E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi’s Pancha Mahavrat… 83Gandhi’s Contribution to the Concept of MokshaIt is clear from the above discussion that Gandhi wasnot fully satisfied with the traditional views on moksha –particularly its world-negating approach. He has his own viewsof moksha both on conceptual as well as the pursuit level. Onthe conceptual plane he made several significant contributionsto the ongoing discourse on moksha.First Gandhi’s concept of moksha is rooted in his basicadvaitic faith in unity of all beings and his equally firm faith inpure and stainless atman residing in every human heart. Thisatman is true self and pure self, but when embodied, anempirical self is super imposed on it. This atman, true self, isnothing but a spec of divinity in its purest form; while theempirical self is grossly involved in mundane affairs.Ordinarily, it is the empirical self that dominates human heartand true self remains hidden and might go even in the realm ofvismriti (unawareness). Therefore, the real challenge for aspiritual seeker is to pierce through the empirical self and reachout to the true self. But reaching out to the true self is easiersaid than done. One has to go whole hog in this process of selftransformation,ultimately leading to self-realisation. This isanother name for moksha, self-liberation or whatever name onegives to it. It is awareness that every soul has partaken from thesame source of divinity. It is at that stage that one realizes whatI have called in my book on Gita (samanarya yoga) ‘akatvaand samatva’ – akatra being the realisation of the unity of allbeings and samatrva being a rare mental state of equality andequanimity. Such a realisation is nothing but moksha, but sucha state of mind might lead one to a state of total ‘desirelessness’and thereby ‘total inaction or what is traditionally called a stateof nivriti. As against nivrati there is a concept of pravrits whichunderlines the fact of the involvement in the mundane affairs ofthe phenomenal world.