Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
184Well, all my philosophy, if it may be c alled by t hat pret ent ious na me , is
c ontained in what I have said. Y ou will not c all it ‘Gandhism’; t here is no ism about
it. And no elaborate literature or propaganda is needed about it.
2.8.3 Gandhi on the Gītā
Questioner: I am told you recite the Bhagavadgita daily?
Gandhi: Yes, we finish the entire Gīt ā reading once every week.
Questioner: But at the end of the Gīt ā Krishna rec ommends violenc e.
Gandhi: I do not think so. I am also fight ing. I should not be fight ing effec t ively if I
were fight ing violent ly. The message of the Gīt ā is to be found in the sec ond
c hapter of the Gīt ā where Krishna speaks of the balanc ed state of mind, of mental
equipoise. In nineteen verses at the close of the second chapter of the Gīt ā, Krishna
explains how this state c an be ac hieved. It c an be ac hieved, he t ells us, aft er killing
all your passions. It is not possible t o kill you brot her aft er having killed all your
passions. I should like to see that man dealing death – who has no passions, who is
indifferent to pleasure and pain, who is undisturbed by the storms that trouble
mo rt a l ma n. The whole thing is desc ribed in language of beauty that is
unsurpassed. These verses show that the fight Krishna speaks of is a spiritual fight.
Questioner: To the c ommon mind it sounds as though it was ac tual fighting.
Gandhi: You must read the whole thing dispassionately in its true c ontext. After the
first ment ion of fight ing, t here is no ment ion of fight ing at all. T he rest is a spirit ual
discourse.
Questioner: Has anybody int erpret ed it like you?
Gandhi: Yes. The fight is there, but the fight as it is going on within. The Pandavas
and Kauravas are the forc es of good and evil within. The war is the war between
Jekyll and Hyde, God and Satan, going on in the human breast. The internal
evidenc e in support of this interpretation is there in the work itself and in the
Mahabharata of whic h the Gīt ā is a minut e part. It is not history of war between
t wo families, but t he hist ory of man – the history of the spiritual struggle of man.
Questioner: Is the c entral teac hing of the Gīt ā selfless ac t ion of non-violenc e?
Gandhi: I have no doubt that it is anasakti – t he selfless ac t ion. Indeed I have
c alled my lit t le t ranslat ion of t he Gīt ā Anasaktiyoga. And anasakti transc ends
ahimsa. He who would be anasakta (selfless) has necessarily to practise non-
violence in order to attain the state of selflessness. Ahimsa is, therefore, a
nec essary prelimina ry, it is inc luded in anasakt i, it does not go beyond it.
Questioner: Then does the Gīt ā teac h himsa and ahimsa both?
Gandhi: I do not read that meaning in the Gīt ā. It is quit e likely t hat t he aut hor did
not write it to inc ulc ate ahimsa, but as a c ommentator draws innumerable
interpretations from a poetic text, even so I interpret the Gīt ā to mean that if its
central theme is anasakti, it also teaches ahimsa. Whilst we are in the flesh and
tread the solid earth, we have to practise ahimsa. In the life beyond there is no
himsa or ahimsa.