Post No. 11,950
Date uploaded in London – – 29 APRIL 2023
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.
this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.
tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com
https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan
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I have given below 31 quotations of Mahatma Gandhi on Hindus and Hinduism.
May 1 – May Day ; 4 Agni Nakshatra/ Hottest period begins,; 5 Chitra Poornima; also Buddha Poornima , Madurai Chitra Festival; 29 Agni Nakshatra/ Hottest period ends. New moon Day – 19; Full moon Day– 5; Ekadasi Fasting Days – 1, 15; Auspicious Days – 11, 22, 24, 25
May 1 Monday
Hinduism will spread!
A man may not believe even in God and still he may call himself a Hindu. Hinduism is a relentless pursuit after truth and today it has become moribund, inactive, irresponsive to growth, it is because we are fatigued; and as soon as the fatigue is over, Hinduism will burst forth upon the world with a brilliance perhaps unknown before. Of course, therefore, Hinduism is the most tolerant of all religions. Its creed is all embracing. (Young India 24-4-1924)
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May 2 Tuesday
Hinduism all inclusive
In my opinion, the beauty of Hinduism lies in its all embracing inclusiveness. What the divine author of Mahabharata said of his great creation is equally true of Hinduism. What of substance is contained in any other religion is always to be found in Hinduism. And what is not contained in it insubstantial or unnecessary.(Young India 17-9-1925)
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May 3 Wednesday
It (Gita) is accepted by all Hindu sects as authoritative. It is free from dogma. In a short compass, it gives a compete reasoned moral code. It satisfies both the intellect and the heart. It is thus both philosophical and devotional. Its appeal is universal. The language is incredibly simple.
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May 4 Thursday
Bhagavad Gita
The Gita contains the gospel of work, the gospel of Bhakti or devotion, the gospel of Jnana or knowledge. Life should be a harmonious whole of these three. But the gospel of service is the basis of all.
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May 5 Friday
Bhagavad Gita
The Gita is a compendium of the subtlest philosophical thoughts and spiritual mysticism and as such its true purport is not intelligible t o the laymen of the world. The religion of Gita may be understood and practised only by a fortunate few, but it cannot be the basis of social discipline or popular theocracy.
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May 6 Saturday
Bhagavad Gita
The Gita is not only my Bible or my Koran; it is more than that; it is my mother. I lost my earthly mother who gave me birth long ago; but this eternal mother has completely filled her place by my side ever since.
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May 7 Sunday
Rama
In Hindu religion god is known by various names. Thousands of people look doubtless on Rama and Krishna as historical figures and literally believe that god came down in person on earth in the form of Rama, son of Dasarath, and by worshipping him one can attain salvation.
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May 8 Monday
Manusmriti
I hold Manusmriti as part of the Shastras. But that does not mean that I swear by every verse that is printed in the book described as Manusmriti. There are so many contradictions in the printed volume, that , if you accept one part you are bound to reject those parts that are wholly inconsistent with it. I hold Manusmriti as a religious book because of the lofty teachings contained in it. (Harijan, 1934)
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May 9 Tuesday
God
To me God is Truth and Love; God is ethics and morality; God is fearlessness. God is the source of Light and Life and yet He is above and beyond all these.
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May 10 Wednesday
God
God is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist. For in His boundless love God permits the atheist to live. He is the searcher of hearts.
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May 11 Thursday
European Civilization
European Civilization is no doubt suited for the Europeans, but it will mean ruin for India if we endeavour to copy it. This is not to say we may not adopt and assimilate whatever good and capable of assimilation by us, as it does not also mean that even the Europeans will not have to part with whatever evil might have crept into it.
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May 12 Friday
Plain living
Let us engrave on our hearts the motto of a Western philosopher , Plain Living and High thinking’. Today it is certain that millions cannot have high living and we the few who profess to do the thinking for the masses run the risk., in a vain search after high living of missing high thinking.(Young India 30-4-1931)
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May 13 Saturday
Mind is a bird
We notice that the mind is a restless bird; the more it gets the more it wants, and still remains unsatisfied. The more we indulge our passions the more unbridled they become. .(Hind Swaraj, chapter 13).
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May 14 Sunday
Indian Civilization
I believe the Civilization India has evolved is not to be beaten in the world. Nothing can qual the seeds sown by our ancestors. Rome went, Greece shared the same fate; the might of Pharoahs was broken; Japan has become westernised; of China nothing can be said; but India is still ,somehow or other, sound at the foundation.(Hind Swaraj, chapter 13).
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May 15 Monday
Advaitam
I am an advaitist and yet I can support dvaitism (dualism). The world is changing every moment, and therefore is unreal. It has no permanent existence. But though it is constantly changing, it has something about it which persist and therefore to that extent real. (Young India 21-1-1926)
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May 16 Tuesday
I talk of God exactly as I believe Him to be. I believe Him to be creative as well as non-creative. This too is the result of my acceptance of the doctrine of manyness of reality. From the platform of Jains, I prove the non-creative aspect of God., and from Ramanuja the creative aspect. As a matter of fact we are all thinking of the Unthinkable and describing the Indescribable, seeking to know the Unknown, that is why our speech falters, is inadequate and even often contradictory. That is why the Vedas describe Brahman as not this, not this. (Young India 21-1-1926)
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May 17 Wednesday
Idol Worship
I am both an idolater and an iconoclast in what I conceive to be the true senses of the terms. I value the spirit behind the Idol Worship. It plays a most important part in the upliftment of the human race. And I would like to possess the ability to defend with my life the thousands of holy temples which sanctify this land of ours. (Young India 28-2-1924)
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May 18 Thursday
Iconoclast
I am an Iconoclast in the sense that I break down the subtle form of idolatry in the shape of fanaticism that refuses to see any virtue in any other form of worshipping the deity save one’s own. This form of idolatry is more deadly for being more fine and evasive than the tangible and gross form of worship that identifies the Deity with a little bit of stone or a golden image. (Young India 28-2-1924)
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May 19 Friday
Temple Worship
I do not regard the existence of a temple as a sin or superstition. Some form of common worship, and a common place of worship appear to be a human necessity. Whether the temple should contain images or not is a matter of temperament and taste.
(Young India 5-11-1925)
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May 20 Saturday
Inter Caste Marriage
I do not regard inter dining and inter marriage as essential to the removal of untouchability. The religion to which I belong prescribes for our observance Marayada Dharama. The Rishis of old carried on exhaustive researches through meditation and as a result of the researches they discovered some great truths, such as have no parallel perhaps in any religion.
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May 21 Sunday
Mental condition
Our ancestors , therefore, et a limit to our indulgences. They saw that happiness was largely a mental condition. A man is not necessarily happy because he is rich, or unhappy because he is poor. The rich are often seen to be unhappy, the poor to be happy. Millions will always remain poor. Observing all this, our ancestors, dissuaded us from luxuries and pleasures. .(Hind Swaraj, chapter 13).
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May 22 Monday
Brahmin’s Sacred Thread
Q : You desire ladies to sacrifice their jewels. Why do you not ask casteman to sacrifice his pride by giving up his thread?
Gandhiji’s reply: There is no parallel between the two cases. The thread is a symbol of consecration for those who believe it. I do not wear it because it has no meaning for me and I knew millions go without it.
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May 23 Tuesday
Sacred thread to Harijans
There is nothing to prevent Harijans from adopting it (Sacred thread) if they chose. But I should strongly discountenance the practice as it would be an imitation without the original meaning behind it.
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May 24 Wednesday
Four Varnas In Gita
The Gita does talk of Varna being according to Guna and Karma, but Guna and Karma are inherited by birth. Lord Krishna says all Varnas are created by me “chaatur varnyam mayaa srshtam”. i.e I suppose by birth. The law of Varna is nothing, if not by birth
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May 25 Thursday
Tirukkural
Do you know that the author of Tamil classic (Tirukkural) says there is no caste by birth?
Gandhiji’s reply: He says it as an answer to present day exaggerations. when superiority was claimed by any Varna, he has to raise his voice against it. But that does not cut at the root of Varna by birth. It is only the reformer’s attempt to cut at the root of inequality.
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May 26 Friday
Prayer
Worship or prayer is not to be performed with lips, but with the heart. And that is why it can be performed equally by the dumb and the stammerer, by the ignorant and the stupid. And prayers of those toungues are nectared and whose hearts are full of poison are never heard.
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May 27 Saturday
Equality in Hinduism
In the purest type of Hinduism, a Brahmana, an ant, an elephantand a dog eater are of the same status (It is from Bhagavd Gita sloka). And because our philosophy is so high, and we have failed to live up to it, that very philosophy today stinks in our nostrils. Hinduism insists on the brotherhood not only of all mankind but of all that lives. (Harijan 28-3-1936)
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May 28 Sunday
Christian Conversion
I have ventured at several missionary meetings to tell English and American missionary meetings that if they could have refrained from “telling” India bout Christ and had merely lived the life enjoined upon them by Sermon on the Mount, India instead of suspecting them would have appreciated their living in the midst of her children and directly profited by their presence.
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May 29 Monday
Holding this view, I can “tell” American friends nothing about Hinduism by way of “return”. I do not believe in people telling others of their faith, especially with a view to conversion. Faith does not admit of telling. It has to be lived and then it becomes self propagating.
(Young India 20-10-1927)
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May 30 Tuesday
Sanatani Hindu
I call myself a Sanatani Hindu, because
1.I believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and all that by goes by the name of Hindu scriptures, and therefore the Avataras and rebirth
2. I believe in the Varnashrama Dharma in a sense, in my opinion, strictly Vedic, but not in its present popular and crude sense.
3. I believe in the protection of the cow in its much larger sense than the popular.
4. I do not disbelieve in idol worship.
(Young India 6-10-1921)
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May 31 Wednesday
Organisation for Protecting Hindus
Q :Are not the Hindus justified in organising themselves, not for any aggressive action against Moslems or others, but for safeguarding their religious rights and stamping out such evils as kidnapping etc. as also for the physical, social, moral and material advancement of the Hindu community?
Gandhiji :- I do not suppose anybody can possibly object to the Organisation such as the question mentions. I certainly do not object.
(Young India 2o-10-1925)
Source book – Hindu Dharma, M K Gandhi, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1950)
–subham–
Tags- Mahatma, Gandhi, Quotations, on Hinduism, Hindus, Manu, Gita, Varna ashrama, Conversion, Sacred thread , caste
Tamil and Vedas 
