GANDHI (Gandhian Philosophy)

Laksmisree Banerjee

GANDHI AT THE CROSS ROADS

He grew and grew like a huge banyan

With taut roots, a leafy shade

for us to sit under and introspect.

But now he stands at the crossroads

spectacled in stone, all alone  

in dimness of truth and

Iconic distance in the webs of history.

The vendor still fights under the sun 

bent under the load of his wares

  the slum dweller droops in death

the capitalist still swoons in exultant

  vulgarity with his Gandhi-stamped currency

bought from the sweat and blood

of the down-and-outs while

the demagogues shout “non-violence”

to garner votes for everlasting power.

The Mahatma in his statuesque immobility

carved in rocky apathy

at the traffic signal, stares silently

at the quagmire of life.

GANDHI’S TRICOLOUR

The tri-colour flutters 

In the immanence of 

His pure white peace,

In his loin-cloth of sacrifice

In the saffron greenery

Of his miraculous sainthood

He lives with countless age 

In the void of truth

Ageless in thoughts

Unyielding in acts

Born to create a nation

From a ravaged race

  Gandhi’s tri-colour flies high

Against our stars and skies

But freedom has acquired a new meaning  

As brothers kill brothers 

And the beggar woman with an empty bowl

And a weeping child unfed in her arms

Sits just below the pedestal

Of Gandhi’s dust-worn statue--- 

 GANDHI: AN ENIGMA

  From his piano lessons

  To his waltz classes

From the ignominy of 

  His South-African train journey

To his legal battles

  From his impassioned satyagraha

To his relentless charkha,

  He remained 

In continued exile

  From himself

An enigma testing truth

 An example to the world 

Breathing in ceaseless quest 

  Till his final moments

Offered him in agony

  The much sought-after stasis

The sureness of glory

  The permanence of fatherhood

In the romantic haze, though

  Of our failing memory---

GANDHI: THE FATHER

 

His first-born looked for the father

But never really could find him

His wife remained loving and loyal

But never really could touch him

They strove, they struggled, wept

A suffering family orphaned by

His daunting limitlessness

He remained a sacrificial demigod  

Blind to the narrowness of everyday lives

To the petty joys and sorrows

Of all near and dear ones

He tried hard to build 

A nascent democracy

From the nadir of imperialism

 To light up a new dawn of truth

He fought with his untold weapon

  He faltered, he split, he wept

  He was rent apart, cut open,

Partitioned and killed 

  

But he ascended while he fell

Invincible through triumph and defeat--- 

 

 A TRYST WITH HUMANITY 

 The whirligig of truth blossomed ever

  In his lotus frenzy of boundless love

The baby rays of the sun in

His vision beyond the blue

Gleamed in the shimmer of his glasses

His fathomless eyes moist with life

Caressed the dewdrops on

The green blades of open fields

His resonant prayers

Awakened living fires in 

Tired minds and ragged lives

While cooling riotous souls

His walking stick of resolve

With the sureness of treading

Defeated insurgencies and

Strangled empire

In a chequered life incredible

Till the bewildering crescendo

Of a gunshot penetrated 

Deep into his bleeding heart of humanity--- 

LIVING NON-VIOLENCE

The elevator took me high up

To the Top of Africa building

In Johannesburg where I heaved with pride

In Gandhi’s Satyagraha Museum

A communion with ether and manna

An ineffable joy I always felt in zest

Across times and spaces strewn with

Gandhian gems of thought and action 

In squares, roads, jails, shrines, offices

Men transcending Power for Peace

Expansive iridescence in Gandhi’s aura 

His far reaching embrace of land and sky

Firm onward movement

Fortitude of fragility

Austerity beyond reason

Ideals beyond comprehension

A shining minuscule of wonder 

Born to carve a world of Non-violence

Are we prepared now for the Gandhian Illumination?

Or do we await a Nuclear Armageddon? 

  

Bio: Prof. Dr. Laksmisree Banerjee is a Multi-Award Winning Global Poet/ Writer, Educationist, Vocalist, Former Vice Chancellor and University Professor of English and Cultural Studies. An International Senior Fulbright and Commonwealth Scholar, widely published and anthologized, a UGC Postdoctoral Research Awardee and felicitated by the Sahitya Akademi, as “a Scholar-Artiste Poet-Musician”, she has served as the Indian President’s Nominee on Boards of Central Universities. She has Ten Books of Poetry and more than a hundred Academic Publications including Books. A Two time Entrant to the Yearbook of Indian English Poetry, Dr. Banerjee believes in the potency of her Pen and Voice to impact Social Change.

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Setu, October 2023 :: Gandhian Philosophy