The I Loved Gandhi Pastime ©

On this particular evening, we were alone talking until around 10:00 or 11:00 pm. Srila Prabhupada was educating me on the recent history of India. He was specifically talking about Mahatma Gandhi and what his plans were for developing India after independence. Srila Prabhupada explained to me that Gandhi indeed had the proper plans for revitalizing India. “Gandhi never wanted the expansion of big cities,” he said, “he never wanted factories to open up everywhere. Gandhi never wanted that or thought that it was beneficial for India’s development. Rather Gandhi was concerned that people in the villages have the necessities of life.”

“Gandhi’s plan” Srila Prabhupada continued to explain, “was to have all the members of the Congress party go to all the villages and help the villages establish the necessities for self-sufficiency.” Srila Prabhupada described Gandhi’s plan to me in great detail. He said “that first of all Gandhi wanted to arrange for everyone in the villages to grow their own food, make their own clothing, produce milk products through cow protection, and provide every person in the village with a home, an education, a good water supply, religious training, and some occupation - a craft of making cloth or jewelry, or something of that nature from the land.

These were the fundamental principles that Gandhi lived by, and he felt that if, in every village, the basic needs of the people were achieved through simple, self-sufficient practices then later, Gandhi said, some factories could be developed if need be. With the self-sufficient base in the villages, people would not abandon their land for factories so easily and only some people would come to the cities to work in the factories.”

Srila Prabhupada explained that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sadar Patel had made a deal with the British to build factories in India with machinery and materials imported from the UK to keep the British economy flourishing. In exchange for their compliance in this economic partnership, the Indian Subcontinent would be granted Independence. Srila Prabhupada expressed his view that Sadar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru had betrayed Gandhi. Srila Prabhupada explained their vision to me.

“They, Nehru and Patel, thought that India’s future was through developing factories to create jobs. Now, look what has happened” Srila Prabhupada said “Young men have left the land behind. Instead of growing food, they have gone to the cities to live in squalor in shantytowns. They work long hours in a factory for only a few rupees, not even enough money for a decent living and their spiritual life is spoiled.” “Meanwhile” Srila Prabhupada noted, “we are having food shortages here in India because the young men have stopped farming.” This vision Srila Prabhupada had of Nehru was confirmed to me when I read a quote from Nehru regarding his funeral arrangements. Nehru said that he wanted his ashes to be placed in the Ganga and Yamuna not because they were sacred rivers but because they had powered the industrial development of India after her independence.

Srila Prabhupada continued educating me. “India has become spoiled by Western civilization. Gandhi wanted to develop a simple, self-sufficient lifestyle in the broad agricultural heartland of India. His plan would have saved India, but Nehru and Patel, who were politicians, spoiled Gandhi's plans for what they thought was economic advantages.” Srila Prabhupada now looked deeply into my eyes, his voice and eyes were soft and full of emotion; “I loved Gandhi he wanted to save India.” I was astonished to hear these words from Srila Prabhupada. In the past, Srila Prabhupada had complained about a regular basis about Gandhi’s philosophical and theological teachings.

Yet, regarding this particular vision of Gandhi, Srila Prabhupada saw something that was uniquely sympathetic to his own views of saving India from the spiritual suicide it was committing. Srila Prabhupada felt that Gandhi shared a vision with him, a plan, to create a social and economic structure of self-sufficiency that would ensure that people had the time and energy to engage in spiritual practices without being exploited by the factory civilization. It was for this reason that Srila Prabhupada said “I loved Gandhi” and yet his expression of those words was shocking to me. At the same time, it was very heartwarming to see him open up like this to me and express it to me in those terms.

I remembered how during this period in Vrindavan in 1974 I was sitting with some of the devotees from Africa in the room with Srila Prabhupada and suddenly he looked me in the eyes the way he looked at me in Bombay that night and he said;“ you and I have associated before, and we are associating now.” I realized then as I realized now that the familiarity we had sometimes was based on our prior relationship in previous lives. I often felt like Srila Prabhupada was my friend, and now he was treating me like one by expressing something very confidential to me alone.

On the walk the next morning, I was at Srila Prabhupada’s side as we walked down the beach. The cool, crisp, salty, air blew gentle breezes that invigorated our minds, our senses, and our bodies as we cruised along the seashore while the soft morning sun peeked over the horizon. Srila Prabhupada seemed to walk at a quicker pace than usual sticking closer the water's edge where the sand was more tightly packed and more accessible for walking. In addition to his increased speed Srila Prabhupada was covering more ground then usual going a much longer distance then I had ever seen him go before. Srila Prabhupada usually never walked this far down the beach, which made me wonder what he was doing.

Whenever an Indian gentleman would join the morning walk they would offer pranams with folded hands to Srila Prabhupada out of respect for him and Srila Prabhupada would always respond by offering his pranams with folded hands in return. Since I was walking on Srila Prabhupada’s left and looking to my right at Srila Prabhupada with the beautiful sea beyond him in the distance, I did not see who was coming to join the walk from the left. Whenever Srila Prabhupada would offer his pranams in that direction, I would turn and look to see who was joining the morning walk.

We had now gone so far down the beach this particular morning that we were near the trees. At this point, Srila Prabhupada turned to his left to offer his pranams. As I usually did, I turned to my left to see whom he was offering his pranams to. When I turned to look, to my surprise, there was no one there. However, as I looked into the distance, I could see a statue of Mahatma Gandhi with his staff in his usual walking pose. Puzzled at the prospect, I asked myself “had Srila Prabhupada come all the way down the beach that morning to offer his respects to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi?” As I pondered this thought, I realized that no other person was there in the direction where Srila Prabhupada had turned to offer his pranams.

No Indian gentleman was coming from that direction, or from any direction, toward the walking party. The only thing that I could see across the depth of the beach to the street in the distance was the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. I became convinced based on the previous night's discussion and Srila Prabhupada’s expression to me about Gandhi that indeed Srila Prabhupada had come all the way down the beach that morning just to offer his respect to the statue of Gandhi.

At this point, Srila Prabhupada made his about-face and began the walk back to the temple. After some time a few of the regulars joined us. By divine arrangement, Dr. Patel, who always asked the most controversial questions, started talking about Gandhi and his explanations of non-violence in his Bhagavad Gita commentary. Suddenly Srila Prabhupada turned to Dr. Patel and said, “What is this nonsense you are saying? At the end of Gita, Arjuna fights the Battle of Kurukshetra. What is the question of non-violence? What Gandhi is saying is all nonsense.”

Srila Prabhupada continued “Gandhi has used the Gita for his own selfish purposes to express his own philosophy. This is not based on Parampara. This is simply Gandhi’s speculation. He should write his own book on non-violence and not use the Gita.” Srila Prabhupada was speaking strongly against Gandhi. I was bewildered. What had just happened? Srila Prabhupada said he loved Gandhi last night and then came down to offer his respect to the statue and now what was this? I was really confused, to say the least. Suddenly Srila Prabhupada turned to his left looked at me and smiled. I smiled back “I understand now,” I thought, “In these philosophical and theological areas you do not agree with Gandhi. Therefore, you will chastise him. However, in Gandhi’s vision to save India from the onslaught of the factory civilization, you shared a common vision with him, and for that reason you loved him.”

For a long time after Srila Prabhupada told me this, it was our little secret. Srila Prabhupada wanted me to be careful with what he shared with me. Although I have told this story on several occasions since the 1990’s, it is not till recently that I feel I have realized the full depth of what he was expressing to me that day as I have explained above. I certainly feel honored to have been the recipient of Srila Prabhupada’s private feelings and the wisdom that came with it. However, I have also realized the other valuable lesson that Srila Prabhupada was teaching me along with his vision of Varnashrama Dharma. He was letting me know, “You have to know what to say, and when to say it, and how to say it, and to whom to say it to preach this philosophy successfully.”