Spiritual Awakening and other Essays

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 175

association of prayer with social upliftment is in a sense Gandhian. I may point out here that according to Gandhi prayer is not only a call to self-purification but also a “call to social service'. I must reduce myself to Zero. He always dedicated the results of his efforts to God. He thus tried to escape the maddening vanity of success and the depressing effect of failure. All this leads us to think that Gandhian attitude to prayer is predominantly subjective as distinguished from the objective. His main focus is on the individual who prays rather than on the object of his prayer. His prayer is not the glorification of God without any dynamic effect on the individual but it is prominently a cleansing and purification of the soul for exalted individual and social living. In the words of Gandhi, “The man of prayer will be at peace with himself and with the whole world, the man who goes about the affairs of the world without a prayerful heart will be miserable and will also make the world miserable".
The question of religion brings with it the question of Gandhi's attitude towards different religions and religious scriptures of the world. Though he has always said that religion does not mean formal religion or customary religion, but religion which underlies. all religions, yet he could not avoid the question of different religions. Is Gandhi's religion antagonistic to religions? Gandhi replies, this religion transcends Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc. It does not supersede them. It harmonizes them and gives them reality'. Religions are different roads conversing to the same point. Gandhi has always preached mutual tolerance among religions. “Tolerance gives us spiritual insight which is as far from fanaticism as the north pole from the south”. According to Gandhi tolerance should not be understood to
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Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays