“I hold that it is the duty of every cultured man or woman
to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect
others' religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of
the world's religion is a sacred duty.. I regard my study and reverence for
Bible, the Koran and the other scriptures to be wholly consistent with my claim
to be a staunch sanatani Hindu.. My respectful study of other religions has not
abated my reverence for and my faith in the Hindu scriptures. They have
broadened my view of life. They have enabled me to understand more clearly many
an obscure passage in the Hindu scriptures.”
- Gandhiji in Young India
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Gandhiana-44:
In
January, 1935, Dr. S.Radhakrishnan places three questions before Gandhi:
1.
What is your religion?
2.
How are you led to it?
3.
What is its bearing on social life?
The
answers to these constitutes the essence of Gandhi's understanding of religion.
“My
religion is Hinduism which, for me, is religion of humanity and includes the
best of all the religions known to me...I am being led to my religion through
Truth and Non-violence, i.e. Love in the broadest sense. I often describe my
religion as the religion of Truth, of late, instead of saying God is Truth, I
have been saying Truth is God, in order more fully to define my religion..
Nowadays nothing so completely describes my God as Truth..Denial of Truth we
have not known. The most ignorant among mankind have some truth in them. We are
all sparks of Truth. The sum total of this spark is indescribable, as yet
unkown Truth, which is God. I am being daily led nearer to it by constant
prayer...To be true to such religion one has to lose oneself in continuous and
continuing service of all life. Realisation of Truth is impossible without a
complete merging of oneself in and identification with this limitless ocean of
life. Hence, for me there is no escape from social service; there is no
happiness on earth beyond or apart from it..Social service here must be taken
to include every department of life. In this scheme, there is nothing low,
nothing high. For, all is one, though we seem to be many.”
Grateful
thanks to “Gandhi, Religion and Multiculturalism : An Appraisal” by Siby K.
Joseph
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