I love the Indian traditions, during Diwali I saw a flower
garland put over a wheelbarrow which was used to collect garbage from the
streets; the workers had put the garland because their tools are a means of
livelihood for them.
One such tradition is that of folding the hands and saying
Namaste, it is both a yoga mudra and a mantra.
It creates such a good vibration more so if done collectively
in a group.
Albert Einstein having seen Gandhi greet people with his
hands placed together he wrote to ask the meaning of Namaste and the reply was:
"I honor the place in you where the entire universe
resides. I honor the place in you of light, love, truth, peace and wisdom. I
honor the place in you where, when you are in that place in you, and I am in
that place in me, there is only one of us."
Now while talking about Gandhi and Einstein one of the
extremely interesting facts which Einstein himself told jawaharlal nehru is
that the development of the satyagraha moment has been exactly parallel to the
development of the atomic bomb.
I was very fascinated when I compared the timeline of the
advances in Nuclear Physics and the evolution of Gandhi’s philosophy of Non
Violence.
I write down the main points as a year by year comparison will
be very lengthy.
The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of
nuclear physics with the discovery of radioactivity and Gandhi also begins his
moment and creates the Natal Indian Congress in
South African politics.
In the mid 1900’s Einstein develops the theory of Relativity, the
interchangeable relationship of mass and energy, the basic fundamental of the
power of the atom E=MC2---and Gandhi Introduces Non-Violent Protest Philosophy
of Satyagraha and organizes his first satyagraha campaign ---On the other end
Georgi Gapon leads the first nonviolent protest of the century in Russia.
The year 1915—Einstein publishes the General theory
of relativity.—and Gandhi arrives in India from South Africa
The beginning of
1930’s--- various complex experiments carried in nuclear physics
laboratories and experiment proves Albert
Einstein’s theory of relativity propelling nuclear physics to new heights ---on
the other end Gandhi shakes the foundations of the British empire by symbolically
picking up a piece of unprocessed salt at Dandi, inspiring thousands of
Indians to follow his example of non-violent civil disobedience a resolution on
Complete Independence was adopted
The beginning of 1940’s-- powerful nations
wanted to made the atomic bomb--- Gandhi launches the “Quit India”
movement.
The mid 1940’s-- physics reaches its peak
and the climax of nuclear physics---the atom bombs were
exploded---The nonviolent struggle also reaches its peak, and the climax-- India
gained its independence.
In Europe too various nonviolent protest were carried out.
It took me a month to compare the timelines and after I wrote
this article I kept on thinking about it and realized the irony between the two.
Gandhi set up his moment on truth and virtue but afterwards
what did it result into— Gandhi acknowledged Nehru
as his political heir and successor, later it became one of the most corrupt
regimes in this World—a regime of power, of corruption, of dirty
politics.
On the other hand what did the atomic bombs which were a
historic crime against humanity---the 2,00,000 most cruel deaths lead to—they
led to peace in the world.
For after world war-2, no leader wanted to repeat the evil of
war.
