Twas a bullet that tore into the heart of the man, who spoke non-violence to the world! It was same dastardly bullet that revealed, even as we Indians got freedom through his non-violent movement, that there were people in the country who wanted to remain shackled in violence!
It is those same people who are now provoking, instigating and igniting communal hatred as followers of the Bullet! Today on Shaheed Diwas or Martyrs Day, as we remember the death of the Father of our Nation, let us also not forget the Bullet and it’s followers! Two thousand years ago, it was not a bullet but a nail! Both with pointed edges, both made of metal, both meant to kill, and kill they both did.
The nail, and three others of it’s kind, were driven into the hands and feet of a young thirty three year old, promoter of peace. Like the assassin of the Mahatma, those who planned the killing of the Messiah were upper caste Pharisees who did not want their righteous superiority to be trampled upon. They loved being thought of as holy, and loved the recognition bestowed on them by simple minded people.
They thought that with the death of a man who came to abolish the supremacy of their caste system, they would continue being thought of as superior. Today, they don’t exist, and to be called a Pharisee is being called a hypocrite or someone with double standards.
Double standards! Rings a bell doesn’t it? And if the bell tolls it tolls for you to recollect, to hearken, to never forget that these same people with double standards are promoters of violence! Because the different masks they wear fool people, and they want to keep that masquerade on. But hush! Even as you hear the sound of gunfire or horror of horrors, that of nail tearing flesh, remember the effect that remains is that of peace, of non-violence!
The bullet fired on a January thirtieth, decades ago, inspired a Martin Luther King, make millions of blacks, stop their violent protests and instead use non-violence, which culminated in an African-American Obama, reigning as the most powerful man on earth for a full two terms!
And so too with the nail! It pierced, it killed, and today, the gospel that the Man revealed, is followed by more than two billion or one third of the world! Today, even as we remember India’s father, felled by a bullet, remember all you followers of Bullet or Nail, that cause the bullet tried to fell, the gospel that nail tried to stop, lives on..!
