Bharatiya Chintan ki Parampara me Navin Sambhavanae Part 2

Author(s): Radheshyamdhar Dvivedi
Publisher: Sampurnanand Sanskrut Vishvavidyalaya Varanasi

Page 138

GANDHI: FROM "GOD IS TRUTH'
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Now with this background, let me see in brief Gandhi's idea of God, As was always usual with Gandhi, though he had to use current words when he could not think of coining new ones, he had special meanings for the same. The current meaning of the word God in many of the religions of the world is well-known; he is the creater of the universe and everything in it, with equal power of maintenance and destruction. He is the law.giver, he is the dispenser of justice and equally the Lord of Mercy. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. His will prevails everywhere; always and in all matters and all the time. He is beyond time and space and no laws apply to him. He is of the nature of spirit and beyond description by words, though words have to be used for communication. There is a versified work called Vishnu Sahasra-nāma' in Sanskrit which describes God in one thousand words. They may be said to cover exhaustively the attributes of God current in different religions. There is no end to symbolisms, either in words or in graphic figures, to indicate God or the Supreme Power. The sound OM for instance, in Sanātana Dharma indicates the Supreme Power in the abstract, beyond all attributes, dualities, and all descriptions of any kind whatsoever. Gandhi has described his conception of God in many ways, on various occasions. But one thing common to all descriptions in that, not a blade of grass moves except at His commond and by His will. This does not however mean mechanistic determinism nor capricious ad-hocism. According to Gandhi, the first and most important basic thing is, God exists. In his broadcast talk to U. S. A., he begins with the two significant monosyllables, ‘God is'. To Gandhi, God is Life, God is Love, God is Law, God is Light and God is Liberation or Mukti. The question often asked is whether Gandhi believed in a personal God.
परिसंवाद-३