Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi - Essay Example

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi" Introduction Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a prominent personality on the world stage is known all over for his ideologies. He played the most imperative role in Indian independence movement. He is an inspiration for millions including the world famous leader and a major orator, Martin Luther. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is a person who is known across the world as "Mahatma Gandhi", people of India loved him immensely and call him "Bapu" (meaning- father) and honored him as "The Father of the Nation". Ideologies of Mahatma Gandhi not only influenced the people of India but his daring temperament to stick to the truth how so ever the tough situation could be and his non-violence way to protest for the rights of people shuddered Britishers to quit India and provide Independence to the nation. His way to lead a simple life and his beliefs are inspiration even in todays world and they are applicable in todays life. It is because of his greatness his birthday, 2nd October, called as Gandhi Jayanti is considered as a national holiday and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence. Mahatma Gandhi practiced strict discipline in his life and the chief motive of his life was to be truthful in every deed. Various principles that were the key features in shaping the personality of Mahatma Gandhi encompass- Truth "Truth" is the essence of Gandhis life. He was a firm believer that one must follow the path of truth how-so-ever difficult it could be, but truth keeps the self-conscious alive and prevents an individual from shame and disguise. He believed that one must practice truth in every aspect of life and should learn from own mistakes. His motive was to perform experiment with self so as to learn from personal mistakes. He honestly mentioned all the mistakes he committed in his autobiography called "The Story of My Experiments with Truth". Being truthful to oneself, in deeds and pursuits keeps the conscious clear and eliminates the feelings of fear and diffidence. According to Gandhi, "Truth is God" and to reach the truth, practice truth and one can reach the God. Therefore Gandhis philosophy for God is "Truth". He practiced truth in his life, as was depicted in his movements which he called "Satyagrah". In this movement the motive was to eradicate the hostility and enmity without causing any injury to the enemy. Therefore Satyagrah is considered a driving force or in terms of Martin Luther King Jr. as a soul force. According to Gandhi, if an individual is empowered with high morals and strong will power then no physical power could challenge the individual because truth has the power and truth is beyond the boundaries of cast or creed, age, gender and alliance. His belief on truth and patience was of paramount significance. Civil disobedience and non-cooperation movements were the part of his fight for truth. The philosophy behind Satyagraha is on the foundation of suffering. Continued existence of suffering empowers tolerance and further strengthens the determination of bringing an end to injustice. The prevailing injustice in the society hampers the moral upliftment. Being truthful is the method by which an opponent could be conquered. Nonviolence Another weapon of Mahatma Gandhi was non-violence which he called "ahimsa". According to the various religious beliefs, non-violence finds its significance in every aspect of religious preaching. Gandhi was the firm believer for the philosophy "live and let live". he never believed in revengeful approach. If one is revengeful in deeds and kill or harm an individual it is not the path of truth and that individual has committed a punishable offense. Truth and non-violence leads to the path that directly goes to God, a consent and preaching of every. In the present scenario one may find it difficult to follow but philosophically it is true and if practiced one can easily conquer the heart of enemy or the wrongdoer. War brings agony, loss, hatred, distrust on system and others, sufferings to those who lost their dear ones, a void that is irreparable. Violence, terrorism, germinates the seeds of disgust and could not do any good but by practicing non-violence not only a respect in the enemys heart is generated but also it inculcates a feeling of constructive and encouraging predisposition. Today a non-violent person at the battlefield could have to pay through the life but if the dictators of the war could understand the depth of non-violence lives could be saved, sufferings could be prevented and monetary loss could be set aside. Practicing non-violence enhances ones self-worth and germinates respect in the minds of opponents. According to Gandhi, violence is against humanity and if war is to save humanity it is futile as war brings anguish and disguise for humanity in all terms. Therefore Gandhis non-violence demands incredible faith and courage and everyone could not have that temperament so it is tough to follow. The philosophy behind this practice is if one follows the path of non-violence then it should not be correlated as an act of cowardice rather it should be considered as a step towards humanity. Vegetarianism As Mahatma Gandhi was a firm believer of non-violence he was a strict vegetarian. According to Gandhi, vegetarian diet is sufficient enough to fulfill the needs of human body, moreover it saves the individual form the financial burden. Killing animals for pleasure should not be the philosophy as they also have right to survive on this planet. It is inhumane to kill animals for commercial purpose and it is the most selfish approach. According to Gandhi, human body requires what one wants to feed it with. There is no limit how much one can eat, the bodys demand changes as per the discipline one practices with it. Equality According to Gandhis philosophy, all individuals must be treated equal, there is no discrimination between caste and creed, rich or poor, as every individual has same body parts. Discrimination in the society divides the society and creates walls instead of bridges. The untouchable individuals (the one who does the job of cleaning toilets) should also be considered as equal as without his job no one could enjoy clean, neat and healthy environment. Sweeper and cleaners are the most important constituents of human society, disregarding them for any reason is disregarding humanity. Brahmacharya Incidence of his fathers death, influenced Gandhi to practice the philosophy of Brahmacharya, an act of celibacy at the age of 36. His philosophy behind this was to learn to love relative to lust. According to Gandhi, one should have control on senses and deeds as well as words could be controlled automatically through strong will power. Simplicity Gandhi was a firm believer of simplicity. His ideology was to lead a simple life keeping the poorest person in consideration. According to Gandhi, if affluent individuals could support the poor with one set of dress then poverty could be eradicated from the nation and every individual will have an appropriate clothing. He accepted to be dressed as the most poor individual in the nation, wore clothes weaved by himself and also encouraged others do the same. The philosophy behind this encouragement was to be self-reliant and to cut-down unnecessary expenses. This ideology paved the way for "Swadeshi movement" where he wanted the entire nation to be self-contained and autonomous so as to eradicate the prevailing unemployment. Faith Gandhi was a firm believer of God, he was highly inspired by the ideologies mentioned in "Bhagwad Gita". According to Gandhi, the foundation of every religion is love, truth and non-violence. He had faith on every religion as every religion leads to the path of truth. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi emerged as the most successful leader of the present epoch. His philosophy of life is close to humanity and love for nature and inhabitants of the planet. His thoughts touched hearts of millions including the most famous and successful leaders of the present epoch. He himself was a performer and believed that one has to take the initiative to march ahead in the life, path will automatically be formed. His "Dandhi march" is famous for getting salt. He practiced what he preached and set an example in front of the entire world that with morals, truth, non-violence and strong will power even the dynasties could be conquered and without arms and ammunitions every battle could be conquered. Through this approach he paved the way for Indias independence. 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