Gandhiji, the father of the nation, experimented with truth. If he ever told a lie he admitted it frankly. But such a type of truth is called physical truth. Carving out nations, kingdoms and taking interest in political affairs is much outside the domain of subtle truth which we call as metaphysical truth. For this reason all his experiments eventually earned him a bullet by one of his co-religionist. The nation bled profusely due to partition. He propogated the theory of non-violence. Ironically the pursuit of self rule by non violent means gave the nation 1947 which witnessed one of the most violent times in the history of mankind. His countrymen inscribed his picture on the currency notes that are again much outside the domain of ultimate truth. There has hardly been anyone in the country who inscribed his principles on his heart. Arvind Kejriwal is an exception but the countrymen find it easier to ignore him and go along with spineless guys desperate to run the show.
Gandhiji is my hero. He was a brave man of firm convictions. It is better to die experimenting with truth than live shamelessly with falsehood. His experiments did not go waste. Some of the wonderful things one learns from his life are as follows:
1- Means are more important than ends. Many a times journey is more valuable than the destination.
2- If someone lives by a sword he only dies by a sword. He fought for freedom in a non violent way. The only reason why the nation is still surviving is because it was based on the principles of truth and nonviolence.
3- The journey of metaphysical or ultimate truth is impossible without practising physical truth of which Gandhiji was a champion.
Jains of Jagraon are strict vegetarians like Gandhiji. The other day I was telling my students who belong to Jain community that telling a lie is equivalent to eating two eggs. They were asked to read ten pages from their history book each day. They were told that if they failed to do so, they ought to tell honestly and pay a fine of Rs ten for each day the reading is not done. If they tell a lie, it would be like eating a non-vegetarian dish.
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