Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #3- Gandhi: Hindu and Activist

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #3- Gandhi: Hindu and Activist: "In class, your small groups went over movie questions about the content in Gandhi. You should know who each of the main characters are and t..."

                    Throughout the movie, “Gandhi”, Gandhi’s idea or definition of Hinduism was mostly focused around self sacrifice and not taking sides. Although he shows the other aspects of Hinduism, for example, being a spiritual leader, guru, for all the Hindus and Muslims. But then his main ideas of Hinduism were self sacrifice. Self sacrifice was seen many times during the movie. Gandhi had sacrificed his marriage with his wife. Although they did not divorce or separate, he took a vow of chastity. For his religion, he demands his wife to clean out the toilets because it is a job for everyone. However, as his wife rebels against the demand saying it is a job for the untouchables, he takes her out of the house. This particular event shows that religion is before personal relationships. Gandhi also sacrificed his relationship with his son. This was known to be Mohandas Gandhi’s greatest failure. Beyond the sacrifices in his relationships, he also gave up his personal health by fasting for long periods of time, and by creating his own clothes with the wheel. This process was to rebel against the British. By wearing his own clothes, he was saying ‘I shall not wear the clothes of the country I am fighting for’. Not taking sides, or being unbiased was another one of his ideas. He was a man who did not take sides. He tried his best by staying in the middle with peace. We can see this idea by recalling the scene wear his Muslim friend tries to tell him that the Muslim-Hindu relationship won’t work. Although the friend tries to say that it’s either going to be Pakistan alone from India or a civil war. The Muslims wanted freedom from the Indian Hindu’s but they didn’t want the Hindu’s to rule over them. Gandhi said that he would let his Muslim friend run the government with Muslim traditions over the whole of India. So, by this act he was sort of taking the Muslim’s side, however, he wanted both the Muslims and the Hindus to be one.

                    The quote that summarizes how Gandhi had lived his life is “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.” While watching Gandhi throughout the movie, I thought that Gandhi was both innocent and sacrificing. This directly relates to the quote because it says that a man is a innocent and is a sacrifice for the goods of others. This is true, because Gandhi sacrificed a lot for the independence of India. He also sacrifices for the good of his enemies by risking his religion and people to find the freedom for the Muslims. Although they weren’t really enemies he was still sacrificing for them. He was also doing this for the British, as well as he was finding the independence for the Indians he wanted to remain friends with the British. And by his grateful acts he became the sky for the Indians. His acts made the Indians think that he was going to go through the state of Nirvana, ending the endless cycle of reincarnation, because he had accomplished so much for the Indians. Gandhi lived his life worthy enough for the fellow Indians to make him think he was capable of Nirvana.