by Matthew Cocks
A few years ago I spent some time reading about the life of Mohandas K Gandhi (more popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi). Gandhi was an Indian political and spiritual leader who lived most his life during the first half of the twentieth century. He was very influential in the process of India gaining independence from British colonial rule.
As fascinating as I found his extraordinary political career, it was his spiritual approach to life and thoughts on the nature of God which particularly interested me. Gandhi was a radical spiritual thinker. He loved simplicity, and is very well known for his strong encouragement of non-violence.
At the same time I was reading about Gandhi, I was also learning about Christian Science from Mary Baker Eddy’s book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. As I read, I naturally began to wonder what Gandhi would have thought of Christian Science.
Unfortunately I never found a record of Gandhi being introduced to Eddy’s writings. However, I did begin to see a number of similarities among the ideas of the two thinkers. These similarities were important for me at the time.
I was reading in Eddy’s writings what I increasingly felt to be an explanation of a universal truth—not assigned to one particular dogma or philosophy—and the fact that Gandhi, a thinker I was respecting more and more with each page I read, had independently spoken of similar ideas strengthened my conviction in the worth of her explanations.
Firstly, although Gandhi practiced Hinduism all his life, he also read a lot about the world’s other major religions. In fact, when he was once asked if he was a Hindu, he replied:
“Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew.” (See the 1982 movie Gandhi for a recreation of this moment.)
To me, this indicates that Gandhi perceived something of the truth in the teachings of each of these five religious traditions, and he was therefore willing to identify himself with elements of them all. With regards to Christianity, this comes across particularly strongly in his own quite amusing account of when he was first given a copy of the Bible to read:
“I read the book of Genesis, and the chapters that followed invariably sent me to sleep. But just for the sake of being able to say that I had read it, I plodded through the other books with much difficulty and without the least interest or understanding…But the New Testament produced a different impression, especially the Sermon on the Mount which went straight to my heart…The verses, ‘But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man take away thy coat let him have thy cloke too,’ delighted me beyond measure…” (Gandhi: An Autobiography, p. 68).
As can be seen in this quote, the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, the center of Christian teaching, appealed strongly to Gandhi, and he goes on to speak about the parallels he saw in it with statements in a major Hindu text (see p. 69 of Gandhi: An Autobiography).
Mary Baker Eddy can be seen to place such a high importance on the Sermon on the Mount that she once wrote:
“To my sense the Sermon on the Mount, read each Sunday without comment and obeyed throughout the week, would be enough for Christian practice” (Message to The Mother Church, 1901, p. 11).
As I continued to read, I began to see more crossovers between their ideas. I found Gandhi’s comments on the relationship between God and the human senses particularly interesting. In a 1930 booklet, he discussed his insights into the nature of God as “truth.” Louis Fischer, one of Gandhi’s biographers, relates what was written in this booklet:
“’God is,’ Gandhi said.
The word satya means ‘truth’, and it derives from sat which means ‘to be’. Sat also denotes God. Therefore, God is that which is. ‘And since’, according to Gandhi, ‘nothing else I see merely through the senses can or will persist, He alone is’. ” Fischer adds, by way of interpretation, “Everything else is illusion. God is the only truth” (The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 377).
Another time, in speaking about the senses, Gandhi said:
“Sense perceptions can be, often are, false and deceptive, however real they may appear to us” (The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Fisher, p. 378).
Gandhi’s thoughts here struck me as very similar to Eddy’s. For instance, in Science and Health on p. 312 she says “God is Truth.” And on p. 477 she speaks in more detail about the Christian Science perspective on the nature of the senses:
“Whatever is material is mortal. To the five corporeal senses, man appears to be matter and mind united; but Christian Science reveals man as the idea of God, and declares the corporeal senses to be mortal and erring illusions.”
In regard to the nature of man, Eddy expands on this statement by saying:
“As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being.” The Scripture reads: "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
Gandhi seemed to take a similar perspective when he said things like:
“Every drop of ocean shares its glory but is not the ocean” (The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Fisher, p. 379).
And “God is nearer to us than fingernails to the flesh” (The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Fisher, p. 379).
Finally, with regards to the nature of God Himself, in Science and Health Mary Baker Eddy gives 7 synonyms as names for God. These names are given to describe His nature. They are Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle, Life, Truth and Love (see p. 465). I was very interested then to read the following account of Gandhi discussing God, where he not only speaks of God as a law (similar to how Eddy refers to God as Principle), but also as some of the other synonyms she mentions:
“There is an orderliness in the Universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is not a blind law, for no blind law can govern the conduct of human beings…That law then which governs all life is God…Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth and Love. He is Love. He is the supreme God.” (The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Fisher, p. 378).
From reading about Gandhi, you quickly gain the impression that he was a man totally dedicated to God. You gain this feeling, too, from reading about Eddy’s life (see for example Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, by Yvonne Cache Von Fettweis and Robert Warneck). I believe this shared humble life-long devotion led them both to gain some deep glimpses of God–glimpses of the truth of existence.
At a time when religion continues to be the basis for so much conflict and disagreement, these universal truths have the potential to bring together all people of faith, as we begin to recognise the many basic similarities the various religious traditions share. These include such values as love, brotherliness, and the importance of attention to the spiritual side of life. As we link similarities such as these, we get closer to a worldwide religious unity. As Mary Baker Eddy herself said, “the truth is the centre of all religion.”
Although the lives of these two spiritual thinkers crossed over in terms of time, they did live on opposite sides of the world, so it is unlikely that they would have gotten together for a conversation. But if they had met, that’s one conversation I would have loved to have listened in on!
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Thanks so much Matthew….
Fresh,thoughtful way to relate these two great thinkers. I love the fact that divine Science is OMNI-denominational & the Christ is at work all over the Universe!!
Peace & Satya,
Emmanuel
Thanks Mathew for correlating both so beautifully. I am an Indian, born and brought up in north India. As children we learn a lot about Mahatma Gandhi and when I was around 30 God gave me the gift of Christian Science which changed my life. There cannot be a better crossover of both the religious leaders. Thanks again!
regards,
Poonam Likhi
Hi Matthew, thanks for your interesting thoughts on this. There is a reference to Science and Health in Gandhi’s letters. It appears a friend of his, Behramji Khambhatta, was very interested in Christian Science and recommended Science and Health to Gandhi to read. By his own account, Gandhi took a hasty look at it. It seems, from his letter, that he did not properly understand Mrs Eddy’s full meaning. But it’s interesting that his good friend evidently expected that he would. You can find the letter online by Googling “Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi”. It is in volume 37, page 49 (19 November 1926).
As a personal aside, I have found the topic of interest as my dad was born and raised in India. My family found Christian Science when my grandfather was given Science and Health in 1924 by a friend because the 5 best doctors in India had given up my dad’s case of cancer and polio. He was 5 years old. Within 2 weeks of my grandfather reading Science and Health my dad was completely healed. My grandparents immediately became dedicated Christian Scientists and began holding services in their home. My dad remembered it being filled with Indians every Sunday morning and my grandfather became a well-known healer amongst the Indian community. He was a Director of Railways for India and, although British, a strong supporter of Indian independence. My dad remembered great excitement one day when Mohandas Gandhi came to visit their home to speak with my grandfather (this must have been in the late 1920s). I don’t know what transpired in their conversation as my grandfather died during the war. In a life as full as Gandhi’s it would be hard to measure the influences on his thought, except to see the connections evident in his writings and the way he lived his life, as you have perceived in your investigations.
It seems only natural that all honest seekers for truth, peace, justice or freedom would eventually unite in their understanding of how to achieve these ultimately God-derived states.
Thanks again for sharing,
Abigail
Thanks all for your positive replies!
Abigail, thank you very much for pointing out that letter. It’s fascinating! And thanks also for sharing your story about your grandfather.
From what I can tell about Gandhi, he was not afraid to endure suffering with the goal of spiritual progress, and was quite experimental with different types of material medicine. He took fasting very seriously, and his diet too, both of which in a way different to the way Mrs Eddy thought about those things. So his response is perhaps not surprising. A bit disappointing though!
However, I think you’re right in that he clearly didn’t read the book too closely, as he says himself. Perhaps if he was to meet Mrs Eddy and speak with her about it he may have took a different perspective. Or maybe not. We’re all on our own journey’s!
Thanks again