Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
In my text, I inquiry into some aspects of Gandhi’s meditation on the Bhagavad Gita[1]. I search for aspects regarding Gandhi’s strategy of meditation on the Gita: Gandhi’s observations on the Gita regard many aspects, such as Divinity, the problem of good and evil, the structure of the reality, the individual’s nature, the conflict present in the individual’s nature between virtue and vice, the individual’s position in the reality, the individual’s possible developments, and the duties of the individual as regards his own moral development. Gandhi’s meditation on the Gita proves to be an inquiry into the foundations of reality, of morality, and of society.
I would like to begin my inquiry with a quotation taken from Gandhi’s Discourses on the “Gita”, since I think that Gandhi’s statements, as they are expressed in this specific passage, represent a good synthesis of all the considerations, aims, and goals expressed throughout his work of interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita:
And so Krishna says:
“Though I was never born in time, though I am the Lord of all creatures, I incarnate Myself and am born as a human being.”
This is the essential nature of the atman. If we realize this truth, we would always act in conformity with that nature; we then act, though born as human beings, as if we were never born. If the atman in each of us is identical with the atman in everyone else, one atman born in a body means all of them born, and all others born means that one born too.
[…] We can follow reason only up to a point. What, then, does avatar mean? It is not as if God comes down from above. It would be right to say, if we can say it without egotism, that each one of us is an avatar. The atman in every body is as potent as the atman in any other, though outwardly we see differences. In our awakened state all are one, though in our ignorant state we may seem separate existences. In real truth, there are not several, there is only one.’[2]
This passage represents, in my opinion, a synthesis of the foundations of Gandhi’s thought as regards the moral and the political order which Gandhi is aiming to establish. The following principles of Gandhi’s interest in and interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita can, in my opinion, be extracted from the passage quoted above:
- God is present in the individuals’s dimension. Gandhi’s God is not an absent God. God’s descent shows that God is not extraneous to the individuals. He is not the absolutely other in relation to the individuals. He does not exist in a dimension which is completely different from the individuals’s dimension. God is not absolutely transcendent. Individuals, correspondingly, are not only immanent, since they all are manifestations of atman.
- The individual’s learning that the nature of the individuals is atman implies, for the individual, a corresponding programme of action. The individual’s mind is not given once and for all; it can have and will have a development.
- Everybody is an avatar of God, and everybody is a manifestation, a concretization of atman. Everybody is a manifestation of the Divinity. Individuals are unified in atman.
- Atman is identical in all individuals: atman is equally potent in all individuals.
- The fact that atman is equally present in all individuals means that everybody has equal dignity. Since all individuals are avatars of God, and since atman is equally potent in all individuals, then all individuals are equal. Hence, no consideration of the individuals as unequal entities is legitimate.
- All individuals are one and only one entity; they all are atman. There are, actually, no separately existing individuals.
- Individuals can change through the knowledge of the revelation; their nature is not determined, at least not in all aspects. They have a space of development.
- From the acquaintance with his being atman, the individual learns that he ought to give up his attachment to the ego, since this attachment directly leads to the mutual separation of the individuals. The road to the recognition of the common nature of atman proves to be, therefore, the road to liberation from the attachment to the ego. The road of knowledge is the road to liberation since knowledge is emendation of the individual from the limitations belonging to his initial condition.
- The method of Gandhi’s search consists in searching for a factor of transformation of the individual. Gandhi aims to find a kind of education which transforms the individual from a condition of limitedness to a condition of progressive liberation.
- Since all individuals are one entity in atman, they ought to act in conformity with the common nature of atman; reciprocal harmony, and not mutual strife, ought to be the principle of their behaviour and of their mind disposition.
- To learn that he is a manifestation of atman leads the individual to act as though he were never born; he assumes the dimension and the awareness of being eternal. Therewith, the individual becomes able to free himself from the particular historical conditions in which he is living. The individual acquires a point of view on the whole reality which is completely different from the point of view which he originally had; he becomes able to mentally transcend the particularities of his initial life condition. He becomes able to understand that he is spiritually something other than the particular conditions in which he is living. The individual’s mind is being transformed through and thanks to the revelation of the Gita.
- The recognition of the identical presence of atman in everybody represents the passage from the ignorant state – in which individuals think that they are mutually separate existences – to the awakened state – in which individuals become aware that they all are one and the same entity.
- Since the individual condition of being an avatar can be known only after meditating on the Gita, learning the contents of the divine revelation proves to be indispensable for the moral formation of the individual. There can be no authentic education without meditation on the divine revelation.
- The individual’s awareness of one’s own condition and position in the reality is developed through the individual’s learning of the Gita. The awakened state will not arise by itself; the individual’s engagement is needed. The Gita proves to be the source of the individual’s enlightenment and of the individual’s transformation.
Bibliography
Desai, Mahadev. The Gospel of selfless action or The Gita according to Gandhi (Translation of the original in Gujarati, with an additional introduction and commentary). By Mahadev Desai, Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1946.
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. XXXII (November 1926 – January 1927), Ahmedabad: The Publication Division. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Government of India, 1969.
The Bhagavad Gita in English. The Sacred Song. Translated by Philippe L. De Coster, B.Th., D.D. Translated into English from the original Sanskrit into English along ancient manuscripts, and various other sources and research material. Split up reading – Transliteration Word for Word translation, Gent: Gita Satsang Ghent Centre (Belgium), Copyright (Belgium) 2006 – 2007. Revised and Enlarged, November 2010.
The Mahabarata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa. Translated into English Prose from the Original Sanskrit Text by Kisari Mohan Ganguli [1883–1896]. Scanned at sacred-texts.com, 2003. Downloaded from: https://holybooks.com/the-mahabharata-of-vyasa-english-prose-translation/
[1] For my analysis of Gandhi’s interpretation of the Gita, I resorted to and shall refer, within this contribution, to Gandhi’s Discourses on the “Gita”, contained in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, XXXII (November 1926 – January 1927), pp. 94–376. I also resorted to and, within my contribution, shall also refer to the work of Mahadev Desai, The Gospel of selfless action or The Gita according to Gandhi since Gandhi’s exposition of Anāsaktiyoga gives very important elements for the understanding of Gandhi’s interpretation of the Gita.
[2] See The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. XXXII (November 1926 – January 1927), p. 189.
