News of the Branch

23.03.2015

Exhibition "Mahatma Gandhi – Great Soul of India" in the Kirovsky district library, St.Petersburg, RF







25 March, 2015 in the Library of the Kirovsky district of St. Petersburg there was held a lecture about the life and work of Karamchand Mohandas Gandhi, known worldwide as Mahatma Gandhi. "Mahatma Gandhi – Great Soul of India" – is an exhibition, prepared for the exhibit by the St. Petersburg Branch of the ICR.

Mahatma Gandhi - a reformer, a leader of the national liberation movement of India, the founder of a political party of India "Indian National Congress". They called him the "conscience of mankind", a prophet, a Saint. His philosophy of Satyagraha – truth, based on nonviolence - has influenced national and international movements in different countries of the world, becoming the basis of public forms of protest and has become the primary tool in the fight against racism and discrimination nowadays.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi considered the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy to be his teacher. Tolstoy, according to Gandhi, "provided the theoretical basis of my non-violence". Rabindranath Tagore called Gandhi "Mahatma", and believed that in its effect on people Gandhi was similar to the Buddha: "In response to Gandhi's call, India again opened up for great deeds, just as it was in earlier times, when Buddha proclaimed the truth of empathy and compassion among all living."

Gandhi’s life set an example of selflessness, love for people, it was an example to follow truth and simplicity. Khadi around the body, sandals on his bare feet, in his hand – a stick – so Gandhi looked like, so he talked to the "children of God", as he called the untouchables, and spoke with government leaders at conferences and talks. Inner spirit was the power of this man, who all his life gave to liberation of India from British colonial bondage.

To perpetuate the memory of this great man and support his ideas, the United Nations declared October, 2 – Gandhi's birthday – International Day of non-Violence.

Lecture with a video presentation was made by St. Petersburg Branch of the International Centre of the Roerichs Korchemkina E. E., at the end of the lecture there was lively communication with the audience.

 


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