70th anniversary of Gandhi's death

Gandhi Smriti: the exact place where Gandhi was killed in Delhi

On January 30, 1948, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Mahatma, was killed by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fundamentalist.

For details on his death you can click here, for a brief biography of his killer here.

Gandhi was in Delhi and was staying at the Birla House. in the afternoon, at 17.17, when he went to the garden where he prayed every day, he was hit by three gunshots.

This year is the 70th anniversary of his death and I want to remind him with some thoughts of the Mahatma on death.

"What a comforting thought it is to think of death, whenever it comes, as a wise plan in the economy of nature ? If we could realise this law of our being and be prepared for death as a welcome friend and deliverer we should cease to engage in the frantic struggle for life. We shall cease to want to live at the cost of other lives and in contempt of all considerations of humanity.  Such realization is impossible without a due conception of the definite and grave limitations of the body and an abiding faith in God and His unchangeable Law of Karma. [...]

As Hindus we ought to be the least affected by the thought of death, since from the very cradle we are brought up on the doctrines of the spirit and the transitoriness of the body. [...] Our scriptures tell us, that childhood, old age and death are incidents only to this perishable body of ours and that man's spirit is eternal and immortal. That being so, why should we fear death ? And where there is no fear of death there can be no sorrow over it either."

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi - Young India 1927-1928