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mean the inferiority of other faiths to one's own. Tolerance means reverence for other faiths. But the reverence should not blind us to their faults. Gandhi says, “we must be keenly alive to the defects of our own faith also, yet not leave it on that account, but try to overcome those defects. Let us look to all religions with an equal eye”. Thus according to Gandhi all religions are true and all religions have some defects in them. The same thing applies to all religious scriptures. Now the question is: by what test good and bad elements in religions are to be found. Gandhi lays down the test of truth and Ahimsā for finding the elements to be rejected and accepted in every religion and religious scriptures. It should not be forgotten that Gandhi has always decried the practice of conversion. In his view conversion brings no good. It is merely a change of name whereas we need a change of heart.
When we turn to morality we come to the heart of religion. Morality is the back-bone of individual as well as social progress. If religion in the sense of spiritual realization along with social advancement and freedom is the end, morality is to be regarded as its means. In other words, Sarvodaya requires adherence to moral principles and moral ways of life. This exposition brings us to the problem of end and means. Gandhi makes the goodness of end dependent on the goodness of means. Impure means cannot result in good end. “As the means so the end”, “The means may be likened to a seed; the end to a tree, and there is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree”. The theory that the end justifies the means is dangerous in the view of Gandhi, since it warrants the use of violence, fraud, opportunism and the like, which lead us to moral degeneration. History and contemporary experience bear testimony to the fact that
Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays
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