Page:MKGandhi patriot.djvu/155

 CHAPTER XXI

RELIGIOUS VIEWS

Mr. Gandhi's religious views, and his place in the theological world, have naturally been a subject of much discussion here. A few days ago I was told that "he is a Buddhist." Not long since, a newspaper described him as "a Christian Mohammedan," an extraordinary mixture indeed. Others imagine that he worships idols, and would be quite prepared to find a shrine in his office, or discover the trunk of Gunputty projecting from among his books. Not a few believed him to be a Theosophist. I question whether any system of religion can absolutely hold him. His views are too closely to Christianity to be entirely Hindu; and too deeply saturated with Hinduism to be called Christian, while his sympathies are so wide and catholic, that would imagine "he has reached a point where the formulæ of sects are meaningless."

One night, when the house was still, we argued out the matter into the morning and these are the results.

His conviction is that old Hinduism, the