Pariprashnena — Q&A Archive

Chanting, reading Bhagavad _Gita and a vegiterian . What did Srila Prabhupad wanted Gandhiji to do ? He was doing karma yoga. But he never preched sanatan dharma I think

Most people think that Gandhi was pure and had no faults; however, Gandhi screwed up a lot and it made India suffer quite a bit. He preached about the Bhagavad Gita but he, like many others, missed the point of the book. Prabhupada mailed a letter to have a talk with Gandhi, but nothing happened (Im not sure what happened with the letter).

Youd have to ask a devotee from the Indian subcontinent who is in knowledge about Gandhi and his works. Most people, and quite a lot of Indians included, think of Gandhi in a pure light. I wont deny that he had good intentions and gave strength to people, but he did not know what he was doing, and it caused great suffering to the people of India.

Prabhupada often repeated that Gandhi wanted to support his ahimsa idea thru BG while Krishna in BG encourages Arjuna to perform his duty, himsa.

My understanding is that Gandhi knew well what he was doing. He was a politician with an agenda influenced by Theosophy.

In the long-awaited book on BSST by Bhakti Vikasa Swami there is a relevant passage (quote from an older working version) - att.

Hare krishna, Please forget Gandhiji what he did in the past OR wether he screwed up everything or Not. Bottom Line is he chanted the name pf Rama when he left his body. As per BG 8.5 he would have reach Lord Rama Planet and we are still into his material pastime...chant nicesly and be like him so that we can chant Lords name when we die....Haribol

Did Gandhi uttered Rama at the time of death? Politics of Gandhis last words.

Dear Nicepeople, Gandhi chanting Hey Rama, at the time of death is a controversy. Many people believe that Gandhi never uttered the words Rama in his last moments and It was political propaganda. Please see these links:

http://www.etalkindia.com/incredible_india/mahatma_gandhi_never_said_hey_ram_or_ram_ram_in_his_last_moments-t1410.0.html.
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Gandhi/HeRam_gandhi.html

Please see this link as well:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070330043256AA5qosH

Gandhis final words, matter of some controversy.

[quote][cite] nicepeople:[/cite]Hare krishna, Please forget Gandhiji what he did in the past OR wether he screwed up everything or Not. Bottom Line is he chanted the name pf Rama when he left his body. As per BG 8.5 he would have reach Lord Rama Planet and we are still into his material pastime...chant nicesly and be like him so that we can chant Lords name when we die....Haribol[/quote]

You cant ignore what someone did in their life, even if they become pure devotees. Ajamilas infamous past life is still talked about and used as an example. He was one of the greatest sinners of his time, but he also later became a pure devotee and achieved liberation.. Ajamila also chanted Lord Narayanas name when he was dying, but he didnt achieve liberation immediately. He got to live longer and then, in due course of time, finally became a pure deovtee. Just because someone utters Lord Ramas name, doesnt mean he immediately gains liberation to Vaikuntha.

Gandhi never practiced pure devotional service, if he did he wouldnt have been in the independence movement.

"History, imagination and truth have got so inextricably mixed up. It is next
to impossible to disentangle them. I have accepted all the names and forms
attributed to God as symbols connoting one formless omnipresent Rama. To me,
therefore Rama described as Lord of Sita, son of Dashratha, is the all
powerful essence whose name, inscribed in the heart, removes all suffering -
mental, moral and physical."
Harijan, June 2, 1946 (Original Publication)

"I do not regard God as a person." (Chapter 20, Nature of God)
Author Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948.
Title My religion / by M.K. Gandhi ; compiled and edited by Bharatan
Kumarappa. Publisher Ahmedabad, India : Navajivan, 1955.

Book / Publication Details:
Author Desai, Mahadev H. (Mahadev Haribhai), 1892-1942, tr.
Title The Gospel of Selfless Action or The Gita according to Gandhi
Publisher Ahmedabad : Navajivan Pub. House, August, 1946

"Even in 1888-89, when I first became acquainted with the Gita, I felt that
it was not a historical work, but that, under the guise of physical warfare,
it described the duel that perpetually went on in the hearts mankind, and
that physical warfare was brought in merely to make the description of the
internal duel more alluring. This preliminary intuition became more
confirmed on a closer study of religion and the Gita. A study of the
Mahabharata gave it added confirmation. I do not regard the Mahabharata as a
historical work in the accepted sense. The Adiparva contains powerful
evidence in support of my opinion. By ascribing to the chief actors
superhuman or subhuman origins, the great Vyasa made short work the history
of kings and their peoples. The persons therein described may be historical,
but the author of the Mahabharata has used them merely to drive home his
religious theme.

"The author of the Mahabharata has not established the necessity of physical
warfare; on the contrary he has proved its futility. He has made the victors
shed tears of sorrow and repentance, and has left them nothing but a legacy
of miseries.

"In this great work the Gita is the crown. Its second chapter, instead of
teaching the rules of physical warfare, tells us how a perfected man is to
be known. In the characteristics of the perfected man of the Gita, I do not
see any to correspond to physical warfare. Its whole design is inconsistent
with the rules of conduct governing the relations between warring parties.

"Krishna of the Gita is perfection and right knowledge personified; but the
picture is imaginary. That does not mean that Krishna, the adored of his
people, never lived. But perfection is imagined. The idea of a perfect
incarnation is an aftergrowth."

So Gandhis point was that since warfare leads to misery it should be abandoned. He completely disregarded the necessity of dharmic warfare. This is a common result of impersonalism, just as is seeing Mahabharata as a fable and Krishna as an idealized human.

One could use a persons (non)allegiance to Gandhi as a test of his understanding of Vaishnavism.