E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

86 Contextualising Gandhian Thoughtaffairs, particularly political pursuits. Many people includingLokamanya Tilak had believed that politics and morality weretwo mutually exclusive things. Tilak believed that politics wasmeant for worldly people and not for sadhus. Hence, one’sresponse to the other’s challenge would decide the nature of theformer. In other words, as would be the challenge, so would bethe response. Such an attitude gave a big leverage and freedomin the hands of the respondent. In support of his contentionTilak had interpreted Gita (Chapter IV: 11) to underscore thepoint that even Lord Krishna’s response to the other woulddepend on the nature of the other’s challenge. But Gandhiinterpreted the same stanza in his own imitable way to say thatsince all ways are Krishna’s way, hence He accepts every one,whichever way he approaches him. Thus, Gandhi underscoredthe point that notwithstanding his world affirming philosophy,the need for strictest adherence to ‘honesty’ and ‘fair-play’could hardly be overemphasised. Thus, the pursuit of mokshaand worldly affairs were brought into consonance rather than ina dichotomous relationship as was usually believed.In other worlds, the major contribution of Gandhi wasthat he made it possible the pursuit of other three purusarthaconsistent with that of moksha. That is why Gandhi often saidthat he need not go to a cave in Himalaya as he carried a ‘cave’in his own heart. The next fundamental question Gandhigrappled with was that out of three paths viz. bhakti, jnan andkarma, which one would lead to the state of moksha.Traditionally, there had been a debate on which of the three isthe best way to reach out to the state of moksha. Adi-Sankaracharya favoured, jnana marg Ramanuja and othermedieval saints were for bhakti, while Tilak had argued forkarmayoga. Gandhi was certain that the traditional path ofbhakti which was nothing more than unrestrained exhibition ofemotions was not the right path for the pursuit of moksha. Forhim the road to moksha would have to pass through jnan and