Satosh Helekar wrote:
>Dear Chinmay >Your definition of a misguided patriot applies much >better to many terrorists/criminals of today e.g. >suicide bombers. The fact remains that whoever these >people are they have murdered another human being. >They are criminals under secular law. The only type of >killing that law excuses is that in self-defense, or >in defense of one's country. You appear to be >justifying the murder of Gandhi for purely ideological >reasons, or for some speculative unproven charge >against him, most likely based on an ideology with >which you sympathize. Response In legal and social terms Godse can be termed as a murderer, a fanatic RSS activist and his crime of killing a human being can not be condoned may it be Mahatma Gandhi or any ordinary person. Even the most imperfect man has to come to this path eventually. Our responsibility is not to cut his life short, thereby stopping his progression which should be left to divine dispensation. Bhagavad Gita says, no action is by itself sinful or meritorious. It is the motive in the heart of the doer which leads him to take a particular action that is the determining factor. I am just forwarding few lines from Godse's biography excerpted from Pradeep Dalvi's controversial play 'Mi Nathuram Godse Boltoy.' "I was born on May 19, 1910 to Vinayakrao and Laxmi. I had three brothers, but none survived. After my parent's prayer to God their fourth son that is me, Nathuram survived because my parents were destined to suffer for their young son's death and Gandhi was destined to be assassinated. I never stole in my childhood, so there was no question of apologising to my father. I never took a vow of celibacy as I was already practicing celibacy. I was moving around the refugee camps and helping the destitute with food and clothes. But I did not wander half-naked because the refugees were naked. I never spun yarn, never cleaned my toilet, never observed silence till I was hanged. There was only one common factor in Gandhi's life and mine. We were both the cause of each other's death. He wanted to live for his principles and I was prepared to die for my principles." Vinay