Gandhi

2 Pages 409 Words

This essay will explain the correlation between observations made of the movie Gandhi and personal interpretations of the Bhagavad-Gita. I believe Gandhi practiced Karma Yoga, or the path to God through work. We will explore the concept as stated in The Worlds Religions, written by Huston Smith, “…The drive to work is psychological rather than economic” in this essay.
The movie “Gandhi” showed a young attorney, named Gandhi, was a victim of discrimination at the hands of the South African people. Gandhi vowed to fight injustices caused by discrimination through peaceful demonstrations and defiance of laws found to be unjust. Gandhi immersed himself in his movement (work) by organizing many peaceful demonstrations and strikes as well as developing a newspaper designed to spread the word of the injustices to all. Gandhi defied the Bhagavad-Gita by denouncing the caste system taught throughout the Hindu religion and did all work to show that one man’s job is as important as another’s. Gandhi believed that everybody would do the work regardless of their caste or class. Gandhi made several statements during the movie to reinforce my belief that he was following Karma Yoga. Gandhi said “Happiness comes from work and from pride in that work”, “be prepared to die for injustices”, and “know your duty”
In the Bhagavad-Gita there are several passages that allude to what I believe Gandhi was striving for. Passage 3.16 states “He who fails to keep turning the wheel thus set in motion has damaged the working of the world and has wasted his life”. I believe this passage alludes to Gandhi’s stubbornness and persistence when it came to accomplishing the goals set for him. Many times during the film it was shown that Gandhi would rather give his life, through fasting and civil non-compliance, than fail at his work. I also believe that Gandhi came to the realization of another passage in the Bhagavad-Gita, 3....