Gandhi

Gandhi was born into a family with generations of Prime Ministers.His grandfather, Ota Gandhi, had many children with different wives.Throughout his childhood though, he did not think or feel that thosesons were from a different mother. Out of the six sons was hisfather, Kaba Gandhi, who was a member of the Rajasthanik Court. Fora while he was a Prime minister but died as a pensioner. Withdifferent wives, he dad had three daughters and three sons, himbeing the youngest. He said, "My father never had any ambition toaccumulate riches and left us very little property." His father wasnot very inspiring to him but his mother "left an outstandingimpression on his memory". She was very religious and prayed beforeevery meal, and prayed even if she was sick. She performed herduties without hesitation of interference. When she fasted she wouldgo one meal a day or even every other day. She had strongcommonsense and ladies of the court admired her intelligence. "OftenI would accompany her, exercising the privilage of childhood," hesaid. Gandhi was born at Porbandar, on October 2, 1869. Duringschool, he had trouble with multiplication tables and only remembersnothing of what he learned but memories of his friends and pickingat the teacher. Therefore, he considered his intellect to besluggish. All throughout primary school to high school he was shyand never even told a lie. "My books and lessons were my solecompanions," he claimed. He would run back and forth from schoolbecause he would be afraid to talk to anyone. When spelling a word,he let himself feel stupid being the only to not spell it correctly.But that as because he could "never learned the art of copying". Hestill kept respect for elders and carried out any orders they had.Gandhi found a book purchased by his father with a picture of a mancarrying (slings fitted for his shoulders) his blind parents on apilgrimage. Gandhi was so inspired he told himself, "Here is anexample for you to copy." Gandhi had to marry at a young age and hedid not completely understand it. He did not really like the idea ofgoing through all of the conflict and trouble of getting married soyoung. But he was devoted to his parents and respected what they hadprepared for him. He said, I had yet to learn that all happiness andpleasure should be sacrificed in devoted service to my parents.After the marriage he received gifts and pamphlets on how to be agood husband. The on that stuck to his mind and heart the mostwas "lifelong faithfulness to the wife", even though the passion fortruth was already innate to him. At first he had trouble with theconcept of a jealous husband, if they are exact or if he should haveauthority and set restrictions. Aside all of this, his actions wereall based on love. His ambition was to make her his ideal wife andmake her live a pure life. To him, even though she did not show loveback he was okay with it, because "there was an active love on oneside at least". Even with the marriage he carried out his studiesthrough high school and achieved many awards and scholarships.Gandhi hated exercise and one day skipped class. He returned thenext day and lied to the teacher about where he was. Doing thatdeeply pained him and made him cry... he felt so guilty and madethe "first and last carelessness of his instance at school". In highschool, a big tragedy happened when his friend forsook him. "Itlasted long. I formed it in spirit of a reformer." He then realizedthat a reformer cannot afford to have close intimacy with him whomhe seeks to reform. True friendship is an identity of souls rarelyto be found in this world. Only between like natures can friendshipbe altogether worthy and enduring. Friends react on one another.Hence in friendship there is very little scope for reform. I am ofopinion that all exclusive intimacies are to be avoided; for mantakes in vice far more readily than virtue. And he who would befriends with God must remain alone, or make the whole world hisfriend. I may be wrong, but my effort to cultivate an intimatefriendship proved a failure. The one he called a friend was a meat-eater and convinced Gandhi eating meat was good. The tragedy leadson when he started to eat meat and was lying to his parents aboutit. It was then disheartening him so much that he had to stop, sothat he could be faithful to his parents and his wife, even thoughhe had to go against his friend. Gandhi went thought a phase ofstealing and wanting to commit suicide. He then realized it is mucheasier to contemplate suicide than perform it. He kept stealingthough, and felt guilty and wrote a confession to his father forforgiveness. Seeing his father cry of love disheartened Gandhitoo... and from that fogiveness and love, Ghandi promised never tocommit the sin again. Gandhi faced another tragedy when his fatherdied. The worst thing he felt was shame, because with his fatherwhen he died. At the moment he went to see his wife, and feltshameful he did not keep massaging his father, till he died in hisarms. He considered himself lustful but a faithful husband, andeventually overcame it. Gandhi was born of the Vaishnava faith, butstarted to have glimpses of other religions. He learned aboutRamanama, Ram Raksha, Ekadashi, and Christianity, which he found todislike. Gandhi decided to go to college in London. He had to waitto sail there from Bombay. He finally arrived at London at wasgreeted by Englishmen. "This was my first lesson in Europeanetiquette, into the details of which Dr. Mehta humorously initiatedme.'Do not touch other people's things,' he said.'Do not askquestions as we usually do in India on first acquaintance; do nottalk loudly; never address people as 'sir' whilst speaking to themas we do in India; only servants and subordinates address theirmasters that way; And so on and so forth." Being at London, he madechoice follow vegetarianism and made a mission to spread it. Gandhimade himself become an English gentleman by buying new clothes,fixing his hair and grooming himself, and becoming involved withactivities like dancing, learning French, and playing the violin.Through this drastic change, he became a student. Gandhi had toeconomize and started making changes by spending less money, nolonger living with a family to rent suite rooms, and began to studyhard even learning Latin. He said, "The change harmonized my inwardand outward life. It was also more in keeping with the means of myfamily. My life was certainly more truthful and my soul knew nobounds of joy." By becoming vegetarian, he had to try to adjust bymaking many experiments of making certain foods he can eat andcannot eat. He said "Many such experiments taught me that the realseat of taste was not the tongue but the mind." Gandhi then starteda vegetarian club in Bayswater, where he was the secretary. It didnot last long though because he left to spread it among otherplaces. He was then was elected to the Executive Committee of theVegetarian Society but did not speak up much.. He was still veryshy. "This shyness I retained throughout my stay in England. Evenwhen I paid a social call the presence of half a dozen or morepeople would strike me dumb." He finally overcame his shyness inSouth Africa and grew from it. He learned "Experience has taught methat silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary oftruth. Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth,wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man and silenceis necessary in order to surmount it." Gandhi found himself in adilemma because since Indians and Englishmen were not fond ofmarriage, Gandhi did not mention his. A lady then became fond ofhim, not knowing he was married, and so he spoke the truth. "I thuspurged myself of the canker of untruth, and I never thenceforwardhesitated to talk of my married state wherever necessary." Gandhithen spent most of his years traveling and looking at differentreligions. During this time, he was also studying different thingsand passing many examinations, eventually coming upon the study ofIndian law. He also spent a great amount of time trying to helpfamilies and the community. He says, "Service of the poor has beenmy heart's desire, and it has always thrown me amongst the poor andenabled me to identify myself with them. If I found myself entirelyabsorbed in the service of the community, the reason behind it wasmy desire for self-realization. I had made the religion of servicemy own, as I felt that God could be realized only through service.And service for me was the service of India, because it came to mewithout my seeking, because I had an aptitude for it. I had gone toSouth Africa for travel, for finding an escape from Kathiawasintrigues and for gaining my own livelihood. But as I have said, Ifound myself in search of God and striving for self- realization."Gandhi did great service for India. He wanted to make a societywith "no discrimination and no inequality". Socialism to him wasbeing completely equal. He explained, the equality between congressmembers of individual body is equal to the members in the society.The people in the society should have purity and truth within them.Because of Gandhi, "India went from subjection to freedom". Gandhiis the "Architect of Indian freedom".

Gandhi has a very genuine and honest ethical system. His actions arenever selfish and he does what will make others happy. Even when hewas younger, he never cheated and never lied. Although, when he didmake a white lie one, he felt very guilty and swore to never lieagain. When Gandhi would do something wrong, he feels it in his gutthat it is wrong and corrects it himself. Anything bad or untrue tohis parents would make him feel disheartened. His ethical system isalways doing right and still making others happy. Gandhi's ethicalsystem is much like Epictetus. Epictetus believed that everything isbased on "according to nature". He believes we should do what istruly good and have no intentions. That is how Gandhi was because healways did good deeds without expecting something in return. All ofhis actions were for the best and didn't fail to be true to the oneshe loved. Epictetus believes that happiness is based on virtue, andto him the progress of it means to understand your own true beingand your own moral character. Gandhi always tried to understand whohe is and always tried to do things for the better. He had greatmoral character and used himself to his greatest potential. Hestudied many religions and made choices for himself like becoming avegetarian. Epictetus believes that we should not have desires,because if we fail then it causes disappointment. Also, he says thatwe cannot control what others think of us, so it is in our power tohave our own mind and opinions. That is exactly how Gandhi wasbecause he did not have desires or pleasures. He was not selfish atall; he always did thing for the true good or for others. He neverthought about himself or doing actions just to gain pleasure. Also,Gandhi did not care what others thought about him. He realized whatthey might think of him, but still did what was in his nature.Because of this, sometimes he does struggle to do the right thing.For example, when everyone in his class spelled a word correctly andhe didn't, he looked stupid but it was because he did the rightthing. He refused to cheat, and it caused him to feel that theteacher was not impressed by him. He went through the struggle tosatisfy his wife, even though he did not feel the same love inreturn. Another event is when he lost his friend because he decidedhe could not eat meat, because it did not feel right. Gandhiaccepted the consequences of doing the right thing. What impressesme most about Gandhi is his honesty and unselfishness. No matterwhat he did, he was honest to those he loved. He felt bad anytimethat he did not cheat, or even told a white lie. It was impressivehow he would make a mistake and confess to it; accepting theconsequences. It impressed me how he was talking about satisfyingand loving his wife, like how he would give his all to her eventhough he did not have the same in return, because to him at leastthere is one side of love being given. He ahs influenced me to tryto see the world as it is. That you should do what is right and whatis true to yourself, without the worry of anything or anyone else.His words make me think that I could have more potential in myselfthan I believe. He makes me just want to be an allover truly goodperson, just like he was.

Posted by tinerneener at 4:24 PM

MIRABAI said...
nice post. gandhi was inspired greatly by the gita. you can read about it at http://www.gitananda.org/about-gita/index.php

July 6, 2007 3:27 PM

Source: http://ocampoethics.blogspot.com/2007/06/post-12-gandhi.html