Discover the “Mahatma” in you

Mohammad AsifReyaz

My experiment with truth is an autobiography by Mahatma Gandhi. This autobiography was originallywritten inGujratiand translated into English by Mahadev Desai. The first edition of this autobiography was published in 1927.

In 1999, the book was designated as one of the "100 Best Spiritual Books of the 20th Century" by a committee of global spiritual and religious authorities.

In the chapter “Childhood” Gandhiji hasnarrated avery interesting story.This story goes like this.

“There is an incident which occurred at the examination during my first year at the high school and which is worth recording. Mr Giles, the educational inspector, had come on a visit of inspection. He had set us five words to write as spelling exercise. One of the words was “Kettle”. I had misspelt it. The teacher tried to prompt me with the point of his boot, but I would not be prompted. It was beyond me to see that he wanted me to copy the spelling from my neighbour’s slate, for I had thought that the teacher was there to supervise us against copying. The result was that all the boys, exceptmyself, were found to have spelt every word correctly. Only I had been stupid. I never could learn the art of copying”.

Gandhi ji was an innovative man. In every situation, good or bad,Gandhiji used to come up with his owninvented ideas and thoughts. In this context he was purely aleader by birth. His stupidity was in fact his power.

One who knows the art of copying never knows the art of living as a victor. Avictor is he who keeps his originality and avoids imitating.  A man is always great but his greatness falls when he starts imitating every Tom, Dick and Harry.

 An eagle never imitates. It comes with its own planning and ideas and always proved to be a victor. You have to create the spirit of eagle in you, so that you could do what you are supposed to do here. The great poet and philosopher Iqbal has described the characteristic of Eagle

(Shahin) in this way.

NahiTeraNashemanQasar-e-Sultani Kay Gumbad Par; TuShaheenHaiBasairaKarPaharonkiChaton Par (Allama M. Iqbal)

You will never see an eagle eating meat that it did not kill. An eagle is not a scavenger. It hunts for and kills its own food. It hunts for the prey while it's warm and alive. In other words Eagle never imitates. It saves its natural power.

GandhijiSaved his natural power and avoided copying, thus becoming Mahatma of the world.

What I want to say guy! I want to say that learn not to copy, try your own ideas, for a man can never become a supermanif he is merely a copycat. As it is said all the greats took chances and developed their  ownstyle. They didn’t copy.What is copying? Copying is killing. It is destroying self.

Save yourself, try your own original ways. There is a mahatma in you if youcoulddiscover.