Thoughts on MK Gandhi

“It took me long to get free from the shackles of lust, and I had to pass through many ordeals before I could overcome it. Let all those who are married be warned by my example”, said Gandhi, in his book, with a heavy heart. Unmoved. Bravely, and yet, truthfully. We may learn many things from many people, be it humility from Narendra Modi, confidence from Subhash Chandra Bose, nationalism from Shaheed Bhagat Singh, vision from Lal Bahadur Shastri, and courage from Bal Gangadhar Tilak, but it is from our father, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, do we learn the sheer, righteous value of speaking the truth.

Ladies and gentlemen, our Coveted Principal, and my most wonderful English teacher, thank you for this opportunity. The opportunity for me, to talk about our roots. Our ingrained culture of सत्यभाषणं करोति and सर्वदा सत्यं वदेः. And this opportunity to talk about who we are today, and the reason behind it. Why we follow what we follow, why we practice while we preach, and why we stand through thick and thin, with the people of this land, and shout in unity, Satyameva Jayate!

I am grateful to have occupied this window to talk about our ancestry, yet our future. Our history, yet our development. And our triumph through the road of truth. When we look back, into the Hindustan ruled by the Britts, who arrogantly, savagely tortured us, ill treated us, and ruled us to a point of not looking back anymore, we find many instances of our valour, many times we have stood up to the bully, not shoved it down our throat, but instead, given it back to them with full consequence. Be it the INA, the, bombing of the parliament, the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, the Kheda, Champaran or the Swadeshi movement, from Bhagat Singh to Sukhdev to Rajguru to Bose to the Lal-Bal-Pal trio, there is one man whom we laud and praise for his feats. One man who brought us together. A student, who, when once asked to cheat on his test, refused. A man who was honest. Who stood up for the truth? And do you know what that man went on to become?

The father of our nation, the man from Porbandar, the change he wanted, for the future we wanted, the man who sacrificed everything during the daunting spell of pandemonium the British had administered in the country, the man who gave it his all, the Mahatma, MK Gandhi. A true patriot, and an exceptional ambassador of Satya, Ahimsa and Brotherhood (in Hindi), he was one of the most pivotal and influential parties in the proclaiming of our freedom. So today, one day after his 151st birth anniversary, why shan’t we take a deep dive into his ideologies? Into his way of thinking? Into the mind of a magnificent individual, who spoke nothing but the truth?

For this though, we need to understand what he was passionate about though. About what he preached, and what he followed. What he advocated, what he stood by, and lived by. And while for us, the same might quite agonizingly be money, name or fame, for him, it was values. Values of speaking the truth, that he learned from his parents, the concept of equality, that he learned from the horrendous tyranny of the Mughal Raj, Ahimsa, that he learned through books, through practising what he preached, let me dive into one subject he held very highly, spoke very fondly of too, a subject interpreted in innumerable ways by innumerable people, the art of speaking Truth.

So, when you ask yourself the question, as to what the truth really is, as to how you can reach the road of truthfulness coupled with righteousness, you first have to question all that you know. What is truth? Why did he propagate it so much and what was his version of this truth that we are all told to speak? Let’s not ask what truth is: let us ask instead how we can recognize it reliably when it appears. The answer to that, is very complex.

For centuries, man has tried answering this question, and like our quest to find life on other planets in the solar system, we find hints, we find probing details, but never enough to conclusively turn over our mind to tell us for sure what truth it. From Plato to Aristotle to Gandhi, they’ve all defined truth for us. Let us look into what truth is for ourselves, and then see, if it is congruent with what Gandhi preached.

Let's take an example. To prove to us what really truth is. To prove to us, why truthfulness is a must. A necessity yet something we all desire. Take a ruler, or anything like it, fairly firm and sturdy. You hold it in your hand you try bending it, and as you know it to be true, any one of you can confirm to me that the ruler will indeed by linear, it will not bend when tilted, if it will it'll break, and other blatant facts about the ruler that you consider, universal truths.

But what if I was to put all that info significant doubt? To put all that you consider as truth, into not shallow but a deep, grave cave of uncertainty where you don't know what to believe anymore?

So, I ask you, to put that very ruler into a glass of water, and then, what happens? The ruler bends, doesn't it? And the universal truth that the ruler stays linear throughout Doesn't hold true. So then, what do you adhere to? What do you believe, as the truth? And why do we need it, the practicality, the application and the mere moral of it?

A straight ruler appears bent when half-submerged in a glass of water. Appalling! But shockingly true. It is like that old quote said by Descartes. In order to determine whether there is anything we can know with certainty; we first have to doubt everything we know. Such a radical doubt might not seem reasonable, especially in this case, and Descartes certainly does not mean that we really should doubt everything. And this is what you call hypothetical doubt, something you didn’t do here.

Through the above example, you can prove that truth is both logical and empirical. The logical ‘principle of non-contradiction’ states that the contradictory hypotheses, ‘the ruler is straight’ and ‘the ruler is not straight’ cannot both be true at the same time, and in principle observation should settle which is the case. In practice, things are not so simple. The observable truth would seem to change as the ruler enters the water. And it does. So, what we call truth ourselves, seems to be untrue. How then, do we even define truth?

You define it as the problem of being clear about what you are saying when you say some claim or other is true. Truth is the single currency of the sovereign mind, the knowing subject, and the best thinking – in philosophy, science, art – discriminates between the objective and subjective sides of the coin, and appreciates both the unity of reality and the diversity of experience. But then there arises another question, if true beliefs describe the world, and the world is constantly changing, do truths keep changing too?

We now know what a truth is. We know how where we can find these statements of truth. But how do we come across them? How do we lay our hands on these statements of underlying passion? There are four factors that aid us, four words, that led Gandhi, that lead us, and that will lead our children in finding their truths. Congruence, consistency, coherence, and usefulness.

A true theory, is congruent with our experience, ergo, it fits the facts and what we’ve experienced. It is however provisional, so, as our facts keep changing, so will our truths.

A true theory is internally consistent. It has no contradictions within itself, and it fits together elegantly.

Alongside this criterion, a true theory is coherent with everything else we consider true. It confirms, or at least fails to contradict, the rest of our established knowledge.

And finally, A true theory is useful. It gives us mastery. When we act on the basis of a true theory or explanation, our actions are successful.

And now, now that we’ve defined truth for ourself, let us reminisce Gandhi’s version of truth. What he propagated and preached. What he spread and what he is known for. His theories of truth and ahimsa.

Gandhi built up his life in accordance to the many values he preached. He was someone who practiced what he preached and someone who held true to his many words of wisdom. Gandhi believes that we are all material. He propagated that nothing existed or lived in reality, everything was an illusion, but truth. That is why he said Sat or Satya was the most celebrated name of god and rather than saying God is the truth, professed the theory of truth itself taking the form of god.

Gandhi talks about three eternal qualities, all prerequisites of the other. He talks about the abode of truth. To quote Gandhi, from the “Experiments with Truth”, And where there is Truth, there is also is knowledge which is true. Where there is no Truth, there can be no true knowledge. That is why the word Chit or knowledge is associated with the name of God. And where there is true knowledge, there is always bliss (Ananda). And as Truth is eternal, so is the bliss derived from it. Hence, we know God as Sat-Chit-Ananda, one who combines in Himself Truth, Knowledge and Bliss.

Gandhi says that devotion to truth is the sole justification to our existence. The mere breath of life. He instructs us to emerge on the quest for truth through abhyasa and vairagya, as does the Bhagavat Gita. But I don’t want to bore you with philosophy. I spoke today, to not highlight the individual Gandhi, who might be celebrated amidst his accolades of the Non-Cooperation or the Salt Satyagraha, I spoke today on what he believed. What he held as his truth.

I shall leave you with a few of his words, as stated in his autobiography. “In such selfless search for Truth nobody can lose his bearings for long. Directly he takes to the wrong path he stumbles, and is thus redirected to the right path. Therefore, the pursuit of Truth is true bhakti (devotion). It is the path that leads to God.” And so, all of you, each one seated in front of your respective screens, seek that truth, that coherent, useful, consistent and congruent theory, seek your raison d^tre and be on the quest for that spark of fire in your life that gives you the true Sat, the true Chit and the true Ananda.

Jai Hind!