Gandhi’s Model of Civilisation and Its Present Relevance

Great men are either born great, or achieve greatness. And sometimes it is thrust upon some of them. Where does Gandhi stand in this Shakespearean classification? Certainly Gandhi achieved greatness. But I do not want to lift Gandhi to the level of a deity, nor do I want to use such an expression as Gandhism. That would amount to doing grave injustice to him. Because Gandhi denied that he had established a sect. To quote him, “I have no desire to establish a sect. I am really too ambitious to be satisfied with a sect for following for I represent no new truths. I endeavour to follow and represent truth as I know it. I do claim to throw new light on many an old truth.”
Gandhi brought to the notice of all the sad predicament of the wretchedness of the so-called modern civilisation characterised by the outward progress but inward backwardness. It may seem to be a paradox but there is poverty in affluence. And that poverty in affluence only the sharp insight of Gandhi could clearly discern.
Now, when the whole world is passing through a traumatic period due to the surfeit of material progress, when man’s wisdom is lost in knowledge, when man’s knowledge is lost in information, when man’s life is lost in living, when the
atman

is deep asleep like the proverbial
‘Kumbhakarna’

and
bhoga

has become the quintessence of man’s only goal in life, when we are farther from God and spiritualism and nearer to our ‘
D-Day

’, is it irrelevant to look back with gratitude to the teachings of Gandhi, of whom even the great apostle of science, Einstein, said: “.............. generations to come would scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”? If the present generation happens to take a re-birth after a few centuries, they will find Gandhi in myth. Our eyes are so myopic, our thoughts so jaundiced that we can neither expect noble deeds, noble thoughts and noble men nor appreciate these.
The shape and form, the shade and...