The Religious Teachings of Gandhi - Essay Example

? The Religious Teachings of Gandhi The Religious teachings of Gandhi Introduction: This research paper shall focus onGandhi’s teachings of religion and the influence Jainism had on his life. As a young boy Gandhi was not much into religious practices but it was only after he embarked to England for his education did he started getting inspired by the ideas of Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. Later on, Gandhi remarked that all religions are equal and there is only one God through different interpretations of various religions. This research paper provides a broad based understanding of Gandhi’s views on religions and also provides an understanding on his ideas on Jainism he learned from his mother as well as ideas of Jainism as a religion in its own right. Gandhi says that God is invisible but has many names and different forms to it. This paper shall be divided into two parts. The first part shall deal with the learning Gandhi adopted while going through various diverse experiences during his time as a lawyer in India and then in South Africa. The second part of the paper shall deal with his learning of Jainism, which his mom taught him as well as the other teachings, and learning of Jainism, which the writer is going to extract and put down in a brief format in this essay. Gandhi’s Religious and Philosophical Learnings: At the outset as a young boy Gandhi was not much into religious teachings and following the concept of God. He tried to defy his family and friends by making fun of the teachings and took pride in the fact that he experimented with meat at the age of 15. However, his mother was a staunch follower of Hinduism and she kept on instilling the beliefs of Hinduism, which at a young age did not inspire him much, but later on as he grew into a man and started living on his own, the ideas came to him and he took inspiration form the teachings of his mother. (Hill, B) When Gandhi embarked to England, he started reading the Bible and the Bhagvad Gita very religiously. He became a devotee in the teachings of these holy books, and soon when he came back to India he started practicing the teachings of the holy books he had read while he was in England. Despite his youthful resistance to religion, Gandhi did resort to understanding the intellectual aspect of the religions, which he had learned from his mother, with regard to Jainism and Hinduism. He appreciated he intellectual beauty that the religions showed and displayed in their understandings. Gandhi was an honest man and refused to cheat in school even when he was told by his headmaster to do the same. Once he landed in South Africa, Gandhi took to meditation in a religious manner. He also began the movement for the NRI in South Africa who were discriminated against by the white people, and Gandhi’s religious teachings allowed him to take a strong moral stand on this issue. Gandhi started the uprising against the white people claiming that each and every man is a son/daughter to the God and that all men are equally born before God, and therefore they should not be treated unequally or be discriminated against. Gandhi often found the inspiration of God from his heroes, which he admired during his lifetime. Gandhi’s quest for the truth kept him inspired to read the religious texts deeply and wholeheartedly. He devoted a lot of his time in understanding the meaning of the Koran, Bible and the Gita, and applied the fundamentals of these books in his every day life, where morality was second to none, as well as non-violence, which he criticized the Gita for. During a visit to Rome, Gandhi was brought to tears when he looked at the Michelangelo’s panting of the Sistine chapel. An individual wh asked him the reason for his tears, he said that he believed in al forms of religions and did not restrict his beliefs to only Hinduism, as he was the man of God and believed in the ideology of God as One and all, and he was the follower of all religions. Gandhi in his teachings has practiced and preached the teachings of various religions wholeheartedly, who said God was one tree and all the religions were just its branches sprouting out from one source. The Influence of Jainism This part of the paper focuses solely on understanding the influence and the inspirational role Jainism played in shaping the life of Mahatma Gandhi. The understanding of Jainism came at an early age for Gandhi whose mother took great inspiration from the teachings of this religion. The most important aspect of the teachings of Jainism were the fact that it avoided non-vegetarian food and focused on non-violence, which became an integral weapon in Gandhi’s armory for his fight against the British empire. The philosophy of Jainism which preaches that non-violence should be the be all and end of all the practices of humans sits at the epitome of the philosophy of Gandhi. The philosophy of fasting, making deep and sentimental religious vows along with non-violence were brought to Gandhi by the ideology of Jainism. His mother imparted this to him and through that teaching he advanced the practice of fasting in such a way that it became a crucial weapon in the hands of the Indians for their freedom movement. The religion of Jainism is a very exclusive and different religion compared to others. The religion believes in divine consciousness and liberation of the soul. It says that each and every should practice and preach non-violence to the greatest extent possible, as that is the only way that the soul can achieve liberation. Jainism talks about reaching the stage of nirvana by active practice of non-violence and indulging in Godly acts towards the people closest to the individual. “Jains believe that non-injury is the highest religion. Jains aim to live in such a way that their jiva (soul) doesn't get any more karma, and so that the karma it already has is either eliminated or helped to decay. They do this by following a disciplined life path.” (Jainism) Jainism propagates the idea of the soul becoming one with the body and the mind and the body reaching super consciousness along with moving away from the daily routines of life. The practice of non-violence sits at the epitome of the ideology of Jainism, and this is the ideology, which Gandhi adopted to fight the British Empire. Not only did he challenge the might of the British Empire with the use of non-violence as a weapon, he distributed this philosophy of living into the minds of the men and women of India who had joined him in the fight against the British Empire. Gandhi lived with the five principles of Jainism, which are as follows: 1. Non-violence 2. Non-stealing 3. Truth 4. Non-Acquisition 5. Chaste Living These fundamentals describe the basis of the religion as it is. It enunciates the fact that Jainism has focused on the path of self-control more than anything else in life. Gandhi also borrowed this idea from the religion and indulges in high-level self-control right after he came back from South Africa and started his freedom struggle in India. Mahatma Gandhi therefore extracted the positives of this religion and used it at the maximum level to impart knowledge and the inspiration to defeat the might of the British Empire with the use of these principles. References Hill, B. (2002). In 8 spiritual heroes: Their search for God. Cincinnati, Ohio: St. Anthony Messenger Press. Jainism. (n.d.). BBC UK. Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://bbc.co.uk/Jainism Read More