An Ethical Interpretation of Gandhi’s Views on Religion: A Critical Assessment

As per Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), prevalently known as “the Mahatma”, a man without religion is existence without standards, and existence without standards, resembles a boat without a rudder. His purposeful endeavor to show up at the Truth of all religions made him say, “I believe in the fundamental Truth of all great religions of the world. And believe that if only we could, all of us, read the scriptures of the different faiths from the standpoints of the followers of those faiths, we should find that they were at the bottom, all one and were all helpful to one another”. In spite of the fact that Gandhi had his say in matter of governmental issues, financial aspects and social issues; hidden all these differentiated domains there was this strict intensity to it. The paper focuses on the significant issues of Gandhi’s life and acknowledgment of these issues in commonsense life; and it was totally supported by various religions of the world; be it his developments of Satyagraha, Ahimsa, Sarvodaya, Swadeshi, Swaraj or Civil Disobedience and Non-co-activity. His self-portrayal “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” is an ideal exemplification of his life being guided by Truth and that he showed up at the Truth through various religions of the world, fundamentally by the way of thinking of the Bhagavad Gita, the inborn piece of Hinduism.