ABSTRACT
In the foregoing analysis of Gandhi’s philosophy I have tried to show that certain fundamental religious and ethical beliefs acquired within Hinduism inform his teaching and determine his way of life.1 Central to his philosphy is the concept of Truth and it is not without significance that he sub-titles his autobiography ‘the story of my experiments with Truth’. It is evident that he sought to live his life in the spirit of Truth and in accordance with the religious and ethical ideals of the Hindu way of life. The early Hindu tradition refers to ultimate reality as Brahman, the substratum of existence, which in the Advaita or nondualist tradition is identified with Œtman, the innermost Self and principle of life, and it refers to the eternal law and the moral law, which man is required to live in accordance with as the sanatana dharma and ta. Gandhi preserves the metaphysical and ethical connotation of these Hindu terms by his use of Satya or Truth. For him Truth is the essence of reality since nothing is except Truth and, like Brahman of the earlier tradition, Truth is Sat-CitŒnanda, Being Consciousness, Bliss. That he should claim to have had glimpses only of absolute Truth is understandable since, like Brahman, it is the ideal beyond predication, the neti neti, (not this, not this) which cannot be embodied in concrete particulars.
