This allowed him the freedom to discard those that he thought were outdated, espouse new ones, which he felt necessary, and to mix and match religious teachings as he felt fit. For him, practice was of utmost importance. Srinivas recounts a conversation between Gandhi and an American missionary in , where Gandhi commented,. I do not take as literally true the text that Jesus is the only begotten son of God.
God cannot be the exclusive father and I cannot ascribe exclusive divinity to Jesus. He is as divine as Krishna or Rama, Mohammad or Zarathushtra. Not only did he not view any one religion as supreme, his idea of religion as a spiritual journey allowed him to integrate the traditional with the modern, and the popular with the philosophical.
Gandhi attempts to integrate the positive elements of modernity with a liberating re-interpretation of tradition. His purna swaraj comprehensive self-rule , would harmonise rights and duties, head and heart, individual and community, faith and reason, economic development and spiritual progress, religious commitment and religious pluralism, self realisation and political action, ecological care and human need.
He brings together philosophical discourse and popular culture in enlightened renewal and social reform. Not since the time of the Buddha, some have argued, has such a synergy between the philosophic and the popular in our traditions been experienced. Thus, Gandhi integrates the Upanishads and the Tulsi Ramayan in his religious synthesis. When it comes to bridges across traditions, Gandhi brings the Gita together with the Sermon on the Mount and reads one into the other.
In fact, if he has Christianised Hinduism, he has certainly also presented us with a Hinduised Christian spirituality. It is all this and much more.
For Gandhi does not stop simply at making this statement. Over and above the fluid and dynamic viewing of religion, Gandhi considered himself as, first and foremost, a Hindu and was proud of Hinduism.
He considered Hinduism to be the most tolerant of religions, wherein the highest ideals of humanity were expressed. Srinivas notes. In the first place, he [Gandhi] considered himself a Hindu. He is the searcher of hearts. He is a personal God to those who need his personal presence. He is embodied to those who need his touch. He is the purest essence He is all things to all men.
He is in us and yet above and beyond us. Mahatma Gandhi's mission was not only to humanise religion but also to moralise it. He would reject any religious doctrine, which was in conflict with morality.
According to Gandhi religion and morality are inseparably bound up with each other. To Gandhi, "There is no religion higher than truth and Righteouness. The emphasis on morality, by Gandhi helped his ideas to acquire a universalistic outlook. Gandhi's religion was a federation of different religious creeds, theological schools and sectarian faiths that have survived in India from ancient times. People belonging to different religions would go to him for his advice and blessings on different matters.
All through his life Gandhi devoted much time and energy for the promotion of Hindu Muslim unity and also fasted for his cause on many occasions. In the wake of the partition of the country, hundreds and thousands of Hindus and Muslims were killed in Punjab, Bengal and Bihar.
Gandhi threw himself into a struggle to heal the breach between the two communities. Gandhi wanted communal harmony and peace not only between the Hindus and the Muslims but between all sections of the people who believe India to be their home, no matter to what faith they may belong. Gandhi had the good fortune to have as his colleague's people belonging to different religions. Two important examples are those C. Andrews and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. This tradition still continues in India in most of the public meetings and prayers.
Gandhi also maintained that a reverential study of the different religious tradition is necessary. He felt that it is the duty of every cultured man and woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. To respect other religion, a study of their scriptures, is a sacred duty according to Gandhi. To understand the point of view of another faith requires tolerance, sympathy, broad mindedness, humility and willingness to recognize Truth wherever it is to be found.
If we posses these qualities we can appreciate other's faith, traditions, customs, culture and way of life. The prophets and seers of different religions have brought to mankind the consciousness of the unity underlying the whole universe and a deep sense of brotherhood of man.
Gandhi therefore felt a need of the comparative study of religions to pave the way for unity and brotherhood amongst the followers of different religions.
Mahatma Gandhi was a Sanatani Hindu. His love for Hinduism was not blind love. Gandhi spoke about the lofty ideals preached by Hinduism. Hinduism, according to him is the most tolerant and liberal religion. He was deeply impressed by the ethical and spiritual outlook of Hinduism. Gandhi said, "The chief value of Hinduism lies in holding the actual belief that all life is one i.
For example he was very much against the caste system that was prevalent in Hinduism. To quote Gandhi, "My religion is Hinduism I can no more describe my feelings for Hinduism than for my wife Even so I feel about Hinduism with all its fault and limitations I know that the vice that is going on today in all the Hindu shrines My zeal never takes me to the rejection of any of the essential things in Hinduism.
Whether he is a theist or an atheist, he is a Hindu. Whether he believes in one absolute or many Gods, he is a Hindu.
Whether he believes in Vedas or not, he remains a Hindu. Gandhi was therefore liberal enough to take idol worship as a part of human nature, though he did not believe in idol worship as such. Gandhi, was, however, deadly against untouchability, the greatest plague of the Hindu society according to Gandhi, which is the duty of every true Hindu or combat.
Gandhi was also against animal sacrifice though prescribed in the Vedas as it went against his concept of non-violence. Instead he advocated the sacrifice of animality in us in the form of lust, greed, anger, hatred, ill-will etc. I believe in the Krsna of my imagination as a perfect incarnation, spotless in every sense of the word, the inspirer of the Gita, and the inspirer of the lives of millions of human beings.
But if it is proved to me Like Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore, Gandhi's religion was not confined to Temples, Churches, books, rituals and other outer forms. Thus Gandhi's concept of religion was not bound by any formalities. His God may be a personal God to those who needs his personal presence. He may be a law to those who concentrate their minds on the orderliness of the universe. He may be an embodied being to those who need his touch. No, there is only one omnipresent God.
Collected Works Would someone who called God Krishna be turned out of Pakistan? Asking himself and everyone else to learn from disappointments, he said on June 24, Had Rama been crowned a king, he would have spent his days in luxury and comfort and the world would hardly have heard of him. But the day he was to be crowned, he had to put on bark clothing and go into exile.
But Rama and Sita turned that sorrow into joy. CW To give minorities in India and Pakistan a sense of security, Gandhi spent much of August , including Independence Day, in a dilapidated Muslim home in a Hindu-majority locality in Kolkata.
But both halves of divided Punjab were in flames and Delhi itself was vulnerable. Stopping in Delhi on the way, so he imagined, to Punjab, Gandhi was asked by critics to retire to Kashi or go to the Himalayas. He replied: I laugh and tell them that the Himalayas of my penance are where there is misery to be alleviated, oppression to be relieved. There can be no rest for me so long as there is a single person in India whether man or woman, young or old, lacking the necessaries of life, by which I mean a sense of security, a life style worthy of human beings, i.
Do not allow us to rest. For him, religion was not nationality. All citizens, irrespective of their beliefs, had a right to India. Share Via. By Rajmohan Gandhi. Harijan 13 Jun In any case, each day seemed to bring its mercies. CW To give minorities in India and Pakistan a sense of security, Gandhi spent much of August , including Independence Day, in a dilapidated Muslim home in a Hindu-majority locality in Kolkata.
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