Mahatma Gandhi And Comparative Religion

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy Beyond Occidental Tradition, grade: A, Hindu University of America (Hindu University of America), course: Term Paper, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Formal gliedert sich die Arbeit in drei Teile. Zunächst werden die wichtigsten Konzepte von Gandhis Denken geklärt (Satya: Wahrheit, Ahimsa: Nicht-Gewalt, Satyagraha, etc.) Anschliessend wird der Einfluss bestimmter heiliger Schriften und bedeutender Persönlichkeiten auf Gandhis philosophisches und religiöses Denken aufgezeigt. Schliesslich wird Gandhi mit Sokrates, Aristoteles, Kant und Kirkegaard, etc. verglichen. Den Schluss bildet eine Sammlung von wichtigen Gandhi-Zitaten. Im Folgenden nur zwei: "The immediate service of human beings becomes a necessary part of the endeavour, simply because the only way to find God is to see him in his creation and be one with it. I know, that I can not find him apart form humanity." "It is possible to recognise the existence of God to a certain extent through the use of reason. There is a scheme of things in the universe, an irreversible law that governs everything. In the midst of death, life continues; in the midst of untruth, truth continues to prevail; in the midst of injustice, justice endures; in the midst of darkness, light continues to exist. Whereas everything that sourrounds me is subject to eternal change, at the same time an active living force exists that does not undergo alteration. As far as I believe, there is no encounter within the beyond, as we have it in the present. When a single droplets vanish, they participate again in the majesty of the ocean where they belong. They die seperately, to be reunited with the ocean." (Die Arbeit ist auf Englisch.)

Gandhi is widely revered as one of the great moral prophets of the twentieth century. This book focuses on a less well-known area of his interest: his engagement with Jesus and Christianity. As a faithful Hindu, he was unwilling to accept Christian dogma, but in Jesus he recognized and revered one of history's great prophets of nonviolence.

This book explores the spiritual transformation of Mohandas Gandhi to the Mahatma. Beginning with his childhood and his desire to search for the Truth from an early age, it explores the influence of western thought on the young lawyer, leading to an inner conflict that drew him to the study of comparative religion. Gandhi came to believe in the equality of all religions and the principles of Truth and non-violence which he applied to every aspect of life, including politics. In his later years he found focus and direction, understanding the importance of prayer and discipline. As the Mahatma, his life exemplified spiritual practice and Truth. Leading India to freedom through satyagraha, he revealed the importance and relevance of non-violence in every aspect of life.

In the Introduction, Ramchandra Gandhi raises the Ayodhya issue to international and universal levels. In the text, he offers a solution on the local and national levels. The temple mound in Ayodhya - the sacred hill on which the present Babri Masjid was built, also known as "Sita's Kitchen" - was originally a sacred place of the Adivasis (the aboriginal inhabitants of the subcontinent). It was sacred to the Goddess, the great nurturing earth, the fecund source of all life, the aboriginal presupposition of all later religions. As an aboriginal place sacred to the Mother Goddess, the hill in Ayodhya brings together all religions. Rather than a source of conflict, Ayodhya should become a meeting ground for the divergent religious traditions of the world to see their ultimate harmony.

"An anthology of Gandhi's writings that focus on his engagement with Christianity and Jesus, enhanced by thoughtful responses from Christian scholars and students of his teachings, highlighting his contributions to interreligious dialogue"--

DIV In his Autobiography, Gandhi wrote, “What I want to achieve—what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years—is self-realization, to see God face to face. . . . All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to this same end.” While hundreds of biographies and histories have been written about Gandhi (1869–1948), nearly all of them have focused on the political, social, or familial dimensions of his life. Very few, in recounting how Gandhi led his country to political freedom, have viewed his struggle primarily as a search for spiritual liberation. Shifting the focus to the understudied subject of Gandhi’s spiritual life, Arvind Sharma retells the story of Gandhi’s life through this lens. Illuminating unsuspected dimensions of Gandhi’s inner world and uncovering their surprising connections with his outward actions, Sharma explores the eclectic religious atmosphere in which Gandhi was raised, his belief in reincarnation, his conviction that morality and religion are synonymous, his attitudes toward tyranny and freedom, and, perhaps most important, the mysterious source of his power to establish new norms of human conduct. This book enlarges our understanding of one of history’s most profoundly influential figures, a man whose trust in the power of the soul helped liberate millions. /div

Available to American readers for the first time, this comprehensive book of Gandhi's spiritual practice contains favorite prayers and hymns, translated by Gandhi himself from many religious traditions.