World Bank - October 2, 2009

Remarks by Srimati Kamala, President, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Foundation

We do not meet today as strangers, because we share a kinship of idealism – concerns which are at the heart of life, the meaning and value of work itself and of economics – the primary goals as stated in the Milennium Development Plan as well as the very Mission of the World Bank. Those goals are virtually “Gandhian” in their deep humanitarian values and concerns.
 
Mahatma Gandhi’s values are enduring, but also timely and even futuristic. I’ll not apologize for speaking of Gandhi in terms that are idealistic or philosophic. It is only fair; we must if we are to explain the striving, the conscience and the goal of this great world leader.
 
Without a doubt, we see that Gandhi’s primary motivation and standard is a WHOLISTIC VISION OF LIFE. The designation of Mahatma, first respectfully offered by India’s first Nobel Laureate Rabindrinath Tagore simply identified the largesse of Gandhi’s ideal: “Maha” (Great) + “Atma” (Soul), is not to distinguish Gandhi’s SOUL as qualitatively different from or above others’, but to appreciate one who, in consciousness, in Ideal, embraces ALL.
 
It was this comprehensive yet practical idealism that prompted Albert Einstein’s reverential comment that generations TO COME will scarce believe that such a being in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. We’re here today not for a retrospective of Gandhi because of our concern for the future, are we not? I’d like to view with you a Development Plan FOR OUR FUTURE according to Mahatma Gandhi. 
 
Gandhi’s practical ideas about work and economics derive clearly from his Wholistic Vision of Life, an interdisciplinary symbiosis – They serve the urgent concerns of economists and environmentalists and educators; health government and legal experts. As I find myself in the midst of economists from the world wide here today, may I speak to you in terms of a “GNP according to Gandhi?” That is, a unity of God (as the Universal Reality, called by any name)-Nature (our earthly environment)- and Person (why and who we are within ourselves and to each other).
 
GOD:
 
Gandhi’s approach to inter-religious understanding and equality was to search and commit himself this way, “All religions are one,” he said — as many others have — but he then added), “and ALL ARE MINE.” This total commitment to brotherhood typified his all-embracing spirit of goodwill which allowed for “sudharo” (amelioration) instead of “budharo” (evil correction).
 
While many people are afraid or reluctant to talk about it, there is a great potential for peace to be pursued THROUGH religions (ALL religions). This area was one of Gandhi’s battlefields, and it is also ours. Our peace is threatened by diviseness, by the exploitation of religion for social or political power. Religion which should serve as a great liberating force and uniting power for all of us has become the servant of malicious selfishness and ego. We can learn from Gandhiji’s experiments and become ourselves more creative peacemakers.
 
For Gandhi there should be no feud between the religious and personal aims, personal and social aims; the material and spiritual goals. Only those pursuits that are unrelated to the Whole are unworthy or unrighteous. For instance, living in total pursuit of evanescent material, selfish, glories and powers is uwholesome. To pursue material prosperity ALONE is to disengage our life from the Eternal.
 
NATURE:
 
As an “advaitist” believing in the absolute oneness of life, Gandhi urged us to be rational, to work WITH Nature, the material ALMA MATER of our life, to value its irreplaceable resources, and to discontinue privileges and subsidies in the economy wherever they run contrary to the natural law.
 
Undisturbed, Nature maintains a relative balance of cooperative and competitive existence. Yet, by man’s predatory imposition – by greed or shortsightedness – Nature suffers (depletion, erosion, pollution, disease……(We are all too familiar with the effects.)
 
Gandhi observed that Nature in its economic wisdom instinctively fulfills the primary needs of hunger, shelter, procreation and growth. Unto itself the continuous work of Nature is a perfect socio-economic system: It is predictable, cooperative and organized. Its wages are honest, and its participants serve a common cause, though unconsciously.
 
We humans by definition utilize the additional dimension of free will, with a consciousness that is both creative and subjective. This God-given distinction makes us the moral custodians for the welfare of nature as well as our human society. 
 
Almost a century ago, before we identified the issues of depleting natural resources and ravaged ecology, Gandhiji urged people to use only “positive” technology: the sun, the air, water and earth – as much as possible instead of thoughtlessly (selfishly) squandering our nonrenewable natural resources. He pioneered invention to this end at the Center for Science for the Villages in Wardha that continues creatively to this day.
 
To live is to grow, and thus to desire to prosper materially is natural to nature – our nature, all nature. Our happiness in prospering is linked to a large and symbiotic wellbeing. 
 
PEOPLE:
 
Almost from the beginning of his public life in India Gandhi insisted on identifying with the life of all people: rich or poor, of every station and vocation. ( By the way, people from every imaginable interest come to our Library to read Gandhiji”s views on topics A to Z, any of which could be identified as HIS vocations: On trial for sedition in 1924, when asked his vocation, he responded, “I am a farmer and a weaver.” We might observe that he was also a philosopher, advocate, educator (having designed and implemented a plan for basic education and having founded a university), a journalist and publisher, economist, dietician and priest (officiating marriages in his ashrams).
 
Yet, he simply fulfilled his own given name: “Mohandas” (devoted to God/Truth); “Karamchand” (doer of Good). Here we begin to get to the heart of the man. He served the Freedom of Mankind. As you know, he was not the first champion of Indian independence. There were others before him: notably Tilak, Gokhale and Ram Mohan Roy to name a few. But they were men who seemed separate from the people, educated in Europe or wearing Western clothes, speaking among the educated in English.
 
Then came Gandhi, and a vast gulf was bridged. He identified with the people just as they were.    For years people in the Western world wondered at his strange appearance (i.e. wearing a simple loincloth) thinking him oddly ascetic. But like all else he did, Gandhi even dressed deliberately, by principle. If the multitudes had little to wear, then he would share their plight, in empathy. His simple and truthful example coming from a committed faith in human nature awakened the conscience of broader society to the needs of the multitude. People became eager to join him in service.
 
The Mahatma was an ascetic, developing a genius, I would say, for simplicity, a simplicity both
lofty as well as practical in its idealism, again appealing to the best in human nature. In fact, he looked upon simplicity as the very criterion of civilization! By deliberate and voluntary reduction of selfish wants one becomes free for selfless service, thus serving the happiness of all. Yes, he was an ascetic, but with the generous goodwill and extravagant sincerity and abundant love that ultimately served to endear him to millions, then and forever.
 
His practical ideas about work and economics reveal the same wholistic approach: He would have us ask: Does your work respect the essential symbiosis of life? Does it give hope for a better life? Does it remove difficulties and suffering Does it raise your moral and spiritual dimension as a human being?
 
Into the future, the world will see Mahatma Gandhi increasingly as a Teacher and not as a politician as historians are apt to. If I may draw a timely distinction, politicians promise us the most, but great teachers ASK the most of us. Our indebtedness to the world’s great teachers such as Mahatma Gandhi is not honored by building memorials to them or setting aside holidays named for them, of course. We do not owe them statues or proclamations. We owe them what they felt they owed us: a living message of Life and Truth, Compassion and Peace.
 
To conclude, perhaps the greatest teaching of Mahatma Gandhi for our future is this counsel:
 
“In times to come people will not judge us by the c reed we profess or the label we wear of the slogans we shout, but by our work, industry, sacrifice, honesty and purity of character.”
 
Thank you all.