A tribute to Mahatma Gandhi's on the 68th death anniversary.

A tribute to Gandhi | www.TheGhousediary.com

Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead 68 years ago on this day, January 30, 1948.

Mahatma Gandhi is one of my nine favorite personalities. I call them my mentors, meaning I think about them regularly and that they are; Jesus Christ, Prophet Muhammad, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Pope Frances, and President Barack Obama. Of course, my father and mother top the list, I am who I am today because of them opening the windows of knowledge to me.

These are the men and women I have come to adore; their passion was to create cohesive societies where everyone can live without fear of the other.

By the time I croak my list may grow to be 10, as there is one more individual I am studying and he may become the 10^th favorite Pluralists, i.e., those who respect the otherness of others and accept the God given uniqueness of each one of us.

Every year, for the last 25 years, I have been writing a note about him on his death and birth anniversaries, this is my way of paying tribute and expressing the gratitude to a man who gave so much to India and the world.

By the way, I have seen Gandhi in my dream twice, way back in early 70’s and in the early 2000 – both the times he pats on my back and says, Son you have a lot of work to do, and that has remained my inspiration to do the work I do.

Gandhi’s Clothing

Why did he wear the loin cloth and not the suits? Indeed, he was a Law graduate of University College of London, a successful Lawyer in South Africa and he wore the three piece suits like all the Englishmen did during the period.

Do you remember one of his thousands of quotes – “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” What does it mean? One of the major social reforms he brought to India was ‘acceptability’ of the ‘untouchables’, it is a shameful part of history of civilizations where humans were dehumanized, including here in the United States.  He wanted the downtrodden and the poor masses to relate with him and he wanted to be one of them and not the elites who look down upon them.  Prophet Muhammad did similar thing – he gave Bilal, the slave whom he freed, the highest spiritual status among his followers, it was a jolt to the society, but it knocked their prejudices down. My father did the same, which I have written separately, you see the same trend with Jesus, Mother Teresa, Pope Frances and others – they had zero prejudice towards fellow beings. God bless them all.

Given what Gandhi stood for, two things are going severely wrong in India, a handful of extremists have taken over and mistreating the Dalits (Untouchables) and the shameful celebration of the man who shot Gandhi. They are building temples to Godify this man Godse who killed Gandhi. I hope the Indian Government on this day makes a commitment to follow the law, to treat all humans equally and to value the freedom of speech. It is a shame, if we don’t speak up against injustice and let the seeds of discrimination grow in a nation that is beacon of hope to many nations.

 Season of Non-Violence  

Season of Non-Violence begins today, January 30^th, on the day of Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated and concludes on April 4^th the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It is a “64 Days of Daily Messages for Social Media

The site  http://www.agnt.org/season-for-nonviolence has beautiful graphics and daily messages in web format to inspire, create discussion, and hold in our thoughts each day during the 64 Days of the Season. Consider having your SNV campaign be to share these on Facebook or Twitter. Then, be sure to check back in with us to let us know how your social network is growing by sharing these graphics.”  I cannot forget my friend Len Ellis of Dallas for his dedication to this season and the messages he shares.

This year like the last few years, we talk about the peace makers of the world, in the beginning it was Gandhi and MLK, now Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela are added, and I have added Prophet Muhammad to the season.

Watch out for the day, I will be giving a talk about what these men did to build a cohesive society, where humanity can live in peace and harmony.

This is not complete, I will be adding more to this at TheGhouseDiary.com

 

Thank you,

Mike Ghouse, 

(214) 325-1916

Washington, DC 

Dr. Mike Ghouse is a community consultant, social scientist, thinker, writer, newsmaker and a professional speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam,  politics, human rights, and foreign policy.  Mike is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. More about him in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at TheGhousediary.com 

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Mahatma Gandhi; do not poison your children

Mahatma Gandhi; do not poison your children
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2014/10/mahatma-gandhi-do-not-poison-your.html
By Mike Ghouse, Pluralist

Thanks to Saddahaq and MilliGazette for publishing this in their esteemed journals
http://www.milligazette.com/news/11074-best-tribute-to-mahatma-gandhi-do-not-poison-your-children

Today is Mahatma Gandhi's birthday celebrations known as Gandhi Jayanthi. Dallas is celebrating by erecting a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Irving. A big event today, unfortunately, I won't be here, but the information is here below.

Mahatma Gandhi did not say those words, but he meant to see a world where no parent would poison his or her child with a dose of bigotry.  Every year on his birthday, I have written a different aspect of Gandhi, my invisible mentor, and in this essay, I am focusing on raising our children without bigotry.     When I meet prejudiced men and women, my first thought goes out to their parents, is this how they raised these men?  Of course we cannot blame the parents for their wrong doing, but once you turn 18, you are solely responsible for your actions.

Most kids get rid of their parent’s poisonous expressions (teaching) towards people of other race, faith, food, fashion, culture, and sexual orientation; some don’t and suffer all their lives with distrust, fear, doubts, insecurities and apprehension of the others.  In effect, the parents have unconsciously messed up their kid; it is a shameful thing to do to your child and amounts to child abuse.
You can see that distrust and apprehension on the faces of those who are demonstrating against children from across the border in Texas. You may have seen it in your own city, and I have known many instances where gay men were beat up by intolerant religious nuts in Dallas, the African American men are treated with distrust and you have seen swastikas marked on Jewish homes or set fire bombs at Mosques and Churches or vandalize Temples and shoot at Gurdwara Sahib. If these biased attitudes are not checked, it will lead to Massacres, Genocides and Holocaust destroying families and leaving behind immeasurable misery.  This is a universal curse, and no nation or a group of people are free from this. The good news is a majority of people were taught to be respectful of others; however it is a few who wreak havoc with their prejudices and make their own lives miserable and are unable to work with someone who is not like them.

There is a way out – first awareness and second consciously working to raise our kids to be the best citizens for their own peace of mind and prosperity.

If you were to know that, upon growing up, your kid will be working with people from different races, nationalities, and faiths, what would you do? How would you prepare him or her for such a work place, college or in public square?  
I asked my friends on facebook, and here are a few selected responses;

Madhavi Rao writes on facebook, “Every morning this lesson is on repeat mode, unfortunately I feel trapped at times when I watch adults misbehave in front of kids & emphasize the opposite of humanity. Their own kid confides in me how their mom talks ill about others.”
Carol Mason writes, “It isn't so much what we say to our children, it's the example we set in the way we live our lives from which they learn the most. Children learn what they live and live what they learn!”

Let me share a few personal examples and I am certain you have similar experiences. By sharing and spreading these thoughts, we can make more people aware of how we raise our kids and how to create cohesive societies where no one has to live in fear of the other.

Dealing with Divorce

When my first wife and I divorced two decades ago we made a pact that we will not poison our kids towards the other parent. The idea was if one of us gets killed in an accident or dies a natural death, it would be difficult for kids to live with the surviving parent especially if he or she is painted as a bad person.  Thank God, we have carried forward that pact fairly well. Both of us are at our children's home for Thanksgiving, Eids, Christmas, Birthdays, and just about every other month we sit together as friends and carry on good conversations with the family. We have never messed the happiness of our kids with our presence; we don't make any snide remarks nor say any such thing that affects the joyous family atmosphere. I am glad we made the pact and have lived through it. It is so easy on our kids and for their happiness, even if we were to differ, we should not punish our children, and they need to feel the joy of being with their parents without any tension.   I hope others can do the same and enjoy their own life and let others enjoy theirs.
Dealing with communal tensions

My father is my hero and opened up the doors of wisdom to us. Pluralism indeed runs in my family. He taught us one of the biggest lessons of my life in social cohesiveness and dealing with extremism that I continue to reflect in my talks, acts, responses and write ups.

During the communal riots in Jabalpur (India) in the early sixties, both Muslims and Hindus were killed in the mayhem, as it happens every time. Everyone was tense and felt insecure. I wish every father teaches this lesson to his kids. He was crystal clear and told us that the "individuals" are responsible for the bloodshed and not the religions.

 If we get the guy who started the conflict and punish him for disturbing peace, rather than calling it a religious issue for the communities to jump in and aggravate it further, we would have saved many lives. He would then emphasize that you cannot blame the intangible religion and expect justice; we must blame the individuals who caused it and punish him as an individual accordingly for disturbing the peace and thus bring a resolution to the conflict by serving justice. He said you cannot annihilate, kill, hang, beat or bury the religion, then why bark at it? A lot of bias in India can be dissipated, if we get this message across to our kids.

Prime Minister Modi on Gandhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a message of hope to Indian Americans gathered in Madison Square Garden on September 28^th.  I am glad to see him put Gandhi on Pedestal, and he even bowed to Gandhi’s photo on his first day in his office.  He said this about Gandhi very eloquently;

Mahatma Gandhi succeeded in bringing freedom to us by making it a people’s movement instead of individual’s dreams;

If someone teaches a child, he is serving his nation;
If someone feeds the hungry, he is serving his nation;
If someone keeps the place clean, he is serving his nation;

He emphasized, Gandhi asked every Indian to do what he can do to deliver the freedom from illiteracy, hunger, filth and other negatives.

Here is my message on this occasion.

I ask you to be consciously aware of what you say to your children; if you hate Muslims, Christians, Sikhs or Hindus, your kids will be permanently impaired to work with people who belong to that faith in the future, and they will have to work, eat and live with them, so be good to your kids.  And if you hate Indians, Pakistanis or others, they will be working with them together on projects in the near future, make it easy for them.  Even if you are a bigot, please don’t punish your children with your bigotry.

Let them learn to respect the otherness of others, and accept the God given uniqueness of each one of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge. If you are a Hindu you would practice in the idea of Vasudhaiva Kutumbukum – everyone is your family. If you are a Muslim you would believe in God, that we are all from the same couple and he chose each one of us to be different and asked us to learn about each other, and when we do that conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

After all, good parenting readies children to deal with future with ease and less pain; it is also about focusing on their happiness. When you are biased, you happiness is damaged, when you are free from bias, you are the happiest man or a woman.
 

I dedicate this piece to Professor Habib Siddiqi of Dallas, Texas. He is our Wiseman at Urdu Ghar meetings. Last week, he talked about how poets and writers have brought about changes in the society and I was inspired by his thoughts to write an article to raise bigotry-free children. 
Wish a very happy birthday to Mahatma Gandhi. Happy Gandhi Jayanthi.

............................................................................................................................... Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Praying for Nelson Mandela; the symbol of freedom

URL - http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2013/06/praying-for-nelson-mandela-symbol-of.html

Sunday, February 11, 1990 was a heavy day for me, I was glued to the TV to watch the historical event happening in my life time; the release of Nelson Mandela from the South African Prison. I choked, and I cried. And again, today is a heavy day for me. I am anxious about his health. He is in his last days of his life, the president of South Africa has given up on Medicine and counting on blessings and prayers from the people around the world. May God keep his wisdom and the flame of freedom alive? 

Praying for him in essence is rekindling the spirit of freedom within us.

Freedom is the most cherished value for me, and to see freedom at last for a man in an apartheid nation was worth crying. A new tone of democracy was going to be set in the world for the first time in the predominantly Black African Nation.

I am also kicking myself – two weeks ago, my friend Sante Chary and I briefly talked about jumping in the plane and go visit Nelson Mandela, we had to go through a lot of rig morale to see him, we dropped the idea. Sante has a distinction among many things – to have an envelope signed by nearly eight US Presidents and several world leaders. He is a go getter and gets things done. Sante is one of the few friends where he and I have nothing to trade, nothing to gain, but just wish and support each other in our endeavors. I like this guy!

Can you imagine the power Mandela held? He shook the empire, they could have easily killed or poisoned him, but they did not have the guts to do that. What made Gandhi, Mandela, and MLK successful?

None of them had anything to gain, all they wanted was justice and harmony in the society, and that was their drive, when you become unselfish, you can do a lot of good to the world.  It begins with learning to respect the otherness of other and accepting the God given uniqueness of each one of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Nelson Mandela is one of my mentors.  Some of the other joy-teary moments that I can recall are - release of Mandela, fall of the Berlin wall, Obama's election night,  Peace treaty between Israeli and Egypt, Peace between Ireland and England, Aung San Su Kyii’s release and Freedom at last for the Egyptian people. 

What made these men and women unique and powerful? They were free from the pettiness and all embracing and affectionate like the spiritual Master of all religions.  Several things were common to them; among them are:

1) No wall between them and another soul
2) No religious and political boundaries for them
3) No preference when it came to serving another human
4) The good they did, benefited larger humanity than self
5)  Justness was a paramount value for them
6) No bone of prejudice in them.
7) Their world is the same size as God's world.  

Here is information about him at Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes his work through many links. 

Surreal Dreams turned out to be real

There is a world out there that is not physical; it is imaginary but real at times. Inspired by my facebook friends Joyi, Kush, Cathie and my two Nephews Tanveer and Zeeshan, I embarked on sharing some of the unreal dreams, and I am sure each one of you had such a dream. It took me a good one hour of writing - from 2:32 through 3:30 PM on February 6, 2013 . When I get a chance, I will fine tune it and add details; right now it is merely skeletal and dates are approximate. I am sure I can find the closest dates.

1995 - Kundan Sharma, my friend who is like an older brother to me was hurt in my dream; I called him up in the morning to find if everything was alright. He asked me to tell him what I saw, and I told him that there was some stupid accident.  He said he was flying to India that day, and decided to cancel it. That evening he totaled his Cadillac but thank God nothing happened, he called me to thank me.

2004 - Again Kundan Sharma and I were driving a car somewhere in Florida, the causeway just broke off, and our car hung in the middle, half dangling over the ocean below and the other half on the raised up road, either way it would be a steep fall.  I woke up restless, called him up the next morning, he said, he was going through some difficult times at that time and appreciated the dream, so he can take an alternative.

2007 - Sudesh bhabi (Kundan's wife) was in pain, I called her up. She was in the hospital, the previous evening her car had rolled over her from the garage drive way when she went to pick up the mail. She had a severe fractured leg.

Kundan and I shared offices in the same building and we became good friends, he is more like a big brother to me. Both of us have gotten busy and have not seen each other for a while, we saw each other frequently when DJ Sharma, my office partner was alive. I always wondered what was the connection? We both ended up with the song - Tera Mujh say hai pehle ka naata kahin.

By the way, I sang that song when Mina was born, and that's how her Middle name was named Dilshad, I saw my sister Dilshad in her and felt the connection was there from an earlier life, like in previous birth ( I don't believe in it though). Years later I had a conversation with Alka Yagnik, singer of the original song,  and in the middle of lobby of the auditorium with hundreds of people around,  she sang that song for Mina on my little tape recorder. Lala Laala, lalla la..lalla la la lalaa. Mina this is for you. I never saw the movie but the song had grown on me. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO35DVm_5ts ) 

2008 - Arun Vittala and I had not seen each other for nearly 5 years, he was standing in the middle of the street, all worried. That was not him, a positive man, so I called him up - his brother had passed away in India and he was figuring how to get there and he was surprised too that I called and I was amazed with that connection. 

Arun and I became friends through Cricket, when I organized a major cricket tournament in Dallas in 1996; he was a key partner in organizing the game, and for many years after that. He organized the North Texas Cricket Association and became its first president. I remained involved for many years and was a president for two terms.

0000 - Phillip Ramsaroop looked tensed up to me in pain, so I called Vidya his wife. Phillip was undergoing surgery on his leg in the hospital in Arlington. Phillip has since moved to Florida. He was instrumental in explaining the difference between acceptance and tolerance while defining Pluralism years ago. He was President of the D/FW Hindu temple and considered honoring me a title of "Honorary Hindu" as I spoke up for Hinduism where ever it was misunderstood. FYI, I do that with faiths and cultures including Atheistic tradition. He is a great singer of Hindu devotional songs and I have played some of his songs on my Religious radio shows way back in 2003.

1971 - Dr. Narsimaiah, The Vice Chancellor of Bangalore University, Mahatma Gandhi and I were sitting around a dining table. Gandhi put his hand on my back, and said "Son, you have a lot of work to do" I understood, it was the work around building communal harmony in India at that time.

2003 - Mahatma Gandhi was in a halo, and did the same thing again, patted on my back and said, "Son, you continue the work" and I must say that I found myself deeply committed to the Pluralism work, the closet events were death of my mother and the Gujarat Genocides that had  deeply affected me.

1970's - Whenever my sister Dilshad was hurt, I felt the pain and I would see her in my dream. Damn me, I am feeling tender now. At that time, she was in Rai Bareilly,  India with Noorda, her husband. Invariably I would see her in my dreams.

60's - When we were kids, it was a routine for me and my brothers and sister to pile up on our father, first thing in the morning, and we all used to share our little dreams and he would his. They were some of the most beautiful moments of my life. One Sunday morning, my father told us that he saw his Uncle dying and had summoned him to appraise him about the situation, and he told my father where he wanted to be buried, after all it was a dream he shared.

Tuesday morning rolls, and around 11:00 AM, we got a telegram (those days, no cell phones, no faxes, not even a phone in our neighborhood) that my grandfather (great uncle in American terms) had passed away. My father rushed and got him buried on the same spot where he had told him in his dream. The man was considered a holy man and every year the townspeople celebrate and visit his grave, of course, I did not subscribe to such celebrations.

 2004 - This is unreal, but real, I saw winning 6.4 Million dollars in lottery, told my wife and kids about the dream, she asked if I had actually purchased the ticket, and I pulled the ticket and checked. I won $64.00; we ate a lot of doughnuts that day.

One of the ugliest dreams that I have not seen in a few years was my inability to put breaks on the vehicle I was driving, I could not lift my foot, like my foot was bolted the floor...and it would not reach the break pad..and before I hit something, I would wake up panting and puffing. Thank God, I have not seen that again in the last four years, I must have seen that at least once year for nearly twenty years.

One of the most consistent dreams that I have seen for years was flying. I would just lean forward and lift off like the Harriett jet and go everywhere. One time, I actually got up and made an attempt to fly to found out that I was out of the dream. A few years ago, a gentleman from UK sent a note on the face book, that he had the same precise dream, since then, a few others have mentioned having similar dreams. It is the most beautiful dream and I would love a repeat.

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place and standing up for others as an activist. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you want to know about him.

Mahatma Gandhi's 65th Anniversary

Mahatma Gandhi was shot on this day on January 30 in 1948. He was determined to seek freedom for India from the mighty Great Britain, and he got it without the war and without bloodshed. His was one of the greatest successful experiments in non-violence.  I hope President Obama follows him, we don’t need the senseless wars with any one, the best way to eliminate the enemy is to make friends with him, and it is the smartest thing to do.

Can you imagine the power he had? He shook the empire, they could have easily killed or poisoned him, but they did not have the guts to do that. What made Gandhi, Mandela, and MLK successful?

None of them had anything to gain, all they wanted was justice and harmony in the society, and that was their drive, when you become unselfish, you can do a lot of good to the world. I am inspired and driven by him. Twice in my dreams, he has appeared and patted on my back and said, son you got a lot of work to do. Indeed, I do, we all need to do our share of work in making the world a better place, at least around us. It begins with learning the respect the otherness of other and accepting the God given uniqueness to each one of us, if we do that, conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

The frightened ones (right wing) in India did not like Gandhi’s dialogue approach to conflicts, they wanted bloodshed and mayhem, the animalistic way of resolving disputes, Gandhi pushed dialogue, the human way to finding solutions to conflict.

I salute this great Soul and thank God for blessing the world with this prophet of non-violence!  God bless him! Amen

Mike Ghouse

My Civil Heroes and President Obama

MY CIVIL HEROES

The following individuals were/are bent on uplifting the human spirit, and gave hope to the world! A world, where justness prevails, and no one has to live in apprehension or fear of the other.

Please note, these are my favorites, you have your own, Ceaser Chavez for example is hero to many, and I admire him, but I did not spend time learning about him. We all have to accept the limitations of our time per day and how much we can learn.  

My list includes; Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Abdul Sattar Edhi, Aga Khan, President Carter , President Obama* (a reserved entry), Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Nana Saheb (Maternal Grand father), my father and Mother.

Several things were common to them; among them are:

1) No wall between them and another soul
2) No religious and political boundaries for them
3) No preference when it came to serving another human
4) The good they did, benefited larger humanity than self
5)  Justness was a paramount value for them
6) No bone of prejudice in them.
7) Their world is the same size as God's world.  

As a pluralist, who respects the otherness of others and accepts the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, I have come to like Barack Obama. Ever since I read his speech in 2007 delivered in the Illinois state senate, way before he announced his candidacy,  I have become his fan. That speech was an epitome of pluralism and inclusiveness. The inclusiveness that Jesus and every great spiritual master taught.

If I get a chance, I will put together a few statements by tomorrow, and I feel certain that most of it will be reflected by Obama in his speech on Monday. 


I have written 65 Pieces about him including cheers and Jeers, appreciation and criticism. My reservation has been on two fronts, he blew the opportunity to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and the idiotic drone attacks on innocent civilians, these are his two major flaws that will prevent him from becoming one of the greatest political leaders in human history. I have written a few good pieces on the topics and hope to meet this guy, and I believe I can achieve an understanding between the two peoples in the Middle East and coast them towards acceptance of each other. The Israelis need to have a sense security (explained in detail) and Palestinians need basic justice, both can be achieved, if he musters up the courage to do the right thing, regardless of the attacks from a few.

Obama will go down in the history as one of the greatest presidents, and I believe he will bring fruition to what Carter started. He is indeed a catalyst in bringing America forward to become God’s own country, where the uniqueness of every human is valued. He gives meaning to the idea of a Republic, our Republic where individual rights are valued and not run over by the mobcracy. 

*** I am a Republican, a moderate one like Chris Christie, John Huntsman, Colin Powel, Schwarzenegger and many more. I request my fellow Americans not to judge the GOP by the morons out there representing the party. It is time to speak out, and speak out I will… hopefully by the end of this year. 

The stability of our nation and health of our democracy is dependent on a strong two party system. Most of the evil in the past has occurred when either Republican or Democrats were in all the three branches of Government. Stupid though they are, I like the house in the hands of Republicans, they provide an ugly check, and it ensures that, we the people are not bulldozed. Obama has done a great job in bipartisan support in passing the aid to Sandy, and now on getting both the parties to develop a responsible gun ownership policy. 

Updates at www.TheGhouseDiary.com,
Thanks to Sean Hannity and friends for promoting this Blog.

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I am a follower of them!