carefully worked-out system of philosophy. In fact many of his statements are contradictory, for he dealt with practical problems and commented on such problems as they arose. And yet there are certain basic ideas which served to unify his thought and action.
At the heart of Mr. Gandhi’s philosophy is the principle of Satya or Truth. Satya is derived from Sat, which means ‘being’. Satya thus is being. Nothing exists in reality save Truth. Hence Sat or Truth becomes the most important name for God. “It is more correct,” says Mr. Gandhi, “to say that Truth is God, than to say that God is Truth.”[1] Without Truth there can be no true knowledge . Hence the Hindu scriptures associate Chit or knowledge with the name of God. Devotion to Truth is the sole justification for our existence.
Observation of the law of Truth does not mean simply speaking the Truth. It means Truth in thought, Truth in speech, and Truth in action. There can be no inward peace without true knowledge, which is the realization of Truth in its fulness.
Since human beings are fallible, what may seem to be Truth to one person may appear as Untruth to another. But just as God himself appears to different individuals in different aspects, so every man must follow Truth according to the best of his abilities. In the quest for Absolute Truth, or God, the seeker must be faithful to relative Truth—the faithful carrying out of his daily duties. “To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face,” says Gandhi, “one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.”[2] The pursuit of Truth is true devotion (bhakti). When Truth be comes the organizing principle of one’s life, all other rules of correct living follow naturally, and obedience to these rules becomes spontaneous.
