New Delhi, Oct 4 (UNI) Perhaps ‘Raghupati Raghav….’ contains the germ that describes Mahatma Gandhi as a phenomenon and brings to the fore his dream of building India as a welfare state, likening it to the mythical ‘Ram Rajya.’

The summation of Mahatma as an apostle of peace, tolerance, simplicity and oneness likely had its basis in the ‘Ramdhuns’ that would mesmerise him as a child and sow the seeds of transcendental yearning that could only be satisfied by divine intervention.

According to pandits on Sunday, two days after the 151st birth anniversary of Mahatma, the soul stirring ‘Ramdhuns’ paved the way for his interest in psalm singing as a young lad in South Africa, when what was music to Gandhiji’s ears, was also the core of his spirituality.

The pandits underlined that Mahatma discovered the same spirit of ‘surrender’ to the Divine in Christian congregational singing, and may be this strengthened his conviction in the equality that he professed and practiced throughout his life.

Informatively, Historian Lakshmi Subramanian,who has researched Gandhiji’s connect with music, prefers to call Mahatma’s style of nation building, a ‘sonic nationalism’ in her book-‘Singing Gandhi’s India.’

The author pointed out that the summation of ‘Vaishnava Janato….’ soul stirred him, paving the way to dream of a casteless India at a time when it was thought to be next to impossible.

Reports revealed that after returning to India from South Africa, Gandhiji was drawn to the genre of bhajans that was popularised by V D Paluskar at that time and to the bhajans of Meera Bai.