LAST WORDS

Born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, he later adopted the honorific MAHATMA, meaning "great soul" in Sanskrit. He was an Indian lawyer who led his country to freedom from British colonial rule in 1947. Gandhi is most famous for his philosophy of nonviolence that inspired the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

IN A BIRLA TEMPLE , DELHI:
Beginning in 1917 there had been at least half-a-dozen attempts on Gandhi's life. There were attempts to poison him, and to assassinate him in bomb explosions or in gunfire. Mahatma Gandhi survived them all, until January 30, 1948, around 5.17 pm. As the 78-year-old leader climbed the steps of the prayer platform, a man in khaki emerged from the crowd. Nathuram Godse, pushed aside Manuben, (Gandi’s closest companion during his last days), and pulled out a pistol, pumping three bullets into the frail leader's chest and abdomen.

LAST WORDS:
It was reported that Gandhi RAISED HIS HANDS in front of his face in the conventional Hindu gesture of greeting, almost if he was welcoming his murderer, and SLUMPED to the ground, mortally wounded. Some said that he cried out, 'Ram, Ram' ('God, God').

FOOTNOTE:
On January29, 1948, less than twenty hours before he was shot, Gandhi was unwell and coughing. When Manuben, offered him a dose of penicillin - he refused and told her how he should be judged after his death: ‘If I die of a lingering illness, nay even by as much as a boil or a pimple, it will be your duty to proclaim to the world, even at the risk of making people. angry with you, that I was NOT THE MAN OF GOD that I claimed to be. If you do that it will give my spirit peace. Note down this also, that if someone were to end my life by PUTTING A BULLET THROUGH ME - as someone tried to do with a bomb the other day - and I met his bullet without a groan, and breathed my last taking GOD’S NAME, then alone would I have made good my claim.' - The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, by R. K. Prabhu & Rao, p. 9

INVOKING THE NAME:
Proverbs 18:10 American Standard Version: The name of Jehovah is a strong tower; The righteous runneth into it and is safe.

Nahun 1:7 American Standard Version: Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that take refuge in him.

P.S. What a man utters before his last mortal breath can speak volumes about the man. What a man says to himself in those LAST SECONDS can reflect the rawest of truths. Indeed, the last words of a dying man may be the most riveting action he performs on this earth. The mere fact that they are HIS LAST, in a life where he will NEVER return- can propel them into a universe that KNOWS NO END. A man’s flesh may last the briefest of moments, but HIS PARTING WORDS (whether they are heard or not), contains THE POWER to endure an eternity! Like the smallest pebble tossed into THE EXPANSE- its mere entry can cause rings that emanate FOREVER!

B.P.S. It has been estimated that 109 BILLION PEOPLE have died throughout the course of human history, and we will be no exception. I wonder, what did they all say to themselves? What will I say? Truly, Gandhi lived up to being a MAHATMA. What an example of a life well lived. I am by no means a Mahatma, but it is my most earnest prayer that before my last breath expires, I find the capacity to INVOKE THE SACRED NAME of the Most-High, “JAH, JEHOVAH!” …From the Lookout Post.