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It was noon, everything around was still, silent. I was sitting on a bench, underneath a statue of Mahatmaji, in a garden of the capitol. I thought of asking Gandhiji the whereabouts of true Gandhians. But, before I do it, I heard the statue muttering something. "The idiots have stood me here. Rana Pratap is given a horse. Shivaji; even Rani Laxmibhai is given a horse, whilst why am I made to stand on my feet?"
I was shocked. I never thought that Gandhiji could become angry. I sprinted to a big leader of the capitol. "Gandhiji is in angry mood. He is imprecating: 'Where have the hypocrites stood me? I also want a horse to sit on.'" The leader said: "Impossible! Gandhiji will never use a bad word!" I took him to the garden whereupon the statue said: "I asked you for a horse mister, not an ass."
I do not know what happened to that leader afterwards because by that time I was fully awake. But the subject did not leave me for the rest of the night, and I arrived at some conclusions.
The very first thought that came to my mind was this: that the ass should not be blamed for this. The asses invariably collect around a mahatma.... Mahatmas are the persons of high rank. And, no first rank person will sit at the feet of another first rank person. No Mahavir, or Buddha, or Krishna, or Gandhi followed anybody. They never follow anybody, but the people around them are the people who are in the habit of following, following anybody. A follower hasn't a judgement of his own. In fact, the brainless becomes the follower. Those who have their own intelligence stand on their own feet instead of blindly following others. After the death of a mahatma, someone from the second rank wants to occupy the first position and the race for the power starts.
Similarly, the people who assembled around Gandhiji were of second rank. They had some 'reflections' of the original mahatma but now that generation is also gone and the national power is in the hands of the third rank people. These are the people who used to spread beds in the Gandhian Era and used to go from village to village to announce that the mahatma was coming.
This is not unique of the Gandhian
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