Gandhi's view on Religion
India is a country where people are generally religious. Religion and church are forcefully embedded in the minds of the Indian people. Some countries are well known for their political institutions, others for their profitable substance while some others for their social advancement. India is well known for her gospel and religion. According to Max Muller the study of religion is deficient unless it's studied with reference to India. To quote him," Gandhi's view on Religion Take religion and where can you study its true origin, its natural growth, and its ineluctable decay better than in India, the home of Brahmanism, the birth place of Buddhism and the retreat of zoroastrianism indeed now the matter of new superstitions-and why not, in the future the regenerate child of the purest faith, if only purified from the dust of nineteen centuries?". To others, Religion is one condition among so numerous other countries, but to the Indian people it's one great sustaining force, pertaining to all the spheres of their lives. Mahatma Gandhi who was born and brought up in India couldn't escape this strong influence of religion in all his conditioning.
In ancient times it
was a common belief that religion is a matter of individual experience. But
ultramodern psychology has shown that there's no similar thing as a simply
individual experience, which is absolutely cut off from the society. Gandhi's view on Religion There's an
important element of verity in the views of Durkheim and other members of the
French Sociological academy, who maintain that religion, is basically a social
miracle. The views of Jesus" Render to Caesar the effects that are
Caesar's and to God the effects that are God's" didn't find important
favour in Gandhi. Rather his view was more in agreement with the jottings
ofH.G. Wells, according to whom"the doctrine of the area of heaven as
Jesus sermonized it, it was no lower than a bold and exacting demand for a
complete change and sanctification of the life of our floundering races an
maximum sanctification without and within.". Gandhi's religion was
spiritual humanism because he declared that the service of the poor whom he
called"Daridranarayana"is a true service of God. In other words,
Gandhi's view on Religion Gandhi plant God amidst his creation; this creation is confined not only to
India, his own land and not Hinduism alone, the religion to which he belonged.
It comported of men belonging to different land and different persuasions. Thus
the study of relative religion was important to Gandhi. The stylish principle
of different persuasions, he felt, should be assimilated for the advancement of
our society.
In India the word'Dharma'is used to mean' religion'. But it
should be noted, that the word'Dharma'in Hinduism has a important wider
connotation that what we naturally mean by the word religion. The word'Dharma'comes
from the root'Dhre'which means to' sustain'.'Dharma'is therefore the topmost
sustaining force or the binding force of the society. Gandhi's view on Religion The thing of'Dharma'is to
produce internal and spiritual fellowship among all men and to regulate its relation
with all living realities. It therefore tries to keep the world in perfect
equilibrium. It's therefore clear that the word'Dharma' wasn't used in
connection with any particular religion. Any religion, any custom, any creed
could be brought under its pack and was therefore out out temporal. Gandhi's
conception of religion, thus, brought under its fold people belonging to
different persuasions.