re -Gandhiji- God is Love ! ; God is Truth!

[Guest guest]

our beloved sridhar writes ...

 

It'd be a pity if we were to join the ranks of half-thinking people

and write down Gandhiji's achievements which to my mind would be at

the level of any saint we know. His field was Karma Yoga unlike the

saints we normally discuss (whose emphasis is more on Bhakti/Jnana).

 

Yes! saint he was ! in fact,i always wondered why he was not awarded

the 'nobel prize for peace ' !

 

WE can not say that gandhiji was just a 'karma yogi'! he was a bhakti

yogi as well - his day started with prayer and ended with prayer !

Like a true vaishnav, he died chanting 'rama's' name on his lips!

 

GANDHIJI'S VIEW ON SRIMAD BHAGWAT GITA ...

 

" The Gita is the universal mother. She turns away nobody. Her door

is wide open to anyone who knocks. A true votary of Gita does not

know what disappointment is. He ever dwells in perennial joy and

peace that passeth understanding. But that peace and joy come not to

skeptic or to him who is proud of his intellect or learning. It is

reserved only for the humble in spirit who brings to her worship a

fullness of faith and an undivided singleness of mind. There never

was a man who worshipped her in that spirit and went disappointed. I

find a solace in the Bhagavad-Gita that I miss even in the Sermon on

the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I

see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavad-Gita. I find a

verse here and a verse there , and I immediately begin to smile in

the midst of overwhelming tragedies -- and my life has been full of

external tragedies -- and if they have left no visible or indelible

scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavad-Gita. "

 

read this...

 

Truth and God

 

Mahatma Gandhi

 

You have asked me why I consider that God is Truth. In my early youth

I was taught to repeat what in Hindu scriptures are known as one

thousand names of God. But these one thousand names of God were by no

means exhaustive. We believe - and I think it is the truth - that God

has as many names as there are creatures, and, therefore, we also say

that God is nameless and since God has many forms we also onsider Him

formless, and since He speaks to us through many tongues we consider

Him to be speechless and so on. And so when I came to study Islam I

found that Islam too had many names for God. I would say with those

who say *God is Love, God is Love. *

 

But deep down in me I used to say that though *God may be Love, God

is Truth*, above all. If it is possible for the human tongue to give

the fullest description of God, I have come to the conclusion that for

myself, *God is Truth. *But two years ago I went a step further and

said that *Truth is God.* You will see the the fine distinction

between the two statements, viz., that God is Truth and Truth is God.

 

And I came to that conclusion after a continuous and relentless

search after Truth which began nearly fifty years ago. I then found

that the nearest approach to Truth was through love. But I also found

that love has many meanings in the English language at least and that

human love in the sense of passion could become a degrading thing

also. I found too that love in the sense of ahimsa had only a

limited number of votaries in the world. But I never found a double

meaning in connection with Truth and not even atheists had demurred

to the necessity or power of truth.

 

But in their passion for discovering truth the atheists have not

hesitated to deny the very existence of God - from their own point of

view, rightly. And it was because of this reasoning that I saw that

rather than say that God is Truth I should say that Truth is God. I

recall the name of Charles Bradlaugh who delighted to call himself an

atheist, but knowing as I do something of him, I would never regard

him as an atheist. I would call him a God-fearing man, though I know

that he would reject the claim. His face would redden if I would

say, "Mr. Bradlaugh, you are a truth-fearing man, and not a God-

fearing man." I automatically disarm his criticism by saying that

Truth is God, as I have disarmed the criticisms of many a young man.

 

Add to this the great difficulty that millions have taken the name of

God and in His name committed nameless atrocities. Not that

scientists very often do not commit cruelties in the name of truth. I

know how in the name of truth and science inhuman cruelties are

perpetrated on animals when men perform vivisection. There

are thus a number of difficulties in the way, no matter how you

describe God. But the human mind is a limited thing, and you have to

labour under limitations when you think of being or entity who is

beyond the power of man to grasp.

 

And then we have another thing in Hindu philosophy, viz., God alone

is and nothing else exists. In fact the Sanskrit word for Truth is a

word which literally means that which exists - Sat. For these and

several other reasons that I can give you I have come to the

conclusion that the definition - Truth is God - gives me the greatest

satisfaction. And when you want to find Truth as God the only

inevitable means is Love, ie., non-violence, and since I belive that

ultimately the means and end are convertible terms, I should not

hesitate to say that *God is Love.*

 

What then is Truth?

 

A difficult question, but I have solved it for my self by saying that

it is what the voice within tells you. How then, you ask, do

different people think of different and contrary truths?

 

Well, seeing that the human mind works through innumerable media and

that the evolution of the human mind is not the same for all, it

follows that what may be truth for one may be untruth for another,

and hence those who have made these experiments have come to the

conclusion that there are certain conditions to be observed in making

those experiments. Just as for conducting scientific experiments

there is an indispensable scientific course of instruction, in the

same way strict preliminary discipline is necessary to qualify a

person to make experiments in the spiritual realm. Everyone

should, therefore, realise his limitations before he speaks of his

inner voice. Therefore we have the belief based upon experience, that

those who would make ndividual search after truth as God, must go

through several vows, as for instance, the vow of truth, the vow

of brahmacharya (purity), for you cannot possibly divide your love

for Truth and God with anything else - the vow of non-violence, of

poverty and non-possession. Unless you impose on yourselves the five

vows you may not embark on the experiment at all.

 

There are several other conditions prescribed, but I must not take

you through all of them. Suffice it to say that those who have made

these experiments know that it is not proper for everyone to claim to

hear the voice of conscience and it is because we have at the present

moment everybody claiming the right of conscience without going

through any discipline whatsoever that there is so much untruth being

delivered to a bewildered world. All that I can in true humility

present to you is that truth is not to be found by anybody who has

not got an abundant sense of humility. If you would swim on the bosom

of the ocean of Truth you must reduce yourself to a zero. Further

than this I cannot go along this fascinating path.

 

December 31, 1931.

 

(This is a talk which Gandhi delivered at a meeting at Laussane

in Switzerland)

 

Satyameva Jayate !

 

Truth alone triumphs!