365betÓéÀÖ

“A TRULY ATOMIC MAN IN ATOMIC AGE�:
AN APPROACH TO GANDHIJI

Dr. K. VENKATA REDDY and K. SUBBARANGAIAH
Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur

Gandhiji is generally acknowledged and widely acclaimed as Father of the Nation, social reformer, a philosopher, a practical idealist, an apostle of Truth and non-violence, a Satyagrahi and above all, a seer and a saint. But, he is scarcely, if at all, referred to as a scientist. How can Gandhiji be called a scientist, one would immediately react, when he has nothing to do with science. But, a close study of Gandhi and his life reveals that he was scientific in whatever he said or did. Sri Shrimannarayan, who recently passed away, hardly exaggerated when he said that Gandhiji was “a truly atomic man in atomic age.�

A scientist is one who has some postulates which he seeks to verify by means of an experiment in his laboratory. Whatever may be his postulates or hypotheses, and whatever may be his experiments the scientist’s ultimate aim is to seek Truth. Approached from this angle Gandhiji comes to us unfailingly as a scientist. For, he accepted Truth as the only law that governed him.

If Gandhiji is a scientist his postulates are the social and moral values of life. His experiments are Truth and non-violence and his laboratory is society. The very fact that he chose to call his autobiography “The Story of my Experiments with Truth� goes a long way in suggesting to us his scientific approach towards life and its problems.

Gandhiji was, no doubt; an idealist–but a practical idealist. He had no use for any ideals if they were not capable of being acted upon in life. So, like a scientist, Gandhiji would cherish and accept any ideal, however good or great it may be, only when it stands the litmus test of Truth and non-violence. He summarily rejects all that is untruthful and violent. Thus Gandhiji, like a scientist, is also searcher after Truth, As he himself wrote in Young India (Dec. 3, 1925)

I am a searcher after Truth. My experiments I hold to be infinitely more important than the best-equipped Himalayan expeditions. And the results? If the search is scientific, surely there is no compassion between the two. Let me, therefore, go my way. I shall lose my usefulness the moment I stifle the still small voice within.

A scientist gives as much importance to the method of experimentation as to his results. Because he knows full well that unless the experiment is right the result cannot be right. In the same manner Gandhiji gave as much importance to the means as to the ends. He never subscribed to the Machiavillian principle that the end justifies the means. He emphatically observed:

They say means are after all means. I would say means are after all everything. As the means so the end. There is no wall of separation between means and end.

Gandhiji compared means to a seed and the end to a tree and said:

There is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and tree.

Gandhiji stuck to this golden ideal through thick and thin without worrying about the immediate results, again like a true scientist. He was fully convinced that our ultimate progress towards the goal would be in exact proportion to the purity of our means just as the accuracy of the results is dependent on the accuracy of the experimental set up used. Gandhiji judges the purity of his means in consonance with the demands of Truth and non-violence.

Even during the freedom struggle Gandhiji never compromised with the principles of Truth and non-violence for achieving temporary gains. He was prepared to sacrifice everything for winning India’s Independence but not those fundamental things. To him Truth and non-violence were much more important than even Swaraj for India. It is because of his strong adherence to Truth and non-violence that he had to incur the displeasure of his close associate in the freedom struggle, namely Subhash Chandra Bose, who was for winning freedom at any cost, even by bloodshed. Gandhiji would rather lose his friend than gain Swaraj through bloodshed.

Thus, like a scientist, Gandhiji experimented various social and moral concepts with Truth and non-violence in the laboratory of his life and derived the ideals of Satyagraha, self-reliance, non-possession, trusteeship, equality of sex, dignity of manual labour, Brahmacharya, Sarvodaya, oneness of religion and God. Hence their validity and universal appeal to us today.

Gandhiji’s religion was also essentially rational. By religion he did not mean formal religion or custom treated as religion. He meant the religion that underlies all religions “which brings us�, as he put it, “face to face with our Maker.�

Gandhiji was a devout but rational Hindu. He was deeply religious, but he was not much interested in theology or metaphysics. He stressed ethical considerations above all. He would not accept any belief which did not appeal to his sense of reasoning or any injunction which did not satisfy his conscience. He tended to explain and interpret every religious text to suit his rationality. As Rajaji pointed Out, Gandhiji “looked upon the Ramayana and the Mahabharata as mere allegories and Rama was just a name for God with him.�

It is true that in his experiments with Truth and non-violence Gandhiji did not always succeed, again as it is the case with scientists. As no true scientist would ever be deterred by his failures, Gandhiji did not lose his spirit with the failures he encountered: Instead, he derived positive pleasure from each bitter experience and marched forward stronger than what he was. As Gandhiji himself expressed:

I am but a Poor struggling soul yearning to be wholly good, wholly truthful, and wholly non-violent in thought, word, and deed, but ever falling to reach the ideal which I know to be true. It is painful but the pain of it is a positive pleasure to me. Each step upward makes me feel stronger and fit for the next.