A Great Philosopher

He increasingly tended towards asceticism, and believed in Thoreau’s philosophy of complete self-reliance and the dignity of labour, wearing a khadi loincloth and a shawl that he had woven himself. The spinning wheel that he worked on religiously every day is profoundly symbolic of the Mahatma and his beliefs to this day. Deeply aggrieved by the unyielding caste system in his country, he worked all his life for the upliftment of the ones he called Harijans (Children of God). His innate belief in the goodness in life and the spirituality enshrined in each human being was unshakable. He dreamt of a free and self-reliant India, where Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Harijans would live in harmony and work towards a better world.Perhaps the most profound of his philosophies was his quest for truth, an untainted non-sectarian truth, universal in appeal. He found this aspect in ahmisa, roughly translated as non-violence. He believed in and practised ahimsa in thoughts, words, and actions that sprung from a love for mankind that lay beyond the continent of calculations and rewards – a personal philosophy inspired by the Bhagavad Gita considered as perhaps the most lucid representation of Hinduism, and by many as the most sacred book of the Hindus.