Book Title: Law of Karma
Author(s): Nirmala Jha
Publisher: Capital Pubishing House Delhi

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Page 81
________________ Pruilosophy of Mahatma Gandhi Yet Gandhiji is convinced that God can be known only in the state of inner realization that God's knowledge can only be revealed to an individual in some sincere and sacred inner experience. Even then, Gandhiji at times talks about evidences of God's existence. Soul and Man In the history of philosophy, many thinkers have focussed attention on the nature and status of man. Psychologically, Frieud and others, for example, try to paint a complete picture of man on the basis of their analysis of unconscious urges and impulses. Some other psychologists seek to reduce man to some original and native impulses, desires and emotions. Then there are thinkers like Hobbes, who seek to determine man in terms of a social self-centred nature of man. According to this conception, man is basically convinced as a selfish individual, who feels the need of making adjustment with others for the sake of his own pleasure. Then there are certain sociologists who try to explain the nature of man entirely in terms of social conditions. According to them, man is a social animal. Apart from society he cannot exist. Therefore, these people emphasise the importance of social factors. Distinguished from all these thinkers, there are some metaphysicians who believe in the common and essential characteristics of man. For example, Aristotle describes man as a rational animal. Again, there are some Humanists and Existentialists who appear to be convinced that the description of man in his class-characters cannot be an exact description of man. They point out that in the case of man, his peculiarities are more important than the common characteristics. Even every individual is more unique in his own way, and as such, possesses certain characteristics that are peculiar to him alone. According to the Existentialists, no description of man can be adequate unless it gives due regard to the peculiarities of man. But, according to Gandhiji, these pictures of man are superficial and partial because they do not emphasise the basic truth about man. For Gandhiji, these pictures of man

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