Gandhi’s Concept of Truth and the Advaita Tradition

Abstract

It is difficult to understand Gandhi’s philosophy without some kind of idea of what he means by Truth. When I asked some of his followers in India what they thought he meant by Truth their replies showed quite clearly that in their view his concept of Truth was linked to the Hindu concepts of dharma and rta. What this seems to indicate is that his understanding of Truth is something that he acquired within his own form of life and that his experiments with Truth are ultimately determined by his understanding of the Hindu tradition. This is not to say that insights from other religious traditions did not inform his apprehension of Truth: his acknowledgment of those influences is sufficient in itself to substantiate that claim. But it is also clear that it is not possible for us to understand what he means by Truth without some prior knowledge of the religious tradition in which he was nurtured and which determined his way of life.