Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi - Essay Example

Running head: Gandhi Gandhi, the man Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (MK Gandhi) is the father of independent Indian nation. Though many people know about Gandhi the freedom fighter, only few know about the Gandhian philosophy about life. Perhaps Gandhi is the only leader who adopts the theory of non violence in acquiring freedom. This paper briefly explains Gandhi as a person explaining his life philosophy and moral theories. Introduction “Born into a modest Gujarati family, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the fifth child of Karamchand and Putliba. He was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, where his father was Dewan. As the youngest child, he was mischievous. As a youth, he was an average student who was very shy and unable to speak. He says he ran home from school to avoid befriending and talking to other students” (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) Though Gandhi was an introvert person during his childhood, he never engaged in any sort of illegal activities. Telling lies or copying others ideas were sins for him even from his childhood. Gandhi’s philosophical principles and learning theories were famous and the modern world has derived many lessons from his educational, philosophical and psychological theories. “Hunger strike was not freedom struggle thing… it was the truth of that time… but Gandhi transforms that weakness to our strength…. And result is well known” (Gandhi My Father and Gandhigiri : Gandhi My Father must be supported) Gandhi as a person in his childhood Mahadev Desai, the author of Gandhi’s autography has portrayed an incident in which Gandhi resisted the temptation from his teacher to copy the answer of one of his fellow student in order to make the school inspector impressive. In fact Gandhi was the only one in the class who wrongly spelt an English word which the teacher tried to correct and Gandhi refused. (Desai) Though Gandhi considered the teacher’s act as a non ethical one his respect towards elder ones and teachers were never diminished. He has respected the elder one even if he felt that they are culprits at times. He never bothered about the sins of the elder ones. Gandhi never tried to question the teachers or the elder ones even if he was absolutely sure about their guilt. Gandhi was not much interested in taking part in physical education at school. He thought that Physical education has nothing to do with education at that time. He hated physical activities because of his strong desire to join a service sector like nursing after the completion of his studies. This philosophy about education has changed later when Gandhi was grown up. Gandhi has later defined education as the all round drawing out of the best in child and man; body, mind and spirit. In order to derive the best out of the body the body needs physical activities which he realized later. Gandhi has formulated many of his life philosophies based on his childhood experiences. He believed that a man of truth must also be a man of care (Desai) It is not possible to establish truth through careless activities. A truthful person must take care of all his activities as much as possible. This principle was formulated because of his head master’s conviction of him as a liar when he was unable to attend a physical work out session at school. He could not attend the work out session in time because of his error in judgement about time in the absence of a watch which the headmaster never believed. (Desai) Gandhi was a coward during his childhood. He was afraid of thieves, ghosts, and serpents. He disliked darkness and always slept under light because of fear. He believed that vegetarian food habit was the cause of his fear. He thought that it is because of the non vegetarian food habits which helped the British to rule the vegetarian Indians. His love towards a free India motivated him to taste meat though it was against his religious principles. He has tasted meat for a year in order to test whether it makes any good in improving his courage. But the feeling of cheating his parents prevented him from continuing the non vegetarian food. He has valued his commitment towards parents more than his tastes and needs. Gandhi’s views about marriage “My passion was entirely centered on one woman, and I wanted it to be reciprocated. But even if there were no reciprocity, it could not be all unrelieved misery because there was active love on one side at least”. (Desai) Gandhi was a loyal husband to his wife. He was very much passionate towards her. Other beautiful women never attracted him because of his immense passion towards his wife. He has shared most of his views with his wife and he believed that it was a relaxation for him to release all the thoughts about life and surroundings going through his mind, while at school and home. Gandhi considered his wife as a perfect companion to share his views though she never understood much of it because of her illiteracy. Gandhi’s views about friendship “A reformer cannot afford to have close intimacy with him whom he seeks to reform. True friendship is an identity of souls rarely to be found in this world. Only between like natures can friendship be altogether worthy and enduring. Friends react on one another. Hence in friendship there is very little scope for reform.” (Desai) In Gandhi’s opinion, it is not possible to reform a friend. He believed that friends mean a group of people having identical thoughts and beliefs and hence there is no scope for reform. If a person tries to reform another, then the relationship between the reformer and the person he seeks to reform will be like a relationship between a teacher and a student or a priest and a believer. Gandhi and religion Though Gandhi was not believed in God in his early life, later he accepted the existence of God, but not in the conventional sense, but in another way. In his opinion truth was God. “Gandhi sought God, not orthodoxy. His daily prayers mixed traditional Hindu venerations with Buddhist chants, readings from the Koran, a Zoroastrian verse or two and the Christian hymn Lead Truth,” he preached, “are God," (MCGEARY) “But one thing took deep root in me the conviction that morality is the basis of things, and that truth is the substance of all morality. Truth became my sole objective.” (Desai) Gandhi disliked Christians because of their abusive behaviour against other religions and their Gods during his early days. In fact he has lot of criticisms against his own religion Hindu and Muslims as well. Un- touch- ability in Hindu religion was not acceptable for him. But in his later life experiences forced him to accept the existence of God and also he has developed more respect towards Christian religion after his conversations with some Christian scholars in England and South Africa. “In all my trials of a spiritual nature, as a lawyer, in conducting institutions, and in politics I can say that God saved me.” (Desai) Gandhi has redefined the word prayer. In his opinion “Prayer needs no speech. It is itself independent of any sensuous effort. I have not the slightest doubt that prayer is an unfailing means of cleaning the heart of passions. But it must be combined with the utmost humility.” (Desai) “Gandhi practiced and advocated non-violence and truth, even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organizing an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs.” (Mahatma Gandhi) His life was simple and he tried to be a self sufficient person. He has made his clothes in his ashram. “Gandhi was always considerate to his colleagues. He was careful to see that none of them was put to any difficulty or inconvenience because of their being with him. Even at the cost of his own inconvenience he would go all out to help or support them.”(Gandhi as a person) Conclusions Most of the people in the modern world know Gandhi as a freedom fighter and father of India because of the fight he conducted against the British successfully in order to make India independent. But his contributions as a person are immense to the world. His definitions of religion, God and human life are debated even now. Moreover he had strong views about friendship and marriage as well. He respected elders and teachers even when they found guilty of many things. The world as a whole respect Gandhi not because of his contributions to the Indian people alone, but his contributions to the whole world as well, through his doctrine of non- violence especially under the present world which is filled with violence and terrorism. References 1. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Retrieved on May 29, 2009 from http://www.liveindia.com/freedomfighters/MohandasKaramchandGandhi.html 2. Desai Mahadev, M. K. Gandhi, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OR The story of my experiments with truth, GANDHI BOOK CENTRE Bombay Sarvodaya Manda NAVAJIVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE AHMEDABAD, www: mkgandhi-sarvodaya.org 3. MCGEARY JOHANNA , Person of the Century Runner-Up: Mohandas Gandhi, Retrieved on May 29, 2009 from http://www.time.com/time/time100/poc/magazine/mohandas_gandhi12b.html 4. Mahatma Gandhi, Retrieved on May 29, 2009 from http://bestuff.com/stuff/mahatma-gandhi 5. Gandhi as a person, Retrieved on May 29, 2009 from http://www.indiavideo.org/text/gandhi-in-the-words-of-lord-wellington-105.php?pg=44 6. Gandhi My Father and Gandhigiri : Gandhi My Father must be supported, Retrieved on May 29, 2009 from http://www.gandhigiri.co.in/ Read More