Abstract
Among the key infuences on Gandhi’s life and thought, pride of place must go to the Bhagavad Gītā. It is well known that Gandhi modeled his life upon the teachings of the Gītā1 and “constantly referred to it as his ‘spiritual dictionary,’ ‘the mother who never let him down,’ or his ‘kāmdhenū,’ ‘the cow that grants all wishes.’”2 This book played a pivotal role in guiding, shaping, and solidifying his beliefs and actions. Gandhi’s frm and sustained belief in spiritual freedom (moksa3) and self-realization was almost entirely shaped by the teachings of the Gītā. Moksasupplied the unifying force in and through all of Gandhi’s activities, as he tells us in his autobiography,4 and the Gītā’s emphasis on self-realization and selfess service were the primary sources of inspiration for his life and leadership.
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Notes
See: Ramesh S. Betai, Gita and Gandhi (New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House/National Gandhi Museum, 2002).
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (New York: Dover Publications, 1983), 59, 60, 232, 233, 296–297.
Debashis Chatterjee, Timeless Leadership: 18 Leadership Sutras from the Bhagavad Gita (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012), front flap matter (liner notes).
Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday, Revised and updated edition, 2006), 76.
Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, and Joseph Jaworski, Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (New York: Crown Books, 2008), 92.
Gambhirananda, Bhagavad Gita with the Commentary ofSankaracarya. (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1984), 21.
J. A. B. van Buitenen, ed. and trans., The Bhagavad Gita in the Mahabharata: A Bilingual Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981).
K. W. Bolle, The Bhagavadgitd: A New Translation (California: University of California Press, 1979), 224.
R. N. Minor, ed., Modern Indian Interpreters of the Bhagavad Gita (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986), 5.
Cited in Will Durant, The Case for India (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1930), 6.
Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, trans., The Song of God: Bhagavad Gita, with an Introduction by Aldous Huxley (New York: Harper and Row, 1951/2002), 22 (emphasis added).
Scott Teitsworth, The Path to the Guru: The Science of Self-Realization According to the Bhagavad Gita (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2014), 3–4.
A. Parthasarathy cited in Dennis Waite, Back to the Truth: 5000 Years of Advaita (Winchester, UK: John Hunt Publishing, 2007), 519.
Based on Paramsraddheya Swamiji Shri Ramsukhdasji Maharaj’s commentary on Srimad Bhagavad Gita, entitled Sddhaka-Sanjivani (Gorakhpur, India: Gita Prakashan, 2013).
Joanne B. Ciulla, ed., Ethics, The Heart of Leadership (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, Second edition), xv.
Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jr., From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, April 2011).
James O’Toole, “Notes Toward a Definition of Values-Based Leadership,” The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 1(1), Article 10 (2008): 4.
Warren Bennis, An Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change (New York: Perseus Books Group, 1994), 78.
Quoted in Edith M. Leonard, Lillian E. Miles, and Catherine S. Van der Kar, The Child: At Home and School (New York: American Book Co., 1944), 203.
Swämi Paramärthänanda, “The Spiritual Journey: Guru Purnima Talk 2008.” Retrieved: October 5, 2014, http://www.vedanta.gr/wp-content/ uploads/2013/03/SwParam_GP2008_Spiritual-Journey_ENA4.pdf Also see: Swämi Paramärthänanda, General Talks: Understanding Anger (#71).
Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus, Grandfather Gandhi (New York: Antheneum Books for Young Readers, 2012), 32–33.
Cited in Swami Satprakashananda, The Goal and the Way: The Vedantic Approach to Life’s Problems (St. Louis, MO: The Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1977), 93. We are told that this is the last recorded message of Sri Sarada Devi, the worthy consort of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the greatest Indian sage-saint of the nineteenth century.
Cited in Ramananda Prasad, The Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God (Freemont, CA: American Gita Society, 1999), 246.
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy (New York: A Touchstone Book, 1984, Third edition), 116.
M. K. Gandhi, Young India (1925), 1078–1079.
S. Radhäkrishnan, The Bhagavad Gita: With an Introductory Essay, Sanskrit Text, English Translation, and Notes (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1958), 10.
Y. P. Anand as cited in Ramesh S. Betai, Gitä and Gandhi (New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House/National Gandhi Museum, 2002), xi.
Y. P. Anand has done a wonderful job of bringing together all of Gandhi’s works on the Gita and its interpretation in a two-volume set. See: Y. P. Anand, Mahatma Gandhi’s Works and Interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita (New Delhi: Radha Publications, 2009).
Eknath Easwaran, Gandhi the Man: The Story of His Transformation (Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1997), 107.
M. K. Gandhi in John Strohmeier, ed., The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi (Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Hills Books, 2000), 16.
Michael N. Nagler, Gita Theory of Action. Retrieved: August 8, 2014, http://mettacenter.org/definitions/gloss-concepts/Gita-theory-of-action/
P. Nagaraja Rao, Introduction to Vedanta (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1966), 102.
Eknath Easwaran, trans., The Upanishads, Translated for the Modern Reader (Berkeley, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1987), 205.
Ronald Duncan, ed., Selected Writings of Mahatma Gandhi (New York: Beacon Press, 1951), 46.
Mahadev Desai, trans., The Gospel of Selfless Action or The Gita According to Gandhi (Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Publishing House, 1956), 135.
The Diary of Mahadev Desai, p. 172 [Cited in Anand T. Hingorani, ed., Gandhi for 21st Century: The Teachings of the Gita (Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1998), 9.]
Eknath Easwaran, cited in Louis Fischer, ed., The Essential Gandhi (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), xvi.
Adapted from Eknath Easwaran, trans., The Bhagavad Gitä (New York: Vintage Spiritual Classics, 2000), 67–69
Franklin Edgerton, trans., The Bhagavad Gita (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1964), 15–17
Vihari-Lala Mitra, trans., Välmiki’s Yoga-väsistha-mahärämäyana. Online edition, retrieved February 10, 2015, http://www.wisdomlib.org/hin-duism/book/yoga-vasistha-volume-2-part-ii/d/doc118202.html
M. K. Gandhi, Selected Works, Vol. VI (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1968), 153, 176.
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© 2015 Satinder Dhiman
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Dhiman, S. (2015). The Bhagavad Gītā: Gandhi’s Moral and Spiritual Anchorage. In: Gandhi and Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137492357_4
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