Distortion of Truth – Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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Distortion of Truth – Mahatma Gandhi

 

A correspondent has been endeavouring with the help of the head master of a high school to introduce the teaching of the Gita among its boys. But at a recent meeting convened to organize Gita readings a bank manager got up and disturbed the even tenor of the proceedings by saying that students had not the adhikara, ‘qualification’, for studying the Gita; it was not a play-thing to be placed before students. The correspondent sends me a long and argued letter about the incident and sends in support of his contention some apt saying from Ramakrishna Parmahansa from which I cull the following : Boys and youths should be encouraged to seek God. They are like unpacked fruits, being totally untainted by worldly desires. Once such desires have entered their minds, it is very difficult to make them tread the path to salvation. Why do I love young men so much because they are masters of the whole (16 annas) of their minds which get divided and sub-divided as they grow up.

One half of the mind of a married man goes to his wife. When a child is born it takes away one-fourth (four annas), and the remaining one-fourth (four annas) is scattered over parents, worldly honours, dress, etc. Therefore a young mind can easily know God. It is very difficult for old people to do so. The parrot cannot be taught to sing if the membrane of its throat becomes hardened with age. It must be taught while it is young. Similarly, in old age it is difficult for the mind to be fixed on God. It can be easily done so in youth. If a seer of adulterated milk contains a chhatank (sixteenth part of a seer) of water, it can be thickened into kshira (condensed milk) with very little labour and consumption of fuel. But should there be three paos (quarter seer) of water in a seer, the milk cannot be easily thickened and a large consumption of fuel will be required. A young mind, being but slightly adulterated with worldly desires, can be easily turned towards God; this cannot be done with the minds of old people which are highly adulterated with such desires. The tender bamboo can be easily bent, but the full-grown bamboo breaks when an attempt is made to bend it. It is easy to bend young hearts towards God, but the heart of the old escapes the hold when so drawn. The human mind is like a package of mustard seed. As it is very difficult to gather the seeds that escape out of a torn package and are scattered in all directions, so when the human mind runs in diverse directions and is occupied with many worldly things, it is not a very easy task to collect and concentrate it. The mind of a youth, not running in diverse directions, can be easily fixed on anything; but the mind of an old man being totally occupied with worldly things, it is very hard for him to draw it away from them and fix it on God.

I have heard of adhikara in connection with the Vedas, but I never knew that the Gita required the qualifications that the bank manager had in mind. It would have been better if he had stated the nature of the qualifications he required. The Gita clearly states that it is meant for all but scoffers. If Hindu students may not read the Gita they may not read any religious works at all. Indeed the original conception in Hinduism is that the student life is the life of a brahmachari who should begin it with knowledge of religion coupled with practice so that he may digest what he learns and weave religious conduct into his life. The student of old began to live his religion before he knew what it was, and this conduct was followed by due enlightenment, so that he might know the reason for the conduct prescribed for him. Adhikara then there certainly was. But it was the adhikara of right conduct known as the five yamas or cardinal restraints ahimsa (innocence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), Aparigraha (non possession), and brahmacharya (celibacy). These were the rules that had to be observed by anybody who wished to study religion. He may not go to religious books for proving the necessity of these fundamentals of religion. But today the word adhikara like many such potent words has suffered distortion, and a dissolute man, simply because he is called Brahmin, has adhikara to read and expound Shastras to us, whereas a man, if he is labelled an untouchable because of his birth in a particular state, no matter how virtuous he may be, may not read them.

But the author of the Mahabharata of which the Gita is a part wrote his great work for the purpose of meeting this insane objection, and made it accessible to all irrespective of the so-called caste, provided, I presume, that he complied with the observances I have described: I add the qualifying expression “I presume” for, at the time of writing, I do not recall the observance of the yamas as a condition precedent to a person studying the Mahabharata. Experience however shows that the purity of heart and the devotional frame of mind are necessary for a proper understanding of religious books. The printing age has broken down all barriers and scoffers read religious books with the same freedom (if not greater) that the religiously-minded have. But we are here discussing the propriety of students reading the Gita as per of religious instruction and devotional exercise. Here I cannot imagine any class of persons more amenable to the restraints and thus more fitted than students for such instruction. Unfortunately, it is to be admitted that neither the students nor the instructors in the majority of cases think anything of the real adhikara of the five restraints.

 

Reference:

Young India, 8-12-1927