Meaning of Bandhu and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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Meaning of Bandhu and Mahatma Gandhi

 

I had praised Shrimati Sarladevi article, “Bandhu”, appearing in the issue of 29th February and asked the readers to read it several times over. Thereupon, some of them wrote to me to say that they had gone through the article and reflected over it but had failed to make out its meaning. They have requested me to explain the meaning myself. I could not reply immediately, being busy with my numerous activities. Now that I have some peace in Sinhgadh, I have read the article three times and give here the meaning as I understand it. The first part of the article was written several years ago when she was living in Bolpur. I saw her in her disconsolate state when her husband was in jail. I saw that nothing would give her peace. The consolation which a friend could give in such circumstances, I tried to, but I could see that this brought no peace to her mind. She was suffering, I saw, as a woman separated from her husband does. When I spoke about the release of prisoners, trying to guess when one could expect them to be out, I found that I could engage her attention. It was while she was in this frame of mind that I once requested her to write something for Navajivan or Young India. She hesitated, putting me off with the remark: “Ideas will just not come.” One day she observed: “Long ago I wrote something which, in Bengali, would be considered good. If you agree, I will complete it, and you may have it translated if you wish.

I should have the right to send the Bengali to some other journal.” I agreed. ‘One does not look a gift-horse in the mouth’ is a saying in English. Moreover, my aim was to see that she had something to occupy her. It is easy to explain the meaning now. There is a saying among us that “Time is invincible.” Time has also been described as an enemy. This same Time takes for us the form of a Bandhu when we are not plunged in the grief of separation or lost in the midst of pleasures, and gives us peace. This was the peace which was Sarladevi when she lived in the woods. And so, Time, like a Bandhu, tells us at early dawn: “Now be seated here and dive deep into your mind for a while.” And again, when we have done our duty for the hour, is it any wonder that the Time-bird should smile at us with a face lit up with joy? In the afternoon, no doubt, drowsiness comes upon us but the Brother Time cautions us to look outside, to observe the fields there and see that they are quiet, but not asleep.“What aspirations and hopes, what music and beauty shine through?” By thus overcoming laziness, we have had the peace of the noon too. And now comes twilight. Tired? Well, the Bird says: “Enough! Now sit quietly in one spot and do nothing.” What else is there to do?

For one who goes over the day's work with a tranquil mind at twilight and thanks God for a day well spent, what else is there to do at that hour? Passing the day thus, Sarladevi found that Time was a Bandhu. Here starts the second part. Who is to live in the house she or the furniture? “We have left the woods and come to a city Cupboards all around and tables and chairs.” “A little bit of sky framed” in a small window this is all that remained as a visible symbol of the Formless. “I must visit so-and-so, or invite so-and-so. The servant has left today; the order day also a servant left.” Time passes on, without stopping, and every day something remains unfinished. Daily there are new worries. In such a state of mind, Time is an enemy it is not peace. And so Sarladevi asks, doubtfully, whether Time is always a Bandhu or one only when the heart is ready to receive him as such. “As we can have no real contact with a Bandhu unless we make the mind free, so this Bandhu perhaps does not like coming to us in the midst of all this uncontrolled rushing about for material things?” Of course, he does not. Happiness comes only where there is self-control. Lack of self-control is a sign that one is not at peace with oneself. And therefore the writer asks: “Who is this gentleman whom one can approach only if one shakes off gentlemanliness? Is it the perfection inside me? One who is perfect inside needs no external Bandhu to complete that perfection.” If at all one does, the author proceeds to show what kind of a Bandhu he must be. Time being no longer ours, whom should we seek? Pondering over this, she remembered the Bhagavad Gita.

She discovered in it the Ancient Being of beings, the Supreme Ruler. Only in Rama can the weak find strength. When there is no living creature to console one in separation and lighten the grief, the grief- stricken one calls on Rama. So long as the elephant could struggle against the crocodile, he did not remember God; but, when his lord- ship was exhausted, he began to call on the servant of servants. Hence Sarladevi says: “I who used to roar, I will humbly surrender myself in love to the charioteer Bandhu, friend of Arjuna and yet none else but God. I will not approach Him like Duryodhana exhibiting my strength. I will lay my strength aside and then go to Him, receive His grace and have supreme peace. As in the body so in the universe; as with me, so with all of you; as in my affliction my God was my staff, so may He be to all of you. Searching for that God, I have to look inwards to scan the heavens there and, as I do so, I realize that I am my own friend and I am also my own foe. If I would realize the Universal Self, I must first realize the self in me. Thus “The self is its own Bandhu. 

 

Reference:

 

Navajivan, 4-4-1920