E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

92 Contextualising Gandhian Thoughtworld is real or unreal, one can not remain indifferent to thesufferings of the fellow beings. 29 In short, without going intothe philosophical debate about the reality and/or unreality ofthe world he accepts its existence and gets committed to workfor the alleviation of other sufferings. As to the question ofaction in the phenomenal world, he finds a solution in theconcept of anasakti and nishkam karma which takes away thesting of bondage from the action. For every selfless action inthe cause of the people does not cause any stain to the doer as itis nothing but an action in the nature of loksangraha. Hence, itis the renunciation of the fruits of action and the feeling ofdoership which is important and not the question of reality orunreality of the phenomenal world.To sum up, Gandhi found God, man and the world ofthe same genre. A firm faith in God is the first and foremoststep in this direction. But Gandhi’s God is not ofanthropomorphic nature but as a substratum of the entirecosmos and all its creatures. Thus, a man endowed with such aphilosophical outlook finds God in everything and everythingin God. Thus, he transcends the traditional debate aboutpravriti (involvement) and nivriti (renunciation). He adopts arenunciation in respect of the fruits of his action and activeinvolvement in the phenomenal world. Such a man goesthrough certain types of yama-niyamas in an attempt at selfpurificationand to strengthen his will to love and serve everycreature of the world and ultimately to attain the goal of selfrealisation.It is with such a worldview and his firm faith inGod and in the perfectibility of man that Gandhi loved andserved the world all through his life. It goes without saying thatanasakti is the lynchpin of such world view. In one word,Gandhi, vision of God, man and the phenomenal world is anintegrated one in which all three are in harmony and incontinuum.