What Makes Man a Superman?

One who proves to be courageous enough to face the shock of unpleasant situations and takes them as challenges will find that his mind is activated by the experience and this will certainly unfold his potential.

MK Gandhi, a great leader of India, said at a meeting in New Delhi on June 28, 1946, that he was born in India but was made in South Africa. (Gandhi and South Africa 1914-1948, edited by E S Reddy and Gopalkrishna Gandhi)

This statement is correct, but it only tells us the location of a great event, and not its real reason. It was not the soil of South Africa that gave rise to this miracle, but rather the workings of nature. And, almost all the super-achievers were created by the same natural process.

When the American missionary Dr. John Mott visited Mahatma Gandhi at his Sevagram Ashram in central India, he asked him, “What have been the most creative experiences in your life?” Gandhiji replied, “Such experiences are in multitudes. But as you put the question to me, I recall one experience that changed the course of my life.” Then he related the Pietermaritzburg incident. (Gandhi Katha, Umashankar Joshi)

In 1893 Gandhi went to South Africa to take up a job in the legal profession. In June 1893, he had to go by train to Pretoria in the Transvaal, a journey which would take him to Pietermaritzburg. Having purchased a first-class ticket, Gandhi took his seat in a first-class compartment. He was thereupon ordered by the railway officials to remove himself to the van compartment, since non-whites were not permitted in first-class compartments. Gandhi protested and produced his ticket, but was warned that he would be forcibly removed if he did not make a gracious exit. As Gandhi refused to comply with the order, he was pushed out of the train, in the extreme cold of winter, and his luggage was tossed out on to the platform

It was this shocking incident that made him decide to remove racism from the world. He became a man with a mission and, in 1920, began to take action in India, where at that time India was ruled by the same racist colonial power. When he went to South Africa, he was Mr. Gandhi, but when he started his mission in India, he very soon emerged as Mahatma Gandhi.

History tells us that many individuals attained to greatness because of having received some kind of shock. This is a law of nature, and it is this law of nature that has produced so many great personalities of history.

It is a fact that shock treatment is the greatest factor in the process of ‘man-making’. But, there is a condition. This law of nature works only in the case of those who take shocks in a positive manner. If an individual takes the ‘shock treatment’ negatively and becomes dejected, he will develop a negative mindset and will go on living in a state of total frustration or will ultimately die by his own hand.

On the contrary, one who proves to be courageous enough to face the shock of unpleasant situations and takes them as challenges will find that his mind is activated by the experience and this will certainly unfold his potential. His sense of shock will give rise to a new kind of motivation to deal effectively with the situation, and, in the process, this will lead to the development of a creative personality.

One who gives this kind of positive response to shocks, will be enabled to initiate a new, great struggle in his life. If, in the pre-shock period he was just a man, then in the post-shock period he will become a superman. Shock treatment is obviously an unwanted occurrence, but it is this very shock treatment that leads to the kind of superlative creativity which can be of immense benefit to humanity at large.