Interesting and amusing were the comments made by the U.S. President in India (on religious tolerance!!!!) and much more interesting was what he said when he went back to the U.S. (“acts of intolerance” in India that would have shocked the country’s peace icon, Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi).... so much so that it compelled me to write again!
I don't know how many people know that "Mahatma" was not his middle name or any part of his name for that matter...
I don't know how many have actually read his works, so I am bringing in some excerpts from his oft-talked about autobiography...
In the chapter on "Glimpses of religion", he writes thus;
all good works were useless
"
These many things combined to inculcate in me a toleration for all faiths.
Only Christianity at the time was an exception. I developed a sort of dislike for it. And for a reason. In those days Christian missionaries used to stand in a corner near the high school and hold forth, pouring abuse on Hindus and their Gods. I could not endure this. I must have stood there to hear them once only, but that was enough to dissuade me from repeating the experiment. About the same time, I heard of a well known Hindu having been converted to Christianity.
....
I also heard that the new convert had already begun abusing the religion of his ancestors, their customs and their country. All these things created in me a dislike for Christianity.
"
Then in England, he reads Madame Blavatsky's works and writes thus;
" This book stimulated in me the desire to read books on Hinduism, and disabused me of the notion fostered by the missionaries that Hinduism was rife with superstition"
He also meets a good Christian at about the same time in Manchester. The New Testament, especially, the Sermon on the Mount, he says, "went straight to his heart" because he was able to relate it to the Gita.
The chapter "Christian Contacts" (his life in South Africa) is also worth reading.
He attends prayer meetings with a family, where at one point of time, he is told: "Come, let me break the necklace" (necklace made of Tulasi beads, a gift from his mother). He refuses!
The host is not able to tolerate M.K.'s argument. Gandhi opines further..
"He was looking forward to delivering me from the abyss of ignorance. He wanted to convince me that, no matter whether there was some truth in other religions, salvation was impossible for me unless I accepted Christianity which represented the truth and that my sins would not be washed away except by the intercession of Jesus, and that all good works were useless".
Then, in the same prayer meeting, he comes across another sect and one of them confronts Gandhi with this (:) )
(continued in Part 2)
I don't know how many people know that "Mahatma" was not his middle name or any part of his name for that matter...
I don't know how many have actually read his works, so I am bringing in some excerpts from his oft-talked about autobiography...
In the chapter on "Glimpses of religion", he writes thus;
all good works were useless
"
These many things combined to inculcate in me a toleration for all faiths.
Only Christianity at the time was an exception. I developed a sort of dislike for it. And for a reason. In those days Christian missionaries used to stand in a corner near the high school and hold forth, pouring abuse on Hindus and their Gods. I could not endure this. I must have stood there to hear them once only, but that was enough to dissuade me from repeating the experiment. About the same time, I heard of a well known Hindu having been converted to Christianity.
....
I also heard that the new convert had already begun abusing the religion of his ancestors, their customs and their country. All these things created in me a dislike for Christianity.
"
Then in England, he reads Madame Blavatsky's works and writes thus;
" This book stimulated in me the desire to read books on Hinduism, and disabused me of the notion fostered by the missionaries that Hinduism was rife with superstition"
He also meets a good Christian at about the same time in Manchester. The New Testament, especially, the Sermon on the Mount, he says, "went straight to his heart" because he was able to relate it to the Gita.
The chapter "Christian Contacts" (his life in South Africa) is also worth reading.
He attends prayer meetings with a family, where at one point of time, he is told: "Come, let me break the necklace" (necklace made of Tulasi beads, a gift from his mother). He refuses!
The host is not able to tolerate M.K.'s argument. Gandhi opines further..
"He was looking forward to delivering me from the abyss of ignorance. He wanted to convince me that, no matter whether there was some truth in other religions, salvation was impossible for me unless I accepted Christianity which represented the truth and that my sins would not be washed away except by the intercession of Jesus, and that all good works were useless".
Then, in the same prayer meeting, he comes across another sect and one of them confronts Gandhi with this (:) )
(continued in Part 2)
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