The speech that never was!

As part of the temples' master plan to encourage more youngsters to throng the temple, a small faction of its young and radical minded committee members introduced a weekly speech session. The speeches to be given by various individuals and professionals (not from the religious fraternity) on their individual perspective of Hinduism or life.It was going on well with various learned speakers (ehm...) took to the rostrum. I only knew that they were some many qualified individuals among the congregation during the introduction before their speech -CEOs, dentists etc.
Like I was saying, everything was going well until they had their annual general meeting. A group of elderly people of the community who were the sort of the founding fathers of the temple, (they were there during the inception of temple), voiced out the displeasure over the turn of events. It seems that it was against the tradition (paramapara) of conducting talks by theologically challenged individuals in a foreign language. So that was that, the speeches died as quickly as it started.
Anyway, here is the transcript of the speech that never was, unless the powers that be decide to reverse the earlier decision...
When my children heard that I was going to speak in front of the congregation of  a temple, the first thing that they told me is not to be cynic. How can one be critical of anything when you are not the most knowledgeable person in the crowd!
A famous poet once said, "Life is a journey but unfortunately, in this journey of life, there is no direction, path or GPS for us to follow but the destination will finally reach when this journey comes to an abrupt end. Along the way, we all try to find the correct path with the help and guidance of those who have seen it and been there. Which better individual to emulate than to scrutinize some of the sayings and acts of the man whom the Nobel Prize winning physicist, Albert Einstein, described, "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as [Gandhi] ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth?" -Karamchand Mohandas Gandhi.
Of course, there will always be two sides of the story with people telling us that he was not as good a father as he was a politician. After all, he is human and we can learn from the good things that he left behind.
Highlighted by most movies on Gandhi, we understand that his last words were "Hey, Ram!". Even in times of severe pain and agony, he uttered the sweet name of the Lord, unlike most people these days who find it more comfortable and trendy to lace profanity in their daily conversations at the drop of a hat and to emphasis their facts.
I remember when I was young, I remember hearing a story. I was told that, in times in trouble when you exclaim "Maa!", Sakthi Mataji will come to your aid and Lord Shiva if you yell "Paa!"; if you say "Aiyoh!" nobody will be there to help you!
In this present day world, there is so much of violence, anger and revenge. Even our television series are not helping (especially the tele-serials), where there is so much of bad blood and animosity. Perhaps, we have forgotten one of Gandhi's most famous saying, "An eye for an eye only leaves the whole world blind". If everyone adheres to this simple dictum, there will not be 9-11 and bombing of Afghanistan. We should also try his other quotation, "Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.”
We always complain that world has changed, this is no good and that is no good. Just like how Michael Jackson said that the change starts with the man in the mirror, Gandhi told us that we should "Be the change that you want to see in the world". 
It is easy to tell others to be like this and to do like that. He should lead by example as "As ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching".
We always try to segregate and differentiate amongst fellow human beings along many differentiating lines. From a religious viewpoint, when a reporter asked him about his religious belief, he said, "I am a Muslim and a Hindu and a Christian and a Jew and so are all of you."

Salt March

Gandhi lived a simple life but on his principles. It is hard to get angry with his old man. The British were up in arms with Gandhi with his Salt March and boycott British fabric policy. Buy British last did leave a dent on the jobs of the mill workers in Manchester and Lancashire.When Gandhiji visited a cotton mill in Lancashire (the same workers his protests hurt), he received nothing but a tearful rousing welcome! It was reported in the British newspapers in 1931, 
"...Gandhi was received with sympathy and affection by the Lancashire cotton workers, even though they were the ones hit hardest by the boycott.  It was a sympathy and affection that he returned...."

He also left his words of wisdom for the business community to emulate. He reiterated that "It is difficult, not impossible, to conduct strictly honest business" and we should not be serving a customer as a burden as they are the reason for the existence of one's business!

Many of us are aware that Gandhiji was a fruitarian who stopped consuming cow's milk but consumed goat's milk instead. This is not for any medicinal reason but rather due to how cruel people were to milk the cow of its milk. In spite of placing the cow as sacrilegious animal, their treatment of the animal was much to be desired.
Gandhi was also known to hold steadfast to his believes. Coming from a conservative Gujarati family, his mother was worried that he would join the masses and abandon his life long traditional practice of abstaining from meat during his tenure in the UK for law studies. He did not only did not succumb to herd mentality but instead help to cultivate the Vegetarian Society there! The lesson to learn here is that one must set his priorities right and work towards that direction without bowing to external influences.

Gandhi and Kasturba

He also led a simple life, preferring to show up in his home spun dhoti even during his visit to Buckingham Palace in the British winter cold !
Another invaluable lesson that Gandhiji has impressed upon us the virtue and sacrifices made by our respective spouses. Following him without fuss, she cleaned latrines, lived simple lives,stayed in ashrams and was imprisoned many times until she finally succumbed to her illnesses in prison.

In short, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi may not be us today but his sayings and simple way of life can teach us all many valuable lessons, from Martin Luther King Jr to many more generations to come!