GANDHI`S
PERSONALITY AND PHILOSOPHY – FORMATIVE INFLUENCES
Dr. Surendra Verma
Gandhi
was born in an age when the 19th Century Indian Renaissance was in
full swing. They were the times of turmoil and unrest and India was in a state of
ferment.
From the close of eighteenth century to
the middle of the nineteenth, India was under a process of uninterrupted
disruption. Politically subdued by the British, her intelligentsia rapidly
became westernized in ideas and culture. Many Indians lost all faith in their
own culture and began aping the rulers without any understanding and sympathy.
There was a complete cultural chaos and the religio-philosophical foundations
were terribly shaken. However, towards the end of the nineteenth century there occurred a sort of
socio-religious renaissance and the tide of the British civilization began to
recede gradually, as some great socio-religious movements, like Brahm Samaj, Arya
Samaj, Theosophy, Ramakrishna movement and the like, sprang up in close succession
to reinstall the ancient glory of Indian culture.
BRAHMA SAMAJ
A great philosopher-theologian and social worker,
Raja Rammohan Roy (1774-1833), was the founder
of the Brahma Samaj. Rammohan is known as the father of Indian Renaissance and
many prominent personalities of the age owe their spiritual heritage to him.
Even Gandhi came under the influence of Rammohan and his thought. Rammohan was
a great scholar of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, besides he had a good command
over English, Greek, Latin and Hebrew which he studied to discover the sources
of religion, philosophy and culture of the West. As a social reformer his ‘life
was one long, relentless crusade against mediaevalism' (J C Bose) He fought
against the inhuman custom of sati and condemned ideology. He revolted against
every superstition and pernicious convention. He advocated the freedom of the Press
and the codification of the Indian Criminal Code. As an educationist he championed
the cause of the west in our educational
history. He had an implicit faith in liberal English education and wanted ‘to
instruct the natives of India in Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry,
Anatomy and other useful sciences.’ That however did not mean that he was
indifferent to the oriental way of life. He had a legitimate pride in the
spiritual heritage of his an- cestors. In fact all his social and cultural
activities were based on the foundations of Indian thought.
Rammohan founded the Brahma-Samaj ‘the
first Hindu Unitarian Church’ (Kalidas Nag) in 1828, which was not a new
religion but was an attempt to revitalize the decaying Hindu thought based on
Vedantic monism. He believed in the ancient Upanishadic principle of unity
underlying everything and every being. He traveled far and wide. He even
visited Tibet, the land of Buddhistic cult in search of true religion. In his journey on plains and in the hilly
lands he found that the inhabitants thereof agreed generally in the personality
of One Being who is the source of all that exist and is its governor.
Empirically it became clear to him that generally turning towards One Eternal
Being was a natural tendency in human
beings and was common to all individuals
professing diverse religions and creeds. Besides the unity of the
God-head the generalization also led him to conclude the basic unity of mankind
which was repeatedly emphasized by him and which strengthened his cosmopolitan
outlook. -
Rammohan was a pioneer in collecting and
publishing the texts of the Upanishads and the Vedanta. He published his
studies of these texts in Sanskrit, Bangali and English almost simultaneously.
He also established the Vedanta College for the ‘propagation and defense of Hindu Unitarianism’. In Rammohan we, thus, find not only a social reformer but
also the beginning of the philosophical revival in India. According to Rabindranath
Tagore, Rammohan made an effort ‘to
establish the Indians on the full consciousness of their cultural
personality and to make them comprehend the reality of all that is unique and indestructible
in their civilization and simultaneously to make them approach other
civilizations in the spirit of sympathetic cooperation. Raja Rammohan Roy’s
work was continued by Devendranath Tagore and Keshub Chandra Sen.
Devendranath Tagore (1817-1905) brought a
new inspiration and strength to the Brahma Samaj. Born and brought up in luxury
and abundance he came across the opening verse of the Ish Upanishad and its
spark blazed forth into a conviction in Devendranath’s mind. Consequently he felt
the imperious call of the Essential, drowning the clamour of gaudy
inessentials. He established the Truth Teaching Society (Tattva Bodhini Sabha).
Its bulletin began to publish a translation of the Rig-Veda. It was the same year
1847, when Max Mullar was studying the same Veda in Paris under the great
French Sanskritist, E.Burnouf. The Brahma-samaj under Devendranath proclaimed
publicly the Vedas and Upanishads as the basis of its faith. But at the same
time, keeping the tradition of Rammohan it also began attacking some of the
fundamental iniquities and abuses of society. Thus, polygamy and intemperance
were denounced, while female education and widow remarriage were advocated.
Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-1884) continued the Brahma Samaj work more or less
on Christian lines. He gave up a lucrative government post and organized a
spiritual fraternity, the Sangata Sabha, where not only Hindu scriptures were
read but the works of Theodore Parker, Hamilton and Victor Cousin were also
studied with great zeal. Keshub’s memorable address, ‘The Destiny of Human Life’,
elevated him to the post of Acharya of the Brahma Samaj. Keshab’s was the
harmonious voice which spoke the spiritual message of the East and the West simultaneously.
ARYA SAMAJ
In
1875, another powerful religious movement the Arya Samaj came up. It’s author
was Swami Dayanand (1824-1883). That great
Sanskrit scholar and dynamic hindu sanyaasin , who with his thunderous Vedic
appeal created a sort of metamorphosis in the orthodox Hindu religion. He was
as Rabindranath Tagore called him, “a great path-maker in Modern India.
The Arya Samaj took its stand on the
Eastern wisdom of the Vedas which at once worked out a collapse of the merely
ritual, mythological, polytheistic, post-vedic developments of Hinduism on the
one hand and merely the materialistic influence of the West on the other hand. Dayanand’s was a revolt against the spread of
Christianity in India, but he also attacked other religions like Islam, Jainism
and Buddhism including orthodox Hinduism in his great work, Satyartha Prakash and
tried to re-establish Vedic culture and philosophy.
Dayanand could not agree even with the
Brahma Samaj leaders as the latter could not agree to acknowledge the divine
origin and infallibility of the Vedas and to accept the doctrine of re-birth.
Davaanand on his own part did not accept Vedantic Mnoism, the fundamental thought of the Brahm Samaj. Instead he revived Vedic ritualism and monotheism,
based on the philosophy of the three fundamental realities – God, Soul and
Nature. God is existent and intelligent and blissful. Soul is existent and
intelligent but not blissful while Nature is only existent. It is neither intelligent
nor blissful.
In his practical philosophy Dayanand greatly
emphasized the importance of Satya and Dharma and laid great stress on social
welfare. Thus, the Arya Samaj movement was accompanied by vital changes in
social customs. The caste system as a religious institution was abolished, the
monopoly of Brahamins over the Vedas was challenged, women were liberated from
a number of social restrictions and widow homes and orphanages were
established.
The Arya Samaj did a lot in the
propagation of education. There was a net-work of Gurukul, colleges and schools
sponsored by the Arya Samaj to promote education based on Vedic principles.
THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
The story of the nineteenth century
renaissance would remain incomplete without a reference to the contribution
made by Theosophical Society to it. The Theosophical Society was founded by Madame
H. S. Blavatsky, a Russian lady and Colonel H.S. Olcott, an army officer in
England. It got its start in New York in 1875.
The term, theosophy, is made up of the two
Greek words, Theo,(i.e. God) and Sophia (i.e.wisdom) Theosophy thus, seems to
be the exact translation of a Sanskrit word, ‘brahmavidya’, the knowledge of
Brahaman, the ultimate reality. This knowledge is found in the East in the
Upanishads and Hindu philosophies. In the West it is found in the philosophies of
Pythagoras, Plato, and other Greek philosophers and in some of the modern
spiritualists. The protagonist of the theosophical movement have drawn profusely
from all these sources to make a body of their philosophical ideas.
It was under the leadership of Dr. Annie
Besant, an Irish lady who adopted India as her mother- land, that the
Theosophical Society rendered valuable services to the revival of Hindu society
and religion. An oriental look to Theosophy was imparted and an extensive publication
of Hindu scriptures with translations was undertaken. Dr. Annie Besant under
the auspices of the Theological Society made an extensive tour of India and
delivered thousands of lectures in Indian culture and religion. When the enlightened
people of India heard a foreign lady praising Indian philosophy and the way of
life, they were roused from their ‘dogmatic slumber’ and a self consciousness dawned
upon them. Her lecture also worked to check the uninterrupted flow of the
Western culture and materialistic ideas. The revival of Hindu religion was a part
of Theology for Annie Besant. Thus, Theosophy, though apparently a new and
eclectic faith, initiated in India a movement that resembled to a considerable
extent the reform movements of Hinduism so far as its salutary effect upon
Hindu society was concerned.
The basic tenets of
Theosophy are summarized in three truths as stated below -
“(1) The soul of man is immortal and its
future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendor have no limit “ ,
“(2) The principle which gives Life dwells
in us, is undying and eternally beneficent, is not heard, seen or smelt, but is
perceived by the man who desire perception”.
“(3) Each man is his own absolute lawgiver,
the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself, the career of his life, his
reward, his punishment”. (Bhattacarya Haridas (ed)The Cultural History of India
(CHI)vol ,4, p, 650)
All these ideas are akin to Indian
thought. However there is one important difference between Theosophy and Hindu
philosophy. By and large the aim of Hindu philosophy seems to be ‘liberation’ which
is more or less “personal”; but the ideal of Theosophy is not personal
liberation. It`s ideal is to help bring all the mankind to liberation. This is
why it forms an organization to plan and work together dedicated to human and
divine services.
The
Brahma Samaj and the Arya Samaj along with the Theosophical Society contributed
immensely for the revival of Hindu religion and philosophy. But these movements
found themselves thrown
out of the orthodox Hindu Society, and were compelled to isolate themselves and
to make a shift for their ostracized folds. They could not identify themselves
with traditional Hinduism. It was only the life and message of Shree Ramakrishna
that worked for the revival of Hindu philosophy and religion within the traditional
Hindu fold and thus the awakening received a fresh lease of life.
RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHANS
(1836-1886)
He was an illiterate priest in the temple of
Goddess Kali in Dakshineshwar, near Calcutta. He was a person with delicate
physique and a rustic simplicity. But had a ‘great hunger’ to see God face to
face. He used to have strange visions and ecstatic fits and used to forget
during such periods the very existence of his body. He was initiated into the
Tantric, Vaishnava and Vedantic methods of spiritual disciplines and attained by
each the desired goal to approach God. Immediately after practicing all the
types of Hindu Sadhanas, Ramakrishna felt the urge of exploring the alien paths
of Islam and Christianity and there also he met with equal success. His tireless
journey to the various roads of different religions convinced him of the fact that
all the paths lead to the same goal of Divinity, that religion could not be sectarian
and communal, it was essentially universal.
Ramakrishna refused to remain in
‘nirvikalpa samadhi’ forever and preferred to stay ‘on the threshold of
relative consciousness for the love of humanity’ because for him the Absolute and
the relative were equally divine. Ramakrishna realized that after one has
perceived one s identity with the Absolute and come back to the so-called world
of appearance (Maya), the relative world appears altogether in a new role. The
transcendental appeared to be immanent in the realm of relative existence. It
was this aspect of appearance that Ramakrishna designated as ‘vidya-maya’ as
against ‘avidya-maya’.
It was Ramkrishna s firm belief that the Jiva
, the individual soul, was no other than shiva, the universal soul, that every
creature was God Himself in a particular garb of name and form; the
relationship of the truth made nonsense all talk of mercy. “how audacious it is to think of showering mercy on jiva who is none other than shiva.
One has to regard the creature as God Himself and proceed to serve it with a
devout heart, instead of taking up the pose of doling out mercy.” (CHI,4,p,681)
It was a saying of unparalleled
significance. It furnished the rationale behind the concept of equality and
fraternity and provided the basis for the divine worship through the service of
suffering humanity. It was however left to Vivekananda to make all this clear to
the world.
SWAMI
VIVEKANAND
Swami Vivekanand
(1864-1904) the great disciple of Ramakrishna came to his Master with an
agnostic mind full of rationalistic doubts about the existence of God,and asked
the saint directly and tersely whether he had seen God. And for the first time
Vivekanand found a man who dared to say that he had seen God and the questioner
could not but believe that the answer was sincere and from the depth of the
heart. Vivekanand s analytical mind got a rude shock but he gradually realized the
truth in his master and incidentally surrendered himself completely to him. After
the death of Ramakrishna, Vivekanand made an extensive tour in the northern
part of India; and in Almora under a tree; and he for himself realized the
identity of Jiva and Shiva which was imparted to him by his Master; and he made
the following note in his diary.
“The microcosm and the macrocosm are built
on the same plan. Just as the individual soul is encaged in the living body so
is the universal soul in the living Prakriti, the objective universe. Siva is
embracing Siva. This is not a fancy. This covering of the one (soul) by the
other (nature) is analogous to the relation between an idea and the word
expressing it. They are one and the same, and it is only by the mental
abstraction that one can distinguish them.”(CHI,vol 4,pp.702-703)
Vivekanand after the realization decided to
travel to the south and visit the holy temple of Kanya Kumari. Accordingly he
reached there and paid his homage to the goddess at Cape Comarin. During the
travel from the Himalaya to the Cape Comorin, he was enriched by his direct
experience of suffering and misery of the downtrodden masses because of social
iniquity, which set his whole being in fire. The nation appeared to him to be a
sleeping leviathan, which needed a sort of spiritual awakening. And he set
himself forth to that mission.
Vivekananda spent more than three years of
the best part of his life in America and Europe and there he made a great
impression by his towering personality, vast scholarship great command over
English and Sanskrit, brilliant repartee and wit, patriotic fervor and radiant
spirituality. He completed his famous treatise Raj Yoga and on his return to
India laid foundation of the Ramakrishna Mission.
Vivekanand believed that each soul was
potentially divine and the goal was to maintain the divinity within by controlling
nature, external and internal. That could be done through any type of religious
discipline, for the difference between religions of the world was one of expression
and not of substance. Vivekanand introduced the novel method of divine worship through
the service of suffering humanity. His first hand knowledge of poverty and
misery, injustice and social inequity was transferred into an intense sympathy
for the poor and the downtrodden. The feeling was strengthened by the teachings
of his Master and he proclaimed to the world his faith in the divinity in
humanity.
“The only God in whom I believe is the sum
total of all souls and above all, I believe in my God the wicked, my God the
miserable, my God the poor of all races.(CHI,p., 699.) Vivekanand, thus, combined the twin ideals of
individual salvation and universal well-being – “atmano mokshartham jagaddhitya
ca,”
From Rammohan to Vivekanand we find thus a
picture of renaissance of Indian culture in the philosophical sphere. It was
the time of the revival of old scriptures – the Vedas and the Upanishads – and
the reestablishment of the non-dual Vedantic philosophy (with the single
exception of Dayanand who believed in three fundamental realities of God, Soul
and Nature). Philosophy was not regarded to be something of academic interest
only but was wedded with practical life. The importance of the world of
appearance, Maya, was ascertained and the ideal of the individual salvation was
combined with social welfare. To a great extent a sort of harmony between the eastern
thought and Indian ideas was achieved, baring
Dayanands complete boycott of the
western way of life which created a sort of tolerance towards alien religions
and catholicity in Hinduism. All these tendencies – believe in the unity of
Godhead and oneness of humanity. The importance of the so-called world of
appearance, the concern for the poor and the downtrodden, God realization
through the service of suffering humanity –Dridranarayan, the combination of
the theoretical and the practical, of the individual salvation with the social
welfare, of the western thought and Indian ideas, and toleration towards other
religions, all converged together in the guiding ideas of Gandhi who was born
in the setting of resurgent India of the latter half of the nineteenth century.
HINDU SCRIPTURES - THE
BHAGAVADGITA
The nineteenth century Indian renaissance
gave a new lease of life to hindu scriptures. The interest of Hindu scholars
and reformers was immensely aroused in the Vedas and the Upanishads. Though
Gandhi regarded the Gita, the Upanishads and the Patanjal Yoga Sutra equally to
be “the acme’ of Hindu philosophy, he had marked ‘partiality for the Gita. As a
matter of fact he had based his highest and clearest teachings as well as the
conduct of his entire life upon this single scripture of Hindu thought which was
for him “the way to the scriptures of the world’. He turned the message of the
Gita into his life and called the Gita ,”my Kamadhenu , my guide, my open
sesame”. He regarded it ‘the universal mother whose door is wide open to anyone
who knocks.’ He found a solace in the Bhagavadgita that he missed even in the
Sermon on the Mount of the Bible. Just as one turns to a dictionary for the
meaning of words, Gandhi turned to the Gita for a ready solution of his troubles
and trials. That was why he characterized it as ‘a dictionary of daily reference’,
‘an infallible guide of conduct’ and a ‘spiritual reference book.’
Gandhi s first acquaintance with the Gita
began in 1888-89 with Edwin Arnold s translation, The Song Celestial when
Gandhi was a la student in London. Subsequently Gandhi read the Gita in
original and also as many translations of it as he could lay hold of. He read
the commentaries of the scripture by Shankar , Jnaneshwar, Tilak and Aurobindo.
During the last term in jail Gandhi worked on the Gita and translated it into
Gujarati with comments and an introduction under the heading, Anasaktiyoga.
Gandhi sums up the socio-ethical philosophy
of the Gita in one word, anasaktiyoga, the way of non attachment. Gandhi most
probably coined this word. But the most original and the most revolutionary
thing that Gandhi has done about the Gita is to deduce non-violence from it. Gandhi
puts an allegorical interpretation in the Gita whereby Gita ceases to be a
historical discourse and a dispute between cousins. the Kurukshetra is
transformed into the human breast where the conflict between the good and the evil
perpetually goes on. It is interesting to note that a scholar and an academic
philosopher like Dr. Radhakrishnan accepts Gandhi s interpretation of the Gita.
The novel interpretation apart, the influence of the teachings of the Gita on
Gandhi right from the formative years to end of of his life, cannot be underrated.
THE UPANISHADS AND THE
ISHOPANISHAD
Gandhi read Max Muller s translation of the
Upanishads for the first time some-where in 1894 -1896 in South Africa. But he
had very little time to devote to the study of scriptures because of his
engrossment in public life. He was arrested many times and was sent to jail.
Each time Gandhi returned from jail, he was richer in his scholarship. It was
in early 1920s in Yaravada Jail he read about 150 books on religion and
literature. Recitation of some of the verses of the Upanishads was part of
Gandhi s daily prayers. These verses are mainly from the Isha, the Katha, the
Mundaka, the Taittriya, the Chhandogya and the Brahadaranyaka Upanishads. All
this reveals the great impact of the Upanishads 0n Gandhi s mind
Besides other Upanishads he also read
Ishopanishad and learnt it by heart. The Ishopanishad remained Gandhi s favorite
throughout his life. He was very fond of quoting its first verse. He was so
impressed by it that he said, ‘’if only the first verse of the Ishopanishad
were left intact in the memory of Hindus, Hinduism would live forever. The
Ishopanishad does not exclusively preach a life of contemplation but also gives
due consideration to a life of action. It says, ‘’a man should wish to live a
hundred years only in the constant performance of action; it is thus that he
can hope not to be contaminated by action.’’ In this regard this Upanishad
anticipates the teaching of the Bhagavadgita. Gandhi regards the Gita almost a
commentary on the Ishopanishad.
According to Gandhi the opening verse of
the Upanishad,
ईशा
वास्यमिदम सर्वम यत्किंच जगत्यां जगत
तेन त्यक्तेन भुंजीथा माँ गृध: कस्य
स्विद धनं –,
gives the following teachings. (1) All this that we see in
this great universe is pervaded in God. (2) Renounce it and enjoy it (3) enjoy
what He gives you and (4) don’t covet anybody s wealth or possession.
We are thus called to withdraw from the world s activities not in body but in mind.
We have to renounce the sense of attachment.
PATANJAL YOGA-SUTRA
It was under
the influence of some of the theosophist friends that Gandhi for the first time
in 1903 in Johannesburg, South Africa, began reading Patanjal Yoga-Sutra. He, besides,
also read two more books on Patanjala Yoga. (1) Vivekanand’s Raja-Yoga and (2) M.N. Dwivedi’s Raja Yoga. All this study and
the reading of the Yoga Philosophy naturally had a great impact on Gandhi s
mind. In spite of the metaphysical differences with the Yoga (God in Gandhi s
mind is the supreme and Ultimate Reality , but in the Yoga philosophy God does
not enjoy this Supreme position) the psycho-ethical discipline of the Yoga
forms the foundation of Gandhi s practical philosophy. Gandhi accepts yama and
niyama of the Yoga system without reservation. They form the integral part of
Gandhi s system of eleven vows. Non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy
and non-possession, the five cardinal vows prescribed by Patanjali are taken by
Gandhi, adding six more vows to them Thus, considering the requirement of the age the
five were expanded into eleven vows in Gandhi s system of discipline.
It may however
be noted that in Patanjali’s list ahimsa comes first and therefore ranks
highest. Gandhi does not minimize the importance of ahimsa. The connotation of this
concept in fact is much more widened in Gandhi s philosophy. But Gandhi in
accordance with his metaphysical convictions prefers to giv highest position to
Truth (satya). Nevertheless, referring to the five cardinal vows of Patanjali,
Gandhi says, “it is not possible to isolate any of these and practice”. In
Gandhi s philosophy we, thus, find a minor shift of emphasis from ahimsa to
satya without the slightest injury to the former.
HETERODOX SYSTEMS (1) JAINISM
AND RAJCHANDRA
Gandhi, though a Yaishnava,
grew up in the midst of jain tradition. Jain monks used to pay visits to his
father and talk with him over worldly as well as religious subjects, and even
used to go out of their way to accept food from the non-Jain Vaishnava family.
When Gandhi s father died, his mother took advice on family matters from a Jain
monk, Becharji Swami. It was this very monk whoon the eve of Gandhi s departure
to England for studies administered an oath to him not to touch wine, woman and
meat. It is therefore not be surprising to discover Jain influence on Gandhi s
ideas also.
Rajachandra, a
Jain reformer and a religious poet was Gandhiji s acknowledged source of
inspiration. He was a contemporary of Gandhi and has a large share in shaping
Gandhi s life and thought. He was Gandhi s “guide, friend and philosopher”.
Gandhi has devoted one complete chapter in his Autobiography, unreservedly expressing
his indebtedness to Rajchandra.
Rajchandra s
influence upon Gandhi was not strictly a jain influence. Gandhi was primarily
attracted towards Rajachandra’s noble character and ideas rather than towards
his Jain philosophy. Nevertheless Rajchandra was to be regarded essentially a
jain philosopher who practiced the Jain mode of life.
Rajchandra
Ravjibhai Mehta was born in a small village, Vavariya in Morvi State of
Kathiawar. His grandfather was a devotee of Lord Krishna, his father was a
Vaishnava and his mother was a Jain. He himself was first attracted towards Vaishnavism
and his grandfather s religious ideas influenced him a great deal but later on
his inclination was more and more towards Jainism. Though Ramchandra had no
proper schooling, he studied the Vedanta and the Gita. Besides, he used to read
all the Jain books that he was able to secure. He also read the translation of the
Quran and the Zend Avesta and other religious books. He used to compose
religious verses and was the author of several religious books, Mokshamala,
being the best known.
Gandhi was
‘greatly attracted’ to Rajchandra and loved him too. At one place Gandhi
compares Rajchandra with Tolstoy and puts him the former much higher in
religious perception. In moments of spiritual crisis Rajchandra was Gandhi’s refuge.
Rajchandra s living contact and inspiring correspondence was of great value to
Gandhi in formation and development of his ideas.
As a Jain thinker
Rajchandra naturally had a bias for the Jain religion but he had no disrespect for
other religions. He had a partiality for the Vedanta so much so that many
Vedantins regarded him a Vedantin only. As a matter of fact he perceived only
the good of all religions. “All the different religions of the world” said
Ramachandra, “are merely different point of view. At their root there is only
one fundamental and that is the Law of Self (Atmadharma). Gandhi also, like
Rajachandra, believed in the principle of Sarvadharmasamanatva, equality of all
religions.
Rajchandra was
married and had children but conjugal life did not absorb all his energies. He
wanted to make her wife a comrade in his religious pursuits. In respect to his
wife Gandhi s attitude towards her (Kastuurba) was predominantly influenced by Ramchandra
s ideas. Both of them wanted their wives to have disinterested devotion rather
than selfish love towards their own husbands. They also realized that
faithfulness does not consist in making one’s wife an instrument of lust. Real
devotion consists in faithfulness without sex interest
Gandhi, like
Ramachandra, and probably under his influence, combined the religious and the
practical. Gandhi s ceaseless effort was “to introduce religion in politics”
and not to keep the two separate. We cannot divide economic, political and
purely religious work into watertight compartments. The life is one indivisible
whole.
HETERODOX SYSTEMS (2) BUDDHISM
Gandhi was introduced
to Buddhism through Edwin Arnold s Light of Asia which he read for the first
time somewhere in 1889-90 when he was a student in London. It is doubtful whether
he read any other book on or about Buddhism afterwards. But strangely, the impact
of Buddhism on Gandhi’s life and work was so great that he was sometimes
accused of being a follower of the Buddha and of spreading Buddhistic teaching under
the guise of Sanatana Hinduism. As a matter of fact Gandhi regarded Buddhism as
only a reformed form of Hinduism. For him Buddhism is to Hinduism what
Protestantism is to Roman Catholicism, only in much stronger light and greater
degree. Gandhi ji characterized Buddha’ a Hindu of Hindus, was saturated with
the best that was in Hinduism. It was this Hindu attitude towards Buddhism that
brought Gandhi nearer Buddhism.
Both Gandhi and
Buddha are predominantly practical geniuses and are on the whole disinterested
in speculative philosophy. Buddha has a marked anti-metaphysical attitude. For him metaphysical question are not
“calculated to profit”. He excluded every discussion which was of no use from
the point of view of suffering and its cessation. Gandhi, no doubt, held some
metaphysical beliefs concerning God and Truth and he expressed them whenever it
was necessary, but he also like the Buddha never entered into vain discussions.
Gandhi was once discussing atheism with Gora, and asked his atheist friend, now
you tell me, what is the use of atheism? Gora could understand that the
question had something remarkably human and practical about it; that Gandhi appreciated a principle far more for its efficacy than academic or intellectual
considerations.
Furthermore, both
Gandhi and the Buddha are thorough-going protestants. The Buddha protested
against Hindu priesthood, animal sacrifices, caste-system and untouchability. Similarly Gandhi s mission of life was to
work against injustice and wrong in a non violent war.
The idea of
“turning the other cheek’’ in one s personal relations is frequently to be
found in Buddhist literature Gandhi converted this idea into an effective technique
of overcoming injustice in social relations also, and called it Satyagraha.
To sum up , the philosophies of both, the
Buddha and the Mahatma, are by and large non-speculative, practical,
problem-oriented and of a protestant character. Both have laid great emphasis
on compassion and ahimsa and believe in overcoming evil by eternal law of love.
In this sense the development of Gandhi s thought is in continuation with that
of the Buddha
ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY
Islam
Gandhi came into contact with Islam quite
early in his life. His father had friends professing different religions .He had also some muslim friends
who would talk to him about their faith. Gandhi's father used to listen to them
with respect and interest. Gandhi as a child of ten chanced to be present at
these talks.
While
in England, a friend recommended to Gandhi to read Carlyle’s <Hero and Hero-worship>.
Gandhi read the chapter on the Hero as a prophet and learnt about Mohammed’s greatness
and bravery and his austere living.
It was in South
Africa, that Gandhi had closer contacts with Muslim friends who created a good
deal of interest in him for their religion. Abdulla Sheth, Gandhi s client in South
Africa was proud of Islam and loved to discourse on Islamic philosophy. Although
he did not know Arabic his acquaintance with the Holy Koran and Islamic
Literature in general was fairly good. Contact with him gave Gandhi a fair amount
of practical knowledge of Islam. He had with him long discussions on religious topics.
In Pretoria
Gandhi purchased Sale s translation of Koran and began reading it. He also
obtained some other books on Islam. In Durban Gandhi read Washington Irving’s ‘Life
of Mohammed and His Successor’ and Carlyle’s panegyric on the Prophet. These
books raised Muhammad in his estimation
Referring to
Islam, Gandhi mentioned its two distinctive contributions – its unadulterated
belief in the oneness of God and the practical application of the truth of
brotherhood of man. Gandhi also followed the example set by the Prophet of
Islam., in not separating the political from the spiritual.
Christianity
It was in June 1889,
when Gandhi was a student in London that he was first introduced to Christian
Literature by his roommate, a vegetarian Bible salesman, one Dr. Oldfield. Dr.
Oldfield gave Gandhi a few Christian Scriptures, but all of them could not
interest him. For example, Gandhi could not possibly read through the Old
Testament. The Book of Genesis bored him and he disliked reading the Book of
Numbers. But the New Testament produced different impression, particularly the Sermon
of the Mount which went straight to his heart. He compared it with the Gita and
found similarities between the two as far as their teaching on renunciation goes.
Gandhi was never
impressed by all that goes under the name of Christianity in faith as well as
in practice. He had fundamental difficulties with regard to the appearance of
Christianity in the world and the formulations of Christian beliefs. In the
beginning he developed even a sort of dislike for the Christianity because of
Christian missionaries’ practice of abusing the Hindus and their gods, which he
could not endure as a devout Hindu. Moreover, he hated the conversion of Hindus
to Christianity. While he was in South Africa, he was offered allurements many
a times for such conversion but remained unaffected mainly on account of, if
not because of, the fact that the Bible could not answer to his convictions. His
Christian contacts, both pleasant as well as unpleasant affected a ‘religious
ferment’ in him and whetted his appetite for knowledge which became almost insatiable.
WETERN INFUENCES
In the formation
and development of his basic ideas Gandhi is very much influenced by the Indian
Thought but “it should not be forgotten that this Asiatic believer has
translated Ruskin and Plato and quotes Thoreau, admires Mazzini, reads Edward
Carpenter and that he is in short familiar with the best that Europe and
America have produced.’’(Rolland,Romain). Gandhi himself admits, “I have but
endeavored humbly to follow Tolstoy, Ruskin, Thoreau, Emerson and other
writers besides the masters of Indian Philosophy.”(quotes Tendulkar
Tolstoy
Gandhi is sometimes characterized as a
disciple of Tolstoy; and he acknowledges it at least in part and says, Tolstoy
has been one of my teachers for a number of years. Gandhi not only read Tolstoy’s
important writings and works, he also had inspiring correspondence with him which
continued till the latter’s death. Tolstoy, Count Leo Nikolayevitch (1828-1910)
was the most distinguished personality in modern Russian literature and
thought. He was born in an aristocratic family, but was greatly moved by the
trials and sufferings of the poor and the ordinary people. Gradually he became
a persistent advocate of progressive ideas. A firm believer in the dignity of
manual labor and minimum needs, he abandoned high society and what he called
“intolerable luxury” at the age of 57 and adopted a simple life. Tolstoy
refused the Nobel prize because he did not accept money. Tolstoy was a great
critic of European civilization and a passionate admirer of Indian thought. Tolstoy
s family life was very unhappy. After fleeing away from his unsympathetic wife,
Tolstoy died a very unhappy man.
It was this very
unhappy but venerable old man on the brink of his death who was writing to a
young man of 35, Gandhi, in 1909 -1910. Tolstoy published his essays The
Kingdom of God is Within You, and Christianity and Patriotism in 1893-1894
which created a profound impression on Gandhi. Gandhi was overwhelmed by these
essays and appreciated their “independent thinking, profound morality and the
truthfulness.” Gandhi read Tolstoy s other books also and they too made a deep
impression on him.
Tolstoy and Gandhi
offer many striking parallels and similarities bordering almost a family
likeness. As a matter of fact both of them quench their thirst for knowledge at
the common fountain heads. Tolstoy mentions Confucius, the Buddha, Moses,
Socrates and Mohammad, and quotes Vedas, Upanishads and the Gita. Gandhi also
carefully studied Gita and the Upanishads, Islam and Theosophy. Tolstoy
remained a Christian and Gandhi a Hindu but both of them were more than a
Christian and a Hindu. They understood the essence and common basis of Religion
itself. They were not speculative philosophers, but were teachers of humanity.
They lived what they preached attempted to live to the ideals which they
cherished.
In the formation
and development of his concept of Ahimsa, Gandhi owes a great deal to Tolstoy. The
reading of the book, ‘The Kingdom of God is Within You’ made Gandhi a firm
believer in ahimsa. He realized the infinite possibilities of universal love.
Tolstoy was of
the opinion that Christ s Sermon on the Mount should be taken as a guide to the
relations of man in society. Gandhi caught hold of this idea and developed a
conception of non-violence as a social force. Gandhi respected Tolstoy s
concept of ahimsa as a social force.
He also regarded
Tolstoy as the most truthful man of his times who could sacrifice anything for
the sake of his ideas and ideals. When he realized the truth of simplicity, he renounced
the luxury and comfort of a rich aristocratic family to which he belonged. Tolstoy
s life as Gandhi perceived it was a constant endeavor to seek the truth and to
practice it as he found it. With him to believe was to act.
A third point.
What Gandhi greatly appreciated about Tolstoy was his doctrine of “bread
labor”. Gandhi got this idea, which he took to be a divine law, from his
readings of Tolstoy s writings on bread labor. Everyone was bound to labor
with his body for bread and the misery in the world was due to the fact that
men failed to discharge their duties in this respect.
Ruskin
Gandhi had
more or less a philosophical influence of Tolstoy in his thoughts, but Ruskin
was the person who helped in giving shape to Gandhi s social and economic ideas.
Ruskin, John (1819-1900),
English essayist and social theorist, was born in London. Son of a wealthy win
merchant, he inherited a large fortune which he used up entirely in helping
others and in pursuing his social and economic experiments. Ruskin considered
the aim of art to serve moral, social as well as aesthetic ends. He had a
sincere desire to promote the well-being of the people. He was committed to the
doctrine that economics must be conceived in terms of human welfare.
Gandhi s first
acquaintance with Ruskin 's writings dates from 1894. While on a railway journey
from Johannesburg to Durban Gandhi s British associate in South Africa, Henry
Polak, gave to him Ruskin’s UNTO THIS LAST to read. For Gandhi it was
impossible to lay aside the book once he had begun it. It gripped him. It
brought about ‘’an instantaneous and practical transformation’’ in Gandhi’s
life. Gandhi wrote a paraphrase of the book entitled Sarvodaya.
Gandhi discovered some of the deepest
convictions reflected in this great book. It aims at moralizing politics and
economics. Generally speaking, politics in the West was bereft of morality. But
Gandhi found in Ruskin a wise man of the west who contended that men could be
happy only if they obeyed the moral law and are just and righteous
After going through the book Gandhi also was
convinced that the good of the individual is contained in the good of the all.
And he also realized that the basic idea of the good of all also implies that a
lawyer s work has the same value as the barber s inasmuch as all have the same
right of earning; and it also means that a life of a labor, i.e. the life of a
tiller of the soil and the handi-craftsman is a life worth living.
Thoreau
The great philosopher
and a man letters, Thoreau, is an acknowledged source of inspiration to Gandhi.
Henry David Thoreau, the American poet, essayist, naturalist, social critic and
thinker, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1817. Son of a lead pencil
manufacturer, he was educated in Harvard where nobody thought him to be a
brilliant student. Thoreau was early dedicated to woods and lakes. With his own
hands he built a hut at Weldon Pond outside Concord and dwelt there alone. This
was no escapism. He was rather trying to live his philosophy. He was proving
his courage and inner strength to be free in isolation.
Thoreau was a
rebel and never submitted to any wrong which he condemned. He refused to pay toll
tax to a state that tolerated slavery, courted imprisonment. A friend paid the
tax for him and Thoreau came out of the jail. But the experience evoked his
most provoking political essay, ‘Civil Dis- obedience.’ Thoreau died of tuberculosis
at the age of 45.
Several parallels
can be observed between the lives of Gandhi and Thoreau. As students both of
them were not brilliant. Out of their conviction in the dignity manual labor
and the simplicity of life, both
attempted to run self supporting farms - Thoreau at Weldon and Gandhi at Phoenix
in South Africa. Thoreau and Gandhi,
both were vegetarian, teetotaler, and non smoker. Both took great pleasure in
long walks. Both believed that life should be reduced to bare essentials and
the inessential be sacrifices for the essential. And finally, both were great
non- co-operators with injustice that they perceived. Thoreau hated
Negro slavery and denounced exploitation in factories. Gandhi also hated Indian
slavery and exploitation of every variety.
It is often said
that Gandhi took the idea of Satyagraha from Thoreau which Gandhi however
denied. No doubt, that Gandhi s mass disobedience movement in Johannesburg was
much encouraged by the arrival of Thoreau s pamphlet, “Civil Disobedience” at a
critical moment. But as Gandhi later on himself put it, the pamphlet furnished
merely a ‘scientific confirmation’ of what he was already doing. But he took
the name of his movement from Thoreau s essay. It seems that the two great
thinkers arrived at their identical philosophies quite independently. Nobody
can claim that Thoreau s essay was the origin of Satyagraha.
Gandhi and
Thoreau, both are sometimes categorized as anarchists. It is a wrong
interpretation. As a matter of fact their only contention was that ma is not
bound to a state that legislates injustice. They were of the opinion that a
state should operate according to the highest principle s of justice. That is all.
Thoreau was a
typical American in his devotion to personal freedom but he was a great scholar
of oriental literature, drama, history and of Indian Philosophy. He read the
English translations of the best of books of Indian thought. He admired the Bhagavadgita most. He
characterized the BG as the ‘most sacred scriptures that have come down to us’.
“It deserves to be read with reverence even by the Yankees.”
The Gita gives equal emphasis to Action and
Contemplation. Though admirers both, the Gita gives different lessons to Thoreau
and Gandhi for their respective countries. According to Thoreau Action-minded Americans
may take a lesson of Contemplation from it. Gandhi however emphasizes the
Karmayoga of the Gita as a lesson for Indian audience. This difference of
emphasis was because of the different cultures in which Thoreau and Gandhi were
placed.
Emerson
The two American thinkers from whom Gandhi profited greatly were Thoreau
and Emerson. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the essayist, poet and the most famous
representative of Transcendentalist School of thought in America was born in
Boston in 1803. Emerson s thoughts were essentially Indian thoughts “differently
fashioned”, as Gandhi put it. Emerson, like Thoreau, had read the Bhagavadgita
and some of the Upanishads. And Thoreau was Emerson s friend also. Hindu
influence on Emerson s mind worked as stimuli to “make my top spin”, as he once
said jocularly. Emerson was educated at Boston and Harvard. He settled in
America and passed away in 1882.
Emerson was an
Idealist and a monist. He believed in the fundamental and transcendental unity
which underlies all the existence nature as well as man. He called this
ultimate reality by the phrase “Over Soul”. We find a complete parallelism
between Emerson s Transcendentalism and Gandhi s idealism. The reason behind it is the fact
that both of them drank deep in the Indian fountain of Advaita system of thought.
However Emerson
was too much an inactive intellectual. Thoreau, who was Emerson s friend, was
much more practical - willing to translate his beliefs in life. That was why
Thoreau rather than Emerson had greater impact on Gandhi s life and activities.
Tolstoy,
Ruskin, Thoreau and Emerson- all these four thinkers have influenced Gandhi’s
different aspects. While Tolstoy’s influence was mainly religious, Ruskin’s was
social; that of Thoreau was practical, but Emerson’s influence was academic and
philosophical.
MNOR INFUENCES
Besides the above
four thinkers, Gandhi was also influenced to some extent by the Greek
Philosopher, Socrates, the Italian patriot, Mazzini and the English author Carpenter.
They can be understood as minor influences.
Socrates
Socrates (469-399) the
distinguished Greek philosopher who devoted himself to study and began to exhort people on public
question and the conduct of life. He was charged with impiety and was found
guilty and sentenced to death. When the fatal day came he calmly drank the
poison which terminated his career.
Gandhi, in his first prison term in South
Africa read the life of Socrates. He was so much influenced by Plato s ‘Apology’,
which described the life story of Socrates,1 that he translated the book in
Gujarati. Gandhi finds in Socrates as
one of the greatest of all Satyagrahis. Gandhi was impressed of the moral earnestness
of Socrates and his practical approach towards philosophy. Socrates in Plato s
“apology” tells us of our duty as men to remain firm on Truth whatever the
consequence, and he proves himself as good as his words. This impressed Gandhi
and that was what he conveyed in his concept of Satyagraha.
Plato was a
great disciple of Socrates. He was so much impressed by Socrates that he, not
only gave written words to his oral philosophy, but
developed it also. As far as teacher taught relationship
Mazzini
Mazzini Giuseppe (1805-1875) was an Italian patriot, a
political and social thinker to boot. Gandhi read him in the second prison term
in South Africa and mentions Mazzini s name in one of his letters to his son.
It is however not exactly known as to how much Mazzini influenced Gandhi but it
is definite that Mazzini s “Young Europe” of 1834 and his “Young Italy”
inspired Gandhi to start Young India movement.
Gandhi and Mazzini both were ethical
revolutionaries and advocates of freedom of body and soul, both accepted the
principle of democracy. Both were great patriots and fought for the freedom of
their respective countries. Both were intensely religious. Their religious
psychology was all inclusive and was opposed to all forms of sectarianism. It
only respected ethics, values and spirituality. Both had a ‘living faith’ in
God. They were men of action and not armchair philosophers and touch-me-not
saints.
Carpenter
Carpenter,
Edward (1844-1929) was an English author, wrote on social subjects. He was more
concerned with a revolution in industrial, social and ethical family life rather
than with political issues. But his papers like “Towards Democracy, England s
Ideal” found many readers. His early volumes of verses were also well
recognized.
Gandhi was reading Carpenter s “Civilization
–Its cause and Cure” in 1909 and found his analysis of civilization “very Good”
His condemnation of westernized civilization though very severe but was “entirely deserved”, Gandhi thought.
Gandhi agreed to Carpenter when the latter said
that the malady of civilization “needs cure”. But it seems, Gandhi owes his own
criticism of western civilization more to Tolstoy rather than to Carpenter.
In the last
analysis we find that Tolstoy’s doctrine of non-violence, Ruskin’s concern for
the welfare of all, Thoreau’s revolt against injustice, Emerson’s idealistic
temperament, Socrates’ moral earnestness, Mazzini’s patriotism and Carpenter’s critique
of civilization – are some of the elements which were completely integrated in
Gandhi’s ‘weltanschauung” in such a manner that while imbibing these western
ideas Gandhi remained essentially a follower of Indian philosophy.
-Dr.Surendra Verma
10 HIG, 1, Circular Road, Allahabad 211001 ( Mob. 9621222778)
The end
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