My claim to Hinduism has been rejected by
some, because I believe and advocate nonviolence in its extreme form.
They say that I am a Christian in disguise. I have been even seriously
told that I am distorting the meaning of the Gita, when I ascribe to
that great poem the teaching of unadulterated nonviolence. Some of my
Hindu friends tell me that killing is a duty enjoined by the Gita under
certain circumstances. A very learned shastri only the other day
scornfully rejected my interpretation of the Gita and said that there
was no warrant for the opinion held by some commentators that the Gita
represented the eternal duel between forces of evil and good, and
inculcated the duty of eradicating evil within us without hesitation,
without tenderness.
I state these opinions against
nonviolence in detail, because it is necessary to understand them, if
we would understand the solution I have to offer....
I must be dismissed out of
considerations. My religion is a matter solely between my Maker and
myself. If I am a Hindu, I cannot cease to be one even though I may be
disowned by the whole of the Hindu population. I do however suggest
that nonviolence is the end of all religions.
The lesson of nonviolence is present in
every religion, but I fondly believe that, perhaps, it is here in India
that its practice has been reduced to a science. Innumerable saints
have laid down their lives in tapashcharya until poets had felt that
the Himalayas became purified in their snowy whiteness by means of
their sacrifice. But all this practice of nonviolence is nearly dead
today. It is necessary to revive the eternal law of answering anger by
love and of violence by nonviolence; and where can this be more readily done than in this land of Kind Janaka and Ramachandra?
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