mohan

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Every word in these verses describes the man they call Mahatma Gandhi.

I have many times thought while reading the said verse from A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami's 'Bhagavad Gita as it is' that it could be describing Gandhi or many of todays leaders. I wondered whether others thought so too.

But, strangely enough, from my perspective, it was Gandhi who inspired me to read and understand the Bhagavad-gita many years ago. Gandhi in his autobiography refers to the Bhagavad-gita as the dictionary of life. In India one often hears verses from the Bhagavad-Gita quoted. But it was this statement that actually inspired me to read the Bhagavad-gita.

While Gandhi may fall short of Gaudiya Vaisnava standards, there still are a few things I learnt from him.

The efficacy of Hari nama. Gandhi was a believer in RAma nama.

The concept of a Sadguru.

Practical example of karma yoga. His description of Raychandbhai, who he believed to be so, in his autobiography.

And, finally it was Gandhi who popularised the Vaishnava saint Narsinh Mehta's " Vaishnava Jana to ...."

Perhaps he was unfortunate in never finding the Sadguru he refers to. Gandhi may not have been the perfect saint, which he never claimed, but to the masses, he was still a mahatma.

Namaskar,

I came across this verse today. Posted below is the verse and translation. The ebook where I read this mentioned that this verse comes from smriti without describing from where exactly. Can someone tell me which scripture this verse is from and in what context is the statement being made? Thanks!!

Achaaryaath paadam aadatthe

paadam sishya swamedhayaa

paadam sa brahmachaaribhya

sesham kaala kramena cha

This is an important advice given in smruthies. It means a person can get only one quarter

of knowledge from Achaarya - the teacher, another quarter by analyzing self, one quarter by

discussing with others and the last quarter during the process of living by method addition,

deletion, correction, and modification of already known aachaaraas or new aachaaraas.

There is actually a natural method to give up glasses started by Dr. William Bates, available in the book "Better sight without glasses.". I think it still has practitioners all over the world. The book , I think is available on

project gutenberg on the net.

There are a few sites to get started with natural seeing.

You could find them easily by doing a google search with the terms "bates method " And there are groups devoted to these topics. You can find them on .