Hey, wat u said , was that ’Mahatma’ ? yeah - right ? k, then here go....
First, pls let me know what is the meaning of word mahatma, is it meant for someone who is born Mahatma - who is born perfect - has not done any such anti-mahatma thing in his life, or is it meant for someone who is born like any one of us, and gained that sainthood through his karma ? Or for someone, who has accepted all his doings, right or wrong, in a very humble , honest way ? Or for someone who has been ‘framed ‘ as ‘Mahaan hai aatma jo’, for various future benefits of Netas and types, and one dare not say anything against him or else he becomes a traitor …?
If it’s the first case, then Ghandi is a misfit, as he was born as a thin , lean man with ordinary looks and he himself accepts in this book that he has hell lot of inferiority complexes. Now , if someone feels that he has overtaken all his complexes through his karma, or, have even accepted all his shortcomings in an honest way , then get ready for the few shocks , something which has not been mentioned in this book – will come to that later.
I will start from beginning. A child is curious by nature, he wants to learn more and more, so he’s always questioning, what’s this what’s that , whys this and why’s that…, so when a Indian child comes across photo of this man Ghandhi, he obviously gona ask , Who is this man. And then he will be told that this is Bapu, the great man, who taught us non violence, who is the father of nation. Now in his life time , if someone hears these kinds of words for anyone for more that a hundred times, then obviously he’s gona believe them. Then someday if he finds a person whose contradicting Ghandi , arguing that he was a fanatic hypocrite than a mahatma, its certainly gona be hard for that person to even analyze this point of view, what to say of its acceptance….
So, first come to the title of the book, Experiments with truth, what a phase ! experimenting with truth - for what, to know their accuracy ?! or to conform if they work and are good enough for life ? k, leave it , I don’t know till date what the hell is this truth and lie thing all about, so better leave it to someone who know it or at least thinks that he knows…
This man , ghandhi, was quite a character, I mean I ve not heard of anyone f his caliber for sure. So, when he says its experiment – he means it. So, one of the experiments he has done is on controlling the ‘jivha dosh’ – to conquer the tongue’s taste completely. He believed that’s, food is for giving energy , and that’s the sole purpose of it, and it should not b looked beyond that. So he use to have ‘Neem ki Chatni’ , sorry don’t know what’s its called in English – in fact I am not sure if someone in the west have ever tried to make such a delicious dish – chatni of neem! ‘ek to karela, upar se neem chara’ as we say…. But ghandhi sincerely believed that if he has this dish everyday with food, he will be able to conquer the tongue thing. And to add cherry to the cake, (or should I say chatni to the meal!), he even forced his family to have that yummy item !
Next, he has accepted that sometimes, he uses to have nightfall even at an age of seventy. Now that nightfall is very human thing, and in fact so general that it doesn’t need a mention either in his book , nor in my revu. But for someone like ghandi, who seems to conquer everything that comes on his way, ‘kama’ (the sex thing) was one major obstacle. And what he has ‘experimented’ to get rid of it has not been written in the book. This man use to make a young women sleep naked with him – and for what – to check if he can control his sexual instinct in night . Now I sincerely feel like saluting this man, I can never ever think of such an experiment; this man was something for sure….
Pls note that this is not a fake allegation, may be a lesser known fact at most. Gandhi , too has not mentioned in his autobiography, may be because he thought it will create unnecessary trouble, or may be, he was just not comfortable with such an extent of honesty.
Why I m saying all this, its not because of anything anti-gandhi, or anti-mahatma, in fact that word ‘mahatma’ sounds so childish to me. At times I wonder , why are we looking for ppl above natural human type, why are we not happy with they just being normal , why the hell is there a need to find out something extraordinary , so much so that we got to find a person, who got to be mr perfect, nothing less can be accepted. Now that’s stupid – to extent f foolish @ finding perfection, u tell me one man, who u think is perfect, and I can let ur hope shatter in minutes. In fact the very concept of perfection is childish, we are all humans and we got to live life in human ways only , so violence is included, so is peace, so is sex and so is innocence , so is good and so is bad, we got to accept it , and these are so natural and normal things, so , that it often surprises me to see someone struggling unnecessary with his natural instinct and for what – for making this lean body muscular, for controlling nightfall, for ensuring that sweet tastes as good as sour one day…. phew…
I just felt like writing this one , so I wrote, I am feeling good now. That’s the maximum effort I think one should make. A cup of tea, some snacks and a company of friends, and a joke or two to share, that’s enough for a good life. No need to do ‘Sheershasana’ so that ur ‘bramacharya’ be affirmed I guess….
Peace.
PS : Most of u might find my revu, absolutely irrelevant – irrelevant to the extent of absurd, but I just don’t feel like writing anything more, at least for now……
