Heroes of Humility

The church of Christ is responsible to instructing her devotees into adapting into the current environments with a vision laden inspiration to help the survival of the Faith. For the true devotees and the saints, it has always been an inspirational journey of suffering, endurance, patience and survival of the Faith. All these efforts molded for carving out of fine character and the redemption of the soul from eternal damnation. The doctrines of the church have been designed to instill good values into the character of its devotees and salvation of the soul. This is because the dogma of the Church believes in the afterlife where the soul of each human must bear responsibilities for the sins committed in its earthly life. The Church of Christ is not a hierarchical group of scholars and most understandably, it is not a building. The Church of Christ is the people that adhere to the humble and compassionate teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. These teachings are not about rituals of worship and about increasing the number of devotees through ritualistic conversions and large families. These teachings are about inculcating moral behavior, compassion, humility, love, civic sense and simplicity that lacks pride and vanity. It is a lesson about human unity and education through compassion and charity. Truly, Compassion and Charity is the essence of the moral education imparted by the doctrines of the Church of Christ, practiced in all convent run charitable homes and hospitals.

In 1893 a young barrister was kicked out of a South African train because of his skin color and his patrimony. He rose, gave up all the vanities of the world and fought for the rights of equality of all humans. Once he understood that the oppressors would not provide his countrymen with human dignity and equality, he embarked on a 'yatra' to carve a piece of land where everyone could live amicably and share in the gift of God's creation. It was his vision that we should live respecting each other's beliefs irrespective of caste, creed and social status. He stripped vanity from his life to live in simple means. He used his education as a barrister to provide justice for the poorest and not to live in honour. He was given the highest seat among the leaders of the land, but he never took an office of greatness. And because the nation depended on his opinion, he had to be pragmatic and make tough choices to ensure good leadership as well as prevent utter chaos due to the ambitions of small minded men. What Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi envisioned, was India living in the simplicity of the ashrams that he designed where everybody had to volunteer to share in the labor of maintaining cleanliness, respect for each other and work tirelessly to provide the most basic essentials for everyone. He taught through the examples of his own life about true and unblemished freedom. Freedom from greed, vanity, cruelty, inequality, oppression, disrespect and materialism.

Mahatma Gandhi inculcated the same values that Jesus Christ taught, without embracing the Church. Mahatma Gandhi lived a life devoted to humility and compassion without converting to the demands of the rituals in Christianity. Mahatma Gandhi understood the teachings of the 'Almighty Creator' whom the Christians call 'Heavenly Father'  and converted himself to becoming a 'Son of God' by demonstrating his 'Faith' through his regular life. He became a leader by setting examples of true humility and not by self professing his sacrifice for the sake of nation. He did not choose the limelight to magnify his greatness through advertisement and fake humility. He took up humble positions in the shadows from where he instructed his peers. He was a teacher of leaders and he respected "Free Will". He respected the choices of all peoples. Even though he strived to keep every human in the Indian region united, the people chose to be divided by creed. He could not force them to live in a single home as brothers. He had to allow free will to take its course and allow each brother his own house. He was born in a family of Brahmins, but he lived amicably sharing the hardships of the lowest castes. He did not choose to live among the royals and the rich traders. He used the influence he had among them to provide for the socially and financially downtrodden.

Today, life has changed so much. The values of Christ are being eroded by greed and immorality. The greatness of the teachings of Christ are put up as decorations on the walls of people's homes. And even though many good and moral clerics in the Church of Christ continue to teach the true teachings of Christ using the examples of the 'Catholic Saints', most of the devotees continue to plunder society because of greed of vanity. If we look at the walls of our government institutions and even the halls of the judiciary, we are sure to find a large portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. In all museums we decorate the walls with pictures of his ashrams, his wheel and his life. The Indian literature fraternity has published thousands of books about Mahatma Gandhi's teachings and his humble life.

No matter where we go, humanity gives the highest regard for true humility and compassion. Humanity celebrates personalities that endure suffering to teach about love and equality. The walls of all buildings will always be adorned with examples of sacrifice and love. They remain garlanded only on the walls. But in the pursuit of civic progress and a better moral life, how many leaders of this era will ever wear the doctrines taught by people like Jesus of Nazareth and Mahatma Gandhi?