A MAN AMONG MEN

Gandhiji is one of those men who, living an austerely simple life themselves and devoted to all the highest principles of love to their fellow beings and to truth and justice, touch the eyes of the weaker brethren as with magic and give them a new vision. He is a man who may be well described as a man among men, a hero among heroes, a patriot among patriots, and we may say that in him Indian humanity at the present time has reached its high water mark.

He has in him the marvellous spiritual power to turn ordinary men around him into heroes and martyrs. He says that, if you wish the good of those you come in contact with, the only way to achieve the end is to be good yourself. Self-improvement and self-culture are his ideals. He always acts upon the proverb "Example is better than percept," and that's how all his theories and practice are blended so harmoniously one with another in his daily life. No earthly temptations are too strong for him. And none of them can make him swerve from the noble path that he has chalked out for himself. It is no exaggeration to say that in this age of materialism it is not possible to come across another man who lives the ideal life he preaches.

It recalls to our mind the story of the sufferings of thousands of our countrymen in South Africa. It recalls also how, at a supreme moment in the South African Indian struggle, Gandhiji, for the fixed time perhaps in the history of the world, resolved to employ the weapon of passive resistance to win the struggle into which he and his countrymen had thrown themselves heart and soul. It was a bold, unprecedented step which Gandhiji took at the moment. He and his countrymen were to fight not with vituperation, not with violence, not with organised riots and revolution, but with the strength of soul force. The soul force of Indians was pitted against the brute force of the white population in South Africa.

If there is one characteristic more than another that stamps Gandhiji as a man amongst men, it is his extraordinary love of truth. His search for it is the one passion of his life, and every action of his indicates the devotee of this usually distant shrine. His political opponents admit unquestioningly that every action of his is prompted only by the most conscientious and impersonal motives. His generosity is proverbial.

Indeed, in his every action, he vindicates his hostility to the doctrine of force and his abiding affection for that of love as a rule of live.

So far as the Indian Community itself was concerned, Gandhiji had appointed for himself one supreme task to bring Hindus and Mussalmans together and to make them realise that they were one brotherhood and sons of the same Motherland. His attitude as a Hindu towards Mussalmans is well defined in the following letter addressed by him to a Muslim correspondent. "I  never realise any distinction between a Hindu and a Muslim. To my mind both are sons of Mother India."

He does not know how to distinguish Hindu from Muslim, Christian from infidel. To him all alike are brothers, fragments of the divine, fellow-spirits struggling for expression. All he has, he gives with him swlf-surrender and absolute sacrifice are demands of his very nature. His deep spirituality influences all round, so that no man dares to commit evil in his presence.

They wonder at him, grow angry at his strange unselfishness, and love him with the love of pride and trust. He is one of those outstanding characters, with whom to walk is a liberal education whom to know is to love.
                                        Sw. Antarananda, Assistant Secretary, RKM Ashrama