E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timesothers. He also put the finishing touches on a tiny book most of which he hadwritten in Yeravda in 1930 in the form of letters to Sabarmati Ashram. Heentitled it From Yeravda Mandir; 'mandir' is a temple; the prison was a templehe worshipped God in it. The booklet, supplemented occasional articles andpronouncements at other time furnishes a key to Gandhi's thinking on thenature of and the ideal conduct of a man.'God is,' Gandhi said.The word satya means 'truth' and it derives from sat which means 'to be'. Satalso denotes God. Therefore, God is that which is. 'And since', according toGandhi, 'nothing else I see merely through the senses can or will persist, Healone is.' Everything else is illusion. God is the only truth.Over the years Gandhi tried many times to prove the existence of God. 'There isan indefinable mysterious Power', he wrote, 'which pervades everything. I feelit, though I do not see it. It is this unseen Power which makes itself felt and yetdefies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. Ittranscends the senses.'But', he added optimistically, 'it is possible to reason out the existence of Godto a limited extent... There is an orderliness in the Universe, there is anunalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It isnot a blind law, for no blind law can govern the conduct of human beings...That law then which governs all life is God... I do dimly perceive that whilsteverything around me is ever changing, ever dying there is underlying all thatchange a living Power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates,dissolves, and recreates. That informing Power or spirit is God... In the midst ofdeath life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists; in the midst ofdarkness high persists. Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, and Love. He isLove. He is the supreme Good.'After this valiant rational effort, Gandhi says, 'But He is no God who merelysatisfies the intellect, if He ever does. God to be God must rule the heart andtransform it. He must express Himself in every smallest act of His votary. Thiscan only be done through a definite realization more real than he five senseswww.mkgandhi.org Page 341