The Mahatma and the Martyr- II
A chance meeting between the Mahatma and the Martyr in heaven:
Gandhiji looks up with uncertainty and hesitation, “ I am sorry that I did not fight for your release. I could have….and I should have”
Bhagat Singh watches him with a mischievous smile and says, “ It is a little too late to be sorry. Isn’t it, Bapu?”
Gandhiji replies “It is just that I was foolish enough to think that any act that would help you in anyway would be a digression from my path of Ahimsa. But in being passive I had effectively sided with the British in their judgment against you, a fellow Indian. I had to make a choice, selfishly stick to my principles of Ahimsa or aid you-a perpetrator of violence for the cause of Indian freedom,the very same cause I started this Ahimsa for. I chose the means and ignored the end. A poor choice, an unforgivable failing…”
“I cannot expect you to get me out when you were in no way responsible for getting me in. Can I? I made my own destiny. It would be a shame if I wasn’t willing to face it. But you ensured that I did not die in vain. You were there to ensure that my Des, my Jaan was free. We were fighters for the same cause after all…”
“We were fighters for the same cause albeit in wholly different ways”
“How true! How true! My way demanded that I alone make sacrifices. Your way demanded that everyone else make sacrifices too”
“Bhagat, Life is a cycle of sacrifices, some that you make on your own, some that you are forced to make. Didn’t your way expect your kith and kin to sacrifice you? Didn’t your way demand the sacrifice of British lives? Didn’t your way involve the sacrifice of a wrong life? Did you not kill the wrong policeman?”
“They were all the same. Each was as guilty as the other. Whether we killed him by choice or circumstance makes no difference”
“Then why did you not plan to kill him originally? Killing is not right. Killing the wrong man can never be right, Bhagat”
“Maybe, Bapu. But Bapu, are you not hurt that the very people you sacrificed everything for, speak low of you, accuse you and malign you”
“Bhagat, the ignorant mean no malice. And those who do bear malice feign ignorance. The former, I forget. The latter I forgive. But you tell me. What do you think of these accusations?”
“Bapu, our countrymen today create and live in sewers, and then complain that the streets they walked through are dirty. The streets that you and I and so many others painstakingly built….You and I sailed on different rivers to reach the same sea. But the people of today are hell-bent on splitting the sea back into the rivers that make it. Why would I even stop and listen to their accusations? Your actions made you a Mahatma, their words can do nothing to undo that.”
“Hmmmm….I am but an ordinary man. Hey Ram! When is another Bhagat Singh going to be born to purge this nation? Bhagat, Have I told you how the Bhagavad Gita embeds the message of non-violence in a fabric of violence? Coming to think of it, violence and non-voilence need each other to co-exist, to themselves be complete…just like you and I. Haha…Come, let us walk this way”
“That would make an interesting discussion. Hold my hand Bapu”
“Hope you do not lead me astray from my path of Ahimsa, Bhagat”
“If only I could, Bapu, If only I could……”
Gandhiji looks up with uncertainty and hesitation, “ I am sorry that I did not fight for your release. I could have….and I should have”
Bhagat Singh watches him with a mischievous smile and says, “ It is a little too late to be sorry. Isn’t it, Bapu?”
Gandhiji replies “It is just that I was foolish enough to think that any act that would help you in anyway would be a digression from my path of Ahimsa. But in being passive I had effectively sided with the British in their judgment against you, a fellow Indian. I had to make a choice, selfishly stick to my principles of Ahimsa or aid you-a perpetrator of violence for the cause of Indian freedom,the very same cause I started this Ahimsa for. I chose the means and ignored the end. A poor choice, an unforgivable failing…”
“I cannot expect you to get me out when you were in no way responsible for getting me in. Can I? I made my own destiny. It would be a shame if I wasn’t willing to face it. But you ensured that I did not die in vain. You were there to ensure that my Des, my Jaan was free. We were fighters for the same cause after all…”
“We were fighters for the same cause albeit in wholly different ways”
“How true! How true! My way demanded that I alone make sacrifices. Your way demanded that everyone else make sacrifices too”
“Bhagat, Life is a cycle of sacrifices, some that you make on your own, some that you are forced to make. Didn’t your way expect your kith and kin to sacrifice you? Didn’t your way demand the sacrifice of British lives? Didn’t your way involve the sacrifice of a wrong life? Did you not kill the wrong policeman?”
“They were all the same. Each was as guilty as the other. Whether we killed him by choice or circumstance makes no difference”
“Then why did you not plan to kill him originally? Killing is not right. Killing the wrong man can never be right, Bhagat”
“Maybe, Bapu. But Bapu, are you not hurt that the very people you sacrificed everything for, speak low of you, accuse you and malign you”
“Bhagat, the ignorant mean no malice. And those who do bear malice feign ignorance. The former, I forget. The latter I forgive. But you tell me. What do you think of these accusations?”
“Bapu, our countrymen today create and live in sewers, and then complain that the streets they walked through are dirty. The streets that you and I and so many others painstakingly built….You and I sailed on different rivers to reach the same sea. But the people of today are hell-bent on splitting the sea back into the rivers that make it. Why would I even stop and listen to their accusations? Your actions made you a Mahatma, their words can do nothing to undo that.”
“Hmmmm….I am but an ordinary man. Hey Ram! When is another Bhagat Singh going to be born to purge this nation? Bhagat, Have I told you how the Bhagavad Gita embeds the message of non-violence in a fabric of violence? Coming to think of it, violence and non-voilence need each other to co-exist, to themselves be complete…just like you and I. Haha…Come, let us walk this way”
“That would make an interesting discussion. Hold my hand Bapu”
“Hope you do not lead me astray from my path of Ahimsa, Bhagat”
“If only I could, Bapu, If only I could……”
posted by Dreamer at 3:31 AM
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