Mohandas to Mahatma - Experiments with Truth

Who was M.K. Gandhi? Indians know him as 'Bapu', or the 'Father of the nation.' What makes him so? Was it his experiments in the political field? Or was it his experiments in the spiritual field? He is known as 'Mahatma' Gandhi. However this title actually pained him deeply, and he did not attach much value to it. Gandhiji's goal that he had been striving to achieve for decades, was none other than Moksha, or self-realization. His life's journey was a quest for truth itself, as the sovereign and eternal principle. Gandhiji placed Truth above any perception of God. He worshiped God as truth only, not in the form of deity. His goal was the absolute truth, however until he was able to realize the absolute, he held on steadfast to the relative truth as conceived by him. This assumption of relative truth as it occured to him at any given point in time, and acting on it constituted his 'Experiments with truth.' Depending on whether his experiments failed or succeeded, he modified his perceptions in accordance with reality.


Some people think that he was born a Mahatma and was some kind of superhuman person. He was anything but superhuman. His human flaws made his achievements all the more exemplary. Gandhijis experiements in his early days saw him eat meat, steal coppers from servants, smoke cigarettes, steal gold from his brother etc. He was able to forgive himself and develop the courage to move on despite numerous failings. He undertook penance for his failed experiments. He took full responsibility for stray incidents of violence in the freedom struggle during movements of noncooperation initiated by him and fasted as penance. Other leaders would have just blamed others but that was not Gandhiji's style.


Gandhiji's qualities are relevant in today's times as much as during the freedom struggle. He was the first leader to walk the talk when it came to Christ's teachings of turning the other cheek. He appealed to people's sense of morals, ethics and justice instead of using violence. In that sense, he had great faith in dharma even when everyone else believed that only might is right. He is one of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen to live the messages of equality, tolerance of all religions, compassion, and justice. He changed the country and the world, one person at a time. He was able to do this by changing himself. He developed the ability to control his own mind and senses through his experiments. Also, he was a Karma Yogi who performed actions never for his selfish motives but for the well being of all including those who persecuted him. This gave him tremendous mental strength and equanimity. He pointed out similarities in the teachings of the Gita, Bible, Koran etc and contributed immensely to harmony among people from different castes, religions, and communities.

Bayon temple - God in Symbolism

I visited Cambodia recently, where i visited a lot of temples with a combination of Hindu and Buddhist influences. Due to the various wars that ravaged the country, each time the victor desecrated the idols and replaced them with his own. Hence the temples are beautiful, the carvings are exquisite, but the shrines and empty or desecrated. In some cases there is a recent idol of Buddha just to mask the emptiness.It gave me a glimpse of 'a world without God' by visiting temples without idols or shrines. People walked into the shrines with shoes. Some tourists even sat inside and drank beer. A local was distributing agarbatis to light in front of a Buddha idol, saying 'pray buddha' and then asking for money and he was also selling beer. Some tourists stepped on the holy symbols (representing shiva, shakti etc) thinking them to be just unusually shaped stones. A world without God.

But amidst all this, i found God amidst symbolism in the Bayon temple.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayon

At the Bayon temple, God was not in the idol, but in the temple itself. As i walked through the passageways and glanced at the 37 'face towers' and 200 smiling faces built into the temple itself, i realized that this was an ingenious way of preserving 'God' and what God represents in an indirect manner, so that miscreants could not easily destroy it. There are many paths and many ways to reach the same point from different directions indicating that there is no single path to the destination. There are faces in each direction and they can be seen from different angles.

From outside, it looks just like some stones, but if you look carefully, each of the towers is made up of human faces in each direction. The doors are like a reflection of a mirror from a mirror. Each tower ends with a lotus on top. In Buddhism,a lotus is synonymous with peace and equanimity. In my view, it represents various Bodhisattvas who attained peace. However the central tower does not have a lotus on top. It is the highest and there is a hole that allows light to shine right into the tower. In my view, this represents enlightenment, which is even above peace. An enlightened being is ready to even disturb his/her own peace to spread light to others.