Velandy Manohar, MD

Fostering Recovery By Increasing Understanding of Mental Illness


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Velandy Manohar, MD
93, Meeting house road
Haddam, CT 06438
[email protected]

Mahatma Gandhiji- Spiritual and Psychological Perspectives

PART 4.05

 

Mahatma Gandhiji Amar Rahe!

Spiritual and Psychological

Perspectives

by

Velandy Manohar, MD

 

               Past President, Indo- American Psychiatric Association

             Past President, Asian American Caucus and

           Distinguished Life Fellow American Psychiatric Association

 

 

                I believe it is important to be aware of the impact of the Bhagvad Gita, Jainism, Hindu Philosophy, the Sermon on the Mount, Ruskin’s Unto This Last, and Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God is Within You, on Mahatma Gandhi’s life and work in order to explore the multi- faceted genius who combined his own journey to the Summit and the liberation of his people from bondage of inferiority and the servitude of ease offered by the elite classes in India.

                Mahatma Gandhi, although exposed to religious experiences in childhood, first read the Bhagvad Gita when he was twenty years old and living in England. Many years later he wrote “When doubts haunts, when disappointments stare me in the face, I see not a ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Gita and find a verse that comforts me. I immediately begin to smile in the midst of sorrow.” Bapu’s secretary, Mahadev Desai said, “Every moment of Gandhiji’s life is a conscious effort to live the message of the Gita.”

                The Gita showed Bapu how to avoid the evils that ordinarily accompany action. Gita chapter II, verse 39, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “Sukha, duhke same kritva, labh, alabhau, jaya, jayau, Tato yuddhaya uyjyasva, naivam papam avapsyasi.” “While maintaining an equi-poised mind about personal pain and pleasure, profit and loss, victory and defeat, (or for that matter life or death, Chapter II, verse 37), gird up your loins to fight. By acting in the manner without attachment you incur no sin.”

                In 1903 while living in South Africa, Gandhiji began to memorize and dig deeper into the Bhagvad Gita, more importantly he began to practice the principles of Karma Yoga. About this time, Bapu was absorbing the message of Ruskin about the dignity of labor, wealth, and poverty. Bapu merged the powerful ideas in Ruskin’s book “Unto This Last” with the principles and practice Karma Yoga according to the Gita (Second discourse)

                Bapu has written; referring to the Ruskin tome “Unto this last”, that book marked a turning point in my life.  He gave up his sophisticated elegant westernized life- style and began to live on a farm. He began to expand the concept of kith and kin to include all of humanity in the context of caring, nurturing and relieving suffering.  He worked hard to put into practice what he believed in and what he taught others. He liked to teach by example. He portrayed a state of desirelessness, while immersing himself in actions of all types: menial, mundane and the sublime. He cleaned latrines; he tended to the needs of the ashram residents, led two prayer meetings a day and organized mass movements against the practice of overlordship on people over all others. Bapu, the peerless votary of Truth (SAT) had transformed himself from a foppish Barrister at Law to the Apostle of Ahimsa and the epitome of nishkama karma. 

 He became a new kind of revolutionary who sought not power and position for himself but the liberation of all of humanity, every man, woman and child. Bapu said “My mission is not merely freedom of India, though it undoubtedly engrosses practically the whole of my life and the whole of my time. But through the realization of freedom of India, I hope to realize and carry on the mission of the brotherhood.  Bapu continues thus" I have implicit faith in my mission that if it succeeds, it is bound to succeed, history will record it as a movement designed to knit all the people in the world together, not as hostile to one and another, but as a part of one another. My work will be finished if I succeed in my conviction to the human family that every man or woman, however weak in body, is guardian of his or her Liberty.”  

The sublime beauty and the powerful Truths of the words of Lord Jesus called the Sermon on the Mount had a life changing impact on him in terms of the choice of the path of peace to the end, and the means he used to achieve his goals, viz. love and Ahimsa. His relationships to those that chose to join him and with those who decided to oppose were based on the golden rule, Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you. Bapu has written that the Sermon on the Mount went straight to my heart. He saw similarities between the message of the Gita and the Sermon on the Mount.

In 1906, Bapu read Count Leo Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God is within you”. His subsequent correspondence with Tolstoy helped Bapu forge the most powerful and principled means of neutralizing the dominion of oppressive, evil systems of Government. He called this resurgent source of life sustaining and liberating energy Satyagraha. (Soul force) He worked on this soul force, harnessed it irresistible energy to advance his goals of social transformation and revolutionary action. He wrote to Count Leo Tolstoy.

                Jainism has significant influence on the people of Kathiawar where Bapu was born and raised.  A Jain sanyasi, Becharji Swami played a major role in Bapu’s life after his father had passed away in 1885. This Jain muni helped Bapu to go to England by allaying the concerns and fears of his family. He asked the future Mahatma to take three vows: not to touch, wine, women or meat. Bapu took these vows solemnly, which pleased his saintly mother who then gave her permission for him to go to England.

                Jainism influenced Bapu’s ideas about the means of attaining the Truth, which Bapu had defined as the Supreme God.  Jainism espouses the concept of absolute Ahimsa in the conduct of one’s everyday life. Later in life, Bapu would say, Unlike the Jains, I am a votary of Truth first and of Ahimsa second, because I am willing to sacrifice Ahimsa to attain the Truth. “It is the search for Truth”, Bapu said, “That lead me to Ahimsa”.  This is reinforced in the Mahabharata; “Ahimsa and truthful speech are the dharmas that do good to the world. Ahimsa is the highest dharma and it resides in SAT  (Truth). By staying in Truth, mans thoughts become good. Mahabharata 3.198.69

 Bapu believes that the Gita teaches that man is a master of his destiny, in the sense that man has freedom of choice, in the manner by which he attempts to be free from the bondage of his senses.  But like the great Souled Govinda, Mahatma Gandhiji cautions us, man is NOT the controller of the results of his actions  (Gita: Chapter Two verse 47) The moment man deludes himself that he is the doer and the controller of the kind of results that accrue to his actions, he comes to grief.

                I believe there are several aspects of the Bapu’s beliefs and practices of fasting and celibacy that merits our attention. The Mahabharata, which Bapu called the Fifth Veda, speaks of three centers of energy that inheres in every being- baahu balam, buddhi balam and atma balam. The first two based on self will and dominion over others can produce great achievements but can lead to entropy and erosion of values and decadence of civilizations. Celibacy, fasting, singing bhajans (kirtan), listening to epics and hari kathas (sravana) concentratation on words of prayer and deeds of rituals (dhyana), reflection and meditation (manana) and atma-nivedana can bring the irresistible soul force of Atma balam.  When the light of Atma balam dispels the darkness of self-will and selfishness, the vectors of the three forces: baahu balam, buddhi balam and atma balam come together as Triveni at a Meta - physical Prayag. The resulting pavitra Ganga Mata of Satya graha cleanses everything, nourishes millions of beings and carries the aspirants of Truth and ahimsa to liberation (Swaarajya and Moksha.) 

                 In South Africa, while Bapu was blazing a trail with the uplifted Torch of Truth based on the Gita, Jain precepts and the other influences I referred earlier, he began to realize the importance of controlling his senses.  Lord Krishna says “In discourse two, verse 55, “When a man completely casts off, O! Partha, all the desires of the mind and it is satisfied in the Self by the Self, then he is said to be one with steady wisdom (sthita prajna) “Lord Krishna speaks of the means to the goal of becoming a sthitaprajna) “for a man who is fasting his senses, the sense objects disappear leaving the yearning behind: but when he has had Darshan of the Highest, even the yearning disappears (Discourse Two, Verse 54 Gita)

                Bapu began fasting with a view of curbing his passion of his palate for food, a first step in self-denial. He believed if he could not succeed in curbing his appetite for food, he could not succeed in curbing stronger passions such as anger, greed, desire for dominion over others and lust (one form of imposition of self will).  He searched all his life to find a diet, which would meet the specifications of the sattwic diet prescribed by the Lord of the Gita, which will, while sustaining the body elevate the aspirations of man above his animalistic nature.  Fasting later in his life became a way of atoning for unacceptable actions other individuals and of the movement he led. In a sense, because he embraced the Advaita view of the Paramatma and the embodied soul of all creatures, he didn’t differentiate between the actions of others and of himself. The effects of both accrued to him.  Therefore, the mistakes of other, violent acts of others adhered to him and he resorted to fasting as atonement and self-purification.  This act of self-purification would by extension purify the cause he was fighting for as well as all his Satyagrahi volunteers.

                The shackles of lust tormented Bapu from an early age. When he was 15, a friend persuaded him to visit a brothel. Bapu wrote later, “I was almost struck blind and dumb in this den of vice.  I sat near the woman on her bed, but I was tongue-tied. She lost patience with me, and with abuses and insults showed to the door.” Providence, the future Mahatma said, “interceded and delivered me from myself.” At age 16, at the moment when his father was breathing his last breaths in one room, he was sharing intimacy with Ba. (Kasturba). This memory haunted him all his life. At age 60, Bapu was still anguished by the incident; he wrote “The shame of my carnal desire at the critical moment of my father’s death – is a blot I have never been able to efface”. Bapu’s first born child died three days after its birth.  He blamed the untimely death of this baby to his lustful behavior when Ba was carrying their baby. This doubled his deep sense of guilt.

                 Pyarelal reports Mahatma Gandhiji saying to him, Truth is inborn in me, non violence came to me with great effort, Brahmacharya, and I am still striving for.”  Bapu described the mastering of sexual desire as a daily struggle and compared it to the act of walking on the edge of a sword.  From 1901 – 1906, Bapu tried unsuccessfully by his account to abstain for sexual intercourse. In 1906, he took a solemn vow of Brahmacharya at age 36, after the birth of his fifth child.  From that day our freedom began, Bapu wrote. My wife (Ba) became a free woman. I became free from the slavery to my own sexual appetite, which she no longer had to satisfy (one form of Swaarajya = liberation for both Ba and Bapu). All the time I wanted carnal knowledge, I couldn’t serve her. The moment I bade goodbye to a life of carnal pleasure, our relationship became spiritual; lust died and loves reigned supreme. This he wrote in 1936.

                Mahatma Gandhiji said “To lead others is to serve them, and in order to serve others well, he had to be immune to the temptations and desires that attracts both baahu balam and buddhi balam.  Therefore, he had to work on harnessing atma balam to take command of these attractions of the mental and physical planes of existence. This resistance to the natural drives of baahu balam and buddhi balam and effacement of the power of these forces by bringing them under the steadfast influence of Atma balam constitutes the essence of Brahmacharya.  This is the State that Bapu worked to attain, to the very last breath of life.

                 Bapu said, “Brahmacharya includes yet transcend sexual restraint. It embraces restraint in diet, speech, emotions and actions. It rules out anger, hatred, untruth and violence. It creates equality. It is desirelessness. Perfect brahmacharyas are sinless. They are therefore nearer to God and are likened to God. Brahmacharya meant to Bapu a sate of being with God. Brahmacharya is such only if it persists under every circumstance and especially in the presence of the every possible temptation one is vulnerable to. Brahmacharya hardly deserves its name if it can be observed only by avoiding the presence of women. It amounts, in this instance only to physical abstinence and not desirelessness. In 1947, Bapu wrote in The Harijan, “The thought of women had long ceased to arouse sexual urges in me “. He had taken the vow of celibacy at age 36, in 1906 in South Africa.

                L. Fisher, the distinguished biographer writes,” The chaste life reinforced the passion and determination to sacrifice for the common weal. The less carnal his drives became the more self less he became. He seemed to suddenly be lifted above the material (Atma balam reigning supreme above baahu balam and buddhi balam) A new inner drive possessed him, as the storms of passion continued to rage within. But he could harness these forces to generate the irresistible venerable soul force or Satyagraha.

                Bapu believed that the energy or power contained in vital liquid capable of producing a human cannot but, when properly conserved, be transmuted to matchless energy and strength. The control and transmutation, and not the rejection of the passionate self, is the function and purpose of the yogi practices of Bapu. These practices were applied to food, sexual interaction, political revolution, societal changes and his naturopathic experiments. All these efforts to innovate and invigorate an ancient civilization and a long enslaves people were called the Experiments to discover the Truth. The sub-title of his Autobiography.-The Story of my experiments with Truth.

                There is strong support for Bapu’s concepts and practice of Chastity in many religions including, Christianity, Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism.  The power of giving life, of withholding and transmuting the procreative energy and power into supra sensory consciousness inheres in the conceptualization of the Maha Linga.  The ascent of the seed is indicated by the Siva lingam pointing upward (urdhwa Lingam). The rounded and slightly flattened top seems as if ready to produce the seed, yet by yogic discipline this is restrained and retained within forever. There is another aspect of the symbolism inherent in the Siva lingam. The vertical cylindrical structure represents the spinal pathway by which the Shakthi ascends from the Mooladhara chakra near the tailbone by stages to the sahasraara. This is the thousand petalled Lotus where the coming together of Siva and Shakti in the immanent plane of existence is represented. The energy present in all of creation is raised to the highest state of potentiality possible for humans, when it merges with Mahadeva who is in the form of supra-consciousness. (Chit ananda roopaha, Sivoham, Sivoham.) 

                There are Siva lingams with one or more faces carved into them (mukha linga.)  This helps to convey the yogic experience of oneness between the subject and object after arduous and diligent practice of continence and the 8 steps of Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali. When the ascent of the mundane procreative energy manifest abundantly in all of creation, as prakriti, proceeds to final immersion into the Supreme Self, the yogi has within him or her the power that is said to emerge from the vertically disposed third eye in the forehead of Siva to reconstitute human existence as we know it.  Thus, mastery of desire and senses and the trans-substantiation of the power inherent in procreative material to an irresistible force that can transform the world is represented by the mukha linga. (S. Kramrisch)

                The goal of embracing and merging male and female characteristics within ones body is related to the yogic and social practices of Bapu. This is also based on religious concepts. One of the forms of the Great Lord Maheshwara is Androgynous and is called Ardhanarieswara which can be seen as a representation of the total energy and consciousness that constitutes and pervades all of creation. In this icon the Urdhwa lingam (upright cylinder) is conspicuous by its absence.  No mundane sexual or procreative union is conceivable or is represented in this icon which attempts to express in material form the effacement of the differences and partial confluence of male and female gender specific attributes. Much like the merger of Ganga mata and Yamuna where the different hues of the waters of the two rivers can be discerned while the merging and mingling occurs in front of your eyes. When a yogi renounces his or her erotic passions and assumes the biune transformation, a being of awesome power emerges with the totipotent power of the Creator.  In his sixties Bapu said he began to think that he must follow the example of some mystics and become physically socially and spiritually more like a woman or rather embrace both the male and female (Siva and Shakthi) within himself.

                Perhaps coincidentally (and perhaps not) it was in his sixties (1930’s) that some of the most important and epochal events occurred beginning with the revolutionary Dandi Salt march and Satyagraha, mass civil disobedience movements that broke the back of the most extensive and powerful empire the world had ever seen. The salt he collected on the sea- shore can be seen to represent the mundane physical form of procreative energy which when transformed by the sacrificial fire (yogic) of Satyagraha releases forces that shook the British empire to its foundations. In South Africa and later in India he had organized the Indian Ambulance corps to tend to the wounds and suffering of the British soldiers who were fighting the Boer War and the First World War respectively. He was embracing the male and female with in himself and playing a comforting caring nursing role, which was traditional, a female role. 

When the British reneged on their promise to give India even the limited freedom the Indian national Congress was looking for Mahatma Gandhiji began a new kind of revolution where your transformed and redirected your aggressive tendencies and hatred for the British govt. nor against the individual British people and their allies but the rulers hatred and dominion over him and all his people regardless of caste, creed, race or religion. Mahatma Gandhi said “ I will minister to you as my brothers, but I will not submit to you as my overlords. He met violence with nonviolence, deceit with Truth and hatred with unconditional love. 

William Shirer eloquently and movingly sums up the life of Mahatma Gandhi “ A man of infinite goodness, seeker all his life of Truth, which he equated with God; a pilgrim who believed that love and understanding, tolerance and compassion and non-violence, if they were only practiced would liberate mankind from much of the burden, oppression and evil of life”

General Smuts his implacable and manipulative foe, who played Rahu to the Incandescent Sun of Satyagraha that Bapu embodied was unsparing in his praise. Mahatma Gandhiji had won in the end he had met hatred and tyranny with Truth and Ahimsa and in the process changed both the Ruler and the Ruled. This is what General Smuts said; “It was my fate to the antagonist of a man for whom even then I had the highest respect.  That clash on a small stage brought out certain qualities of Gandhiji’s character, which have since been displayed in his later large-scale operations in India. And they show that while he was prepared to go all out for the causes which he championed, he never forgot the human background of the situation, he never lost his temper or succumbed to hate, and preserved his gentle humor even in the most trying situations. His manner and spirit even then, as well as later, contrasted markedly with the ruthlessness and brutal forcefulness, which is in vogue today.

In 1939 Albert Einstein who knew something of world transforming forces that could be released from within the totipotent building blocks of the material world (Prakriti) said in 1939 “Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.

Arnold Toynbee a renowned historian summarized the significance of Mahatma Gandhi’s experiments with Truth and Ahimsa. He wrote “It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have an Indian ending, if it is not to end in self destruction of the human race... At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the only way to salvation for mankind is the Indian way-Emperor Ashoka’s and Mahatma Gandhiji’ principle of non- violence and Sri Ramakrishna's testimony to the harmony of Religions. Here we have an attitude and spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family (Vasudeva Kutumbakkam was Bapu’s goal– VM) – and in the Atomic age, this is the only alternative to destroying ourselves.

My Reflections on Bapu’s educational process that  was essential for the successful implementation of non-violent Civil disobedience to achieve Swaraj [ Self-rule and Hind Swaraj or Swatantra under the most challenging  circumstances and manage every day rough and tumble of life leads me to the three- part relationship between I, Thou and It based on the insights of Martin Buber.

                In his book I and Thou,[Ich and Du 1923] Martin Buber presents a philosophy of personal dialogue, in that it describes how personal dialogue can define the nature of reality. Buber’s major theme is that human existence may be defined by the way in which we engage in dialogue with each other, with the world, and with God. Mahatma Gandhi had lead successful Civil Disobedience campaigns before he came to India. He spent a good deal fo time travelling all across the country and began to develop his personal efforts to build support for Swadeshi movement to establish economic independence, and have the whole country accept Non Violent Civil Disobedience as the means to pressure the British to an honorable end - achieve Swatantra [Self- Rule] with engendering bitterness and hatred between the Imperial Rulers and their erstwhile subjects.

1.

http://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/buber.html

 

“The subject-to-subject relation affirms each subject as having a unity of being. When a subject chooses, or is chosen by, the I-Thou relation, this act involves the subject’s whole being. Thus, the I-Thou relation is an act of choosing, or being chosen, to become the subject of a subject-to-subject relation. The subject becomes a subject through the I-Thou relation, and the act of choosing this relation affirms the subject’s whole being.

Buber says that the I-Thou relation is a direct interpersonal relation which is not mediated by any intervening system of ideas. No objects of thought intervene between I and Thou.1 I-Thou is a direct relation of subject-to-subject, which is not mediated by any other relation. Thus, I-Thou is not a means to some object or goal, but is an ultimate relation involving the whole being of each subject.

Love, as a relation between I and Thou, is a subject-to-subject relation. Buber claims that love is not a relation of subject-to-object. In the I-Thou relation, subjects do not perceive each other as objects, but perceive each other’s unity of being. Love is an I-Thou relation in which subjects share this unity of being. Love is also a relation in which I and Thou share a sense of caring, respect, commitment, and responsibility.

Buber argues that, although the I-Thou relation is an ideal relation, the I-It relation is an inescapable relation by which the world is viewed as consisting of knowable objects or things. The I-It relation is the means by which the world is analyzed and described. However, the I-It relation may become an I-Thou relation, and in the I-Thou relation we can interact with the world in its whole being.

These interactive overlapping circles represent inter-subjectivity where interpersonal communication between I and Thou which builds on relativeness and engenders empathy which are foundational in practicing Ahinsa, Sarvodaya, Satyagraha to achieve Swaraj {self Rule] as prerequisite to gaining full Independence for India.

2.

3.

http://www.hawkinscenters.org/i-thou-and-it.html

 

                Equilateral Triangle- corners – Top –I in the role of the Teacher, [at transcendent position can move freely between the Transcendental and horizontal axis representing the immanent plane. At either end of the horizontal axis is Thou [pupil] and It [subject/context] The area between the angles and the lines represents field of darshan where observation and learning occur along with Receiving, acknowledging, accepting, affirming and experience.

 

                I, Thou, and it-  a three way relationship in which “I and Thou” are the people [often a teacher and a leaner of the Ahimsa and Satyagraha] during the freedom movement and “It” is the content and the context that has crucial influence on both the Teacher of the Satyagraha movement [Bapu] and the Satyagrahis who are committed to support each other to start on the process of Swaraj [personal self-regeneration], in order to develop character and be committed to Non- violent Civil Disobedience to achieve Swatantra -full independence of India.

 

 

 

                I, Thou and It – a three- way relationship in which “I and Thou” are the people [Often a Teacher and Children of all ages and It is the context and content that adds passion to the interactive process, of listening, giving and sharing.

 

                This three- part dynamic interactive relationships between the “thous”, and the I [the teacher who functions along the transcendental [ vertical axis] and the immanent [Horizontal axis]  that continuously supports both the development of understanding of the content and the development of human relationships during the activities in the Ashram and in local and national campaigns seeking both Swaraj and Swatantra.

On one side of the triangle, a shared interest leads to deeper exploration of content Ahimsa, Swaraj, Swatantra, Satya, Satyagraha[ principled non- violent civil disobedience],and Sarvodaya as each involved learner helps the other to uncover new understandings.

On the other side of the triangle, this shared interest drives each learner to uncover new shared traits and interests to build a secure Foundation of Self- Rule Swaraj Self-respect, Self- realization and Self-reliance.

 

Without the “It”, the interest in the subject matter of Swaraj [Self- Rule] and Hind Swaraj or Self- Government for India shared between the Satyagrahis themselves and with the enlightened Teacher- Bapu, the patient teaching and learning while courageously involved in civil disobedience would flag because of a deficit of passion.

 

  1.  

http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1372&context=ipp_collection

 

                 “My interpretation of the I-Thou-It framework is that it is a triangle with seven relationships depending on the initiator. Thus, in the triangle the seven possible relationships are as follows:

I-Thou = (Teacher – Student) 2. Thou-It = (Student – Subject matter) 19 3. It-I = (Subject matter – Teacher) 4. Thou-I = (Student – Teacher) 5. I-It = (Teacher – Subject matter) 6. It-Thou = (Subject matter – Student) 7. Thou-Thou (or other Thous) = (Student – Student, or Student – Other students)”

 

5.

 

                The representational diagram a 4 - pointed Diamond within which is a square provides a succinct dynamic interaction between I and Thous and the internal processes that can create profound changes in perceptions and behavior

4 - pointed Diamond within which is a square provides a succinct dynamic interaction between I and Thous and the internal processes creates profound changes in perceptions and behavior. On the vertical axis- the top is setting for the transcendent God and the bottom is Nature which is derived from Him. The Horizontal axis intersects the Vertical axis at a 90- degree angle equidistant from the top and bottom end. At either end of the horizontal axis is Man [Self and other]. There is square in the middle.The very center of the square at the intersection of the transcendent and immanent planes is the place for all Forms of communications and relating between Self and Other. Acting, Thinking and feeling occurs in this space which leads to forming of impressions which facilitates the emergence of the true selves engaged in the interaction.

Bapu was able to functional effectively in the presence of Kings and Queens, Presidents and Prime Ministers, scientists, people of all castes, and developed mutually respectful relationships with people who were born into the many faith traditions that found refuge and fertile environments in India over the centuries with people of the Highest and lowest castes in India’s extremely stultifying and including the Untouchables whom he called “Harijan- People of God” and leaders of his movements at all different levels and variety of roles

May the gentle Mahatma's message that can be summarized in two axioms: Satyam eva Jayate and Ahimsa Paramo - dharma, be understood, embraced and practiced by all who cherish peace and Sarvodaya in this and all the generations to come.  Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Luthuli, Mother Theresa, Aung Sung Sui Kyi, Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Menchu Tun, Jose Ramos Horta and Carlos Jose Ximenes Belo H.H. The Dalai Lama and such luminaries as Anwar Sadat and Itzakh Rabin who haw been martyred have kept the faith and have held aloft the torch of Interfaith harmony, Swaarajya and Peace “amid the encircling gloom”.

“Lead Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead Thou Me on.  Keep Thou my feet: I do not ask to see the distant scene: one-step enough for me. .. Sure it will lead me on… ‘Till the night is gone: and with the morn those angel faces smile, which I have loved long since and lost awhile.”  This prayer by J.H. Newman and J. B. Dykes is one of Mahatma Gandhiji’s favorite hymns and it was sung at his Friday evening prayer meetings at his ashrams.

OM TAT SAT SRI KRISHNA ARPANAM ASTU

                                                BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Mahatma Gandhi and his apostles: V. Mehta, Publ: Penguin Books, UK

2. The Story of my Experiments with Truth: M. K. Gandhi, Publ: Beacon, Boston, USA

3. All men are Brothers: M.K. Gandhi, Edited K. Kripalani Publ: Continuum Publishing Corp, NY. USA

4. The Bhagvad Gita: Interpretation by M.K. Gandhi, Publ: Orient Paperbacks

5. Gandhi’s Truth: E. Erikson Publ: Norton, NY

6. Manifestations of Shiva: S. Kramrisch, Publ: Philadelphia museum of Art

7. Siva –The erotic Ascetic: W. D. O’Flaherty, Publ: Oxford Univ. Press

8. Great world religions part V D. E. Eck, Publ: The Teaching Co. Va. USA

9. Mahatma Gandhi: S. Chavan, Publ: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, INDIA

10. The Bhagvad Gita: Interpreted by Swami Chinmayananda, Publ; Central Chinmaya Trust

11. Mahatma Gandhi: W. Shirer, Publ: Simon and Shasta, NY. USA

12. The life of Mahatma Gandhi: L. Fischer, Publ: Harper and Row, NY, USA

13. Gandhi – A pictorial Biography: R. Attenborough and G. Gold, Publ: New Market Press, NY. USA

14. The Bhagvad Gita: Interpreted by Bhagvan Adi Shankara: Publ: Samata Books, Madras, INDIA

15. Traditional Hymns: Henry Holt and Co.NY.USA

16. The Sermon on the Mount-The Gospel According to St. Matthew Verses 5 (1-14)

In the Revised English Bible: Oxford and Cambridge University Press.

17. Tales and Teachings of the Mahabharat: J. Abhisekhi, Publ: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, INDIA

18. The challenge of the Mahatmas: M. Green, Publ: Basic Books, NY. USA

19. Ruskin and Gandhi: E. T. McLaughlin, Publ: Bucknell Univ. Press Associated Univ. Presses, NJ. USA

20. Gandhi and the Quit India Movement: F.G. Hutchins, Publ: Harvard Univ. Press.

21. World Treasury of Modern religious Thought: Edited by J. Pelikau, Publ: Little Brown and Co. USA

22. The Way to God: M.K. Gandhi: Edited by M.S. Deshpande, Publ: Berkeley Hills Books, California, USA

23. Vows and Observances: M.K. Gandhi, Edited by J. Strohmeier: Publ: Berkeley hills Books, California, USA

24: A Book of Prayers: M.K. Gandhi: Edited by J. Strohmeier, Publ: Berkeley Hills books, California, USA

25. Everything starts from Prayer: Mother Theresa Edited by A. Stern, White Cloud Press, Oregon, and USA

26. A Simple Path: Mother Theresa, Ballantine Books, New York, NY.  USA

27. The Sermon on the Mount: According to Vedanta: Swami Prabhavananda, Publ: Penguin Books, NY, USA

28.Ich and Du, I and Thou- Martin Buber by Walter Kaufman- Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York-Translation-1970

29. http://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/buber.html

 

30. http://www.hawkinscenters.org/i-thou-and-it.html

 

31. http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1372&context=ipp_collection

 

32. Martin Buber and Rabindranath Tagore: A Meeting of Two Great Minds, Abhik ROY (2016) Comparative Literature: East & West, 25:1, 30-42, DOI: 10.1080/25723618.2016.12015413 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/25723618.2016.12015413

 

Note: I have a power point presentation on his life and message.

 

          Velandy Manohar, MD

          Past President, Indo- American Psychiatric Association

          Past President, Asian American Caucus and

          Distinguished Life Fellow American Psychiatric Association

 

 

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