mindofmahatmagandhi

The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi
silence or the expression of some other point of view from a national leader,
but his answer to this charge is that it is every man's duty to express the truth
as he sees it. If the motive is pure, no harm can result. 'I believe that if, in
spite of the best of intentions, one is led into committing mistakes, they do not
really result in harm to the world or, for the matter of that, any individual.' 1
In matters spiritual he claims to apply the method of trial and error, the
experimental method of the scientist, and though he may have achieved no
finality, yet, like an astronomer who is undeterred by his knowledge of
Einstein's Theory of Relativity from stating that the mean distance of the Moon
from the Earth is 238,857 miles, Gandhiji has reached a stage, after a life of
'experiments with truth', when his moral judgements are hard and assured. In
his universe, he steers by the stars of Truth, Love and Labour. 'Having made a
ceaseless effort to attain self-purification,' he says, T have developed some
little capacity to hear 'the still small voice within' 2 ; and that inner voice is, for
him, Truth. Love and God are interchangeable terms: 'My goal is friendship with
the world. . . .' 3 'I refuse to suspect human nature. It will, is bound to, respond
to any noble and friendly action.' 4 Lastly he believes 'there can never be too
much emphasis placed upon work.' 5 'If all laboured for their bread and no more,
then there would be enough food and leisure for all.' 1 Then, 'our wants would
be minimized, our food would be simple. We should then eat to live, not live to
eat.' 2 Gandhiji is concerned with the salvation of the individual soul, and for
him high thinking is not to be separated from plain living. 'I do want growth, I
do v/ant self-determination, I do want freedom, but I want all these for the
soul.' 3
It may be of interest to record how this work came to be composed. Over a
dozen years ago, the idea occurred to one of us of making a systematic
collection of the eternal verities' expressed by Gandhiji in his writings and
speeches and stringing them together so as to bring into relief the philosophical
thought behind them, and afford an insight into the Gandhian philosophy of
life. A plan of a dozen volumes was drawn up, embodying Gandhiji's thoughts on
such subjects as Truth, Non-violence, Satyagraha, Love, Faith, Non-possession,
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