Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/939



APPENDIX I

I. MR. GANDHI'S RELIGION

The following account of Mr. Gandhi's religious views from the pen of the late Rev. Joseph Doke brings out clearly the essentials of Hinduism as conceived by Mr. Gandhi:—

Mr. Gandhi’s religious views, and his place in the theological world, have naturally been a subject ot 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 Muhammadan," 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 Gunpatty 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 allied 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 one 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 Hinduism of the earliest records, was a pure faith, free from idolatry; that the spiritual faith of India has been corrupted by materialism, and because of this she has lost her place in the van of the nations; that, through the ages God, pervading all, has manifested Himself in different forms, becoming incarnate, for purposes of salvation, with the object of leading men back into the right path. The Gita makes Krishna say:—

"When religion decays and when irreligion prevails, then I manifest myself. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil, for the firm establishment of the dharma I am born again and again."

"But," said I, "has Christianity any essential place in your theology?" "It is part of it," he said, "Jesus Christ is a bright revelation; that he is to me," I replied. "Not in the sense you mean," he said frankly, "I cannot set him on a solitary throne because I believe God has been incarnate again and again."

To him, a religion is an intensely practical thing. It underlies all action. The argument so trequently used against the Passive Resistance campaign, that "it'is simply a political affair, with