in a cleanbody dwells a clean mind cleanliness is next to godliness
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A Swachachh Bharat is the greatest gift we can give to Mahatma Gandhi.
But the greatest fear about the Swachchh Bharat events of October 2, Gandhi Jayanti, in which more than three million government employees are said have taken the “Swachchhta Shapath (cleanliness pledge)", is that the mass movement may lose momentum once the grand tokenism of leaders wielding brooms disappears.
An anecdote from the Gandhian era will be quite relevant here. In 1925 Mira Behn, the daughter of a British admiral Sir Edmunde Slade joined Mahatma Gandhi in his Satyagraha Ashram, on the banks of river Sabarmati. In 1936 Gandhi shifted to Segaon in Wardha where he set up another Ashram known as Sevagram. The Ashram was located in the midst of very backward villages. This was Gandhi’s way of drawing the attention of the people towards the pitiable state of our villages. He encouraged the inmates of the Sevagram Ashram to work in the surrounding villages to help mitigate the misery of the village folks. Teaching cleanliness was a top priority. Mira Behn, too, adopted a village close by and started work there. Few months passed by when she requested Gandhi to visit her village to see her work. One day Gandhi decided to go and see the village. But it so happened that Mira Behn was out of Wardha on some urgent mission. When Gandhi entered the village he was shocked to find the lanes and by - lanes littered with Garbage. He enquired from the villagers why the streets have not been cleaned-they replied, “Mira Behn has not come for the past couple of days." When Mira Behn returned Gandhi pulled her up and said“you have only been working for the villagers and not working with them".
This anecdote has a lesson for all of us.
A true transformation of society is possible if the government can put its ideas together and then rope in the private sector civil society, trusts, individuals and social activists to drive the campaign
A clean India is everyone’s sacred duty.
How clear then is the choice? We are convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that the genius of man which has helped the world to survive every catastrophe so far will continue to sustain humankind and that sooner than later we shall all follow the light that comes streaming down from Gandhi.
Gandhi’s influence on our times surpasses that of any other individual. We may start with the fact that his philosophy was based on the eternal aspirations of the entire humanity for a free and harmonious life. At a crucial moment in history Gandhi demonstrated the effectiveness of the nonviolent way of dealing with oppression and aggression.
Geoffrey Ash, a renowned Gandhian scholar, makes an interesting observation. He says in his studies of Gandhi he has been “often impressed by Gandhi’s power to surprise. His most characteristic ideas were unexpected, against the currents of thought around him. He has taught us never to be bulldozed by trends, never to worry much about what will appear logical or along approved lines. The most Gandhian way of debating an issue like this is to shed every inhibition and say whatever occurs to you, however absurd or wayward it sounds. If you do that, may be nine ideas out of ten will actually be absurd or wayward. But the tenth is the one to watch for. All Gandhi’s major ideas were ‘tenth ideas’. He is the apostle of the clean break and the fresh start. Given the will to make a fresh start, the revolution can begin here, now, today."
‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’ is the tenth revolutionary idea of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Father of our Nation and the Mahatma the world reveres.