Gandhi And Jainism

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

Page 38

These roots helped Gandhi later to develop the concept of "soulforce" and its dominant component Ahimsa or non-violence. With these developments and his quest for self-realization in all aspects; he went to England for higher studies. In later chapters we shall see how he used these for social uplift as well as his personal search for the Truth, which he called "God". Although Gandhi's inner strength and commitment to the cause of liberation, personal and social, that involved great suffering but he repeatedly found his quest/insistence (soul force) to persevere on his chosen mission.
This account of the place where he was born, family, childhood and education at school shows his excellent observation skills, spiritual values like self-effort, Ahimsa, truthfulness and courage to experiment based on interactions with the people he met and interacted at school, friends, and people at home. He learned from such interactions and came back to the family values he observed and inherited by performing repentance as seen from his self-denials and return to moral values and accepting beginner's vows of Jainism from Jain monk before leaving for England for higher studies35.
Conclusion
Gandhi was neither a born genius nor did he possess any remarkable skills during his childhood and adolescence. On the contrary, he was frail, ordinary, and shy. However, influence of Jain values inherited from his parents, his upbringing in Kathiawad and dominance of Jainism in Modh Bania community, as well as his own karmic imprints deeply ingrained in him the values of self-effort and self-sacrifice to achieve selfrealisation, Ahimsa, efficacy of truth and vows. His personality development thus had the influence of these values. Such values, although latent, emerged throughout his life to provide a
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