Independence..and Gandhiji
When Gandhiji fought for independence….he really meant people should be independent of MANY things…not just from the English:
From Disease and Illness: Gandhiji is the only person in the world who said ‘you should be ashamed to say you are ill…see what YOU have done to your body that YOU became ill’. I did not understand this concept till my homeopathy doctor told me that 90% of illness is because of food – over eating, under eating, wrong food, too hot, too cold, too spicy, too early, too late…I just stopped being foolish with my food.
From servants: How many of us can live without any help? He did. He could cook, clean his room, clean his toilet – unlike some jokers- this was not a political statement. It was freedom from needing help. Charka was a part of this independence – I can sew my own clothes. So was the Dandi march…”I can make my own salt’
From needs: another brilliant Gandhian concept ‘I am rich by the things that I can live without’ ..he had minimalist needs, and he ate a ball made of neem leaves..which told him how tasty the food was, and I guess it killed the germs in his body!
From the British of course: We think this was his only fight.
From Ignorance:
From Darkness
…..remember when he said ‘Independence’ he meant all that.
How many of us have even ATTEMPTED..forget reached. Most people go for bigger cars, bigger houses, more servants,…..Independence day? Lets drive down to Mahableshwar..thats the thought, right? L O L
Long live Gandhiji.
Surio
@Khan,
If I am articulate enough to keep with you, I am perceptive enough to understand “reality”. Realities are just that… an individual’s respond-react mechanism based around the World he moves in (Kiyosaki had an excellent discussion in one of his books, forget where). I certainly don’t have any rose-tinted specs.
What I am trying to get across is some of the myths that cocoon us because of the very (relative) short term boom that we have been seeing in our lives….
Read this essay which expands on some of the “myths” in this post, written by a good acquaintance and a fellow scientist.
OK, regarding medicine itself, the birthplace of Western medicine, i.e., the West is itself in crossroads regarding how long this juggernaut will roll. Please read the latest Archdruid report. Some excerpts:
then he lays out the flip side
Going forward:
Before you dismiss him as a nobody, please count the number of comments for any of his post (150-200+ comments for every post and still counting). In other words, he has more readers than our own Subra 😉 and he is also influential.
From the comments of that post in question, here’s a medical doctor:
As a economic system we are mostly propped up by FIIs (yes we are hovering in the 17,000+ number not because of local investment but because of those robber barons). Be very aware that the modern life we are taking for granted is courtesy of some very hard nosed crooks. I vividly remember the 1997 Asian paper tigers crisis (collapse?) for I was personally affected by it very badly. Hence my warnings about cutting back and becoming an independent generalist rather than some totally dependent-on-the-propped-system specialist. Truth might be bitter, but in the end it makes you better (i.e., sets you free)
Have a nice day.
—
Srinivas
Thought provoking arguments and counter arguments. However, i feel they(both arguments) are going on parallel and opposite lanes and truth lies somewhere in the middle. This reminds me of the illusion of young lady /old lady, where one understands and argues for what he sees first.
To me Gandhi’s philosophy is improving oneself by making one less dependent. Theoretically when one tries hard enough, he can learn some things what ever the difficulties/obstructions may be. In this i agrees with one line of thinking outlined above. However this simply does not do away with the specialists, who are required anyway. Thus i agree with the second line of thinking.
However, one cannot argue for pure independence or pure dependence in exclusivity. Neither ideal is practicable as man is a social animal. Also, independence works for one or small groups. However independence cannot hold when one works in big groups. It will not be sufficient for getting great things done. If Gandhi alone sat in the beach doing satyagraha, will not be able to achieve what he had done.
In this situation, one can look at the concept of interdependence. Actually this is used by Gandhi throughout. This is best of both worlds(Independence and dependence) and better than either. At a personal level, it empowers you a lot, to be independent. I experienced this in the past few years. For 15 years of my working life, i was practically afraid of finance. At the time of IT returns, used to submit the required docs and pay his fees and be happy. Happy?????? This is a good state right. I thought so for 10 years.
Then one fine day, i had a strong desire to improve my financial knowledge and started working on that. I feel i improved quite a lot. Last three years i am filing my own returns and can understand basics of what is happening around. However, i will not be able to file my returns i start a business or anything like that. That is for the specialists to do. However, i can reasonably understand what is going on. Now i am learning many things in many fields. This does not make specialists in that field redundant. It simply improves me, and that matters to me most.
As the name of Gandhi auto biography suggest, his actions were his experiments with worldly things. Some of which he could learn to do. Common thread among all those experiments is his trial to surpass himself and his ego. However, one stark point that comes out in this pursuit is the pressure he exerted on others to follow a things which he felt correct. This alienated many to him. However, the strength of his character and single mindedness towards his goal(independence) made him dear to masses.
As anything else, his philosophy also can be used for improving oneself. Rather than blindly following, one can check the philosophy with the current reality and make a course correction when he feels the need. As per me simple living is highly satisfying. However, this does not do away with the progress man is achieving, which is obviously the work of experts.
Dr Mohammed Ali Khan
@Srinvas
Thanks for finding the middle ground between us.
@ Surio
Thanks for debating with me. I really learnt a lot. Thank you