Socio-political Roots and Consequences of Gandhi’s View of God and God’s Relationship with Truth
Subject Areas : Connection of philosophers’ views and philosophical schools with the social and philosophical conditions of the time
1 - دانشگاه بين¬المللي امام خميني (ره) قزوين
Keywords: God truth Gandhi ahimsā Socio-Political consequences,
Abstract :
The present paper investigates the socio-political roots and consequences of Gandhi’s view of God and God’s relationship with truth. His idea of God and truth is rooted in Vedanta School of philosophy, Vaishnavism, and his studies of Islam and Christianity. Based on Vedanta philosophy, truth is discussed at two levels of nirguna (a truth without attributes or station of essence) and saguna (a truth with attributes or the station of names and attributes). In Vaishnavism, reference is made to Vishnu, who is one of the Vedic deities, as a personal God and the preserver of the world. Because of his philosophical interest in Vedanta and his family belief in Vaishnavism, Gandhi believed in both impersonal (Vedantic) God and personal (Vishnu) God. At the beginning of developing his philosophical thoughts, for several reasons, he concluded that God is the same as the truth for he believed that one can only refer to God as the truth. In his view, truth is not an attribute of God and is, rather, the same as God. In Indian philosophical texts, the term satya is used to refer to the truth. The root of this word is /sat/ (is) meaning that God is the same as the truth and being. Later Gandhi decided that, instead of saying, “God is the truth”, he should say, “the truth is God”. In his view there is a subtle difference between these two statements. Gandhi states that the only way through which one can attain the truth is ahimsā (non-violence) and, in order to clarify this term, he refers to the concept of satyagrah (holding to the truth), which, he believes, is the technique of using ahimsā. This mainly focuses on the great influence of Gandhi’s approach to God and the truth over the quality of his socio-political campaigns against British colonists.
تفضلی، محمود (1337) مجموعهيي دربارة گاندی، پدر ملت هند، تهران: سفارت هند.
شایگان، داریوش (1356) ادیان و مکتبهای فلسفی هند، تهران: امیرکبیر.
Bose, N. K. (1947). Selections from Gandhi. Calcutta Indian Association Publishing Company.
Cush, D. (2008). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. London: Routledge.
Gandhi, M. K. (1927). An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth. Ahmadabad-India: Navajivan Publishing House.
Gandhi, M. K. (1999). What is Hinduism. New Delhi: National Book Trust.
Jone, C. A. and Ryan James D. (2007). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. New York: Facts on File.
Kulke, H. and Rothermund, D. (1994). A History of India. London: Routledge.
Lal, B. K. (1973). Contemporary Indian Philosophy. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas.
Plotkin, M. F. (No date). Resistance to the Soul: Gandhi and his Critics. www.mkgandhi.org/articles/soul.htm accessed 19 January 2013.
Radhakrishnan,S. (1983). Indian Philosophy. Vol.1. Bombay: Blackie and Son Publishers.
Raju, P.T. (1983). Structural Dept of Indian Thought. India: South Indian Publishers.
Radhakrishnan, S. and Muirhead, J.H. (2004). Contemporary Indian Philosophy.London: George Allen and Union LTD.
Sharma, Chandradhar (1983). A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas.
Walsh, E. J. (2011). A Brief History of India. New York: Facts on File.
