Gandhi's Concept of Truth and the Advaita Tradition

Glyn Richards

doi:10.1017/S0034412500017996

Gandhi's Concept of Truth and the Advaita Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008

Glyn Richards

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Glyn Richards: Affiliation:
Department of Religious Studies, University of Stirling

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It is difficult to understand Gandhi's philosophy without some kind of idea of what he means by Truth. When I put the question of what he meant by Truth to some of his followers in India the replies I received showed quite clearly that his concept of Truth was linked to the concepts of dharma and rta. What this would seem to point to is that his understanding of Truth is something that is acquired within his own form of life and that his experiments with Truth are ultimately determined by his understanding of the Hindu religious tradition. This is not to say that insights from other religious traditions did not influence his apprehension of Truth: his acknowledgement of those influences is sufficient in itself to substantiate that claim. But it is clear that it would not be possible to understand his concept of Truth without some understanding of the tradition in which he was nurtured and which determined his way of life.

Type: Articles
Information: Religious Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 1986 , pp. 1 - 14

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412500017996 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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^{page 2 note 1} Bose, N. K., Selections from Gandhi (Ahmedabad, 1948), p. 92.Google Scholar

^{page 2 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 3 note 1} Vivekachūdāmani of Śri Śankarācārya, edited by Swami Madhavananda, (Calcutta, Advaita Ashrama, 1970), p. 98.Google Scholar

^{page 3 note 2} Ibid. pp. 74–6, 145–6.

^{page 3 note 3} Ibid. pp. 131–2.

^{page 3 note 4} The Vedānta Sūtras of Bādarāyana, with the Commentary by Śankara, trans. Thibaut, George (New York, Dover, 1962), II. 1. 33.Google Scholar

^{page 3 note 5} Ibid. III 2. 18.

^{page 4 note 1} Mysticism East and West (New York, Macmillan, 1972), pp. 19–23.

^{page 4 note 2} Ibid. p. 34.

^{page 4 note 3} In Search of the Supreme, 1 (Ahmedabad, 1931), 196.

^{page 4 note 4} The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, VI (Ahmedabad, 1968), 108.

^{page 4 note 5} Truth is God (Ahmedabad, 1955), p. 44.

^{page 5 note 1} Ibid. p. 12.

^{page 5 note 2} Ibid. p. 10.

^{page 5 note 3} Selected Works, VI, 97.

^{page 5 note 4} Fischer, L., The Essential Gandhi (New York, 1962), p. 229.Google Scholar

^{page 5 note 5} Selection from Gandhi, p. 47.

^{page 6 note 1} Truth is God, p. 11.

^{page 6 note 2} Sutherland, Stewart R., Goodness and Particularity, inaugural lecture, Kings College, London, 1979, pp. 12, 13.Google Scholar

^{page 7 note 1} Truth is God, p. 15.

^{page 7 note 2} Mysticism East and West, pp. 50–3.

^{page 7 note 3} Truth is God, p. 16.

^{page 7 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 7 note 5} All Men are Brothers (Unesco, 1969), p. 71.

^{page 8 note 1} Ibid. p. 75.

^{page 8 note 2} Ibid. p. 57.

^{page 8 note 3} Ibid. pp. 58–61, 77, 88.

^{page 8 note 4} Truth is God, pp. 5–7.

^{page 8 note 5} Chatterjee, Margaret, Gandhi's Religious Thought (Macmillan, 1983), p. 105.Google Scholar

^{page 8 note 6} Gandhi would find it difficult to accept Otto's analysis of the manifold world as the antithesis of the One which is the real above the many (op. cit. pp. 63–71.). Aoidyā or ignorance may obscure the real nature of the empirical world, but that does not make the manifold the antithesis of the One. Perhaps Otto's terminology is too Hegelian for Gandhi.

^{page 9 note 1} Hiriyanna, M., Outlines of Indian Philosophy (Bombay, George Allen and Unwin, 1973), p. 301Google Scholar; The Vedānta Sūtras, IV. 1. 15.

^{page 9 note 2} All Men are Brothers, p. 81.

^{page 9 note 3} Truth is God, p. 4.

^{page 9 note 4} All Men are Brothers, p. 58.

^{page 9 note 5} Truth is God, p. 28.

^{page 10 note 1} The Essential Gandhi, p. 229.

^{page 10 note 2} Truth is God, p. 10.

^{page 10 note 3} Saxena, S. K., ‘The fabric of self suffering in Gandhi’, Religious Studies, XII, 2 (1976), 239–47.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 11 note 1} All Men are Brothers, p. 59.

^{page 11 note 2} The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, I (Calcutta, Advaita Ashrama, 1970), 356.

^{page 11 note 3} Ibid. II, 133.

^{page 11 note 4} Ibid. II, 254, 334, 381.

^{page 11 note 5} Ibid. I, 17.

^{page 12 note 1} Ibid. II, 253.

^{page 12 note 2} Ibid. I, 373.

^{page 12 note 3} Ibid. I, 374–5.

^{page 12 note 4} Ibid. I, 325, 365.

^{page 12 note 5} Ibid. II 153, 235–6.

^{page 12 note 6} Ibid. I, 389–90.

^{page 13 note 1} Ibid. III, 246–7

^{page 13 note 2} Ibid. I, 20.

^{page 13 note 3} Ibid. IV, 481.

^{page 14 note 1} Ibid. I, 317–18, 324.

^{page 14 note 2} Ibid. II, 388.

^{page 14 note 3} All Men are Brothers, pp. 54, 56, 59; Selections from Gandhi, pp. 245–7.

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