E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi’s Pancha Mahavrat… 85advaitic faith in unity and inter-dependence of the people andhis equally firm faith in the phenomenal world did not take himto the path of socio-politico economic collectivism with itsconcomitant belief in a totalitarian ideology. This was sobecause he was equally a firm believer in the autonomy of theindividual, which in his views deserves to be respected and notviolated. Thus, at the conceptual level, Gandhi’s contribution inrespect of moksha was his world affirming egalitarianism. Inother words, he predicated the pursuit of moksha on two basicpremises: (a) there is no other world than one in which we live.As such, we have to work for its betterment and (b) thatmoksha would have to be pursued not as an independent but asan integrated whole along with the other purusartha of arthakama and dharma.Another major contribution of Gandhi in respect of theconcept of moksha is his insistence on political work being inconsistence with the pursuit of moksha. In this respect, hediffered fundamentally from two stalwart of the generationpreceding him: Tilak and Vivekananda. Vivekananda with allhis concern for daridranarayan was not in favour of a realisedsoul for the participation in politics. In fact, he was opposed toit. Gandhi rejected both these formulations. He stronglybelieved that politics is like the ‘coil of snake’ covering theentire social framework and, hence, need for even a realisedsoul to grapple with it. As he puts it:‘Every one has realised that popular awareness could bebrought about only through political activity. If such activitywas spiritualised it could show the path of moksha’ 24He made equally distinct contributions to the praxis ofmoksha. As we have seen Gandhi rejected the esoteric, mysticalworld negating and spiritually isolationist attitude to moksha,but his world and life affirming attitude did not take awaymuch neglected scope of morality from the realm of worldly