Mentorship And Intimacy Can't Co-Exist

GandhiWise NOW: "A reformer cannot afford to have close intimacy with him whom he seeks to reform."

PART 1

Does Gandhi's NOW not remind you of Jesus and his famous observation that "A prophet is without honor in his own land"?

In his autobiography "My Experiments With Truth", Gandhi talks about his belief that he could reform a friend who he believed was not walking the correct religious and social path.. and his utter failure in being able to do so.

Gandhi portrays this interesting sensitivity to the happenings in his life. He leads a learning based life, where experiences are to be emotionally felt but intellectually dissected and the results to be stored for future use. He didn't let the experience of failing to reform a friend go waste, he translated into life long learning - a learning that equals the observation of Jesus Himself!

Gandhi went through his life forming partnerships, but no close intimacies. His childhood learning carved the way for his later life as a public leader. The man who influenced the highest number of people in world history did it by not sharing close intimacy with anyone around him. He remained a loner, and an island, and hiding his loneliness behind his mission, he went about reforming the society and fighting for the nation's freedom.

End of Part 1

Contd. in Part 2: If You Are A Corporate Boss, This Principle Will Make A Big Difference To Your Future

An Unsure Gandhian Beginning

"Start, even if unsure.  Just check if your heart feels right."

This, I feel, is a message that underlines a lot of starts in Gandhi's life.

Many times in his writings, Gandhi points out to numerous incidents where he wasn't too sure of the journey, but he was sure of the destination; he wasn't too sure whether he would arrive, but was sure he wanted to arrive.

And it is with the same feeling today that I begin this blog. 

CONTEMPORARY GANDHI

Gandhiwise will be my regular attempt to elaborate on Gandhi's ideology through the lens of my own understanding.  So, why would anyone ever be interested in my understanding of Gandhi's ideology? I dunno.  Will anyone ever be interested? I dunno.  The journey, I dunno.  The destination, I know.  This blog will be my attempt to contemporarize Gandhi.  

AND WHY?

And why will I do so?  History is dead, but the future is exciting.  Gandhi is dead, but his ideology is exciting.  The ideology is extremely debatable which simply makes it even more exciting!  Gandhi is talked, discussed, dissected and almost raped, but he is hardly ever talked about in the contemporary; always as some piece history that is past and gone.  And I feel that is the missing link to the acceptance of his ideologies. 

I AM NOT!

It might be interesting for you to know, that I am not a die-hard Gandhi fan.  I am just another curious fellow who is awed by the tremendous success he had in life and wonder if there are some principles I could use to change my life for the better too.  And in this process, maybe start a discussion with tons of like-minded people around the world and come up with better answers. 

YET, I START.

 I start this journey in doubt, my heart feels right, and I seek enlightenment.  Hmm, atleast my start is as good as Gandhi's.  I hope you join me on this fantastic journey of life's revelations by understanding one of the most interesting and mind boggling figure that ever appeared on the earth's horizon - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.