Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
183
Extract 2: Whitfield Foy, ‘Hindu Dharma, M. K. Gandhi’ (1977) P
Bilimoria, ‘Indian ethics’ (2001)
Taken from: Man’s Religious Quest edit ed by Whit field Foy, (Croom Helm, 1977),
c hapter 2.8, pp. 142-154.
2.8.1 Gandhi on his Mission
I do not c onsider myself worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with the rac e
of prophets. I am a humble seeker after truth. I am impat ient t o realise myself, t o
attain moksha in this very existenc e. My nat ional servic e is part of my t raining for
freeing my soul from the bondage of flesh. Thus considered, my service may be
regarded as purely selfish. I have no desire for the perishable kingdom of earth. I
am striving for the Kingdom of Heaven whic h is moksha. To attain my end it is not
necessary for me to seek the shelter of a cave. I c arry one about me, if I would
know it. A cave-dweller c an build c ast les in t he air whereas a dweller in a palac e
like Janak has no c ast les t o build. The c ave-dweller who hovers round the world on
the wings of thought has no peace. A Janak though living in the midst of ‘pomp and
c irc umstanc e’ may have peac e that passeth understanding. For me the road to
salvation lies through inc essant toil in the servic e of my c ountry and therethrough
of humanity. I want t o ident ify myself wit h everyt hing t hat lives. In the language of
the Gītā I want to live at peac e with both friend and foe. Though therefore a
Musselman or a Christian or a Hindu may despise me and hate me, I want to love
him and serve him even as I would love my wife or son though they hate me. So
my patriotism is for me a stage in my journey to the land of eternal freedom and
peace. T hus it will be seen t hat for me t here are no polit ic s devoid of religion. They
subserve religion. Polit ic s bereft of religion are a deat h-trap bec ause t hey kill t he
soul.
2.8.2 Gandhi on Gandhism
There is no suc h thing as ‘Gandhis m’, and I do not want to leave any sec t after me.
I do not c laim t o have originat ed any new princ iple or doc t rine. I have simply t ried
in my own way to apply the eternal trut hs t o our daily life and problems. There is,
therefore, no question of my leaving any code like the Code of Manu. There can be
no comparison between that great lawgiver and me. The opinions I have formed
and the c onc lusions I have arrived at are not final. I ma y c h a n g e t h e m t o mo rro w. I
have nothing new to teac h the world. Truth and non-violenc e are as old as t he hills.
All I have done is t o t ry experiment s in bot h on as vast a sc ale as I c ould do. In
doing so I have sometimes erred and learnt by my errors. Life and it s problems
have thus bec ome to me so many experiments in the prac tic e of truth and non-
violenc e. By instinc t I have been truthful, but not non-violent. As a Jain muni onc e
rightly said I was not so muc h a votary of ahimsa as I was of truth, and I put the
latter in the first plac e and the former in the sec ond. For, as he put it, I was
c apable of sac rific ing non-violenc e for the sake of truth. In fac t it was in the c ourse
of my pursuit of truth that I disc overed non-violenc e. Our sc ript ures have declared
that there is no dharma (law) higher than Truth. But non-violence they say is the
highest duty. T he word dharma in my opinion has different c onnotations as used in
two aphorisms.