Millennial Mahatma

Within an hour of his ride-along with the Los Angeles Police Department, Harish Amar decided the world needed Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi now more than ever.

Ten minutes into Amar’s eye-opening jaunt near downtown Los Angeles, police escorted a rape victim to the hospital. A half-hour later, a dispatcher alerted authorities about four armed gang members lurking on a roof in a neighborhood where prostitutes and the homeless wandered.

“There was so much violence,” recalled Amar, 45, a Chatsworth resident who went on the ride-along to educate himself. “Being a fan of Gandhi, I realized that we would be better off as humans if we all practiced his principles.”

That night in October 1994 sparked a conversation between Amar and Jeffrey Utter, then vice president of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council. They spoke of truth and trust, simplicity and spirituality, patience and peace. Together, they decided to create Gandhi Day to celebrate the spiritual leader’s nonviolent teachings.

Today, an estimated 150 to 200 people will sing, dance, feast on Indian food and discuss nonviolent methods for solving problems during the fourth annual Gandhi Day at the Valley Hindu Temple of Northridge. The three-hour event, which starts at 5 p.m., is free and open to people of all religions. It is sponsored by the Hindu temple, the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council and the Society of India America.

The celebration is one of several at Hindu temples throughout Southern California and nationwide honoring Gandhi’s birth in India on Oct. 2, 1869. Gandhi followers say there’s increased interest in the leader’s principles in the wake of highly publicized violent acts, such as the recent mass shootings at the Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills and at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

“There’s a resurgence of interest in Gandhi’s nonviolent teachings because of what the country is going through,” said Nadadur Vardhan, secretary of the Hindu Temple Society of Southern California and a member of the Malibu Hindu Temple. “There is a need for tolerance.”

Especially now, Gandhi supporters say, when life can be demanding and busy. “Everyone can join in deploring two kids shooting in a school, but it’s more difficult to model nonviolent behavior,” said Utter, a Pasadena resident who will discuss Gandhi’s relevance in the new millennium during a worldwide religious conference in South Africa in December.

“If we don’t make progress [in practicing nonviolence],” he added, “we’re going to do ourselves in.”

To promote peace, the Northridge temple will host a Gandhi Day panel discussion on four topics--hate crimes, youth violence, domestic violence and nonviolence as a path to spirituality. Participants will also hear from people who model their lives after Gandhi, such as Shivani Shodhan, 14, of Canoga Park.

In her prize-winning essay, judged by members of the Valley Interfaith Council, Shodhan wrote, “[Gandhi] is an excellent mentor to me. I try to remain persistent, forgiving and self-disciplined and build a positive attitude toward my life. . . . Unless we change individually, no one is going to change collectively.”

Called “mahatma,” a title reserved for those holy and wise, Gandhi fasted to protest British colonial rule in India. He also spurned traditional clothing and spun his own cotton cloth because he believed wearing clothes imported from Britain took jobs away from India and contributed to the country’s poverty.

Assassinated by a Hindu nationalist angry at Gandhi’s attempts to promote peace between Hindus and Muslims, Gandhi died Jan. 30, 1948, about sixteen months after India gained independence from Britain.

“Gandhi [had] said that his true test of nonviolence would be if his last words blessed the person who had tried to kill him,” said Amar, dean of the education department at West Coast University in Los Angeles. “That is exactly what he did.

“Gandhi is a hero to millions.”

The Valley Hindu Temple of Northridge is at 18700 Roscoe Blvd. For information about Gandhi Day, call (818) 772-7736.

’ Gandhi is a hero to millions.’

Harish Amar