On the Passing of Great Souls

By Michael Nagler

TODAY, Oct. 2, marks the 157th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, and 78th year since his tragic death; this month is also the 800th anniversary of the passing of Saint Francis.  It’s a good time to ponder their influence, without setting up any kind of comparison, which I would feel totally inadequate to make.

Rather, just to be in our imagination (or is there more to their spiritual existence?) somehow and to some degree in their presence is to remember, they were human beings like us.  An inspiration and a challenge.  Not to strip ourselves of possessions quite the way they did–we’re not cut out for that– but to strip off some at least of the possessiveness that modern culture stimulates. This means, in a deeper sense, as Gandhiji himself once said, to divest ourselves of “the possessor;” the besetting illusion that we are separate, physical, finite beings and hence defined, in others’ eyes and our own by our possessions 𑁋 starting with the body.  Yes, in the eyes of the law, I own my computer and my car, etc. Yes, I certainly live in this particular body 𑁋in part.  But it’s a small part compared to mind and even more so spirit, which every one of us also has, or rather is.  They had their flaws: Francesco Bernadone did not lead a sedate, quiet life before he became (starting in prison) a saint.  Gandhi’s much more recent and much better documented life also has its glitches, which he freely, if not to say proudly acknowledged. It makes them all the more human.

But here is the main point:

As bodies we will of course die, as they did, but as spirit, or consciousness we cannot, any more than they have.  They, and other great souls are no different 𑁋 except they were conscious of that inner reality.  They identified with it.  In that sense 𑁋 and not just in the sense of their continuing influence 𑁋 they did not die, either 800 years ago this month or January, 1948.

This is my abiding belief; you do not have to share it.  What we can and should share is the realization that Francis and Gandhi were not from another planet. We share, all unbeknownst to ourselves, their inner reality.  As Pope Leo calls it, our “Magnifica Humanitas.”  In them it became manifest, in fact, through suffering and renunciation; and for that they deserve our deepest gratitude.  Not that they need it, of course 𑁋 but because we need to give it.