It was evening and Gandhi was at Birla House at Delhi. Gandhi had just finished his evening meal. He was talking with Sardar Patel on some serious topics regarding the newly formed government.
Abha, his niece, took the watch and showed him the time.
"I must tear myself away. I am already five minutes late. I should have been there exactly at five. I hate being unpunctual."
Putting his chappals on his feet, and with his arms around Abha and Manu his walking sticks - Gandhi moved with long strides to the prayer meeting. On reaching the platform, and before he took his seat, Gandhi stood - about five yards in front of the crowd, with both his palms together in the Hindu way, in namaskar. Suddenly a man from the crowd sprang up and kneeled before Gandhi as if trying to touch his feet and said, "Bapu, you are late today." Before Gandhi could reply, he took a revolver from his pocket and shot him three times, with it.
"Hey Ram, Hey Ram" (Oh God, Oh God) were the last words of Gandhi after the second shot; the third shot brought him down on the ground. He was immediately taken from the ground to a room in Birla's House. People around him thought he was still alive as his eyes were half shut, but Dr. Bhargava gave the verdict. "He has been dead for ten minutes."
Jawaharlal Nehru was not there at the time of the incident, but he immediately rushed to the scene and fell on Gandhi's body in grief and wept bitterly. Then, came Devadas, Gandhi's youngest son. Ramdas, the third son, arrived from Nagpur the next day.
"So serene was the face and so mellow the hallow of divine light that surrounded the body that it seemed almost sacrilegious to grieve," wrote Devadas, his son.
Thousands of people wanted to have a look at the body of the departed leader. The body was, therefore, placed on the top of the roof of Birla's House for public view and a searchlight made to play on it. His face wore a peaceful smile.
The next day the body was washed and clothed in white cloth. A garland of handspun cotton strands was put around the neck. Rose petals were strewn around it profusely, while a pot of incense burned nearby.
Raised platforms were placed in an army motor car and on this platform the body was placed. Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and several other leaders were seated in the car around the dead body.
The procession carrying the Mahatma's body started at 11:45 a.m. with full military honours. It was two miles long. The morning was bitterly cold, but thousands had gathered all along the road. Many were perched on tree tops and houses, in motor cars, tongas and buses. The body moved on through a dense mass of people and reached the burning ghat at 4:20 p.m. five and a half miles away.
A funeral pyre made of stone, brick and earth was built and long thin sandalwood logs were laid thereon. Above them was placed Gandhi's body with the head to the north and feet to the south. At 4:45 p.m. Ramdas, his son, set fire to his father's funeral pyre. The logs burst into flames. A groan went up from the vast congregation. The pyre burned for fourteen hours. After twenty-seven hours, a special service was conducted. His ashes were then collected and immersed in the sacred rivers of India according to Hindu custom.
Rajghat is the place where he was cremated and it has become a place of pilgrimage. No foreign diplomat fails to visit it and pay homage to the Mahatma. Seldom in modern times has any man been mourned so deeply and so widely except Jawaharlal Nehru.