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Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi
as the evolution's process progressed. According to Gandhiji, evolution is a change from the physical to the spiritual. It aims at the complete realization of spirituality i.e., Divinity. This also shows that in spite of the fact that the bodily aspect of man also has its own importance and value, man's essential nature consists in his spirituality.
Though Gandhiji sometimes calls himself a follower of Advaita, he cannot be strictly regarded as following the Advaita of Sankara for he does not regard the world as mere appearance. By Advaita he seemed to mean monism in general. This word has sometimes been loosely used in the wide sense of monism and he follows that trend.
The individual is an unique centre of the life of God and at the same time God is the one ground of all individuals and binds them together in an inseparable relation. So, on the one hand, Gandhiji says that the individual is the one Supreme consideration but on the other band, he says with enthusiasm :
I believe in absolute Oneness of God and therefore, also humanity. What though he have many bodies? We have but one soul. The rays of the sun are many through refraction. But they have the same source. 10
Here, we may point out the attitude of Indian thinkers who accept God as the creator but never hold that the souls of individuals are created by God. They assert that the souls of individuals are originate and co-eternal with God. As creator, God only wills into existence the different combinations of material elements. In other words, God only differentiates and integrates the eternally existing matter, for the formation of the particular bodies, an environmental objects for the souls. The souls of human and sub-human beings are, therefore, eternal varieties liable neither to creation, nor to destruction,
Whereas communism stresses the economic aspect of human nature and democracy idealises the liberation concept of man, Gandhiji idealises the spiritual aspect of man. He believes that man is not merely the bundle of flesh and bones but something more and beyond this. Behind all this, there is a spirit, a soul.
