The Gandhian Outlook – Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Summary)

The Gandhian Outlook – Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Mahatma Gandhiji, as Sarvepalli Radhakrishanan said in his essay “The Gandhian Outlook”, was truly a religious man. Gandhiji was great admirer of all religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and others. He realized them in practice the theoretical implications of each religion from its beginning. He understood that Hinduism talk about Abhaya, Ahimsa and Fearlessness and Love, Buddhism talk about Wisdom, Love and Compassion Prajana and Karuna, Christanity talk about Truth and Freedom and Muslims speak of One God and One family on the earth. Gandhiji strongly felt that people have knowledge of their religions but not the deed, which answers to their knowledge.

The greatest contribution of Gandhiji is to make us understand the very essence of those religions and incarnate the great ideals of Truth and Love, which are very foundations of every religion to evolve.  Whenever Gandhiji intended to teach people, he takes up some line of conduct, examines and re-examines it thoroughly, with all fasting and praying, ransacked his brains until at last he was able to say: “This is line of conduct on which to proceed.” Gandhiji never preached anything to anyone without practice. He attained that stage through constant efforts and commitment. He, therefore, expected the highest standards of conduct from everyone who come into contact with him.

Distinctions of race, nationality and sect have no room in Gandhian ethics. Patriotism is not enough. A truly religious man does not restrict his commitment to any country or nation. His loyalty is to the whole of humanity. He acknowledges all great religions as embodying the truth and, therefore, worthy of deep reverence.

He was a revolutionary who was committed to overthrow of all forms of tyranny and social injustice, but who never bore ill will towards anyone, who led a mighty movement against British imperialism, but never allowed the movement to be accompanied by hatred, rancour or resentment against Englishmen. He was not an intellectual in the conventional sense of the term. He was not an academic philosopher propounding his philosophy in a precise manner.

Education should not only help in acquiring knowl­edge and arousing intellectual curiosity, but should inculcate right ideals through knowledge of the nation's social and cultural heritage. The Mahatma rejected the caste system based on birth as immoral. He wanted the organisation of the economy based on hereditary occupations on the ground that they helped to transmit knowledge and skill to the succeeding generations.

His greatest contribution to modern thought lies in his insistence that man is fundamentally a spiritual and moral being and that society is an association of human spirits an association that is not limited in any way by considerations of nationality, race, creed or sex. This is a simple doctrine, yet how profoundly revolutionary.

He wants men and women who are noble, public-spirited, disciplined, who are always bound by the laws of Dharma, who are fully conscious of their social obligations, and who think not in terms of self-interest and self-aggrandizement, but of service to the community and its corporate life. He also wants a society in which every man would be able to live in freedom and achieve creative self-expression. Thus, S. Radhakrishanan advocated on The Gandhian Outlook.

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