ABSTRACT
Professor Radhakrishnan knows better than anybody else what must be the progression and modulation of ideas in a Western mind confronted with the phenomenon of Mahātmā Gāndhi. So very much of what went into the formation of the Mahātmā, historically and spiritually, is unfamiliar to the West, so much of the essence is misunderstood or susceptible of misunderstanding, and there is such a large area of experience peculiar to the Indian consciousness through the ages, that alike in learning, in perception and in experiential equipment both conscious and unconscious the Westerner is at a disadvantage. Gāndhi transcended our categories and transvaluated our values. It also appears to me—and again Professor Radhakrishnan is the best judge—that he did the same to Indian categories and values. Thus, in considering what he was, did and taught, we all of us have to rise far above our ordinary circumvallations, our prisons large and small, to a level at which it is possible to contemplate selfless purity as a force in the world—not, that is, withdrawn from life but deeply and widely effective in it.
