GANDHIJI’S ASHES SCATTERED IN OCEAN

SOME OF MAHATMA GANDHI'S ASHES KEPT FOR
DECADES SCATTERED OFF SOUTH AFRICAN COAST

DURBAN (Reuters) - Some of the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi were scattered in the sea along South Africa’s east coast on Saturday, 62 years after his death. After his assassination on January 30, 1948, Gandhiji’s ashes were placed in several urns and distributed across India and other parts of the world. More than 200 people, including Gandhiji’s South African-born granddaughter Ela Gandhi, took part in the ceremony along the Indian Ocean coast at the city of Durban. Gandhi's 69-year-old granddaughter was helped by others during a ceremony to sprinkle the ashes of Bapu into the waters of Durban Harbour, South Africa. Flowers and candles were also placed in the water. A similar scattering of Gandhiji’s ashes took place in Mumbai in 2008. Gandhiji spent 21 years in South Africa, after first arriving as a young lawyer in 1893. This ceremony also highlightes the political ties between the two countries. Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948 in New Delhi by a Hindu radical. "Today we commemorate his death anniversary and the important message of that is the intolerance that goes on in this world," said Ela Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi pioneered non-violent resistance to British rule in India and spent some of his early political years in South Africa, where he was involved in the struggle against racial discrimination and oppression.

His decades-long non-violent movement inspired leaders like Nelson Mandela who led the movement against apartheid in South Africa. U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King also looked up to Gandhi as his role model. India observes Gandhi's death anniversary as Martyrs' Day in memory of all its freedom fighters.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

When Mahaprabhu came back from Puri after five years of sannyasa, He first came here (the part of Navadwip called Kulia). At that time there was such a rush of people coming to see Mahaprabhu, from both sides of the Ganges, that the whole Ganges appeared “full of human heads”. One author has described the scene at the time of Mahaprabhu’s return to Navadwip in that way ... When I read this, at first, I thought: “Such a description must not be literal; it is a little hyperbolic”. But later, when in my own life I saw (Mahatma) Gandhi, when I experienced the crowds that used to follow him, then it came to my mind: “If Gandhi can draw so many men to see him, then what to speak of Mahaprabhu?”.

Śrīla Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Mahārāja :
Article: “Aparadha-banjana-patha”.
Bhaktivedanta Memorial Library - www.bvml.org/SBRSM/