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Mahatma Gandhi
A Votary for Sustainable Living
 Mahatma
Gandhi not only gave us freedom but he also gave the world and us a new
thought on nonviolence and sustainable living. His teachings and
experiments are more valid today then ever especially when we are trying
to find solutions to worldwide violence and runaway consumptive life style
which is going to put a very heavy burden on the world's resources.
Through ages India has occasionally given to the world a new thought. Thus
Buddhism, Jainism, Yogic system, Sikhism are part of great spiritual
thought given by India from time to time. Gandhiji's message of
nonviolence and sustainable living is a continuation of that long
tradition.
Gandhiji was energy conservator par excellence. He lived in his ashrams
without electricity or any modern amenities. His insistence on use of
self-human labor for majority of needs was legendary and was usually
frowned upon by his closest colleagues who thought it was anti progress
and pushing back India to stone ages. Nevertheless his own life was a
shining example of how with frugal living and with minimum energy needs he
was capable of producing the highest quality of thought. Very few of us
can live his exemplary life but Gandhiji showed that mental happiness and
simple living could form the basis of sustainability. He believed that
with simple living the resources of the planet earth can sustain us
comfortably and his famous saying that earth provides us enough for our
needs but not for our greed is extremely apt today.
Gandhiji was a highly evolved and spiritual human being. Politics came as
a byproduct of spirituality and he considered it as his duty to help his
countrymen and fellow beings. The spirit of Bhagwadgita's Karma Yoga
guided him in this endeavor. There are many instances of people who saw
his glowing skin, aura, and felt the presence of his personality whenever
they met him. That is only possible for a Yogi of very high order.
My father who was involved in the freedom struggle and went to jail with
Gandhiji told of a remarkable instance. In early 1940's just before the
quit India movement, a mammoth public meeting took place in Allahabad.
About 5-10 lakh people were present. Gandhiji was late for the meeting.
All the great leaders of independence movement were giving their speeches
and trying to calm the crowd, which was quite restless. Then suddenly
Gandhiji came, climbed on the dias and put a finger on his lips. A wave of
silence swept the grounds starting from dias. My father termed it as a
remarkable experience of the power of a small frail man over the masses.
Sometimes Gandhiji carried his energy conservation experiments too far.
His experiments on conserving his sexual energy proved quite
controversial. He was obviously following the age-old tradition of
abstinence that yogis practice. Thus when at the age of 70 he had a wet
dream he felt that his world had collapsed. He wrote about it and said
that he felt ashamed of himself. Recent scientific evidence however has
shown that our brains are full of sexual chemicals, which help in memory
improvement and general well being. It is therefore possible that the
practice of abstinence was done intuitively by yogis to conserve these
chemicals to enhance their brain quality, which would help them in
practice of yoga. More than the loss of chemicals, Gandhiji felt a lack of
Sanyam and a loss of control over his purity of thought and hence his
anguish.
As a spiritual being and visionary Gandhiji was far ahead of his times. I
am sure if he were alive today he would have felt that his dream village
(about which he talked often) could have taken shape with the availability
of internet connectivity, desktop manufacturing and small renewable energy
power packs. His dream of giving employment and decent life to rural
population may become possible with the availability of these energy
efficient and high tech systems. Hence if we follow his maxim of simple
living and high thinking then it is possible to have a decentralized high
tech rural society and India can again show the world a new path in
sustainable living.
– Dr. Anil K. Rajvanshi
January 24, 2004
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