Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy Beyond Occidental Tradition, grade: A, Hindu University of America (Hindu University of America), course: Term Paper, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Formal gliedert sich die Arbeit in drei Teile. Zunächst werden die wichtigsten Konzepte von Gandhis Denken geklärt (Satya: Wahrheit, Ahimsa: Nicht-Gewalt, Satyagraha, etc.) Anschliessend wird der Einfluss bestimmter heiliger Schriften und bedeutender Persönlichkeiten auf Gandhis philosophisches und religiöses Denken aufgezeigt. Schliesslich wird Gandhi mit Sokrates, Aristoteles, Kant und Kirkegaard, etc. verglichen. Den Schluss bildet eine Sammlung von wichtigen Gandhi-Zitaten. Im Folgenden nur zwei: "The immediate service of human beings becomes a necessary part of the endeavour, simply because the only way to find God is to see him in his creation and be one with it. I know, that I can not find him apart form humanity." "It is possible to recognise the existence of God to a certain extent through the use of reason. There is a scheme of things in the universe, an irreversible law that governs everything. In the midst of death, life continues; in the midst of untruth, truth continues to prevail; in the midst of injustice, justice endures; in the midst of darkness, light continues to exist. Whereas everything that sourrounds me is subject to eternal change, at the same time an active living force exists that does not undergo alteration. As far as I believe, there is no encounter within the beyond, as we have it in the present. When a single droplets vanish, they participate again in the majesty of the ocean where they belong. They die seperately, to be reunited with the ocean." (Die Arbeit ist auf Englisch.)

Short, easy-to-read essays revealing Gandhi’s most important teachings on love, meditation, service, and prayer—with profound wisdom and inspiration for readers of every faith. Mahatma Gandhi became famous as the leader of the Indian independence movement, but he called himself “a man of God disguised as a politician.” The Way to God demonstrates his enduring significance as a spiritual leader whose ideas offer insight and solace to seekers of every practice and persuasion. Collecting many of his most significant writings, the book explores the deep religious roots of Gandhi’s worldly accomplishments and reveals—in his own words—his intellectual, moral, and spiritual approaches to the divine. First published in India in 1971, the book is based on Gandhi’s lifetime experiments with truth and reveals the heart of his teachings. Gandhi’s aphoristic power, his ability to sum up complex ideas in a few authoritative strokes, shines through these pages. Individual chapters cover such topics as moral discipline, spiritual practice, spiritual experience, and much more. Gandhi’s guiding principles of selflessness, humility, service, active yet nonviolent resistance, and vegetarianism make his writings as timely today as when these writings first appeared. A foreword by Gandhi’s grandson Arun and an introduction by Michael Nagler add useful context.

Unconditional Equality examines Mahatma Gandhi’s critique of liberal ideas of freedom and equality and his own practice of a freedom and equality organized around religion. It reconceives satyagraha (passive resistance) as a politics that strives for the absolute equality of all beings. Liberal traditions usually affirm an abstract equality centered on some form of autonomy, the Kantian term for the everyday sovereignty that rational beings exercise by granting themselves universal law. But for Gandhi, such equality is an “equality of sword”—profoundly violent not only because it excludes those presumed to lack reason (such as animals or the colonized) but also because those included lose the power to love (which requires the surrender of autonomy or, more broadly, sovereignty). Gandhi professes instead a politics organized around dharma, or religion. For him, there can be “no politics without religion.” This religion involves self-surrender, a freely offered surrender of autonomy and everyday sovereignty. For Gandhi, the “religion that stays in all religions” is satyagraha—the agraha (insistence) on or of satya (being or truth). Ajay Skaria argues that, conceptually, satyagraha insists on equality without exception of all humans, animals, and things. This cannot be understood in terms of sovereignty: it must be an equality of the minor.

This book seeks to give a coherent account of Gandhi's basic ideas, demonstrating the importance of Hindu thought and the centrality of his concept of Truth.