The Last Confession
April 30, 1945
Preface- He took his wife inside a room in the bunker and told the guard inside to go out and lock the door. Once they went, he slowly bolted the door, turned to her and said, “Eva dear, you know it’s time for me to go. You know I cannot stand defeat. What remains is whether you want to come.”
Wiping the tears from her eyes with the end of her sleeves, she whispered “you know I won’t leave you alone” she choked with tears and said, “I’ll come with you”.
“Okay then, eat these capsules, they’ll present you swift and painless death”. As he said, he himself started putting some in his mouth. Five minutes later she, being physically weaker succumbed to the cyanide. Not able to bear the loss, his trembling hands put a nearby revolver to his temple.
The shot rang out clearly all through the bunker.
Story-
He woke up. He didn’t know where he was. Where was Eva? Everything above him was black. Amazingly, everything below was blue. The light seemed to emanate from below. It was like an alien world, as if the earth had toppled upside down! Suddenly, a chain of memories ran inside his mind like a movie but it seemed to be running backwards. He was surrounded by some important leaders all looking solemn. Suddenly, he was placing a gun to his head, he was drinking and talking gaily to some people who seemed to look like his subordinates, he was walking somewhere and there were thin mangled bodies of children, women and man lying like a trash pile, he remembered himself speaking, “We need to disinfect our country of these Jews!”, he remembered people calling him ‘Fuhrer’, some others were calling him, ‘Addy’. Suddenly, as if hit by a flash of lightning he sat up and remembered- he was the Great Dictator from Germany- Adolf Hitler. However, he remembered himself committing suicide. Then why was he still conscious? As these questions churned his head, he knew they could be answered in only one way- through time. He didn’t know how long he had to wait, or for whom to wait. But he just knew that he had to just wait… and hope… hope for someone to come along.
2 years, 9 months later…
“Addy, O Addy”, a tired, elderly voice broke the silence he had become accustomed to for the past couple of years. As he searched frantically for the source of the melodious voice, he saw that it was coming from a man of around 60. He was wearing a dhoti (a white piece of cloth used by Indians to cover the lower part of their body). He wasn’t wearing a shirt but was instead robed in a white cloth which covered his torso. All this coupled with his cane, thin rimmed spectacles and self contented smile made him look like a person who knew where he was and the reason for his presence.
Hitler ran up to him, grabbed him roughly by his shoulders and asked him, “Who are you? What is this place? Who am I?”
Hearing this, the old the old man just smiled looking at Hitler’s desperation and confusion. He was looking more like a child which had lost its parents in a crowd than a man who had once ruled an entire country. “Relax, my boy” he said. “We have all the time in this world. Let’s start with the first question. I am…”
“Never mind who you are, old man!” Hitler cut him short, “Tell me where I am”.
“So be it!” said Gandhi, not the least ruffled by Hitler’s impatience, “You are right now in a transient state between life and death”.
“What?” Hitler again interrupted, “Do you know who you are kidding with? If this is the place for people who die, then it should be crammed by now. The Jews themselves would fill this place!”
“Listen carefully to my words” the old man spoke, “Don’t miss out on half my words. I was telling that this is between life and death. Not everyone comes here. It is only for those with conflicting ideas that changed the world who meet. This is so as, there are as few misunderstandings as possible when you go back to continue your cycle of life and death. Now I hope you’ve understood”.
“I’ve understood all that” came the pompous reply from Hitler and then in a mocking tone asked, “But tell me, who are you to have made as big a difference as I have?”
“I am a person who while alive, helped my India which had been under the British rule for almost 300 earn independence through pure non-violence and truth a couple of years after your death. I encouraged people to speak the truth alone and to be non-violent. I was one who made people look at Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews as one and the same. I was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.” As he said this, his voice gained in strength and even he looked pleased with himself. Finally, coming back to his usual soft tone and bent posture while supporting himself on the cane, he added “Gandhi to you”.
After looking at this with fascination, Hitler regained his composure and asked, “So are you going to try convincing me that my views opposing the Jews and my violence in WW II was wrong? You may tell all you want, but I know I am right” he finished with a smug smile.
Gandhi closed his eyes, took a deep breath and asked in a soft, gentle but firm tone, “My boy, why do you ever need to kill when you can solve disputes peacefully? Why do you need to raise your hand to unnecessarily take human lives when your mouth can be used as effectively?” he asked.
“Do you have an inkling of the number of Germans who died in the First World War? And to add to the humiliation, do you know the humiliation Germany was made to undergo even after the war due to the Treaty of Versailles? After all this suffering, what is wrong in retaliating and trying to recover our losses?” As he said this his eyes became moist and he seemed to have gone into a world of his own. His speech was becoming so animated, so passionate that he was beginning to resemble Adolf Hitler of the old- the Fuhrer who had swayed a whole nation with his oratory and tactics”.
To this, Gandhi retorted, “Even you saw the losses India suffered, but still we continued our non-violent protests didn’t we?” One could see that the discussion was heating up and there would be no relaxations from either side. It was as if, all noises in the world had been stopped so that one would not miss out on even a single word being spoken by these stalwarts.
“So what?” Hitler almost spat. “Just because a bunch of Indians died in their non-violent protests does not force me and my nation to be non-violent while fully knowing its implications, does it?”
“But Addy…” Gandhi spoke, as if calling Hitler by his family name would calm Hitler down. “Addy… if you had protested peacefully, the war wouldn’t have even started. The Treaty of Versailles would not even have mentioned you! Your Polish attack, which ignited the war wouldn’t have even taken place. And Germany would have never suffered the losses it is witnessing now.”
“Mr.Gandhi, let me tell you this. If you try to go further into the past to try to prove that Germany was the first to be violent, I can go even further behind and find out the cause for her violence. So at least now, I hope you understand that there was no wrong in us(Germany) using violence.” Hitler finished with a tone of finality, convinced with himself.
A silence followed which was broken by Gandhi’s voice, “Who achieved his purpose?”
This took Hitler off guard. “Huh?” was all he could muster.
“You heard me, who achieved what he had set out to do? You or me? Germany or India?” he asked. Hitler stood transfixed. It seemed as if the realization that he had failed to lead Germany to victory was just sinking into him. Right from the moment he had shot himself, he had never given thought to the fact that Germany had lost and that too, badly. “Answer me!” Gandhi’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
Finally a soft sound emanated from his lips, “You…”.
“Don’t you see then Addy, that non-violence achieved its purpose of securing India independence. The worst violence you could muster, ironically, led to your downfall. Now do you understand the power of Ahimsa(non- violence)?
Hitler slowly nodded, realization trickling in, initially in drops but now it was flowing in torrents. For some time both these titans were silent. It was complete and absolute silence not broken even by the rustling of the trees, namely because there were not trees! As the hush was descending Gandhi again broke the silence, “Now, do you understand why you were wrong in sending so many people to die? Do you now begin to realize how wrong you were in killing those innocent Jews, handicaps, cripples?”
“Sir” Hitler spoke but his voice seemed to have a tinge of respect to Gandhi, “I now understand by beliefs regarding violence to achieve victory in a struggle were a fallacy. But I don’t understand why my killing of the crippled and the Jews was wrong”. As he said the word ‘Jew’ there was such a condescending and disparaging tone in his voice that Gandhi just closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. Hitler continued, “It’s because of our principle- u berleben des passendsten- Survival of the Fittest. So, if someone is stronger than the other, then he can kill the weakling and establish his supremacy. The same is observed in animals also, the fastest deer runs off while the slow and the crippled are eaten by the predators.” As he spoke, it was evident that Hitler was coming back into his element after the jarring he had received from the old man. “Similarly,” he continued, “If we, the Germans are the strongest, what is wrong in us killing them?” Hitler knew that he had to convince Gandhi so that the old man did not have any room for doubt. However, after he had spoken, he knew that his statements had not convinced Gandhi as much as he had been by Gandhi one statement. He didn’t know why or how, but he felt his conviction slipping away just by looking at the tender, smiling face of Gandhi. But he did not show this to Gandhi and kept himself as aloof and passionate as he had looked.
As he looked expectantly at Gandhi, the old man looked at Hitler through the top of his spectacles and with a seriousness which had not been present before, spoke, “Let me clarify to you the meaning of ‘Survival of the Fittest’. It’s just a phenomena where the fitter one survives because it is… fitter. However, this in no way implies that it tries to establish its supremacy by deliberately killing the weaker beings for no reason. But, Addy, my boy, that unfortunately is exactly what you were doing. Understand that Survival of the Fittest is not like a wrestling bout to see who emerges the winner. Everyone minds his own business including your deer which cared about itself and ran away from the lion. The one who is not able to cope with the rigours of making a living, perishes. Now that is Survival of the Fittest.
As Gandhi finished, Hitler looked defeated, confused and dazed. However, he still continued with a strained voice- one which had lost its passion and conviction put forth his last remaining point, “but these people (the handicaps, crippled and the Jews) were a burden to society right? We, the fit Germans would risk our lives at the war front only for those to live right? If they don’t fight or even take part in the nation’s struggle, why should they live?”
Immediately came Gandhi’s reply, “Is fighting the only yardstick to measure a person’s worth to society? I’m sure many of these ‘burdens’ would have been extremely adept in other fields like arts, business, planning or any other field! So why didn’t you use them in these areas rather than killing them? And let me tell you one more thing, when India achieved independence, I made sure that everyone, regardless of age, sex, caste, creed or handicaps took part in the struggle. And that is why India has achieved independence!” As Gandhi finished, Hitler remained mute. He had nothing to say, but he had everything to assimilate. For the first time in his life, he had feelings of remorse for his deeds. Why hadn’t anybody told this to him earlier? But then, he thought, ‘I had never really listened to anybody, did I?’ He felt sorry, ashamed, guilty and he had nobody to lean on for support when he needed it. Even in his life, he remembered, when people wanted to be close to him, he had always tried to avoid getting close to anybody. Then he remembered that Gandhi was still watching him. ‘Such a great soul, but still he was so humble, so gentle, so unlike me.’ As Hitler thought, his respect for Gandhi multiplied. Finally, all these emotions of guilt, confusion, shame, admiration which had been building up finally burst off like a balloon on seeing the old man and Hitler just knelt in front of the Gandhi, and started sobbing like a child. As Gandhi touched him gently, he felt himself unworthy enough to be touched by this great soul. He slowly looked up at the understanding face and asked, “What will happen to me now? What will happen to you?” The words were stuttered and were spoken while he was unsuccessfully trying to stifle his sobs.
“Nothing much” Gandhi replied, “Now that both of us have come to a conclusion, we just vanish to continue our cycle of life and death.”
“But will I remember in my next birth that I was Hitler?”
“No” said Gandhi, “You won’t remember anything regarding you person, deeds or anything which was given to you by others.”
“What do you mean?” asked Hitler, in complete humility.
“Your deeds, your image, have all been built about you only because of what others think of you. You won’t remember such things when you are born again. But you will have these ideals of non-violence and egalitarianism embedded in you because these were some of the very few things which you came to realize through yourself”.
“But even these matters were taught only by you right?” asked Hitler.
“No, I never taught you anything. I just put forth these points and you were the one who realized the truth in them after weighing them with your ideals. So, you realized these yourself. This self-realization occurs only when you assimilate and analyze what people tell rather than following them blindly.” As he finished, Gandhi felt he was losing himself. He felt like closing his eyes and never opening them again. So was Hitler. Both felt like they were passing off into eternal bliss. Their outer bodies started fading off and both knew that this was it- they were finally entering the mysterious world of the dead, only to be born again. Moments later, both these stalwarts had gone. After being accustomed to the battle of words between the two, the silence seemed deafening. The area had regained its pristine stillness and was waiting for the next people…
April 30, 1945
Preface- He took his wife inside a room in the bunker and told the guard inside to go out and lock the door. Once they went, he slowly bolted the door, turned to her and said, “Eva dear, you know it’s time for me to go. You know I cannot stand defeat. What remains is whether you want to come.”
Wiping the tears from her eyes with the end of her sleeves, she whispered “you know I won’t leave you alone” she choked with tears and said, “I’ll come with you”.
“Okay then, eat these capsules, they’ll present you swift and painless death”. As he said, he himself started putting some in his mouth. Five minutes later she, being physically weaker succumbed to the cyanide. Not able to bear the loss, his trembling hands put a nearby revolver to his temple.
The shot rang out clearly all through the bunker.
Story-
He woke up. He didn’t know where he was. Where was Eva? Everything above him was black. Amazingly, everything below was blue. The light seemed to emanate from below. It was like an alien world, as if the earth had toppled upside down! Suddenly, a chain of memories ran inside his mind like a movie but it seemed to be running backwards. He was surrounded by some important leaders all looking solemn. Suddenly, he was placing a gun to his head, he was drinking and talking gaily to some people who seemed to look like his subordinates, he was walking somewhere and there were thin mangled bodies of children, women and man lying like a trash pile, he remembered himself speaking, “We need to disinfect our country of these Jews!”, he remembered people calling him ‘Fuhrer’, some others were calling him, ‘Addy’. Suddenly, as if hit by a flash of lightning he sat up and remembered- he was the Great Dictator from Germany- Adolf Hitler. However, he remembered himself committing suicide. Then why was he still conscious? As these questions churned his head, he knew they could be answered in only one way- through time. He didn’t know how long he had to wait, or for whom to wait. But he just knew that he had to just wait… and hope… hope for someone to come along.
2 years, 9 months later…
“Addy, O Addy”, a tired, elderly voice broke the silence he had become accustomed to for the past couple of years. As he searched frantically for the source of the melodious voice, he saw that it was coming from a man of around 60. He was wearing a dhoti (a white piece of cloth used by Indians to cover the lower part of their body). He wasn’t wearing a shirt but was instead robed in a white cloth which covered his torso. All this coupled with his cane, thin rimmed spectacles and self contented smile made him look like a person who knew where he was and the reason for his presence.
Hitler ran up to him, grabbed him roughly by his shoulders and asked him, “Who are you? What is this place? Who am I?”
Hearing this, the old the old man just smiled looking at Hitler’s desperation and confusion. He was looking more like a child which had lost its parents in a crowd than a man who had once ruled an entire country. “Relax, my boy” he said. “We have all the time in this world. Let’s start with the first question. I am…”
“Never mind who you are, old man!” Hitler cut him short, “Tell me where I am”.
“So be it!” said Gandhi, not the least ruffled by Hitler’s impatience, “You are right now in a transient state between life and death”.
“What?” Hitler again interrupted, “Do you know who you are kidding with? If this is the place for people who die, then it should be crammed by now. The Jews themselves would fill this place!”
“Listen carefully to my words” the old man spoke, “Don’t miss out on half my words. I was telling that this is between life and death. Not everyone comes here. It is only for those with conflicting ideas that changed the world who meet. This is so as, there are as few misunderstandings as possible when you go back to continue your cycle of life and death. Now I hope you’ve understood”.
“I’ve understood all that” came the pompous reply from Hitler and then in a mocking tone asked, “But tell me, who are you to have made as big a difference as I have?”
“I am a person who while alive, helped my India which had been under the British rule for almost 300 earn independence through pure non-violence and truth a couple of years after your death. I encouraged people to speak the truth alone and to be non-violent. I was one who made people look at Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews as one and the same. I was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.” As he said this, his voice gained in strength and even he looked pleased with himself. Finally, coming back to his usual soft tone and bent posture while supporting himself on the cane, he added “Gandhi to you”.
After looking at this with fascination, Hitler regained his composure and asked, “So are you going to try convincing me that my views opposing the Jews and my violence in WW II was wrong? You may tell all you want, but I know I am right” he finished with a smug smile.
Gandhi closed his eyes, took a deep breath and asked in a soft, gentle but firm tone, “My boy, why do you ever need to kill when you can solve disputes peacefully? Why do you need to raise your hand to unnecessarily take human lives when your mouth can be used as effectively?” he asked.
“Do you have an inkling of the number of Germans who died in the First World War? And to add to the humiliation, do you know the humiliation Germany was made to undergo even after the war due to the Treaty of Versailles? After all this suffering, what is wrong in retaliating and trying to recover our losses?” As he said this his eyes became moist and he seemed to have gone into a world of his own. His speech was becoming so animated, so passionate that he was beginning to resemble Adolf Hitler of the old- the Fuhrer who had swayed a whole nation with his oratory and tactics”.
To this, Gandhi retorted, “Even you saw the losses India suffered, but still we continued our non-violent protests didn’t we?” One could see that the discussion was heating up and there would be no relaxations from either side. It was as if, all noises in the world had been stopped so that one would not miss out on even a single word being spoken by these stalwarts.
“So what?” Hitler almost spat. “Just because a bunch of Indians died in their non-violent protests does not force me and my nation to be non-violent while fully knowing its implications, does it?”
“But Addy…” Gandhi spoke, as if calling Hitler by his family name would calm Hitler down. “Addy… if you had protested peacefully, the war wouldn’t have even started. The Treaty of Versailles would not even have mentioned you! Your Polish attack, which ignited the war wouldn’t have even taken place. And Germany would have never suffered the losses it is witnessing now.”
“Mr.Gandhi, let me tell you this. If you try to go further into the past to try to prove that Germany was the first to be violent, I can go even further behind and find out the cause for her violence. So at least now, I hope you understand that there was no wrong in us(Germany) using violence.” Hitler finished with a tone of finality, convinced with himself.
A silence followed which was broken by Gandhi’s voice, “Who achieved his purpose?”
This took Hitler off guard. “Huh?” was all he could muster.
“You heard me, who achieved what he had set out to do? You or me? Germany or India?” he asked. Hitler stood transfixed. It seemed as if the realization that he had failed to lead Germany to victory was just sinking into him. Right from the moment he had shot himself, he had never given thought to the fact that Germany had lost and that too, badly. “Answer me!” Gandhi’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
Finally a soft sound emanated from his lips, “You…”.
“Don’t you see then Addy, that non-violence achieved its purpose of securing India independence. The worst violence you could muster, ironically, led to your downfall. Now do you understand the power of Ahimsa(non- violence)?
Hitler slowly nodded, realization trickling in, initially in drops but now it was flowing in torrents. For some time both these titans were silent. It was complete and absolute silence not broken even by the rustling of the trees, namely because there were not trees! As the hush was descending Gandhi again broke the silence, “Now, do you understand why you were wrong in sending so many people to die? Do you now begin to realize how wrong you were in killing those innocent Jews, handicaps, cripples?”
“Sir” Hitler spoke but his voice seemed to have a tinge of respect to Gandhi, “I now understand by beliefs regarding violence to achieve victory in a struggle were a fallacy. But I don’t understand why my killing of the crippled and the Jews was wrong”. As he said the word ‘Jew’ there was such a condescending and disparaging tone in his voice that Gandhi just closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. Hitler continued, “It’s because of our principle- u berleben des passendsten- Survival of the Fittest. So, if someone is stronger than the other, then he can kill the weakling and establish his supremacy. The same is observed in animals also, the fastest deer runs off while the slow and the crippled are eaten by the predators.” As he spoke, it was evident that Hitler was coming back into his element after the jarring he had received from the old man. “Similarly,” he continued, “If we, the Germans are the strongest, what is wrong in us killing them?” Hitler knew that he had to convince Gandhi so that the old man did not have any room for doubt. However, after he had spoken, he knew that his statements had not convinced Gandhi as much as he had been by Gandhi one statement. He didn’t know why or how, but he felt his conviction slipping away just by looking at the tender, smiling face of Gandhi. But he did not show this to Gandhi and kept himself as aloof and passionate as he had looked.
As he looked expectantly at Gandhi, the old man looked at Hitler through the top of his spectacles and with a seriousness which had not been present before, spoke, “Let me clarify to you the meaning of ‘Survival of the Fittest’. It’s just a phenomena where the fitter one survives because it is… fitter. However, this in no way implies that it tries to establish its supremacy by deliberately killing the weaker beings for no reason. But, Addy, my boy, that unfortunately is exactly what you were doing. Understand that Survival of the Fittest is not like a wrestling bout to see who emerges the winner. Everyone minds his own business including your deer which cared about itself and ran away from the lion. The one who is not able to cope with the rigours of making a living, perishes. Now that is Survival of the Fittest.
As Gandhi finished, Hitler looked defeated, confused and dazed. However, he still continued with a strained voice- one which had lost its passion and conviction put forth his last remaining point, “but these people (the handicaps, crippled and the Jews) were a burden to society right? We, the fit Germans would risk our lives at the war front only for those to live right? If they don’t fight or even take part in the nation’s struggle, why should they live?”
Immediately came Gandhi’s reply, “Is fighting the only yardstick to measure a person’s worth to society? I’m sure many of these ‘burdens’ would have been extremely adept in other fields like arts, business, planning or any other field! So why didn’t you use them in these areas rather than killing them? And let me tell you one more thing, when India achieved independence, I made sure that everyone, regardless of age, sex, caste, creed or handicaps took part in the struggle. And that is why India has achieved independence!” As Gandhi finished, Hitler remained mute. He had nothing to say, but he had everything to assimilate. For the first time in his life, he had feelings of remorse for his deeds. Why hadn’t anybody told this to him earlier? But then, he thought, ‘I had never really listened to anybody, did I?’ He felt sorry, ashamed, guilty and he had nobody to lean on for support when he needed it. Even in his life, he remembered, when people wanted to be close to him, he had always tried to avoid getting close to anybody. Then he remembered that Gandhi was still watching him. ‘Such a great soul, but still he was so humble, so gentle, so unlike me.’ As Hitler thought, his respect for Gandhi multiplied. Finally, all these emotions of guilt, confusion, shame, admiration which had been building up finally burst off like a balloon on seeing the old man and Hitler just knelt in front of the Gandhi, and started sobbing like a child. As Gandhi touched him gently, he felt himself unworthy enough to be touched by this great soul. He slowly looked up at the understanding face and asked, “What will happen to me now? What will happen to you?” The words were stuttered and were spoken while he was unsuccessfully trying to stifle his sobs.
“Nothing much” Gandhi replied, “Now that both of us have come to a conclusion, we just vanish to continue our cycle of life and death.”
“But will I remember in my next birth that I was Hitler?”
“No” said Gandhi, “You won’t remember anything regarding you person, deeds or anything which was given to you by others.”
“What do you mean?” asked Hitler, in complete humility.
“Your deeds, your image, have all been built about you only because of what others think of you. You won’t remember such things when you are born again. But you will have these ideals of non-violence and egalitarianism embedded in you because these were some of the very few things which you came to realize through yourself”.
“But even these matters were taught only by you right?” asked Hitler.
“No, I never taught you anything. I just put forth these points and you were the one who realized the truth in them after weighing them with your ideals. So, you realized these yourself. This self-realization occurs only when you assimilate and analyze what people tell rather than following them blindly.” As he finished, Gandhi felt he was losing himself. He felt like closing his eyes and never opening them again. So was Hitler. Both felt like they were passing off into eternal bliss. Their outer bodies started fading off and both knew that this was it- they were finally entering the mysterious world of the dead, only to be born again. Moments later, both these stalwarts had gone. After being accustomed to the battle of words between the two, the silence seemed deafening. The area had regained its pristine stillness and was waiting for the next people…
1 comment:
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