E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

48 Contextualising Gandhian ThoughtBuddhism, Panch Yama of Patanjali and Pancha Mahavrat ofJainism, Pancha Mahavrat of Mahatma create a new structureof faith. They are (i) God/Truth, (ii) Non-violence, (iii)Brahmacharya (iv) Swaraj and (v) Moksha and which is why Ihave selected this theme for the present lecture. In the course ofmy lecture I would be dwelling on Gandhi’s views on all theseaspects of his faith. I would also examine his critics’ viewpointand offer my own comments wherever necessary. I seek yourindulgence in my prattle on such an important theme whichdeserves to be handled by a scholar who is more competent,and mature than me. With this brief introduction, let us moveon to the actual theme: Gandhi’s Pancha Mahavrat: structure,nature and praxis.IGandhi’s Concept of Truth/GodTruth is the key concept of Gandhian thinking. He notonly equated God with Truth but in his later life he went to theextent of saying ‘Truth is God’. In fact, truth is the cornerstonewhich holds the entire edifice of his life and thought. As such,the Gandhian concept of truth deserves a detailed investigation.It is true that the Mahatma was not the first Indian sageor thinker to have underlined the centrality of truth and itspivotal power both in private and public domains. Interestingly,he had written a piece ‘The Oriental Idea of Truth’ in the April1905 issue of the Indian Opinion in which he had forcefullycontended Lord Curzon’s assertion that truth was primarily aWestern idea which was never central to the Eastern moralethos. In that write-up he quoted several passages from theVedas, the Upanishads, the Manusmriti, the Ramayana and theMahabharata, to substantiate his contention that truth was quitecentral to the Eastern thinking. Later on and in other context, heasserted the same ideas when he said that he had nothing newto teach and that truth and non-violence ‘are as old as the hills’.