Ashok Dhillon
Dec 7, 20134 min
Nelson Mandela, one of the most revered figures in modern times, passed away on December 5th, 2013, at the age of 95. To us, his life was extraordinary not only in him being instrumental in the achievement of the seemingly impossible (during most of his life) and ultimate goal of liberation of the black South Africans from the brutal subjugation under Apartheid, which it was, but more so in steadfastly overcoming the astonishingly long and at times mundane, soul destroying regular setbacks he experienced in just about everything he tried in his personal and political life, for most of his life. Nelson Mandela was an ordinary man that transcended his lifetime of seeming human failings by achieving godlike serenity, compassion and grace.
During most of his youth and young adulthood, he struggled with his studies, his self imposed lowly and impoverished status in life, his political groups and their differing ideologies and methods, and his marriages. Then to top it all, he got convicted for treason and spent the prime of his life (27 years) in prison doing hard labor, many of those years spent in rock quarries breaking stone. Most men would have broken, despaired, given up and become bitter and full of hate. Instead he emerged from these long years of crushing experiences, improbable as it would seem, at age 71, as a gracious and forgiving man, full of hope, resolve, and a determination to find freedom for his people, and his country, on his terms. And ‘his terms’ were forgiveness for all, and the reconciliation of a bitterly hostile and divided people. He emerged as a better man and a ‘Supra Human’, his greatness being achieved through slow dogged persistence, endless patience and hope, other worldly compassion, and in choosing against all resistance from his own compatriots, love and acceptance for one’s enemy, over revenge and hate.
At the age of 76, when most people have long given up ambition in life and ‘retired’, he reached the zenith of personal achievement, to become the first black President of a virulently racist anti-black country, and in doing so, with others, overthrew the crushing yoke of Apartheid, reconciled bitter enemies, buried years of hatred, and prevented a revengeful, retaliatory blood bath, and in doing all that, achieved his impossible dream, to create a democratic and united South Africa.
He was an ordinary man with the most ordinary human failings, but with extraordinary staying power, singular commitment, stubborn persistence, at times dimly distant but consistent vision, and above all through all the years of persecution, he cultivated the most elusive of all human qualities, the ability to genuinely forgive his brutal unforgiving tormentors and oppressors, and forge the spirit of unity amongst bitter division and disunity – in this he became different from many of his contemporaries, and ultimately became the ‘Supra Human’ that the World finally came to know, admire, venerate and love.
Nelson Mandela joined a rarefied field of a handful of humans that achieved the status of myth and legend in their own lifetime, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa, amongst perhaps a few others.
Through his long years of struggle and battle against gross injustice he read widely, and studied the lives of other great social reformers and revolutionaries, but took particular note of a singularly unique justice seeker and freedom fighter, one that dared to challenge the overwhelming authority and military power of the then World’s super power, Great Britain, unarmed and eschewing violence of any kind. In fighting for an Apartheid free and united South Africa, it would be safe to say that Nelson Mandela was most deeply influenced, as was Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States in his fight for Civil Rights, by the example, experience and teachings, of one of the greatest of human beings, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, later to be known to the world as ‘Mahatma’ (the Great Soul).
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, born of Hindu parents in Gujarat, India, came to South Africa as a London, England trained young lawyer working for a Indian Muslim owned company, and having experienced first-hand the extreme racism and injustice by the ‘Whites’ against all ‘non-Whites’, he took up the fight for the rights of Indians in that Country. It was in South Africa that Gandhi developed his political activism, his personal commitment for the fight against injustice, and it was in South Africa that he first earned the honorific ‘Mahatma’, for his stupendous courage, leadership and wisdom in opposing the wrath and physical brutality of the then World’s greatest power, stoically and consistently with peaceful and non-violent means. In doing so Gandhi suffered long years of brutal physical, verbal and emotional abuse, and spent a great part of his life imprisoned, in seeking justice for all. Never during that time or subsequently in his long struggle for the freedom of India, did Gandhi ever preach or promote hatred or division amongst people and religion, but always worked towards the acceptance, justice and equality for all peoples.
Mahatma Gandhi being a Hindu drew great inspiration from the example and teachings of Christ. In fact he even considered converting to Christianity but for the very unchristian-like treatment he received at the hands of a white Christian on the steps of a white-Christian church that he wanted to attend. Thereafter he rejected practiced Christianity but venerated and practiced the teachings of Christ throughout his life, taking particular inspiration from the admonishment to forgive and love ones enemy, and in experiencing physical violence - ‘turning the other cheek’.
In a World whose history bristles with injustice, intolerance, division and hatred, and the veneration of physically powerful and violent ‘heroes’, whether individuals or nation states, it is noteworthy that only those who denounced violence and practiced the pursuit of acceptance, forgiveness and love for all, achieved greater renown, respect and venerated immortality, over the much lesser ‘conquering heroes’ who for the most part have become mere footnotes in history.
Nelson Mandela, in spite of experiencing enough personal mistreatment and racially induced brutality to justify reciprocating hate and brutality, chose to reject the normal tendencies of the average human towards vengeance and division, and rose instead to take his place among the few truly ‘Great Ones’ of human history.