Voices of Faith: Why did Gandhi
say, 'If it weren't for Christians, I'd be a Christian'» Social
News
Apr. 25, 2015 The Kansas City Star
Why did Gandhi say, 'If it weren't for
Christians, I'd be a Christian?'
Lama Chuck Stanford, Rime Buddhist
Center: To fully understand this
quote, it is important to know the back story from where it
came.
While Gandhi was a practicing Hindu, Christianity
intrigued him. In his reading of the Gospels, Gandhi was impressed
by Jesus, whom Christians worshipped and followed. He wanted to
know more about this Jesus that Christians referred to as "the
Christ, the Messiah."
A story told by the late Rev. Frederick Pattison
(founder of The Evangelical Network, which focuses on the LGBT
community) about Gandhi says that one Sunday morning Gandhi decided
that he would visit one of the Christian churches in Calcutta. Upon
seeking entrance to the church sanctuary, he was stopped at the
door by the ushers.
He was told he was not welcome, nor would he be
permitted to attend this particular church as it was for high-caste
Indians and whites only. He was neither high caste, nor was he
white. Because of the rejection, the Mahatma turned his back on
Christianity.
With this act, Gandhi rejected the Christian faith,
never again to consider the claims of Christ. He was turned off by
the sin of segregation that was practiced by the church. It was due
to this experience that Gandhi later declared, "I'd be a Christian
if it were not for the Christians.'"
In Buddhism there is a saying, "Don't confuse the
finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself." This means the
finger pointing at the moon teaches us that although someone points
to the moon to show us the truth of its luminosity, the finger
pointing is not the moon itself.
Likewise, the practitioner of a religion doesn't
always practice the religion the way it was originally
taught.
Arvind Khetia, Hindu and an
engineer: Mahatma Gandhi was one of
the great spiritual and political leaders, who made an enormous
contribution to the moral resources of humankind.
The movie, "Gandhi," by Richard Attenborough, is an
excellent introduction to the life of Gandhi and his persistent
effort to live by truth and nonviolence. To understand his
spiritual transformation, "Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of
My Experiments with Truth," and "Gandhi the Man: The Story of His
Transformation" by Eknath Easwaran, are excellent
resources.
In his autobiography, Gandhi writes that, "...
morality is the basis of things and that truth is the substance of
all morality." He believed that "A virtue achieves its potential
only in its application and it ceases to have any use if it serves
no purpose in daily life." So, for Gandhi, it was imperative that
spiritual truths are lived in one's daily life.
That is exactly what Gandhi did. He made the
Bhagavad Gita his spiritual guide and implemented its teachings,
emphasizing the passionate search for truth (Satyagraha), a
profound reverence for all life (nonviolence), and the ideal of
nonattachment (his material possessions were minimal).
Gandhi also studied the Bible and the Qur'an. He was
moved by Jesus Christ's "Sermon on the Mount." During Gandhi's
prayer meetings he read from scripture of different faiths as he
had reverence for all religions.
Thus, Gandhi exemplified his own words, "Be the
change you want to see in the world." So, the answer lies in our
asking a sincere question: Are we really living the spiritual
truths in our daily lives to bring about positive change in the
world rife with violence, economic disparity, animosity between
faiths and environmental degradation?