During their lifetimes neither Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (also known as the Sage of Dakshineshwar, India), who lived in the nineteenth century, nor Mahatma Gandhi, of the twentieth century, were the celebrities they have become today. Indeed, very few people recognized the singular contribution that they were making.

Today right-thinking men and women the world over accept their profound philosophy and approach to life as most vital and relevant.
Mahatma Gandhi’s pro-nature and anti-industrialization stance was frequently derided by the cognoscenti as calculated to push India back to the Middle Ages. Now, however, when the world is facing acute global climatic changes that threaten to prove catastrophic for all humanity in times to come, people are seeing the truth of what he said. They accept that if his call for the preservation of our ecosystem and environment is not heeded soon, and if the emission of CO2 and other harmful gases in the atmosphere is not controlled—if his “back to Nature” call is not heeded—all of us will be in great trouble. In his words, we must “Preserve nature in order to preserve ourselves.”

In addition, Gandhi’s philosophy of “truth and non-violence’ (for him both went together, for they are the obverse and reverse of the same coin), has inspired almost everyone who cares for the higher values of life. The noted British historian Sir Arnold Toynbee observed that in Mahatma Gandhi’s “principle of non-violence” and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s emphasis on the need for harmony and understanding among the followers of the various faiths lies the “saving” (in more than one sense) message for our times. He wrote that in these twin philosophies “we have the attitude and the spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family—and in the Atomic Age, this is the only alternative to destroying ourselves.” [1] His words are especially convincing in our time as we witness (particularly in politics and financial matters) the phenomenon of “economizing with the truth” and look with dismay on the spread of violence (particularly in the field of religion),

The relevance of Gandhi’s teaching that Nature has given us enough to meet our need but not our greed becomes readily apparent in the context of the present-day global financial downturn. There are many who say that our excessively consumerist and acquisitive society is to blame for this crisis. As one critic put it, it is the result of our “avaricious nature and showy, unnatural life-styles in which animals are killed just for decorative purposes.”

The Mahatma—Mahatma means a great soul!—had two more very germane messages for us.

1. He asked us never to regard ourselves as the owners of the wealth that we may happen to possess; we must only think of ourselves as its trustees and endeavor to put it to the best public use, particularly for the benefit of the poor and the downtrodden.

2. He never tired of voicing his conviction that if the nations of the earth, which spend massive amount of money on armaments, used even a fraction of that amounts for “combating poverty,” the world would be a much better place to live.