What a GREAT LIFE …. What Absolute Commitment! To not only live your entire life devotedly promoting the cause of Nonviolence but even give up your life for it! And achieve crowning glory in your dying moment by forgiving the assassin who killed you!

Hundreds of followers witnessed the above spectacle, 73 years ago, on this day, when Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Indian Nation, aged 78, was shot in Birla House compound, New Delhi, as he walked in to conduct the routine daily evening prayers, by a Hindu fanatic, Nathuram Godse, who was opposed to Gandhi fraternizing with the Muslims during the Partition of India.

Gandhiji’s last act before he succumbed to the bullet shots fired by Godse, was to lift both his hands in prayer and utter “Hey Ram” (“Oh God”) signifying that that he forgave the person who shot him! 

The greatest apostle of peace lost his life in trying to make Hindus and Muslims realise their common brotherhood and humanity. All his life, Gandhi stood and worked for Sarvodaya – welfare of all. It is significant, that Gandhi’s word for Independence from colonial rule - Swaraj - had spiritual overtones, meaning self-rule. He was convinced that a nation could achieve greatness only when it’s citizens were willing to exercise self-restraint and sacrifice petty self-interests, to achieve the greater good; political and economic advancement becoming a tool for one’s spiritual growth and evolution.

Gandhi’s Salt March (Satyagraha) is termed Nonviolent Resistance par excellence, by Gene Sharp, as through it, Gandhi united 400 million Indians - the majority of whom were poor and illiterate - into a nation in 26 days, the duration of the March! He not only gave Indians confidence in themselves; instilling in them the belief that they were equal to the British, but demonstrated to the world at large, how   Britain – priding itself as the greatest power on Earth at the time, on which the   sun never set - could be defeated through peaceful, nonviolent means.

No wonder then millions joined Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral procession on the 31st of January 1948, from Birla House to Rajghat, New Delhi. The huge, silently crying throng that walked the whole way, accompanying their beloved Bapu on his last journey, epitomizes Gandhi’s power over the hearts & minds of the Indian masses.

So, dear Signatories, following the Gandhian approach, let each one of us resolve to, “be the change”, if we believe in a Nonviolent World Order, by motivating our social media contacts to join SS CPCR initiative #Choose Nonviolent Defense, sign the petition, promote it #SpreadTheWordforPeace and follow the other Call for Action hashtags a well.  May we have the courage to follow Truth through Nonviolence – the way the Mahatma, Great Soul – did!