Gandhi And Jainism

Author(s): Shugan C Jain
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 30

prayers for self-purification, as well as her commitment to religious vows as a method of self-discipline, left a lasting impression on Gandhi's tender, young mind.
So much so was Gandhi influenced by his parents that he even learned practical Ahimsa from them. The following two incidences quoted below exemplify and crystallise this point perfectly.
One day Gandhi saw an insect biting his mother's foot. He shouted and the mother asked him to keep quiet and with a slight jerk to her foot allowed the insect to go away. On seeing this, Gandhi asked his mother as to why she did not kill it. The mother replied, 'Son! It also has the right to live..!4
Gandhi made a clean confession of stealing in writing to his bedridden father. Gandhi did not dare to face his father and so peeped through the door to see his father's reaction. He summarised this incidence as, 'He (father) read it through and pearl drops trickled down his cheeks wetting the paper. For a moment he closed his eyes in thought and then tore up the note. He had sat up to read it. He again lay down. I also cried and could see my father's agony........For me this was an object lesson in Ahimsa (nonviolence). This I could read in it nothing more than a father's love, but today I know that it was pure Ahimsa'.'s
Gandhi's parents used to interact with Jain monks frequently on religious and mundane matters". He was allowed to listen into his father's conversation with Jain monks. He also often accompanied his mother on social and religious events. He thus acquired knowledge of religion through discussions his parents had with other community members, saints and family members. Such discussions and his mother's religious practises, coupled with his family background, planted the seeds of Ahimsa (non-violence), Truth and Anekantavada (multiplicity of viewpoints) which grew in Gandhi's young
Gandhi & Jainism
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