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Rajchandra's Influences on Gandhi
"It is generally believed that the spheres of practical affairs or business and spiritual pursuits are distinct from and incompatible with each other, that it is madness to introduce dharma into business, for we should succeed in neither if we made any such attempt... If this belief is not false, then there is no hope for us at all. There is not a single concern or sphere of practical affairs from where dharma can be kept out."
Gandhi also learned from Rajchandra that dharma was essentially a matter of the soul and expressed through one's actions. It was not bound by any particular dogmas, philosophies, or faiths and remained the same irrespective of these. Rajchandra explained that dharma did not mean following any particular faith or creed, nor reading and learning the shastras, and nor believing all that the different scriptures proclaimed. Dharma was actually a quality of the soul and was present visibly and invisibly in each human being. Through dharma one knew self, one's duty in life, and one's true relationship with other human beings and God. Knowing dharma required knowledge of the self and it also was a means by which one knew the self. Dharma came naturally to each human being and nature of dharma did not change. No scripture or religion recommended that one should commit violence or not speak the truth. Though it is true that different religions have expressed their teachings and proclaimed the supremacy of God in own ways. Hinduism proclaims God as both personal and impersonal Supreme, Koran asserts that God is one and alone and that nothing beside Him exists, and the Bible says: "I and my Father are one." These statements though different, yet proclaim the same one Truth. Only imperfect people, expounding and interpreting Truth from their particular positions and perspectives, have erected variegated prisons from where an escape is difficult. Ultimately, it is the soul which has to gain freedom from these prisons and win moksha through own efforts. 63
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