GANDHI and JESUS the Saving Power of Nonviolence
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GANDHI AND JESUS The Saving Power of Nonviolence TERRENCE J. RYNNE Founded in 1970, Orbis Books endeavors to publish works that enlighten the mind, nourish the spirit, and challenge the conscience. The publishing arm of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Orbis seeks to explore the global dimensions of the Christian faith and mission, to invite dialogue with diverse cultures and religious traditions, and to serve the cause of recon- ciliation and peace. The books published reflect the views of their authors and do not repre- sent the official position of the Maryknoll Society. To learn more about Maryknoll and Orbis Books, please visit our website at www.maryknoll.org. Copyright © 2008 by Terrence J. Rynne. Published in 2008 by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York 10545-0308. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Queries regarding rights and permissions should be addressed to: Orbis Books, P.O. Box 308, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0308. Manufactured in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rynne, Terrence J., 1942– Gandhi and Jesus : the saving power of nonviolence / Terrence J. Rynne. p. cm. Based on the author’s dissertation (Ph.D.—Marquette University). Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-1-57075-766-2 1. Nonviolence—Religious aspects. 2. Christianity and other religions—Hinduism. 3. Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869–1948. I. Title. BT736.6.R85 2008 205'.697—dc22 2007033085 CHAPTER ONE Mohandas Gandhi: A Hindu and More ohandas Gandhi was a Hindu who throughout all of his life asso- ciated with, learned from, and showed deep respect for people who Membraced the diverse religions of India, including Islam, Jainism, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. Moreover, through his educa- tion in England and his association with the British who occupied his country, he came into contact with many currents of Western thought and practice. He had an experimental cast of mind: weighing, testing, trying ideas in practice, and judging them simply in terms of whether they improved the life of humanity. Consequently, he developed for himself a constantly evolving but passionately held set of beliefs and principles that guided his behavior as he took on structures of domination and oppression. It was his own personal synthesis rooted in what he found to be universal. Nonetheless, his belief system and mindset were predominantly Hindu. As he put it: I must tell you in all humility that Hinduism, as I know it, entire- ly satisfies my soul, fills my whole being, and I find solace in the Bhagavadgita and Upanishads that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount.1 To enter the mindset of another religion is no simple task. Hinduism is in some ways particularly challenging because it is not a creedal religion. Many would say it is more a culture, a lifestyle, than a religion. The tenets of the religion seamlessly weave themselves into everyday living. For example, the attitude toward the unity of all living beings plays out in many simple daily ways. In the words of Ravindra Kumar: [A] farmer of any country will not be seen allowing monkeys, birds and other wild animals to eat and uproot his blossoming crop. Probably, you won’t find anywhere except in India, people giving food to ants and other birds with great affection. It is in India 5 6 Mohandas Gandhi: A Hindu and More alone where parents never inspire their children to drop eggs of birds out of their nests...practically you can well understand the uniqueness of Indian non-violence.2 Understanding another religion requires, as Gandhi described it, a “passing over,” a letting oneself see the world through the other person’s religious eyes. As C. F. Andrews explains: There are few things perhaps more difficult to accomplish than to put oneself in sympathetic touch with a religion which is not one’s own by birth-inheritance...There is strangeness about every mood and tone of worship, as well as in the words of the sacred texts of Scripture and the revealed doctrines held to be orthodox. An easy way of realizing this is to consider the instance of a Hindu...being told about the Holy Communion Service, with its consecrated elements of bread and wine representing the Body and Blood of Christ.3 Fortunately, Gandhi meets us halfway, having already “passed over” to understand not only Christianity but also the broader zeitgeist of Western civilization. To enter into Gandhian thought and praxis is to enter into a body of work that is already a synthesis of Hindu and Western thought. GANDHI’S BELIEFS Mohandas Gandhi grew up as a Hindu, but it was not until his early adult years that he was able to fully and richly appropriate it. He seriously con- sidered other paths, in particular Christianity, before realizing that he had all that he wanted or needed in Hinduism. Gandhi’s Childhood Years Gandhi’s mother’s example of faith and devotion, in particular, stayed vividly in his memory. She was a member of the Vaishnava sect, which was heavily influenced by both Buddhism and Jainism and thus placed a major emphasis on warmth of heart and compassion for all living things. According to his autobiography: She was deeply religious. She would not think of taking her meals without her daily prayers. Going to Haveli—the Vaishnava temple —was one of her daily duties...She would take the hardest vows Mohandas Gandhi: A Hindu and More 7 and keep them without flinching. To keep two or three consecu- tive fasts was nothing to her.4 Gandhi’s father, a prime minister in Porbandar, one of the small princely states of Kathiawad, kept a very open household in terms of reli- gion. Gandhi remembered men of many religious traditions—Jain, Muslim, and Parsi—being welcomed into their home. All were respected as seekers after truth, all in their own ways. The Jain tradition was partic- ularly strong in the area, and its emphasis on ahimsa (doing no harm) and the many-sidedness of truth became very important to Gandhi later in life. The only religion that he learned to think poorly of during his youth was Christianity because of the missionaries, who stood on the street corner near his school deriding the beliefs and the gods of Hinduism. In his expe- rience, converts to Christianity immediately took up meat eating and the drinking of liquor, so he came to associate Christianity with “beef and brandy.” The trappings and glitter of the temple held little appeal for Gandhi. What did capture his heart and stir his ideals were certain plays and songs. He read a tale about the folk hero Shravana and admired the hero’s devo- tion to his parents. He saw a live performance of a play about King Harischandra, an Indian Job who refused to lie even through subjection to many afflictions. As Geoffrey Ashe notes: It captured him. He went to it several times, reenacted scenes himself, identified with Harischandra, and wished he could go through the same trials...The ideal of Absolute Truth, and Absolute Duty corresponding to it, came to him with the charm, the excitement, the mad logic of a fairy tale.5 During this period, the final lines of a poem by the Gujurati poet Shamal Bhatt ran through his head constantly: For a bowl of water give a goodly meal; For a kindly greeting bow thou down with zeal; For a simple penny pay thou back with gold; If thy life be rescued, life do not withhold. Thus the words and actions of the wise regard; Every little service tenfold they reward. But the truly noble know all men as one, And return with gladness good for evil done.6 The message of “return good for evil” is clearly stated and embraced by Gandhi years before he read the Sermon on the Mount or Tolstoy. Even 8 Mohandas Gandhi: A Hindu and More though religion did not have much appeal to him in these growing up years, the stories and poems conveying the values of Hinduism surely did. Gandhi’s Years in England Gandhi arrived in England in 1888 at age nineteen to study law. Leaving India was determined by his caste to be grounds for excommunication. His family allowed him to go only after his mother had secured an oath from him to refrain from wine, women, and meat. He kept the vow but, in his first months in England, went very hungry. His search for a decent vege- tarian meal led him into the company of the Vegetarian Society, where he met an interesting array of mavericks who launched him, through their beliefs and the readings they gave him, on a spiritual quest. Reading Henry Salt’s A Plea for Vegetarianism, for example, gave him a fresh understanding of and appreciation for his country’s tradition of vegetarianism. During his second year in England he met two Theosophists, bache- lor brothers, who were reading Sir Edwin Arnold’s translation of the Bhagavad Gita, and they invited him to read it with them. Certain verses in the second chapter struck him strongly: If one ponders on objects of the sense, there springs Attraction; from attraction grows desire, Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds Recklessness; then the memory—all betrayed— Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind, Till purpose, mind, and man are all Undone. (2:62–63) Gandhi wrote: The book struck me as one of priceless worth.