Gandhi: A Man for All Seasons

By: Carrie Trybulec, Director, Gandhi Memorial Center

To say Gandhi is for all seasons is to say Gandhi is for all time. Can an inspiration or ideal, a hope or a dream ever be for one time – past or present? They can only be for all time.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar in India in 1869. His life as an Indian under the imperialist reign of the British Raj was not unlike others. He was born to a Vaishnav family of the merchant class but his father and grandfather elected to choose roles of administrative leadership in their home state.

Gandhi married Kasturba at the young age of thirteen and after completing his studies decided to pursue a career as a barrister. His legal education brought him to the other side of the world to England. The son of a devout Hindu woman, Gandhi vowed to remain vegetarian and to avoid any negative habits which worried his reluctant mother. Although he enjoyed the style of Western living, he remained true to his word and observed the vows he made to her.

In his quest for vegetarian living, he came into contact with a progressive group of British theosophists. In their effort to bridge Eastern philosophy with Western thinking, they found interest in young Gandhi. These new friends encouraged Gandhi to study his faith and religion and to take a new look at the ancient scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. They asked Gandhi to read Sir Edwin Arnold’s “The Song Celestial.” And suddenly Gandhi was reawakened to a self-study that would last throughout his life-time.

We often view Gandhi as having a particular relevance for a particular time in history – the notion that he, along with the tools of Truth and Nonviolence, had a role to play in the movement towards Indian independence from Great Britain. But Gandhi had a much longer-lasting and deeper significance. His impact and effort have a more universal and eternal appeal. His timelessness is rooted in this faith in Truth and God. His enduring inspiration originates in his idealism and optimism.

Gandhi turned inward to realize and know the Self through study, prayer and meditation. And he was motivated to act outwardly the expression of this awareness through self-less service.

Gandhi, upon completion of his law preparation, began his professional career in India. But it was not long before he was called to South Africa to pursue financial security for his family. This call to practical duty eventually gave way to a greater call to serve humanity.

Gandhi arrived in South Africa to work as an attorney for an Indian Muslim merchant in the midst of a family dispute. His time in South Africa, from the very start, was a transformative experience. Gandhi quickly learned of the discrimination against Indians in South Africa while attempting to travel by first-class train to Pretoria. Much to his surprise, his effort had a result which he did not expect. He was thrown from the train. Angered and disgusted with the situation, Gandhi had to make a decision. Was he to give up and return to India? Or was he to remain in South Africa and find some way to confront this injustice? And if he stayed, how would he work for such change? Gandhi came to the realization that, for him, any effort toward such a cause must be enacted through nonviolent means, with a goal and ideal to seek and follow Truth.

Remember, Gandhi did not merely become influenced by the brutish treatment on the train in South Africa. He had been influenced by the devotion of his mother to her faith, to the idea of the rule of law which he gained during his studies in England, as well as to his quest for Truth ignited by his study of philosophy.

Gandhi not only read his beloved Bhagavad Gita, but he also began to apply its teachings to his life. He also began to read from the Old and New Testaments, from the Quran and other scriptures of mankind. He also studied the ideas of Ruskin’s “Unto this Last” and Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God is Within You.” He read from Emerson and Thoreau, the Transcendentalists. And he was guided not only in his faith and philosophy, but also in his active life of service. In fact, this study, reflection and thoughtful interest in the ideas of the great thinkers and divine souls, gave him the tools to serve.

It was from the Bhagavad Gita as well as his own experience growing up as a Hindu and closely associated with the Jain tradition that Gandhi began to see nonviolence as the most desirable method of action. He took from the Gita the idea of renunciation, that one should not seek the fruits of one’s actions. He believed that this equated with placing greater emphasis on the action and not the results of action. Gandhi focused his thinking and acting on the “means” rather than on the “ends” with the idea that the “ends” cannot justify the “means”. Therefore, if one seeks peace, justice and harmony, then one must employ means that are peaceful, just, and harmonious to achieve those ends.

This also relates to his idea of self-less service: that he might not even see the results of his actions in his lifetime but that would not change his means of service. The means must justify the ends; not the other way around.

In all his humility, Gandhi strove for the highest ideal: that of Truth. He was a universalist, ever seeking the Truth that all of human life aspires to reach. He set Truth as the cornerstone of his work and called all on this path with him, “Satyagrahis” (those who would hold firm to Truth no matter how difficult).

What Gandhi did in his life between 1869 and 1948 was to work in the service of humanity in order to serve God. He did not claim any of the ideas he expounded as his own. He explained that “these ideas are as old as the hills.” He merely made the conscious effort of experimenting with these ideas in his own life. He said, “God is Truth. Truth is God. And Truth to be real must incarnate in human life.” He tried to apply the age-old teachings of Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed and others.

He knew that he himself was prone to error and failure. Yet, he continued to strive for the highest and purest Truth. And he called upon all others to attempt the same. Mahatma Gandhi shared with us the eternal Truths that have been passed down through the ages. Gandhi is a Man for All Seasons, for All Times and for All People.