Gita: The Mantra to India's Freedom

[Guest guest]

Gita: The Mantra to Freedom

 

 

M.G.S. Narayanan

 

"It was through Ruskin, Throeou and Tolstoy that Gandhiji came to

understand the worth of spiritual values and non-violence. He

discovered the Gita at a late stage in life, but thereafter he came

to accept it as the scripture par excellence.."

 

 

The history of the national movement in India is different from those

of other countries. Indian freedom fighters were unarmed common

people and not trained soldiers. They did not kill or injure, but

volunteered to suffer and die, if necessary. The philosophical

training and spiritual perspective of the supreme commander—Mahatma

Gandhi—was chiefly responsible for adopting this novel method of

warfare, marking a turning point in world history. This change was

brought about through the influence of Indian philosophy, found its

finest, briefest and simplest expression in the Bhagavad Gita. It

also carries the lesson that oppressors need not always remain

oppressors, or vice versa. The struggle has proved that, after all,

the East and the West can meet and work together in peace for

yogakshema (attainment and preservation), universal harmony and

welfare. Gandhiji was at the helm of the movement for many years from

1920 onwards, for about a quarter of a century.

 

When it reached the final stage and freedom was about to be granted

to Indians formally by the British imperial rulers, Gandhiji left

Delhi, the official venue for action. At the very moment fixed for

the 'transfer of power' he got himself lost in the wilderness of the

Bengali village called Noakhali, far away from Kolkata, where he

could not be contacted easily. At great risk to his own life he had

embarked on another mission to save the lives of poor villagers who

were threatened by communal riots. How could one interpret the action

except by calling it a perfect demonstration of the Gita's principle

of nishkama karma, which he had advocated? Gandhiji was taking the

hard-earned victory coming after many years of struggle, as well as

the defeat in his attempt to prevent Partition, with detachment,

characteristic of a yogi. He met his failure in bringing about the

rapprochement between Hindus and Muslims with the same equanimity,

and went on practicing what he preached, as though nothing had

happened.

 

He was implementing the policy of anashaktiyoga (Yoga of non-

attachment) at its best, on the world stage. No other leader in

history had been able to do so in style. The credit goes to the

mental discipline acquired by him through constant meditation on the

meaning and message of the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita has

continued to exist as part of the Mahabharata at least for fifteen

centuries. Many of the Puranas and the Mahabharata received their

present shape in the period of the Brahmanical renaissance during the

period of the Gupta rule. Professor S.N. Dasgupta, writing on the

history of Indian philosophy, brings out the strange ambivalence in

the character of the text, which gave rise to different

interpretations: "The Gita is regarded by almost all sections of the

Hindus as one of the most sacred religious works, and a large number

of commentaries have been written on it by the adherents of different

schools of thought, each of which explained the Gita in its own

favour. Sankara is probably the earliest commentary now available,

but from references and discussions found therein, there seems to be

little doubt that there were previous commentaries which he wanted to

refute."

 

The unique value of the Gita was highlighted when Sankaracharya,

prepared a commentary on it is the beginning of the 9th century. He

interpreted it in such a way as to suit his philosophy of Advaita. It

was this interpretation that dominated the Indian mind, the world of

Sanskrit scholarship on the Gita, as a result of Sankara's unrivalled

logical power and influence. As spiritualism acquired the stamp of

otherworldliness in India, post-Sankara philosophers also fell in

line with his approach. In the beginning of the 20th century Bal

Gangadhar Tilak gave a new direction to the study of the Gita through

the publication of Gita Rahasya to which he gave the alternate title

of Karma Yoga Shastra. He used the text in such a way as to support a

philosophy of action. According to him an individual can act without

fear or favour unmindful of consequences and undeterred by

punishment, provided he liberates his mind from the expectation of

results.

 

Performance of duty must be the key word in action. A man, who

surrenders to God completely, can act courageously. This view of the

philosophy of the Gita that Tilak expounded in his detailed and

learned commentary had an electrifying effect on his followers. An

extremist in the Indian National Congress, Tilak found that fear of

the ruling British government played a great part in making the

Moderates within the Congress adopt a mendicant's role. This fear had

permeated the psychology of Indians at that time. Tilak's

interpretation of the Gita dispelled the atmosphere of this gloom and

fear effectively. It contributed much to the creation of a patriotic

fervour that generated self-confidence and prepared the minds of

young people, including some terrorists, to offer even the supreme

sacrifice of life. Valentine Chirol, author of Indian Unrest, records

the violence-prone temper of Tilak, and the impact that it made: "It

was a Hindu gentleman and a Brahmin who told me that if I wanted to

study the psychology of the Indian unrest, I should begin by studying

Tilak's career.

 

Tilak's onslaught in Poona upon Ranade, his alliance with the bigots

of orthodoxy, his appeals to popular superstition, in the new

Ganapati celebrations, to racial fanaticism in the 'anti-cow-killing

movement', to Maratha sentiment in the cult which he introduced of

Shivaji, his active propaganda amongst school boys and students, his

gymnastic societies, his preaching in favour of physical training,

and last but not least his control of the Press, and the note of

personal violence which he imparted to newspaper polemics, represent

the progressive stages of a highly-organized campaign which has

served as a model to the apostles of unrest all over India". This was

a valuable piece of advice, for, if any one can claim to be truly the

father of Indian unrest, it is Bal Gangadhar Tilak." The way in which

Tilak happened to study and propagate the Gita may be understood in

his own words: When I was quite a boy, I was often told by my elders

that strictly religious and really philosophic life was incompatible

with the humdrum life of every day.

 

If one was ambitious enough to try to attain moksha, the highest goal

a person could attain, then he must divest himself of all earthly

desires and renounce this world. One could not serve two masters, the

world and God. I understood this to mean that if one would lead a

life worth living, according to the religion in which I was born,

then the sooner the world was given up the better. This set me

thinking. The question that I formulated for myself to be solved was:

Does my religion want me to give up this world and renounce it before

I attempt to, or in order to be able to, attain the perfection of

manhood? In my boyhood I was also told that the Bhagavad Gita was

universally acknowledged to be a book containing all the principles

and philosophy of the Hindu religion, and I thought, if this be so, I

should find in this book an answer to my query; and thus began my

study of the Bhagavad Gita". Gandhiji followed more or less on the

lines of Tilak in his interpretation of the Gita, called Anashakti

Yoga. But there was a great difference between Tilak who legitimized

violence in the pursuit of duty and Gandhiji who advocated complete

non-violence.

 

This is reflected in their approach to the Gita also. Gandhiji who

was educated in England as a barrister happened to return to

traditional Hindu philosophy through a circuitous route at a later

stage. It was through Ruskin, Throeou and Tolstoy that Gandhiji came

to understand the worth of spiritual values and non-violence. He

discovered the Gita at a late stage in life, but thereafter he came

to accept it as the scripture par excellence: It is the killing of

passions rather than the killing of persons that is advocated in the

Gita, according to Gandhiji. However, the problem that we face now in

following the role of the Gita in the national movement is not

directly related to the authenticity of Sankara's or Tilak's or

Gandhiji's interpretation of the treatise. Irrespective of its

intrinsic value, Sankara's view of the Gita played an important part

in moulding the spiritual outlook of educated Indians throughout the

middle ages, up to the beginning of the twentieth century.

 

In the same way Tilak's new version of the Gita philosophy inspired a

whole generation of freedom fighters, especially those who accepted

violence, at least as a necessary evil in fighting for justice.

Gandhiji pasted the badge of non-violence on it through the theory of

symbolic representation. It is only proper to conclude that Gita

played a crucial role in the freedom struggle through the influence

it wielded on great leaders like B.G. Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi. There

are many more leaders, like Aurobindo, whom the Gita influenced and

inspired in many ways, and who in turn influenced the course of the

struggle.