On Sunday evening, I wrote about some key messages about peace from Gandhi after watching an inspirational play in London about his life.
At the end of his life Gandhi felt he had failed as he could not avoid the partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan (and ultimately also Bangladesh). He always urged hindus and muslims to live together.
So how ironic that at almost about the same time as an audience of over 200 people in London were enraptured by the play about Gandhi, a few thousand miles away a train travelling from Delhi to Lahore was blown up, killing and injuring many.
Almost 60 years after the two countries were split up to avoid exactly these sort of communal atorocities, it seems little has changed.
What price are we still paying for the partition?
Just what will it take us to bring peace in the world?
At the end of the play, Gandhi was shown to be walking a lone path. Even by doing this, he had a message for the world – it takes just one man to make a difference.
So anything and everything YOU do counts and will make a difference.
As Gandhi was walking his lone path at the end of the play, a poem from Rabindranath Tagore was read out. His poignant words offer a message for all of us:-
If no one responds to your call, go forward alone.
If no one talks to you, oh luckless one,
If everyone turns away from you in fear,
Reveal your thoughts and express your ideas to yourself.
If everyone leaves you while you are travelling a dangerous road,
If no one wants to look after you,
Walk on alone, on the road strewn with thorns, trampling on them with bleeding feet.
If no one shows a light, if in the dark stormy night everyone shuts their doors,
Use your rib as a torch, lit from the fire of thunder.
If no one walks with you, walk alone…