody sitting there thought the gandi G was talking to him playful father and friend in some of the caricatures they made him look like a monkey and grandfather used to laugh at that and sometimes joke and says here's your monkey I'm coming in now in inspiration to Future Generations the MMA Gandhi feel nonviolence is difficult to to carry unless you have some with full conviction Rebel for a just cause he says yes we will go to prison we will take a vow to God that we will go to prison and we will stay there until this laaw is withdrawn and willing Mar for his country and he even said to one of his associates that I shall die at the hands of an assassin and when I do please remember that if I accept that bullet courageously with the name of God on my lips only then believe that I was a true Mahatma there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives I may not deny the law or the lawgiver because I know so little about it or him God to be God must rule the heart and trans transform it it is proved in the transformed conduct and character of those who have felt the real presence of God within born into an ancient and mystical land mandas K Gandhi saw his life as a search for ultimate truths constantly evolving seeking alternate ways of thinking and living he called his autobiog iography the story of my experiments with truth his long journey of self- transformation began in 1869 from this middle class house in the Indian Port City of porbander from his earliest days Gandhi was stirred by a role model of extraordinary discipline and devotion deeply religious his mother was given to frequent and extended episodes of fasting once in the rainy season she vowed not to eat until the sun Shone poor Gandhi and the other members of the family would constantly be looking out of the window because they wanted their mother to eat because she was starving and she said don't worry about me I'm perfectly fine if God doesn't want me to eat today I sh eat Gandhi revered his mother for her saintliness but was not yet ready to follow her example the youngest of four four children he indulged in childish pastimes stealing change to buy cigarettes fearful of his Stern father a prominent local politician he nervously confessed to the petty theft instead of punishing his son he embraced him for Having the courage to say the truth and and to confess and both of them cried and grandfather writes in his biography that it was like washing away the impurities the tears that both of them shed but when you have this kind of discipline through love it builds the humanity within you and I think that's what happened with Gandhi in keeping with Hindu Tradition at age 13 Gandhi was married to a young girl of the same age initially he was a jealous and possessive husband at age 16 he faced his first great conflict between Duty and desire one night while nursing his sick father he slipped upstairs to share his wife's bed at this moment his father died the servant comes to him and says your father is gone Gandhi says his first impulse was my god what have I done for all of his life he says he refers back to that incident when he deserted his father when he did not fulfill his duty his responsibility to his parent and that became the basis of much of his sense of Duty and responsibility that he is he must be the son of all Society he must be the diligent and dutiful person serving humankind at age 17 Gandhi left his wife and family behind to attend law school in London IM mely shy and naive he found the bustle of the big city thoroughly intimidating he's unaware of things like elevators so he walks into what he thinks is a room in the hotel and suddenly the room is moving and he's frightened the thought he's going up here he's on an elevator the door is open and he can't conceive of it for a Time His Highest ambition was to become an English gentleman he sported a top hat and Silver Tip cane took lessons in dancing violin and French but no superficial skill could hide his inexperience and insecurity even after obtaining a law degree he doubted his ability to practice later writing there was no end to my helplessness and fear he goes to India takes up his first case and finds that when in the court of law he simply is not able to open his mouth before the judge he froze and he was deeply distressed by it humiliated he began searching for an escape salvation came in the form of a job offer from South Africa as he said it was in that God forsaken country that I found my God just days after arriving in his new country Gandhi experienced an epiphany unaware of discrimination against Indians in British run South Africa he innocently booked first class passage on a train to ptor a white passenger spots him complains to the conductor and insists that he'd be placed in a third class compartment even though he has the first class ticket Gandhi resists at the first major stop Peter maritzburg he's thrown off the train and I mean thrown brutally off the train by the conductor that humiliation was really what sparked off his desire for Change and he spent the whole night sitting on the platform wondering how to get Justice Gandhi later described that long shivering winter night as the most creative experience of his life he considered returning to India and rejected it as an act of cowardice he considered accepting the Discrimination but everything in him rebelled against submitting he considered physically attacking his oppressors and gave that up as impractical there was only one choice left to stay and resist the very next day he boarded another train the next week he organized a meeting of Indian immigrants in his 24th year Gandhi's concerns had grown Beyond himself to Encompass a greater cause this made him feel that he had a destiny that he had to stay he had to fight for the rights of his people and eventually for the rights of all black people now that I think was really the beginning of the Mahatma where Mohandas Gandhi really begins to emerge as a Mahatma a great soul in the South Africa of the 1890s Africans and Indians alike endured the whims of their white Masters living under laws denying them the right to vote own property or even walk the streets after dark dedicated to writing those wrongs Gandhi was at first woefully naive in the ways of power Politics as a lawyer he believes that we change the laws we change human behavior and so from 1893 to 196 he is bound and determined in the Law Courts to do something now the problem is that the British are smarter than he is during this time and every time he changes one law another law is put into place in order to make the Discrimination work in another manner victimized by white South Africans Gandhi resolved to ask act as a unifying force he began developing communities of people from different races and religions all brought together to live as equals he insisted on treating his own family which soon included four young Sons no differently than anyone else despite his abhorrence of British oppression until 1906 Gandhi considered himself a f faithful member of the Empire even singing God Save the Queen and teaching it to his children so loyal in fact that he served as a stretcher Bearer alongside British troops in the boore war and the Zulu uprising of 1906 and it was actually the experiences in the Zulu War which really brought him very close to inhuman violence because that was when he realized that this war was not just a war uh between two people but it was a real Massacre he recoiled as British Gatling guns slaughtered Zulus armed with Spears he saw the pleasure soldiers took in killing and he collected the shattered bodies of wounded left to die in agony he begins to think that the Zulus are being dominated ated by the British in this way what does domination mean and he thinks about his own domination in his family and particularly of his wife he has been married aged 13 and he has been at times what he calls a cruel a jealous a dominating husband and it's this fascinating mode then of thinking triggered by the Zulu Rebellion seeing how the British dominating the Zulus and he takes it within himself how am I guilty of this dominating kind of behavior and he says I'm guilty of it in my own marriage in my relationship with curba within the Hindu tradition is the ideal of a man who has so conquered his sexuality that he achieves a childlike innocence only by mastering his own desires Gandhi decided could he best serve Humanity at age 37 he took the Hindu vow of Brahma cheria permanent celibacy so if he was totally pure then there'll be no impurity no violence no aggression around him in 1906 he immediately followed his personal transformation with a stunning political Insight new laws decreed that all Indians must be registered and fingerprinted the provisions included having Indian women strip for white police so body marks could be noted on the registration form incensed 3,000 Indians met in Johannesburg to plan a course of action suddenly a Muslim Merchant stands up and he shakes his fist and he says by God I will go to prison before I obey this law and Gandhi hadn't thought of this before had not thought of going to prison but he knew instinctively that this was the right way to go and he gets up and he says we will take a vow to God that we will go to prison and we will stay there until this law is withdrawn Gandhi's speech sparked off an historically unprecedented Act of mass Civil Disobedience following his lead protesters endured repeated police beatings bravely accepting their suffering without retaliation he realized for the first time in his life that when human heart is closed you can't touch the human head there is no used reasoning with a person whose heart is full of prejudices if reason is not enough violence is not good what do you do and he discovers in South Africa for the first time the method of nonviolent resistance you stand up against your opponent tell him that you will not give in but you also reassure him that you will do him no harm Gandhi coined the term Satia graha a combination of two Sanskrit words meaning truth and the pursuit of to describe his revolutionary concept the goal of nonviolence was as old as human philosophy Gandhi's Insight was to apply the ideal to practical political situations MMA gandi field in order to uh Implement genuine nonviolence the first uh in your own mind the peace or the spirit of reconciliation must develop so without that is how can you implement genuine nonviolence in 1913 General Yan smutz the English puppet Chief in South Africa passed laws decreeing Hindu and Muslim marriages invalid Gandhi jumped on the blunder to inspire a wider revolt and grandfather typically came home one day and told my grandmother that you are no longer my wife you are my concubine and she fled up and said what are you talking talking about and so he explained that this is the law and so our marriage is no longer recognized and we are living together illegally traditionally Indian women were restricted to the home gandi attacked such Customs as another form of Oppression and called on women to shoulder public responsibilities in one crafty stroke he had helped to emancipate millions and added a powerful new tool to his Arsenal the marriage laws touched off a national strike 50,000 indentured laborers took up the cause and walked off their jobs General smutz relented resending the marriage loss Gandhi had proved that willpower could overcome Brute Force eager to challenge England on his home ground in 1915 age 45 he returned to an India strangling under the Yoke of imperialism for two centuries the British had systematically plundered India's natural resources deprived of raw material native Industries withered away India was the largest most populous and most profitable Outpost in the Empire and and they brought India down to such a point where we couldn't even manufacture a little safety pin we didn't have the capacity to make a little safety pin that was the state at which they had reduced us over the years of exploitation by 1915 300 million Indians bowed before just 100,000 English Invaders never in history had so few ruled so many from so far away despairing of ever regaining their freedom Indians collaborated in their own enslavement providing soldiers and police to enforce the will of their white Masters Gandhi challenged his countrymen to resist telling them that those who behave like worms should expect to be trampled on and that's when they said when shall we learn to rebel against ourselves we have become so dependent that we must learn to rebel against ourselves get rid of our psychology of dependency of getting things by bribery rather than bravery we can't rebel against the government unless we first learn to rebel against ourselves time and again British authorities unwittingly played into Gandhi's Hands by inflaming public opinion in 199 he protested oppressive new laws by inciting a national strike while he coordinated the Rebellion from Bombay hundreds of miles to the north 2,000 Indians crowded into the enclosed Village Square of amrer unknown to them 2 days earlier General Reginald Dyer had decreed a ban on mass meetings without warning Dyer marched 50 Indian troops into the square and ordered them to open fire with rifles and Gatling guns for 10 minutes the soldiers cut down the trapped and terrified crowd killing 379 people and wounding over 1,000 the only reason he stopped firing was they ran out of ammunition he said if he had more ammunition they would have still gone on firing into the crowd firing to kill the people his uh ambition was to teach the Indians a lesson that they cannot defy the British and get away with it Dyer followed the massacre by issuing an Infamous crawling decree local Indians had two choices get down on their bellies and wriggle like worms or be fogged to death enraged Indians screamed for vengeance with a population advantage of 4,000 to1 they could have executed the white foreigners in a matter of days the m Mur at amzer in 1919 threatened to touch off a bloodbath between Britain and Indians demanding Revenge Gandhi stepped in and he said no we cannot be to the British what general Dy has been to us we have to show them that we can rise beyond that kind of hate he never allowed anybody to consider the British to be enemies he said they are not our enemies they are our friends and they need to be liberated as much as we need to be liberated over the next 3 years Gandhi transformed the Indian nationalist cause into a mass movement he built upon the outrage generated by amiter to unify Hindu and Muslim laborer and Merchant and he won the enduring affection of ordinary Indians by becoming one of them embracing the same simple clothes scant food and meager Comforts as the poorest of the poor to promote self-reliance he exhorted Indians to wear their traditional simple white cloth and to spin it themselves Western made clothes were cast off into giant B bonfires as he said foreign cloths signified our cultural dependence on the west and it also implied that we were indirectly accompli in our own enslavement therefore burning forign cloth was a way of purging ourselves Gandhi insisted on spending one hour each day personally spinning yarn other Indian leaders ridiculed the practice in the midst of a national crisis Gandhi might be found at his Spinning Wheel but he saw the fundamental importance of connecting with the masses his unique stature as the champion of all Indians kept him the unquestioned leader of India for a quarter Century while inciting open Revolt with one hand with the other he had to prevent his followers from succumbing to the Allure of bloodshed many times he called off campaigns when they threatened to become violent angering friends and colleagues Gandhi is unique because he as a political leader showed that this nonviolent attitude could work politically each time he proved that once he sees the moral High Ground he must not lose it and it could be lost through an act of violence on the part of his community the Indian he knew the political effectiveness of that moral High ground but his public duties carried a high personal price his four Sons often felt neglected and resented him for his long absences in prison the oldest harilal rebelled in ways seemingly designed to inflict pain on his parents becoming an alcoholic and a prostitute from Gandhi's point of view he lost his son and there were times towards the end of his life when he said of Aral he's no longer my son it's an awful comment for a father dedicated to nonviolence to make but the personal cost was tremendous Gandhi grieved for his son but no personal concern could deter him from the mission of freeing 300 million Indians in 1930 at age 61 he unveiled a bold new plan to rebel against attacks many found unjust the British levy on salt it was illegal for Indians to make or sell salt that lucrative franchise was reserved for foreigners to dramatize the Revolt he planned to March 240 Mi to the Arabian Sea and there make salt his colleagues in the Indian National Congress begged him him to reconsider convinced that his scheme would fail the governing British were equally confident that their old Nemesis was courting ridicule on March 12th he set off with 80 followers on a journey that would capture the conscience of the world and change the course of history Gandhi's 1930 Salt March covered just 10 m a day allowing interest to build and giving foreign reporters time to come to India and cover the spectacle firsthand so for 20 4 days passing through thousands of villages creating an enormous political theater and as soon as the news spread not only the whole of India was emotionally and intellectually engaged but the whole world large number of American news reporters said this is incredible by the time he gets to the seashore on April 6th there are hundreds of thousands of Indians with him and when he reaches down and picks up that handful of salt and says with this salt I resist the might of the British Empire join me in this struggle of right against might the response was electric across the country Merchants farmers and Housewives openly made and sold s Sal thousands were jailed including Gandhi police brutally Club protesters further enraging and unifying the Indian people Gandhi knew that nonviolent resistance requires its followers to show their courage thus appealing to the best in human nature he had taught Indians to Rebel against their oppressors and against themselves under intense International pressure the Viceroy Lord Irwin released Gandhi and invited him to negotiate Gandhi went directly from prison to the viceroy's Palace an honored guest of sorts so they gave him a glass of warm water which is what he had asked for and he put it down on the table and quietly took out something from his loin cloth and the Curious Vice Roy said what is it he said your Excellency don't tell this to anybody it is the salt that I have illegally manufactured he quietly put it in water stirred it and drank it the next year Gandhi journeyed to London for a conference on India's future as always he traveled third class and performed his daily disciplines in London he created a public relations Bonanza staying with the poor in the East End winning affection wherever he went children followed him shouting Gandhi where's your trousers you are going to tell the other children that I love you all all as my own children that's all I want to say invited to Buckingham Palace for royalty he was criticized for appearing before the king in a loin cloth the king replied Gandhi was wearing enough for both of us back home in India he spread his message through daily prayer meetings I am going to request the father of our nation the Apostle of love and truth and nonviolence to give us his benediction it is complete Independence that we want an order repair meeting could have these hundreds of thousands of people you'd look sort of just out of the corner of your eyes and not one person was not gazing at him absolutely the attention wrapped Gandhi admitted to the flaw of ego and at times found Mass adoration exhilarating more often however the constant Crush of disciples was simply overbearing I recall on many occasions when I was traveling with him at every station there would be thousands of people in the middle of the night shouting Long Live God ghi Long Live Gandhi and they would go on shouting until the train passed there the result was all that Den was that he could never sleep he was surrounded by a loyal Entourage who lived according to his dictates at times he required celibacy from his married disciples and in the last years of his life he engaged in tests of willpower that shocked his greatest admirers sleeping naked with young Hindu girls the idea he explained was to challenge his discipline and thereby heighten his commitment for Indians he was a near deity for Imperial Britain the enemy in August 1942 he demanded immediate Independence declaring here is a mantra a short one that I give you it is do or die we shall either free India or die in the attempt the night of Gandhi's 19 1942 quit India speech he and the entire Congress were arrested at 73 and in failing health for the next 2 years he would lead the Rebellion from prison in 1944 his wife curba his life companion of 62 years died in his arms Gandhi was devastated a year later an exhausted Britain admitted it no longer had the resources to rule India but the prospect of Independence brought old divisions to the four Hindus and Muslims long suspicious Rivals turned to open hatred the Muslim minority insisted on a separate country what became Pakistan after a lifetime spent unifying people Gandhi saw his beloved Homeland sliced in two I think it he really did break Gage's heart the idea that that India would have be divided he would sometimes find impossible Solutions because his heart wanted what was right but the world w't allow what is right to happen very often he kept Faith with his principles and urged others to do the same even when it slowed negotiations with the vice Roy Lord mountbatten he maintained his longtime discipline of Silence one day each week my father came really to look upon him as a saint but he could be most exasperating to deal with if it was a crisis point my father asked him to come and have discussions and it was all desperate I remember my father's expression when gandi comes into the room with his finger to his lips my father says oh no it's not a Day of Silence is it on August 14th 1947 Indians celebrated their independence Gandhi seeing the growing Rift between Hindu and Muslim asked the friend why do they rejoice I see only rivers of blood partition immediately brought mass migrations Hindus fleeing to India Muslims escaping to Pakistan hundreds of thousands of refugees marched desperately without food without water devastated by privation torn by ancient animosities two great religions erupted into mutual Massacre both sides were acting as much out of fear as of anger and I remember standing on the platform as it pulled in the station and there was nobody stirring on the train but there was blood oozing from the doors and when they opened the doors well it looked like a butcher shop except the meat had pieces of clothing on them eventually a half million people would perish Gandhi's whr at the Carnage was heightened by searing guilt he personally had failed to convert his people to nonviolence the last time I talked with him I found him really depressed and he said I can't see anything around me there is Darkness everywhere men are behaving like beasts then he said no worse than beasts because beasts don't kill their own and he said I'm going to go on a hunger strike until this stops until Hindus and Muslims become brothers again there was so much anger among the refugees that there were large demonstration saying to hell with Gandhi let Gandhi die let Gandhi die to hell with him the second day there was a very timid counter demonstration and the third day the counter demonstration got bigger and the anti Gandhi demonstration got smaller and on the fourth day the same Trend continued until finally the streets were thronged with people cheering for Gandhi and after a week Muslims could walk the streets of Delhi in perfect safety Gandhi's hunger strike rescued New Delhi but at the India Pakistan border Civil War raged on he embarked Upon A pilgrimage of peace across his hate torn land walking barefoot from Village to ravaged Village enduring angry mobs Thorns thrown in his path rising at 4 each morning to struggle against the tide of fear and bloodshed and I think there is not a single Indian who had not feel ashamed and proud ashamed that he had been so deeply leted down by many of them and proud that from amongst them in this days of darkest brutality sprang a figure who made them Proud to be an Indian who atoned for them almost a Christlike figure and that's when God is said there is nothing but violence around me my entire life is being defeated and my death must achieve what my life failed to achieve and he deliberately went about unprotected into most trying situations and he even said to one of his associates that I shall die at the hands of an assassin and when I do please remember that if I accept that bullet courageously with the name of God on my lips only then believe that I was a true Mahatma on January 3r 30th 1948 the 78-year-old Gandhi walked to his daily prayer meeting in the garden of berera house in New Delhi from among the crowd a young Hindu man emerged bowed to Gandhi and shot him three times in the instant before death took him Gandhi murmured Rama the Indian word for God the shock was so appalling um that I remember the tears streaming down my face I'd only met him half a dozen times but the impact um and the magnetism of the person was so enormous that one really felt acute personal bement as though one's own father had died and everybody in India felt the same there was a sea of people around around the house and one of my strongest memories was seeing pundit Nero standing on the little stone wall with tears coming down his eyes saying the father of our country is dead and and breaking down in tears the sorrow and shock of his murder wrenched India from the grip of Madness violence ceased overnight 1 million people poured into Delhi for Daran the blessing of being near him all through that night people came up on foot in bullet carts on bicycles and broken down cars and buses and paning onto trains and a sea of humanity followed the beer of that little man and all the mass of people a sea of people arrives at the chromation ground and then when the actual flame was lit I think 34 of a million throats Cried Out Gandhi is Immortal the greatest Legacy of the man is the kind of life he lived a life which was designed to Incarnate one single passion one single principle the principle of nonviolence nonviolent revolution had freed India in the 50 years since it has transformed the world as Martin Luther King later said Christ gave me the message Gandhi gave me the method his ashes were taken via a special third class train to the ocean there to be spread upon the waves home for a soul who never lost his faith in God or man in the midst of yes life persists in the midst of untruth Truth persists in the midst of Darkness light persists hence I gather that God is life truth light he is love he is the Supreme good