Mahatma Gandhi Eternal Pilgrim of Peace & Love

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Gandhi is believed to have greater relevance in the present 21st century of Modern Science and Technology. It has produced geographical neighbourhood. But the distance between man and man has increased. We have become highly individualistic We feel no longer concerned with each others welfare, except in commercial and business terms. Cooperation has been replaced by competition and consumerism. Much intelligence and much energy are going in this effort.

Yet it seems more important than ever that even greater effort be made to achieve positive and mutually helpful human relationship. This cannot be accomplished by harnessing technical forces but only through man, him- self, working with other man based on Gandhian ideals.

Gandhiji used to often illustrate his enthusiasm and hope with the help of table of 'nine'. Nine represents determination and not to lose heart even if one has no good quality. Let us take the table of '9'; 0+9=9, 1+8=9, 2+7-9, 3+6=9, 4+5=9, 6+3=9, 7+2=9, 8+1=9, 9+0=9. Thus, we began with a zero value and came to 90 at the end by our determination. This demonstrates that there is no duality in our thoughts and deeds. Just as we cannot live without the 'sun' we cannot live in 'peace' in the world without Gandhi's twin ideals of Truth and Non-violence.

The series of violence and unrest show decadence of higher moral and ethical values. The lack of spirit, of trust, faith and interpersonal and inter-group involvement and concerns for each other is suggestive of the fact that the tested path of tolerance, justice, morality and trusteeship shown by Gandhi has been forsaken by the present leaders all over the world.

Gandhi once said, dislodge the "money God" from the throne and find some corner for the "Poor God". His theory of Trusteeship should be applied by all in the right earnest. Mind, money and muscle powers should not be used for the selfish-interest but for the good of the community. His ideals, thoughts and deeds should be put in heart and practice.

According to Gandhi, real democracy should have meaning not for a few but for all including the poorest and even for the maimed, the blind and the deaf. To quote his own words: "I shall work for an India in which the poorest feel that it is their country in whose making they have effective voice, an India in which there should be no rich class and no poor class of people and an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony. This is the India of my dream".

There are probably very few still living Indians, who can say, hand on heart, that they have seen Mahatma Gandhi in person and have interacted with him. With every passing year this number keeps decreasing.

Gandhiji, as we all know, was assassinated in 1948. For anyone to claim to have had even a few minutes interaction with the Mahatma, the person should have been born around 1930. In other words, such a person would now be seventy plus.

Among these limited few who had actively and intimately known Gandhiji is Shri S. Ramakrishnan, who is presently the Executive Secretary and Director General of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, the sociocultural organisation set up by Kulapati Kanhaiyalal M. Munshi. In his time Shri Ramakrishnan served Sardar Vallabbhai Patel and was in close touch with towering figures of the time like Jawaharlal Nehru, J. B. Kripalani, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and C. Rajagopalachari.

Shri S. Ramakrishnan is a legendary Gandhian. He came under the spell of Mahatma Gandhi when he was barely twelve years old. He had the glimpse of Mahatma Gandhi in 1934 during his tour in Kerala as part of the "Harijan Tour". This tour of Gandhiji had come as a boost to the Harijan Temple Entry Movement under the leadership of Kelappan who was held as the Kerala Gandhi.

Shri Ramakrishnan dropped the "T" denoting Trichur from his initials "T. S.", when Gandhiji appealed in one of his prayer meetings: "We should all be Indians first, last and always-Andhraites, Assamese, Bengalis, Gujraties, Keralites, Maharashtrians, Tamils, etc., next".

He also studied Hindi in response to Gandhiji's call that we should have Hindi as our national language. He was only 16 when he started free library and reading room in village Pushpagiri. This reading room was inaugurated by Dr. A. R. Menon, the first elected Rural Development Minister of Cochin State.

Shri Ramakrishnan migrated to Mumbai in 1939 and joined Larsen & Toubro. Though working for Europeans, he took to wearing of khadi. Following year, he started the Charkha and Khadi club, to supply charkha and khadi to middle class homes on instalment basis and to undertake door-to-door Khadi sale. Besides running regular Hindi classes for office-going people, he organised a group of volunteers and undertook regular weekly cleaning of streets and gutters of Dharavi slum. He had an obsession for social work right from his boyhood. His Satwik mind was bent upon giving and not taking, which continues even today. His conviction is manav seva is Ishwar seva.