The Fabric of Self-Suffering: A Study in Gandhi

S. K. Saxena

doi:10.1017/S0034412500009203

The Fabric of Self-Suffering: A Study in Gandhi

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008

S. K. Saxena

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S. K. Saxena: Affiliation:
Reader in Philosophy, University of Delhi

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This essay seeks to clarify Gandhi's logic of self-suffering. Its inner accents have not received the attention they deserve. So I propose to emphasize them, though the context of such suffering and its impact on men too must be given due regard.

Type: Articles
Information: Religious Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , June 1976 , pp. 239 - 247

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412500009203 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

^{page 239 note 1} Pyarelal, , The Last Phase (Navajivan Publishing House, 1958), p. 507.Google Scholar

^{page 239 note 2} Narayan, Shriman, The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Navajivan Publishing House, Ahemdabad, 1968), VI, 114.Google Scholar

^{page 239 note 3} The Last Phase, p. 324.

^{page 239 note 4} Ibid. p. 460.

^{page 239 note 5} Ibid. My emphasis.

^{page 239 note 6} Ibid. p. 740.

^{page 240 note 1} Narayan, , Selected Works, IV, 217.Google Scholar

^{page 240 note 2} Pyarelal, , The Last Phase, p. 324.Google Scholar

^{page 240 note 3} Ibid. p. 736.

^{page 240 note 4} Ibid. p. 241.

^{page 240 note 5} This, perhaps, is what is meant by saying that, from the religious point of view, ‘suffering must be apprehended as the actual participation in a (kind of) brotherhood (or)…metaphysical bond’. Marcel, Gabriel, Being and Having (The Fontana Library, 1963), p. 156.Google Scholar

^{page 241 note 1} Cf. I believe in advaita…in the essential unity of man…Therefore…if one man gains spiritually, the whole world gains with him. Pyarelal, , The Last Phase, p. 792.Google Scholar

^{page 241 note 2} Bose, N. K., Selections from Gandhi (Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1968 reprint), p. 158.Google Scholar

^{page 241 note 3} Ibid. p. 27.

^{page 241 note 4} The reference, here, is mainly to those fasts which Gandhi undertook to quell communal passion and fighting.

^{page 241 note 5} Pyarelal, , The Last Phase, pp. 722, 724.Google Scholar Cf. Gandhi's own view of the matter: ‘My fast isolates the forces of evil; the moment they are isolated they die, for evil by itself has no life.’ Ibid. p. 420.

^{page 241 note 6} Cf. Marcel's, Faith and Reality (second volume of The Mystery of Being) (Henry Regnery Co., Chicago, Fourth Printing, 1965), p. 12.Google Scholar

^{page 242 note 1} Pyarelal, , The Last Phase, p. 742.Google Scholar

^{page 242 note 2} Narayan, Shriman, Selected Works, IV, p. 216.Google Scholar

^{page 242 note 3} The assumption here is that the fast or self-suffering aims at correcting someone who opposes or treats us wrongly.

^{page 242 note 4} Pyarelal, , The Last Phase, p. 513.Google Scholar

^{page 242 note 5} Ibid. p. 421.

^{page 243 note 1} Even generally, this is the result of a non-violent struggle (The Last Phase, p. 514).

^{page 244 note 1} Ibid. p. 699.

^{page 244 note 2} Ibid. p. 702. My italics.

^{page 244 note 3} This principle is our improving ability ‘to use the body for the purposes of service so long as it exists, so much so that service, and not bread, becomes with us the staff of life’. Narayan, , Selected Works, IV, p. 231.Google Scholar

^{page 244 note 4} The reference here is to the very opening of Iśa Upanishad. Ibid. p. 234.

^{page 244 note 5} Ibid.

^{page 245 note 1} Ibid. p. 229.

^{page 245 note 2} Ibid. pp. 230–1.

^{page 245 note 3} ‘Our body is His to be cherished or cast away according to His will. This is not a matter for complaint or even pity; on the contrary, it is a natural and even a pleasant and desirable state, if we only realize our proper place in God's scheme.’ Ibid. p. 252.

^{page 245 note 4} Pyarelal, , The Last Phase, p. 704.Google Scholar

^{page 245 note 5} Ibid. p. 703.

^{page 245 note 6} Ibid. p. 719.

^{page 245 note 7} ‘He is losing weight, the weakness has increased. The voice is feeble…the kidney (is) failing.’ Ibid. p. 714.

^{page 245 note 8} Name of the Lord.

^{page 245 note 9} Ibid. p. 715.

^{page 246 note 1} Ibid. p. 720. The faith that we are all one is here manifest in the last sentence of the extract.

^{page 246 note 2} Ibid. p. 734.

^{page 246 note 3} Ibid. p. 735.

^{page 246 note 4} Ibid. p. 734.

^{page 246 note 5} Gandhi is here wholly at His mercy, and is happy to be so. Ibid. p. 736.

^{page 246 note 6} Narayan, , Selected Works, IV, 247.Google Scholar My italics.

^{page 246 note 7} Pyarelal, , The Last Phase, p. 739.Google ScholarTruth here means God as suffering love or the truth of faith.

^{page 247 note 1} This would seem clearly warranted if we consider the following utterances of Gandhi himself, all but the first relating to his last fast: (a) ‘He does give His willing slave the power to pass through the fieriest of ordeals.’ The Last Phase, p. 744. (b) ‘It was only when in terms of human effort I had…realised my utter helplessness that I laid my head on God's lap.’ Ibid. p. 704. (c) ‘This fast has brought me higher happiness than hitherto.’ Ibid. p. 724.

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