Published by DAVID McKAY COMPANY
WASHINGTON SQUARE · PHILADELPHIA 1948

AN AFTERWORD
By PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA

Dress thyself in rich attire, befitting the moment. Now thou goest to thy beloved’s home. Thou wilt lie in dust. Cover thyself with dust. Be one with dust. Bathe and wear a fitting dress. Remember thou art not returning from where thou goest.

(Song chosen by Gandhiji himself, to be sung at the time of his death.)

Mahatma Gandhi no longer walks the endless roads of India, nor leads the evening prayer meetings among his devotees. He has escaped from the fragile fast worn body, and from the ashes now mingled with the sacred waters, but from our hearts there is no escape for Gandhiji—his living spirit is with us. As his soul commingles with the soul of God, not less must it commingle with those of us who seek to further the vision for which he died.

He did not belong to India alone, but to the world at large. Even in America—where only of few years ago he was known as a strange little man in a sheet—he has won the admiration, respect and, finally, love of untold thousands who have seen India’s successful struggle towards freedom by peaceful means under his guidance. In these days, following his passing, the leading newspapers and magazines all over the country have devoted pages to the details of his tragic death, to biographical data and to the pictures and accounts of the important moments in his ever-active life.

What can we who ourselves are of India—or who otherwise feel ourselves particularly close to him—add to all the tributes? We have to read how he made a gesture of forgiveness as he sank stricken to the ground. We have shared the shock and grief of his disciples, and have visualized them as they watched throughout the tragic night, chanting Vedic hymns or verses from the Bhagavad-Gita, preparing his body for its last trip to the burning ghat while thousands of others waited for a fleeting and final glimpse of his frail form. We have seen the pictures of Mahatmaji on his bier strewn with rose petals.

Perhaps we have been comforted in some measure because his expression was so peaceful, somehow lessening our horror at the thought of the bullet holes which marred his garlanded body. In our mind’s eye we have followed his progress to the funeral pyre, and have felt the strain upon his son, Ramdas, as he followed the traditional ceremony and kindled the flames which would be helped by the ghee or melted butter and coconut oil added so that the remains might be reduced to ashes the more quickly, and we even may have thought we caught the odor of camphor, used to enhance the fragrance of the sandalwood logs.

We have had reverent descriptions of the quiet services which were designed to symbolize Gandhiji’s freedom at last from his earthly limitations: the flower offerings—the sacred words Aum and Ram spelled in rose petals—the chanting of Hindu and Moslem verses and Christian hymns—the triple circling of the cold pyre to cut the earthly ties—the privilege of kneeling at the foot of the pyre in a last obeisance before the remaining vestige of the Mahatma’s physical form, the ashes which would soon be returned to their source.

Not only have we been aware of out personal loss, but we have been able in some measure to sense the bereavement of those multitudes to whom he was Bapuji—father. We can realize how much heavier the burden borne by the new government of an independent India has become, and perhaps like millions of others we have offered up a prayer for those charged with sudden greater responsibilities, especially Jawaharlal Nehru who now must enter the most difficult phase of his part in the long and arduous struggle of the Hindus to their high destiny.

As for myself, I sought to give what tribute I could over our radio in Los Angles when I said: “Mahatma Gandhi’s passing is a loss not only to India but to the whole world. World leaders and all India mourn for him. We mourn for our loss, but he is freer to work through the Infinite. Jesus Christ and Abraham Lincoln died for the same cause as Mahatma Gandhi as died. As Judas was the best publicity agent for the message of Christ, so this Indian assassin who killed Gandhiji will help spread his doctrine of Ahimsa, or fighting evil by nonviolence. In keeping with Mahatma Gandhi’s doctrine, we hope that his assassin receives lifeterm instead of capital punishment.

“By following Gandhij’s nonviolent doctrine, India won her independence without fifing a single shot. If the world followed his doctrine, it too could receive its independence from slavery of destructive and misery—making wars. Gandhiji’s limited by his frail body, accomplished much, but his liberated spirit will work more mightily in the hearts of nations and individuals for all time. Let us pay homage to the ever-living great Mahatma Gandhi. He is not dead, for his exemplary life and spirit of goodness are going to work unhampered through the temple of our hearts ever and forever.”

Already the great leaven is at work, and in a materialistic world there are many who saw the real implications of Gandhiji’s life as something reaching out into the future—not a glorious past brought to its ignominious end in a tragic present. For example, in an editorial entitled “Death As A Weapon,” the Los Angeles Times said, “Our patriots do not serve by going meekly to jail. They are willing to risk their lives, but they do not think death is useful in itself. Gandhi did. In his spiritual and political realms, death was a weapon. He wielded tremendous power by threatening to die. He swayed a subcontinent by holding hid life, like a bottle of nitro-glycerin, balanced on his fingertip.”

Here were exhibited basic differences between Eastern and Western views on life and its views on life and its values. At the memorial services held by our Self-Realization Fellowship, I said that “statues may be erected in his honor, but we must erect in one corner of our hearts a statue to nonviolence if Gandhi is to be rightly remembered. We must establish a monument to Gandhi within us if we are to have a world peace. Enemies and friends are all our brothers under the fatherhood of God.”

In the symbolic rites conducted at this service I wore the ocher-orange robes which throughout India denote the Renunciate Order. Flames were ignited in the brazier and in them I saw the fire symbolical of the flames which consumed the body of Gandhi beside the holy river Jumna. “Gandhi’s physical body has been dissolved in the cosmic fire,” I said, “and now his soul commingles with the soul of God.” Into the smoking receptacle I then dropped a snowy calla lily and a gardenia, and sang a song dedicated to the lamented Hindu leader, before my prayer for unity between Hindustan and Pakistan and peace among all nations.

In my thoughts I go back to 1925, at the time of my visit with Gandhi at his ashrama in Wardha, when we had several days of discussion of America, of his satyagraha principles, and of my own yoga teachings. When I wrote my Autobiography of a Yogi (New York, Philosophical Library, 1946) I looked back on what I now could identify as a “Wardha idyl.” Of it I said, “The nonviolent voice of Gandhi appeals to man's highest conscience. Let nations ally themselves no longer with death, but with life; not with destruction, but with construction; not with the Annihilator, but with the Creator.

Nonviolence is the natural outgrowth of the law of forgiveness and love. Epics shall someday be written on the Indian satyagrahis who withstood hate with love, violence with nonviolence, who allowed themselves to be mercilessly slaughtered rather than retaliate. The result on certain historic occasions was that the armed opponents threw down their guns and fled, shamed, shaken to their depths by the sight of men who valued the life of another above their own. Never does the Mahatma forget the majestic warning: ‘All they that take up the sword shall perish with the sword.’

“By the Mahatma's training of thousands of true satyagrahis who in turn spread the message; by patiently educating the Indian masses to understand the spiritual and eventually material benefits of nonviolence; by arming his people with nonviolent weapons–non-cooperation with injustice, the willingness to endure indignities, prison, death itself rather than resort to arms; by enlisting world sympathy through countless examples of heroic martyrdom among satyagrahis, Gandhi has dramatically portrayed the practical nature of nonviolence, its solemn power to settle disputes without war. Gandhi has already won through nonviolent means a greater number of political concessions for his land than have ever been won by any leader of any country except through bullets.

Nonviolent methods for eradication of all wrongs and evils have been strikingly applied not only in the political arena but in the delicate and complicated field of Indian social reform. Gandhi and his followers have removed many longstanding feuds between Hindus and Mohammedans; hundreds of thousands of Moslems look to the Mahatma as their leader. The untouchables have found in him their fearless and triumphant champion. The Mahatma is indeed a ‘great soul,’ but it was illiterate millions who had the discernment to know this first. Their gentle prophet is honored in his own land. The lowly peasant has been able to rise to Gandhi's high challenge. The Mahatma wholeheartedly believes in the inherent nobility of man. The inevitable failures have never disillusioned him.”

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