Speech on Gandhi Jayanti

OCT.2ND 2008.
Dear students and teachers,
First of all wish you all A HAPPY GANDHI JAYANTI.
I think there is a question in most of your minds about the celebration of Gandhi Jayanti. It is likely to be :
Is Gandhiji relevant today?

1893, a 24-year-old Indian lawyer arrived in Durban to take part in a lawsuit in Transvaal. He booked a first-class train ticket to Johannesburg – and was ordered out of the train because of his colour. He spent a cold night in the non–European waiting - room at Pietermaritzburg railway station. The lawyer’s name was Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi. This experience was the beginnning of the making of the Mahatma. The rebel in Gandhi didn't leave it there but questioned this inhuman injustice. Had it happened to any of us, we would have just taken it for granted or tried to forget it as a bitter experience.

He founded TOLSTOY FARM and taught people the initial lessons in self-reliance, vocational education and many more. When he came to India, while addressing a meeting he said, "India is not a few officers in Delhi but millions of villages." Those from the gathering who got up to leave came back listening to a voice from the heart. They found their true leader. My dear children, Gandhiji had understood the pulse and spirit of India. He had read the Indian's mind clearly. He could contain millions of atmas within him and that is why he has been called the MAHATMA.

A lawyer who could have led a luxurious life gave his time and life for the millions of poor people of India. He was the voice incarnate against injustice. I tell you, children, it is not very easy to be a living Gandhi or have a living Gandhi among us. He would whip you up from your slumber, he would not compromise with injustice. He was a man with great common sense and astounding social intelligence. Any violence stretched to its extreme would end in non-violence. Knowing this well he said like Christ in his Sermon on the Mount in New Testament, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". Eye for an eye is an attitude. If you hurt me i will hurt you back. In the present days when almost every day our metros bring news of blasts and bloodshed and our nation is getting known for violence, we miss a Gandhiji. It is here his values have great significance. It has become a fashion among some of us to criticize Gandhiji and if you ask them about his life or the nation's history they know nothing. He may have committed a few mistakes . Who doesn't? He was a human being, dont forget that. Why do you expect a Gandhiji to set right all your problems? He was here just telling you to wake up and fight against injustice. If you think he was here to solve all your problems and carry all your burdens, then you are thouroughly mistaken. He was teaching us self-reliance and bravery. Non-violence is not for the coward but for those with profound mettle of the spirit. That is why one man could shake the British Empire. Even Godse had paid all respects to him before he shot him. My dear children, don't keep waiting for Mahatmas. Become one. A woman activist fighting to bring justice to the oppressed women are no less Gandhi.
He used to say, "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the Himalayas".
THANK YOU.