Gandhi's Mastery of Self

INTRODUCTION

"The ideals that regulate my life are presented for acceptance by mankind in general. I have arrived at them by gradual evolution...I claim to be an average man with less than average ability." - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was more than a devotee of nonviolence and a staunch advocate of peace. He was a shrewd strategist, a grass roots activist, and a tireless reformer, a practical idealist all of which make him an institution by himself. Volumes of information exist as commentaries, biographies, and analyses of his life, work, and philosophy.

Many individuals, organizations, and nations draw upon his experience and methods to achieve their goals of nonviolence. Gandhi himself has authored several books that have been translated into English by many organizations and serve as a reference for nonviolence goals and actions even today. Sir S. Radhakrishnan, the philosopher President of India appropriately summarizes Gandhi's life emphasizing convictions and ideals as follows:

"Gandhi's life was rooted in India's religious tradition with its emphasis on a passionate search for truth, a profound reverence for life, the ideal of non-attachment and the readiness to sacrifice all for the knowledge of God. He lived his whole life in the perpetual quest of truth: "I live and move and have my being in the pursuit of this goal."

A great source of knowledge that provides insights into Gandhi's ideals, principles and spiritual beliefs which can influence our own awakening and search for peace is his book Experiments with Truth. While many consider it his autobiography, Gandhi's humility disagreed. His intention in writing this book was to make public the struggles and trials in his spiritual experiments applied in the social and political areas so that his readers can figure out for themselves the nature of their own "experiments" in nonviolence and peace work.

In the Introduction to his Experiments with Truth, Gandhi writes,

"I simply want to tell the story of my numerous experiments with truth, and as my life consists of nothing but those experiments, it is true that the story will take the shape of an autobiography....I hope and pray that no one will regard the advice...as authoritative. The experiments narrated should be regarded as illustrations, in the light of which everyone may carry on his (or her) own experiments according to his (or her) own inclinations and capacity."

Commenting on Gandhi's book, Alan Nazareth, the Managing Trustee of the Sarvodaya International, a Gandhian movement for social change writes,

"His Experiments with Truth was an endless effort to apply the eternal verities to daily life and mundane situations, and draw practical benefit from them for his action programs and for new insights into contemporary human behavior, including his own. This was as much a part of his own spiritual development, as the honing of his political strategies and economic and social action' programs."

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