From Linda Lee Greene, Author & Artist
Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi was given to dispensing advice. He came by his inclination for it
through his genes, his father having been a great imparter of wisdom to all
comers in his position as divan
(minister) in the princely state of Rajkot in western India. Over time, the son
grew more astute, more influential, and in greater demand than the father, and
as by then the Mahatma (great soul) and the Father of India, Mohandas (referred
to by his people as “Gandhi-ji”) often received petitioners in his office, or
just as often, on the veranda of his modest home as he worked at his spinning
wheel.
“Gandhi-ji,” an adoring
woman implored of him one day, pushing her young daughter toward the great man
so that he could get a closer look at her. “Gandhi-ji, look at my daughter. You
can see that she grows fat from her love of sweets—sweets she steals from my
humble kitchen and eats greedily in secret all the day long. Please, Gandhi-ji,
tell her that she must give up sweets or she will grow too fat to attract a
husband.”
“Madam,
I am in sympathy with your concern. If you will, please bring your daughter
back to me in two weeks and I will speak with her about the matter.”
As
requested, the woman and her daughter returned two weeks later, and as
promised, Gandhi took the girl aside and counseled her on the benefits of
adopting a healthier diet, one that excluded sweets.
“Gandhi-ji, thank you so very much for your wise counsel. But
tell me if you will, why did you wish to wait for two weeks to speak with my
daughter?”
“Two weeks ago, I still
was a slave to my own love of sweets.”
It is tempting to
conclude that until then, Gandhi had escaped any compelling need to confront
his addiction to sweets. Compared to the enormous challenges with which he
grappled on a moment to moment basis as the leader in his people’s drive to
secure India’s independence from the United Kingdom, dealing with his sweet
tooth seemed a most trivial matter. As the old adage says, “When the student is
ready, the teacher will come,” and there the young girl stood before him as the
embodiment of his unconscious conjuring of his own weakness, one he could no
longer afford to dismiss for a reason pertinent to his personal well-being, as
much as to hers, we can be sure...we can be sure, because reality teaches us
that our world is a reflection of who we are, of where we are in our own progression
as well as in our evolution as a species.
Not many of us could declare victory
over our sweet tooth in a mere two weeks. But then, almost no-one in time is or
was on a par with Gandhi in any way. By some miracle of creation, Gandhi
possessed a more highly developed understanding that once we look into the eyes
of God (or ones preferred equivalent), God looks right back at us with nothing
less than red-hot expectation of us: ALL THE TIME! And I’m pretty sure that
Gandhi was well versed in the great peril one courts in dropping the ball once
God tosses it to us. Put another way by another writer, “…When we try to look
into the eyes of the Buddha, say, or of St. Francis, we soon find that their
eyes are, in their turn, gazing into ours, scrutinizing us, burning out the
impurities behind our motives for looking into their lives.”[1] If
we aren’t prepared for it, it can knock our socks off when it dawns on us that in
actuality, we are the hunted rather than the hunters.
I
sense a consortium comprised of Gandhi and the other saints pressing down exceedingly
hard on humanity at this time. With coronavirus and its fallout; with the
dictators and their wannabe counterparts across the world; with the exposure of
human rights violations and inequalities and downright atrocities; with the
defilement of the planet, like a laser beam, God is projecting our own
dysfunction on the screen of our consciousness. In our actions and inactions,
we asked for it, and then we asked to see it. We looked into the eyes of God
and God is looking back at us. I don’t know what you see, but the message I
read in God’s eyes is that we’d better get it right this time or we might not
be given another swing at it—ever!©
#Gandhi, #Rajkot, #India, #coronavirus, #Linda Lee Greene,
#GUARDIANS AND OTHER ANGELS
Image: “IT’S IN THE EYES,” painting by Alixander Jacob
Penrod and Linda Lee Greene
The busy farmhouse kitchen plays a central role in GUARDIANS
AND OTHER ANGELS, multi-award-winning author, Linda Lee Greene’s novel of
historical fiction based on a true story. It is available for purchase at http://goo.gl/imUwKO.
Beautiful post.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pamela
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