My Interactive session are an hour long

An Hour with the Mahatma …. till Mohit challenged me to talk about Gandhi in 8 minutes.
The book is from the man who inspires me every minute ,even if I fail to touch his ideals.

Being a Psychiatrist, my daily interactions are with people who are seeking help for a
troubled mind. Few are ill and Science helps them with drugs rest have problems of living.
Suffering is the truth of all human minds and Indian to Greek philosophy has dealt with it
thoroughly. But we all need practical guidance to manage to it.

Beyond Psychology, few minds offer us the solution, from Krishna to Buddha, a long series
of which Mahatma Gandhi is the last. I have known him as many others have, through his
books – Political philosophy in ‘Hind Swaraj’ and personal transformation through his
autobiography that is aptly called ‘My Experiments with Truth’.

His own intention is delineated in the introduction ---

“Let those, who wish, realize how the conviction has grown upon me; let them share my
experiments and share also my conviction if they can. The further conviction has been
growing upon me that whatever is possible for me is possible even for a child, and I have
sound reasons for saying so. The instruments for the quest of truth are as simple as they are
difficult”

The transformational process that Gandhi underwent is available to all in the biography, that
Gandhi wrote at age of 56 and also in his 100 volumes of collected work.

It provides a framework to all the minds in anguish that are poised on a fork in life ,
indecisive , tormented – a possibility of decision to change, a pathway to transform and bear
the suffering, an existence of will.
The crucial point of the book that created the Gandhi we know…is an incident of his life, of
being thrown out of train in PeterMaritzberg in South Africa , as a young barrister, was a
night when he halted the escapism in his mind--

“He took me by the hand and pushed me out. My luggage was also taken out. I refused to go
to the other compartment and the train steamed away. I went and sat in the waiting room,
keeping my hand-bag with me, and leaving the other luggage where it was. The railway
authorities had taken charge of it.
It was winter, and winter in the higher regions of South Africa is severely cold. Maritzburg
being at a high altitude, the cold was extremely bitter. My over-coat was in my luggage, but I
did not dare to ask for it lest I should be insulted again, so I sat and shivered. There was no
light in the room. A passenger came in at about midnight and possibly wanted to talk to me.
But I was in no mood to talk.
I began to think of my duty. Should I fight for my rights or go back to India, or should I go
on to Pretoria without minding the insults, and return to India after finishing the case? It
would be cowardice to run back to India without fulfilling my obligation. The hardship to
which I was subjected was superficial – only a symptom of the deep disease of colour
prejudice. I should try, if possible, to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process.
Redress for wrongs I should seek only to the extent that would be necessary for the removal
of the colour prejudice.
So I decided to take the next available train to Pretoria.”
(on Way to Pretoria..)

The book has many such turning points but from this night Gandhi walked on the chosen
path.
How has it changed my life?
I continually strove to explore solutions to the problems that people bring to me, especially
where they themselves could be their mentors and I, just the indicator.
This is a usual scenario with people and an opportunity for me to step out of the routine,
superficial change, to indicate to a life using Gandhi’s example. For those who do not hate
him because of deluded minds ,he offers a model of practice that in due course balances
emotion with reason.

But the path to transformation is tough, consciously chosen and to be lived in each moment.
Ahimsa and truth were his choice and he walked ruthlessly on it and described the narrative
with brutal honesty in the book. Gandhi accepts, warns and yet raises the hope for a better
human
“But the path of self-purification is hard and steep. To attain to perfect purity one has to
become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action; to rise above the opposing
currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know that I have not in me as yet that
triple purity, in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world's praise fails
to move me, indeed it very often stings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to me to be
harder far than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms. Ever since my return
to India I have had experience of the dormant passions lying hidden within me. The
knowledge of them has made me feel humiliated though not defeated. The experiences and
experiments have sustained me and given me great joy. But I know that I have still before me
a difficult path to traverse. I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his
own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for
him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility.
In bidding farewell to the reader, for the time being at any rate, I ask him to join with me in
prayer to the God of Truth that He may grant me the boon of Ahimsa in mind, word and
deed.” (Farewell..)

He succeeded, his countrymen yet have to.!!!!