Hajarimalmuni Smruti Granth

Author(s): Shobhachad Bharilla
Publisher: Hajarimalmuni Smruti Granth Prakashan Samiti Byavar

Page 1023

७० : मुनि श्रीहजारीमल स्मृति-ग्रन्थ
underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that
creates, dissolves and recreates. That informing power or spirit is God". But Gandhi was never willing to define the whole in terms of its parts. The transcendence of God was just as clear as His immanence to Gandhi, as we shall see when wed iscuss the relation of Gandhi's ethics to the Bhagavadgita. The final point to note regarding the relationship between the Gita and Gandhi's theistic views is that he accepted the theory of avatara, or the periodic self-incarnation of God, as expressed in the Gita (15:7), and used the Gita's words, "Whenever there is a decline of righteousness and a rise of unrighteousness...I create myself incarnate" (4:7), to support his optimistic view about the vindication of truth? In the ultimate analysis of Gandhi's theistic views, we find an optimism born of intuition and firm conviction, an optimism which prompted him to say of the 'informing power or spirit which is God :
"I see it is purely benevolent. For I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I
gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is Love. He is the Supreme Good" Gandhi's philosophy of life rested greatly upon the Bhagavadgita, which he interpreted allegorically :
"The Gita is not a historical discourse. A physical illustration is often needed to drive home a spiritual truth. It is the description not of war between cousins but between the two natures in us-the Good and the Evil. I regard Duryodhana and his party as the baser impulses in man, and Arjuna and his party as the higher impulses. The field of battle is our own body. An eternal bettle is going on between the two camps, and the Poet
seer vivdly describes it. Krishna is the Dweller within, every whispering to a pure heart." Being a fighter for the independence of his country and in the midst of the social and political life of India, Gandhi was bound to be influenced by the efficacy of the Karma Yoga, which enjoins every individual to act without desire for the fruit of the action performed. But Gandhi wisely added : "The renunciation of fruit in no way means indifference to the result. In regard to every action one must know the result that is expected to follow, and the means thereto, and the capacity for it. He, who being thus equipped is without desire for the result and yet wholly engrossed in the due fulfillment of the task before him is said to have renounced the fruits of his action.'.10 It sounds self contradictory to say that a man may be without desire for the result, and may yet be wholly engrossed in the due fulfillment of the task before him. Gandhi tries to explain it only theoretically, although he said that his own life was a practical experiment with truth. He was intensely concerned with the justification of the means to the end, and thus speaks of the 'renunciation of fruit' in this manner :
"He who is ever brooding over result often loses nerve in the performance of his duty. He becomes impatient and gives vent to anger and begins to do unworthy things; he jumps from action to action never remaining faithful to any. He who broods over results is like a man given to objects of senses; he is ever distracted, he says good bye to all
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