Great Soul Gandhi

WARNING: Parents, this may be a rough read. It was tough to write.

In 1982, when I was still toddling about in diapers, a movie was created about Mohandas Karmchand Gandhi. I am very grateful that this movie was made, as it has inspired within me a desire to learn more about him and his philosophies. He seems to me to be one, who like C.S. Lewis, opened himself to being led by the hand of God to influence a great number of people for great good.

I highly recommend the movie "Gandhi" with Ben Kingsley as Gandhi.

For others uneducated as I am, in the movie it is recorded that the people began calling him Mahatma, which is the title that I mistook for his name until last week when I began to watch this film. Mahatma means "great soul."

He maintained his principles at great personal cost. I know of few others who have done so with such dignity, among them Joseph Smith, Jr. Gandhi kept matters in a proper perspective - he never referred to racial issues; instead, he referred to issues between children of a single God, no matter how they might worship Him.

Near the end of his life, independence from the tyranny of Great Britain was granted to India, and it promptly split into India and Pakistan. A brief civil war ensued, during which Gandhi began to fast until the fighting should end - even when that meant that he might die prior to the end of the fighting.

I haven't gotten to study much of Gandhi's life at all, so I cannot verify the veracity of the story shown in the movie, but this story bears retelling for a few reasons. The fighting was subsiding, and nearly stopped. A Hindu man brought food to Gandhi and threw it upon him as he lay in his bed, too weak to move very far at all. He said, "I'm already going to hell. I won't have your death on my soul as well." Gandhi asked him why he believed that he was going to hell. The man answered that he had killed a small Muslim child, had crushed his head against the wall. He explained that he had done so in retaliation for Muslims killing his little boy. He gestured about the height of my little girl, and I began to cry as I watched this scene at Gandhi's bedside. No images were shown of the violence, only the broken heart of a man who had done something which he knew to be abominable to God. Gandhi told the man, "I know a way out of hell. Find a small Muslim boy of about this height," he gestured the height the man had shown of his own son, "whose Muslim parents have been killed. Raise him as your own son, as a Muslim."

He understood that God is forgiving, but that he requires of us restitution up to where it can be given.

I cried, alone in my living room as I watched this scene. My daughter lies in the arms of my wife in our bed right now, and they were there when I watched this movie. I cried, because I am too familiar with some of the loss this man experienced. I cried for the pangs of conscience he seemed to have suffered after committing such an atrocity. I do not comprehend how people can be so cruel to one another. At the same time as I cried for such great pain and loss, I felt comfort that God is forgiving of our sins. His mercy and love are incomprehensible.

Gandhi pointed out that Christianity was wonderful in concept. He said that it would be a marvelous thing if those that claimed to be Christians would follow its precepts.

I would challenge you: this week, try to live a more Christ-like life. You never know who looks to you as an example.