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the world. So he changed his emphasis from God to Truth "which seemed to suggest I do not care for God, if he is anything but truth, anything but the undeniable reality revealed in man and outside." This truth must be existent. "It is the regulative principle of our thinking." Gandhi is saying nothing new when he tells us that he has "no argument to convince through reason about the existence of God. Faith transcends reason. That which is beyond reason is surely not unreasonable. Unreasonable belief is blind faith and is open to superstition." He again says, "There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it though I do not see it. It is thus unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proofs, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses".
Lively and vigorous emphasis on the spiritual truths of ancient Indian tradition seems to me to be the next significant contribution of Gandhi to philosophy. In a way he infused new life into the old ideas of universal importance. By this he reconciled the tradition of nonviolence upheld by Jainism and Vaishnavism with the tradition of Truth propounded by the Upanisads and the Vedas.
Thus what Gandhi contributed to philosophy may seem to us to be very meager. This is so because we are in the habit of looking to philosophy in the sense of system building. But as I have said, Gandhi is a partial philosopher in the traditional sense of the term and a full fledged philosopher in one of the contemporary senses of the word. In brief, he is the philosopher of fundamental human situations.
What are the contributions of Gandhi to Religion? In fact, the word religion, like the word 'philosophy' does not connote something clear. But I shall not dwell upon its
Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays
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