It would be a tragedy if we forget that Gandhi was primarily a man on a spiritual quest, and all he did for his countrymen and for the world was an offshoot of that quest. This quest was formed by an outlook that was part Advaitic and part dedicated to service that is at the heart of all religions, but especially emphasised both in bhakti and in Christianity. Further, the quest was shaped by a rigorous asceticism as one sees in the life of Jain monks and nuns.
J.T.F. Jordens laboriously works through the huge corpus of Gandhi's writings, and writings on Gandhi, and delineates for us the various threads that went into Gandhi's religious outlook. Jordens concludes that Gandhi's way was not that of one religious tradition, but a weaving together of several strands of religiousity, brought together in a creative fusion as can only take place in the heart of a person whose spirit is deeply alive to the sacred. This weaving took place throughout the 78-year long life of Gandhi, never stagnating, and always evolving to new degrees of subtlety and in response to the immediate environment.
This book comes together as both a book on religious philosophy and on the history of ideas, through the life history of one man. It is significant in its singular focus on Gandhi's religious outlook as opposed to his political work. However, Gandhi himself wrote that the religious quest is not as much about theological speculation or belief as much as it is the quality of the soul. This quality of the soul is best conveyed by entering into the feelings and states of consciousness that the person being studied experienced. Jorden's book, on the other hand, focuses more on Gandhi's belief system and its application - that is, his theology and his ethics, rather than his phenomenology and psychology. The very structure of academic thinking prevents such a focus on the subjective.
Despite this flaw, this is a thorough, evocative, and highly sincere book that takes up its subject matter with the deepest diligence, dignity and clarity of thought that modern scholarship has to offer.
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Top reviews from other countries
Kaif Mahmood
A diligent, thorough account of Gandhi's religious outlook
Reviewed in India on August 21, 2016