"Gandhism will survive" (1949)

 

                                                           by

 

                                            Y. G. Krishnamurti

 

INDIA has risen to freedom with Gandhism. The makers of ruin and slavery write their distaste of its confident nationalism in flames and bullets. But the total Process is dictated by a revolutionary impulse. The Mahatma opens many a young eye to the beauty of absolute truths. He tells us that the pattern of history is concealed neither in the methods of production nor in the atomic formula but in spiritual patriotism. His ethic heralds a richly coloured age of passion, climaxes, wayward idealism, mendacity and razor-slashing.

 

Gandhi has the clearest sense of his tragic destiny and his assassin does all the devil's work. Millions sit weeping by the waters of the Jumna while leaping flames devour the stoic frame of the Revolutionary Father. He tries to adapt the environment to his ethic. How can all the geese turn into swans in a single life-time! As there are no veils between him and reality, he exhorts his age to preserve the law of humanity.

 

In the setting of the Gandhian India one sees full-blooded, restless and heroic types turning their longing eyes on this eternal substance, the treasure trove. Their judgements are no makeshifts and no bitter irony, can disturb their moral mood. However, the many period events stay in their mind and their understanding is beclouded by a film of sadness. Without the potent magician they see in the corridors weird shapes, seductions and hints of dark forces. Their pilgrimage to the alluring heights is not brief. They must cut new paths in the rock and walk over pendant clifts.