the world is witnessing today the fulfilment of the cyclic manifestations spoken of in the Bhagavadgita. The time will come “when Mahatma Gandhi will be regarded as an incarnation of God by the teeming millions of India.”[1]
The West will be somewhat reluctant to accept this estimate of Mr. Gandhi, but it does see in him a Saint in the best religious tradition. Paraphrasing the words of an earlier biographer, one can say: In many ways, the teachings of Gandhi illuminate and recall to the modern world the half-forsaken ideals of Catholic Christendom. Intellectually a rationalist, temperamentally and in the field of ethics, Gandhi revealed the closest kinship to Catholicism. He understood and advocated the monastic ideal, in the Franciscan and Jesuit interpretation of it. He knew the power of Poverty. He believed in Celibacy. His own practice of fasting and silence linked him to the great Catholic saints. He understood the meaning of Obedience and believed in Penance. His love of prayer, stress on discipline, his desire that religion should be ordered and reasonable; his preeminent belief in the supremacy of spiritual powers, marked him as a Saint of the Catholic type. The same sort of things which made men love Francis made men love Gandhi.[2]
Gandhi by early training was a lawyer, but certainly other lawyers in India have won greater distinction in that field. Gandhi was the recognized leader of the Congress Party, but he was by no means the most brilliant parliamentarian in the Congress group. Every word that Gandhi uttered was accorded respect and huge throngs were present at all of his public appearances, but Gandhi could not be called a silver-tongued orator. What then was the secret of his influence? Simply this. Gandhi incarnated in his own person the ideals and aspirations of India. He was the soul of the nation.
Today Mr. Gandhi is gone, and the people of India who leaned so heavily on his leadership must walk alone. But the life and teachings of Gandhi are there to guide them—and to guide not only India, but a groping world.
