The sesquicentennial of Mohandas K. Gandhi's birth is Oct. 2, 2019. Celebrated by his fellow Indians as the "Mahatma" (Great Soul), I propose that we get a head start on the anniversary by looking at his view on religious differences.
There are basically two responses one can take to the rich diversity within the world's great religions. Many conservatives maintain that their religion is the only true faith and that the others are false. Some fundamentalists go further to declare war on all other religions, even insisting that military combat will be necessary.
The second option to religious differences is the liberal one. (I'm using "liberal" in the original sense of liberalis, "pertaining to the free person.") Traditionally, religious liberals were instrumental in establishing freedom of religion in the liberal democracies of the world. The religious liberal believes there is some value in every religion, and that people should find and celebrate any common ground they can find.
Problems arise, however, when we attempt to define that common ground. When the Rev. John Henry Barrows opened the 1893 World Parliament of Religions, he blithely assumed the delegates shared "the blessed truths of divine Fatherhood." Although always polite and dignified in their response, Buddhist, Hindu and Confucian representatives made it clear that they did not embrace this belief.
Some religious liberals have defined the common ground as an impersonal godhead from which all the various personal gods are but manifestations. The most famous exponent of this view is Aldous Huxley, whose book "The Perennial Philosophy," although drawing on mystics all over the world, still has a very definite Asian bias.
At one point in his life, Gandhi appeared to agree with Huxley: "What of substance is contained in any other religion is to be found in Hinduism." Far too many Hindus have been guilty of proclaiming that "everyone is a Hindu," but Gandhi finally realized this view was wrong, later saying, "I've broadened my Hinduism by loving other religions as my own."
Religious morality and laws based on it are one of the greatest contributions of the world's religions. It seems reasonable then to bring the world's religions under moral categories such as justice, nonviolence, tolerance and compassion. Insisting "there is no such thing as religion overriding morality," Gandhi states "true religion and true morality are inseparably bound up with each other."
While Gandhi believed truth is absolute, individual views of it will always be "relative, many-sided and plural." Gandhi learned this from his Jain friends, followers of an ancient Indian religion that was the first to preach the doctrine of nonviolence.
The most famous Jain parable is the story of the five blind women and the elephant. By grabbing on to one part of the elephant, each woman would know something true about the animal, but that truth would only be partial.
Gandhi once said, "I very much like this Jain doctrine of the many-sidedness of reality. It is this doctrine that has taught me to judge a Muslim from his own standpoint and a Christian from his. Formerly, I used to resent the ignorance of my opponents. Today, I can love them because I am gifted with the eye to see myself as others see me and vice versa."
Gandhi did not foresee nor favor a single religion dominating the world, and he did not want people to convert to other faiths. Just as the Dalai Lama tells his non-Buddhist admirers, Gandhi insisted people find value and spiritual sustenance in their own faith traditions: They "should adhere to their own faiths more strictly and pay greater attention to their moral teaching."
Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. Read portions of his book on Gandhi at webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/vnv.htm. Email him at ngier006@gmail.com.
