October 2nd is the date of birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi aka MK Gandhi and he is famously referred to as Bapu which means Father and as whole Nation referred to him as Bapu he is considered as Father of the Nation.
I was puzzled by the thought that why indeed he is called the Bapu (father) instead of Bhai (Brother) because in this country where majority know & speak Hindi every one of noticeable significance in ordinary public i.e. who has served ordinary public in an extraordinary way are generally referred to as Bhai like dhirubhai (The Best business tycoon)  but unlikely Mahatma Gandhi alone is called as Bapuji (Dear Father).
I would like to share my view on why is called Father instead of Brother after discussing some of his qualities which I love the most.

Fearlessness

He was fearless because he wasn’t frightened of getting hurt, beaten upon death in achieving goal though it is for equality in South Africa or freedom in India. This is a wonderful asset which a father can give to children to be fearless and to do anything without fear.
I remember one story about Durgabhai Deshmukh on this regard when she was a bit younger in age and she was volunteering at an exhibition. The instructions were given to her was to not allow anyone inside exhibition premises without Entry Badge. When she was standing at the entrance delivering the duties given to her Jawahar Lal Nehru has arrived at the exhibition and to unknowingly he forgot his entry badge and reached the entrance.
Durgabhai has stopped him from entering into the exhibition as he didn’t possess any badge, but he was no ordinary man indeed he was next to Mahatma Gandhi in his patriotism & following. She had the least concern about who was Nehru, but her intention was to follow the instructions given to her i.e., Not to allow anyone inside without entry. 
Nehru is a compassionate human being & he didn’t want to break rule which the young one wanted to protect, he went back got his entry badge and while entering the exhibition, he asked the young girl “How do you possess such a courage to follow your instructions” she claimed that “I am inspired by the words of Mahatma who said if you start any work, be fearless &get rid of the tiring fear completely and work towards achieving your goal I am not bothered whether you are Nehru or any prominent personality my duty is to not allow anyone without badge and I am not even bothered whether I will be fired from my duties or not, but my focus is on following my duty as long as I am here”. Nehru was very happy listening to the words from that girl which is the effect of that Father’s words on the young souls of the Nation.

3 Monkeys Message

A Father’s responsibility is to teach his child about what is good or what is bad & not only that but how can we adore good and avoid bad. Gandhi ji has not only just fought for the nation but has taught the whole Nation (indeed to the whole world) of how to stay good and avoid bad by his 3 monkeys.

According to me, it has a fantastic message in it because for a man to become good if he takes both good and bad input through his inlets like (ears & eyes) and gives out or spreads bad through one powerful outlet month then he can’t become good and can’t let others be good. So, if a person wants to be good then he has to shut the doors of bad to enter into him and shouldn’t spread bad if he wants others to be good.
There is an Indian story, An Old man says “on my both shoulders there are two wolfs one is white & good which motivates me to do good and the other is black & bad which tempts me to do bad” the young listener asks which one has the greater power over you then. The Old man says – The one which I feed the most.
By following the above 3 monkeys message we never feed the black wolf as a result it loses its power and simultaneously if we feed the white one then it always motivates us to do good, be good etc. Isn’t this enough to call him a Father?

Non-violence

A Father can never let his children fight & die or even get hurt in his presence, but he can’t accept their slavery either. So, Mahatma has decided to follow the path of non-violence to achieve freedom rather than the violence through which the world can’t be a better place to live. A wonderful direction for the younger generations because a war in the modern times with such a huge military equipment & advanced weapon would lead to the destruction of whole mankind in very less time.
But, differences definitely arise between people always but there lies a solution which can solve the problem with peace and lead to a peaceful problem and he followed that method and forced every one of India to follow that as a father forces his children to follow the path of peace if they are ignorantly diverting away from that.

An ambassador of Simplicity

Not every father can give riches to his child, but he can give him the power of simplicity and how simple it is to be simple & at the same time how grateful it is to be simple. He used to wear just two or three garments of Khadi to cover his body & that too made by him itself, that’s it. His intention was not to wear those two garments only, but his idea was to find glory in whatever one has and not in what one doesn’t have.
This riches of simplicity which he inherited from his former generations made him a rich person ever lived & he was successful in passing that treasure as inheritance to his children which made the lives of innumerable peaceful though they didn’t have a penny in hand like Lal Bahadur Sastry, Sardar Vallabhai Patel APJ Abdul Kalam etc.

Sacrificing the power for children

A father always wants his children to rule rather he ruling which can be noticed in the history and the same was the case with Gandhi who sacrificed the power to rule the country after it was Independent just like a father gives his hard earned money to the child to enjoy.

Why is Mahatma Gandhi called Father of the Nation?

There are many more reasons other than those listed above. However, after discussing the above qualities and aspects of Mahatma Gandhi from his life I have understood why he was referred as Bapu instead of Bhai

1. Because of the Age gap
   1. Mahatma Gandhi was referred to as Bhai (Brother) in South Africa as he was very young in age when he started revolt for equality of people but when he started he revolt in India he was very old in age which made it easier to call him father rather than Brother.
2. He taught everyone how to live
   1. The above qualities can stand as guideposts for a person to happily live his whole life and fight against any problem, however, big  it is (the problem cannot be bigger than earning freedom for a country).
3. Everyone was equal to him
   1. If a father has many children out of which one is good, other is intelligent, one is a scholar, one is an officer, one of them is good looking then do you think his view would differ for them? Nope, Absolutely not because everyone is same for the eyes of Father, but this may not be same for a Brother always.
   2. The same is the case with MK Gandhi he had the same view towards the whole humanity, unlike the religious, economic diversities it had.
   3. He was neither in favor of anyone nor he was against anyone (even British, but he was against their foreign rule alone).

Famous quotes of Mahatma

Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed reading about him on his birthday #GandhiJayanti though I am publishing this post in the evening. Share your views about Mahatma Gandhi with me, I would be very happy to hear them. If you like the post then share it with your buddies.
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