GANDHI

SCIENCE

SPIRITUALITY

Whole-Person

No compartmentalization of ethics !

No rationalization of unethical behavior

Right Action Outcomes Justify Actions

Between Satyagraha and Tolstoy Farm, at the age of 40,

comes…

Satyagraha, 1908

Tolstoy Farm, 1910

SS Kildonan Castle, from London to South Africa, 1909

“SELF-RULE”

Young Gandhi, brash, totally politically incorrect

“Doctors have almost unhinged us. Sometimes I think that quacks are better than highly

qualified doctors.”

On Medicine

Overeat

Overeat

“Had I not taken the pills in the first instance, I would have suffered the punishment deserved by me and I would not have overeaten again”

“(We) take less care of (our) bodies and immorality increases.”

Hospitals perpetuate lack of responsibility

“Self-Rule”, written in 1909

“For the sake of a mistaken care of the human body, they kill annually thousands of animals. They practice vivisection. No religion sanctions this. All say that it is not necessary to take so many lives for the sake of our bodies.”

“Self-Rule”, written in 1909

Medical Research

Gandhi’s model of medicine

Self-control, Self-Awareness, Harmony with Nature !

Big fan of Ayurveda

How did Gandhi use the word “science?”

“Reformers may not dictate reform to society. They will have to appeal to its reason and heart. … Hence it (social reform) is a science by itself and yields results only when systematically

pursued.” — CW 64:515

!If he (the village worker) treats it (processes of khadi) as a

science, it won’t jar on him, but he will derive fresh joy from it everyday, as he realizes more and more its great

possibilities.” — CW 64: 336

“In reorganizing your khadi production, you should not forget that the science of khadi, in some respects, works on

diametrically opposite lines to that of ordinary business.” — CW 64:401

It seems to me that we do think about these (social) problems from time to time, but we don't put a full-time effort

into them - the reasons being that we know we don't have any magic formula for solving social problems, that social problems are very much harder than scientific ones, and that we usually

don't get anywhere when we do think about them.

! I believe that a scientist looking at

nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy - and when he talks

about a nonscientific matter, he sounds as naive as anyone untrained in the

matter.

Richard Feynman“The Value of Science”, 1955

Science for Gandhi: An unwavering quest for truth

Not limited to material bean-counting

— Collected Works, 70:321

“A science to be science must afford the fullest scope for satisfying the hunger of the body,

mind and soul”

Appropriated economics, psychology and spirituality into its wake!

Gandhi’s Science

He called it “Ramanama” or taking the name of God

Doctors tried convincing Gandhi to take penicillin (antibiotics) !

Gandhi preferred Ramanama

—CW 97.25, 1947

Doctor’s Argument: !Science had definitely established that there are specific causes for specific ailments.

You eradicate the cause and the disease goes. On the other hand, anyone can be given cholera by introducing cholera germs into his system. The laws of science are

inviolable.

Gandhi’s Response: !I call this arrogance. Science has yet much to learn. It has so far touched only the hem

of the garment. All illness is the result of the violation of the laws of nature, in other words, the penalty of sin against Him—since He and His law are one. Therefore, when Ramanama holds full sway, all illness vanishes. People have no idea of the full potency of Ramanama. I am out to demonstrate it. I must wish to live only to serve Him and live, therefore, through His grace alone. I have plunged into this fire to discover the science of Ramanama just as a doctor or a scientist rushes into an area where an epidemic is

raging to discover the laws of physical science. I must discover it or perish in the attempt.

Difference b/w Ramanama and SuperstitionMere lip recitation of Ramanama has nothing to do with cure. Faith-cure, if I

know it correctly, is blind cure, such as the friend describes and thereby ridicules the living name of the living God. The latter is not figment of one’s imagination. It has to come from the heart. It is conscious belief in God and a knowledge of His Law that make perfect cure possible without any further

aid. That law is that perfect mind is responsible for perfect health of the body. A perfect mind comes from a perfect heart not the heart known

by a doctor’s stethoscope but the heart which is the seat of God. It is claimed that realization of God in the heart makes it impossible for an

impure or idle thought to cross the mind. Disease is impossible where there is purity of thought. Such a state may be difficult to attain. But the first step in the ascent to health is taken with its recognition. The next is taken when the corresponding attempt is made. This radical alteration in one’s life is

naturally accompanied by the observance of all other nature’s laws hitherto discovered by man. One cannot play with them and claim to have a pure heart. It can be said with justice that possession of a pure heart should do

equally well without Ramanama. Only, I know no other way of attaining purity. And it is the way trodden by the sages of old all over the world. They

were men of God not superstitious men or charlatans. —CW 91.81

Perfect Mind —> Perfect Health !

Perfect Heart —> Perfect Mind !

Purification of Heart —> Perfect Heart !

Ramanama was Gandhi’s way of purifying heart.

!

Accommodates non-religious paths - “It can be said with justice that possession of a pure heart

should do equally well without Ramanama”

True Religion Is the Highest Science

Erika Rosenthal: I think, Mahatmaji, we have to contend against religion being mixed up too much with the daily life of our people.

!Gandhi: No, if it is true religion we want more of it.

CW 80.69, 1936

What is true religion?

One that leads to a pure heart. !

Revolution of science from the study of wellness

Adam Grant

Seeded the Center for Compassion Research

— CW 24.180

“I do not want to name the many sciences there are in the world, but it is safe to believe that you

have grasped the meaning of any science to the extent that you put it into practice. It is not

proper that we pay no attention to acting on the numerous pledges that we take. Any pledge

once taken should be scrupulously kept, at the cost of one’s life if necessary..”

The Science of a Perfect Heart was not an intellectual matter

Gandhi’s pledgeम"कम$क%&म"परमो म*+तः स/गवiजतः |

iनव6रः सव$भ89षu यः स मा>iत पा?डव ||११- ५५||

The one who acts for the source, and for whom the source is the final destination, the one who is completely detached, The one who has no sense of enmity toward anybody, that

person alone attains the source. !

— Bhagwad Gita 11.55

Gandhi’s Purity

Picture from Gandhi Ashram Museum, Ahmedabad

A poetic understanding of purity - Vaishnav Jan

Sung in meditative mood by Neha Kumar, offered as a gift to the

wonderful Bakersfield community !

To listen, click on link below: http://youtu.be/X_y1icKI30Y

Thank you.

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