Here is your essay on the Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi:
1. Belief in God:
Like all idealists, he believed in Almighty God, the Ultimate Reality and Supreme Ruler. According to him “God is changeless, that holds all together, that creates dissolves and recreates.”
He held firm belief in God, surrendered himself to Him and got Divine revelation from Him for his daily actions.
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2. Individual as a spiritual being:
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Like all Hindu philosophers, he believed in the spiritual essence of all human beings, Like a Vedantist he says, “What though we have different bodies. We have but one soul. The rays of the sun are many through refraction, but they have the same source. All humanity is therefore, one. All are brothers.”
3. God realization as the goal of life:
Gandhiji was essentially a man of God and he firmly believed that the goal of life is to realise God. He advised all to have a living faith in a living God who is ultimate arbiter of our fate. He himself felt the presence of God. In the introduction to his ‘My Experiments With Truth’ he writes— “What I went to believe, what I have been striving for and pinning to achieve these thirty years, is self-realization, to see God face to face, I live and move and have my benign pursuit of the goal.
As the individual has divine origin, has also a divine density. His aim, therefore, is spiritual and not material. Surely he has to work out his divine in a society but his highest goal cannot be achieved through a particular social order, he has the right, may the duty, to revolt and cut a new path.”
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According to Gandhiji, though there is an intimate connection between matter and spirit, material possessions are merely a means, never an end in themselves. Upto a point they are essential, but their pursuit for more sense enjoyment etc. is slavery which results in loss of personality.
4. Truth:
According to Gandhiji, Truth is the highest goal. Truth and God are the same. Formerly Gandhiji used to say, God is truth. But later on, he asserted that ‘Truth is God.’ He says, “I have no God to serve but Truth.”He gave preference to Truth in his own words, “The denial of God we have known, the denial of Truth we have not known. ‘Truth is not merely a quality which manifests itself in word and deed; it has a divine significance.
Thus Truth is manifested both externally and internally; it is expressed through the inner voice, the call of consolence. Gandhiji believed in the practical application of the principle of Truth in our daily behaviour. He believed in the Social Truth in all our dealings with our fellowmen. He remarked, “Forme, Truth is a sovereign principle which included numerous others principles.
This Truth is only truthfulness in word but truthfulness in thought also, the Eternal Principle that is God.” For the sake of self-realization one has to combat evil and seek Truth. Truth is the same thing as reality, and this must ultimately triumph over evil and hatred.
5. Love:
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Gandhiji’s religion was – religion of love. He possessed unsatiable love for mankind. Hence, he preached that only the law of Love should guide all life. It is through love that we can attain truth. “To see the universal and all prevailing spirit of truth face to face, one must be able to love the nearest of creation as oneself. ” One must rise above hatred, fear and unity. Just as God is Truth, God is also love. This belief that God is Life, Truth, Light and Love, is, in fact, in accordance with Upanishadic philosophy. Gandhiji moved from village to village and bestowed showers to love all and sundry.
He says, “It is no exaggeration but the literal truth to say that in meeting with the peasants I was face to face with God, Love and Truth.” Like Abou-bin- Adhem, he wanted to approach the Father through the Love of his children. In fact, the whole political and social revolution that he started was prompted by his inherent love of humanity.
6. Ahimsa (Non-violence):
According to Gandhiji, evil can be conquered not by being evil, but by being good. Hate and violence can be defeated only through Love and Non-violence. Non-violence is bound to triumph because it corresponds to the invaluable moral laws of the Universe. Non-violence, Truth and Love are identical. He says, “The only certain means of knowing God are non-violence, Ahimsa and Love.
“He further explains, “Ahimsa and Truth are so interveined that it is practically impossible to disintegrate and Truth and separate them.”They are two sides of a coin, of rather smooth metallic disc, where it is not possible to say which is the adverse and which is the reverse.” Ahimsa is not a negative altitude: it is a positive attitude of tolerance, patience, preservance, self-sacrifice, and self- suffering.” “It is the law of our species, and violence is the law of the brutes. It entails power of the spirit, the power of truth and power of love. Non-violence of the spiritual quality is rooted in the power of reality, the inward creativeness of the soul.”
The dignity of man requires obedience to higher law-the strength of spirit. According to Gandhiji, non-violence is preferred to violence because of the following five reasons:
(i) Non-violence proves to be more effective than violence.
(ii) It is a triumph of the moral and spiritual principle over the physical brute force.
(iii) Love and Ahimsa are in accordance with reality and it must triumph ultimately.
(iv) Non-violence shakes the opponent’s will and destroys his morals.
(v) Non-violence purifies the spirit. A nonviolent person has to live a life of Tapasaya or austere-living.
7. Satyagraha:
The practical application of Ahimsa is Satyagraha. It is a ‘method of securing a right by personal suffering and not inflicting injury on others’. The origin of Satyagraha we find in Upanishada, and in the teachings of Buddha, Mahavira and number of other saints. Gandhiji imbibed this idea from those as also form the New Testament, Tolstoys’ The Kingdom of God is within you; and Ruskin’s ‘Upto the Last’.
The principle of Satyagraha and Ahimsa was applied by him in the field of politics, and a number of conditions favoured its growth and success. The conditions were the absence of armed force in the Indian masses, the cast restrictions non-Kshatriya Hindus, regarding the use of weapon and the Hindus doctrine of Karma.
Anyway, we know how a bloodless revolution, non-military in its character, unprecedented in the history of the world, was led by Gandhiji through the application of the principle of Ahimsa and Satyagraha. The ultimate success of this revolution, resulting in the freedom from bondage of a vast expense of population-four hundred million in number, is a positive proof about the soundness of the principle.
Perhaps, we require another Gandhiji to perpetuate this doctrine in the international field. Defences of peace can be constructed only through Satyagraha, and Non-violence alone may be the ultimate reply to international strife’s, military coups, and nuclear wars. We need to strengthen our defences only as long as the human mind is not saturated into Ahimsa.