Soul Survivor

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Notes by Sally Hodges Dr. Tony Parel, Monday November 8, 2004 St David's Book Study groupock Dr Parel has found helpful in Gandhi's philosophy and life, Gandhi's belief that humans are made up of both a body and a soul. Partly because of views such as this he was named Ma-hatma - Great Soul. 'Many in this world think that humans are only a body and build their practices on that belief', said Dr Parel. For instance the medical world tends to address only the body, and bases treatments for illnesses on this view. Freud, also, developed his psychoanalysis on the assumption that humans have no soul. In law and criminality there have been many theories that ignore the spiritual side of humans and try to account for all behaviour in terms of the physical realm. This theory of us having an immortal soul is important because humans' basic dignity and freedom is rooted in it. It is not by dint of our birth status or health or talents that we have dignity, but because of the fact that we each possess a soul. One does not have to belong to a particular religion to have a soul, it is a human attribute. This soul can be developed by itself. In fact, the quality of a person is based on how much they have cultivated their soul or inner life. Gandhi had developed his inner life to such a degree that even extraordinary criticism, exclusion, derision and cruelty could not interfere with his own personal dignity. The Government of India put him to trial once. During the trial, Gandhi, having no fear of any repercussions, simply said that the Government was wrong. The judge at the trial apologized to him and the Government, realizing that they were making fools of themselves before Gandhi's composure, never took him to trial again. An important point made by Gandhi was that we must reach beyond the human. He defined the realm of ethical behaviour as behaviour in which we relate to each other. The Sermon on the mount is largely about ethics, according to Gandhi and even his favourite author, Tolstoy's, book "The Kingdom of God is Within You", in teaching how to avoid violent behaviour, is talking about ethics. This is, according to Gandhi, a lower level than the spiritual level, which is one where we reach for God. At the lower level also is the psychological level, both its positive aspects and negative aspects. To rise to the spiritual level we must go higher than psychological balance. Gandhi himself prayed twice a day for half an hour each time and did this very punctually. He said that prayer is the activity of the soul that relates to God. When asked why he felt the need to pray so consistently, he said that human emotions and appetites are always there and that one must be constantly watchful. Gandhi was influenced by two particular parables from the Bible. The first was the parable of the owner of the vineyard (Matthew 20) who did the seemingly inexplicable thing of paying the same wage to the person who came to work at 9am as those who came much later in the day. "Even unto this last I give the same" said the owner. Ruskin wrote a book based on this parable named "Unto This Last" which Gandhi spent some of a 24 hour hour train trip in South Africa reading. For the rest of the journey he then began formulating his own philosophy based on that book. Kenneth Clark has named "Unto This Last", 'a prophetic book of the nineteenth century'. So what is the point of the parable according to Ruskin and Gandhi? It is that there is such a thing as social justice. The last person deserves a family wage just as much as the first person. Every single human being deserves a decent living. The number of hours worked is incidental to this fact. This was the beginning of the twentieth century's development of human rights. This book became Gandhi's own economic treatise for social justice. This was also an example of a source of inspiration for Gandhi which allowed him to bring to bear a spiritual value in the political realm. This is one of the reasons that Gandhi was a great leader. The second parable that greatly influenced Gandhi was that of the Rich Young Man. "I'm dissatisfied", the young man told Jesus, and Jesus advised him to get rid of all his wealth and to follow Him. The Bible says that the young man grieved. This was to show how wealth grips you. Anything beyond wealth will be trumped by it. In the spiritual struggle with wealth, which is very hard, wealth must be mastered. One time Gandhi was invited to speak to a conference of eminent economists. He knew little about economics but he decided to tell them one thing: the greatest economic achievement is wealth, but this is not enough. There is a range of values beyond wealth. We all need wealth, but we also all need what is beyond wealth. Gandhi had a strong esthetic sense, especially in regard to Christian hymns and the visual arts. He had his ashram sing "Lead Kindly Light" at 7.40pm every night [Gandhi always carried a watch and was very punctual] and when he was faced with a particularly difficult problem he would recite to himself the line "One step enough for me". HIs second favourite hymn was "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross". The latter is interesting because when he visited the Vatican in 1931 he went to the Sistine Chapel where he stood gazing at the fourteenth century crucifix there, for a long time. He was seen to have tears pouring down his cheeks as he looked at it. Dr Parel suggested that perhaps Gandhi was thinking about his future campaigns of non-violent resistence at that time. Dr Parel discussed the difference between religion and spirituality. He suggested that religions make it hard work to be spiritual but spirituality misses the social dimension - it has no commitments associated with it. He said that every religion has the possibility that it will end up as mere formality. For example, going to church every Sunday could become an end in itself instead of a deepening in understanding. Note that the phrase, "Thy Kingdom come" may not necessarily refer to the church. Although the above was inspired by Christianity, Gandhi also had the Four Aims of Life found in Hindu culture as a source of inspiration. This allowed him to be spiritual as well as political, and therefore made him a great leader. The Four Aims of Life in Hindu culture are: 1. We all need wealth and power: enough money to be free and enough power to be able to put order in one's own life so that the wicked can not take it over. 2. Pleasure is a legitimate end of life. This can be all forms of esthetics - art, music, the performing arts - and sexuality. 3. We must behave in ethical ways. 4. We must seek spiritual development. These aims were given to Buddha in 500 BC and Gandhi understood their importance 2500 years later. Dr Parel considers that Buddha had good things to say, but had a blind spot when it came to admitting the importance of the power to organize and be political. Gandhi knew that organization was essential and that a framework (constitution etc) had to be drawn up for the new India. When asked about India's progress today in relation to Gandhi's ideas, Dr Parel suggested that India needs to become wealthier, and therefore freer, before they are really able to implement Gandhi's ideas. For non-violence to work as a a method there has to be a social condition - "the vast majority principal" - in place. i.e. most people need to be peace loving in the society. That is why Martin Luther King succeeded in the United States but why Gandhi 'wouldn't have lasted five minutes' in Germany in the thirties. Dr Parel also commented on the Dalai Lama. He is living out the Buddhist tradition of not aspiring to political power. (Buddha was a prince and gave up everything to live a spiritual life). Dr Parel suggested that the Dalai Lama is setting a very bad example wanting to be the spiritual leader of Tibet without political knowledge (and without being willing to arm Tibet). To Dr Parel, the greatest leaders are those, like Gandhi, who combine the spiritual with the political. (In Islam's case it is a combination of religion and politics that they seek, which is different). Gandhi filled a gap between aesthetic Hinduism and Buddhism.

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