On Saturday February 3rd members of Altrincham Interfaith group were privileged to be invited to see the production of “Yugpurush” which was being presented at the Wythenshawe Forum, Manchester, for one night only. This was timed to coincide with Hate Crime Awareness Week.
The play is subtitled Mahatma’s Mahatma, and is about the special relationship between Shrimad Rajchandraji, and Mohandas Gandhi who later was known as Mahatma (venerable or high-souled) Gandhi. Gandhi first met Shrimad on the 6th July 1891, when he was 21 and had returned to Bombay from London having trained as a barrister. Shrimad impressed him by his amazing memory as well as his spirituality and wisdom. They corresponded by letter when Gandhi moved to South Africa and Shrimad became his spiritual guide. Gandhi wrote of Shrimad “The more I consider his life and his writings, the more I consider him the best Indian of his times. “ Shrimad died young, aged on 33, but his writings continued to influence Gandhi, and he contemplated them again and again throughout his life.
In the play, we saw Gandhi as an old man, reminiscing about his life and friendship with Shrimad until his death by an assassin’s gun, which was truly shocking. During the play we heard many philosophical discussions between the two men – the timeless nature of the soul was stressed, and the importance of truth, compassion and non-violence for which, of course, Gandhi was renowned. The production was very well directed, the sound quality was suberb and we found the whole experience to be very moving.
Carolyn Jones (Honorary Secretary)
