Gandhi’s Outlook on Spirituality and Religion: It’s Relevance in The Present Scenario

Proceedings of ‏The 3rd International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences

Year: 2021

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/3rd.icarss.2021.03.455

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Gandhi’s Outlook on Spirituality and Religion: Its Relevance in The Present Scenario

Dr.  Varsha Gupta

ABSTRACT: 

Gandhi, a devout Hindu all his life was a well-read person. Despite having devoted himself to a study of varied religions of the world and being influenced by them he was not an ardent follower of orthodox Hindu religion. He believed in the oneness of God and emphasized that religion harmonizes and does not divide. He emphasized on the spiritual force of a person from which emanates the ethical code of conduct. He believed that God manifests himself in the inner voice or conscience of a person.  Every individual must follow the virtues of truth, love, fearlessness, non-violence, altruism and charity. Service to mankind was the real religion for him. He did not aim at short term goals rather aimed at the root cause of problem by trying to change the hearts and minds of people forever through satyagraha which is the need of the hour. When people hated and kill each other in the garb of religion, he advocated Ahimsa and believed in the fundamental truth of all religions.  He stood by the downtrodden and the lower castes by renunciation of his clothes for their sake to be seen as one of them and initiated the menial job of cleaning their own toilets in his ashram against the conventional norms of society.

My paper reveals how Gandhi’s religion was based on humanity and explores his perception of God and religion and its relevance in the present scenario.

Keywords: Ahimsa; Altruism; Hindu; Harmonize; Truth; Satyagraha.