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Though this work is about Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta, it is also about Gandhi, his goals of life, and his nonviolent thought. Gandhi, as an ardent seeker of Truth, was always in search of wise traditions and great men so that he could model his life after them and thereby achieve perfection in life and self-realization. The goal of Gandhi was to attain moksha' and he mentions in his autobiography: "What I want to achieve what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years is self-realization, to see God face-to-face, to attain moksha. I live and move and have my being in pursuit of this goal. All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to the same end."2 Truth, for Gandhi, was not an ordinary concept, rather it was the "sovereign principle" which included most other principles like ahimsa, brahmacharya, non-possession, nonstealing, bread labor, swadeshi, humility etc.' The concept also applied to word, deed, and thought and Gandhi writes: "This truth is not only truthfulness in word, but truthfulness in thought also; and not only the relative truth of our conception, but the Absolute Truth, the Eternal Principle, that is God."4 Gandhi elaborates that the definitions of God are innumerable, because His manifestations are innumerable. Those definitions had overwhelmed Gandhi to the point of leaving him stunned and he wondered with awe. Gandhi, therefore, accepted God as Truth only and he states: "I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but am seeking after Him. I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest. Even if the sacrifice demanded be my
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G.T.R.-1
Chapter 1 Introduction
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