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Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth (Paperback)
by M. K. Gandhi
| Category:
Autobiography, Non-violence |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
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¥ 148.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
Written with brutal honesty by Gandhi, a towering personality in human history, this book reveals Gandhi's mind and his relentless pursuit of truth. |
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Author: M. K. Gandhi
Publisher: Beacon Press; Reprint edition
Pub. in: November, 1993
ISBN: 0807059099
Pages: 528
Measurements: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.5 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00644
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0807059098
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- Awards & Credential -
One of the best reads on Gandhi, his mind, and his non-violence movement. |
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- MSL Picks -
In many ways, this is a somewhat unusual autobiography. It is as remarkable for what Gandhi decides to leave out as for what he includes. He obviously didn't intend to deal with every major event, and delve into every area. It is less a comprehensive narrative than it is a series of reflections on his life. Some have criticized the book because he often deals more intensely with questions about what kind of diet he would follow than many of the great historical achievements of his life. But Gandhi was who he was as an international figure because of who he was as an ethical individual. The moral seriousness with which he broods over his diet reveals a great deal about who he is as a person. As a side note, I should add that when I read this book, I had been thinking about becoming a vegetarian, and while I found no new arguments for doing so in this book, his moral example gave me the courage to do so.
The greatest quality about this book is one it shares with most of Gandhi's writing: when he writes you get the sense that he is giving us his unedited thoughts. During even the greatest crises in his struggle for Indian independence, Gandhi's writings have the quality of a transcription of what he is thinking. More than any figure I can think of, Gandhi revealed precisely what he was thinking. The almost complete lack of artifice in his writing is one of the most impressive aspects of his writing as a whole and of his autobiography in particular. One is struck by his honesty, by his humility, and by his intense, almost overwhelming, moral passion.
This is not a literary masterpiece. If one goes into it expecting it to rival such other autobiographies as Rousseau's Confessions or Nabokov's Speak, Memory or even Franklin's Autobiography, one will be disappointed. Although he was a prolific writer, Gandhi was not a great writer. He was unquestionably one of the towering figures of the 20th century, but it was because of what he did, not because of what he wrote. But for some of us, encountering so directly on the printed page such a fundamentally great soul can be close to overpowering.
(From quoting Robert Moore, USA)
Target readers:
Gandhi fans, good biography lovers, people interested in Indian history and culture, and people interested in the leadership of Gandhi..
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Mohandas K. Gandhi, known as Mahatma (great soul) Gandhi, is a revered figure worldwide for his nonviolent action to free India from British rule. His iconic status endures in the United States, through his influence on Martin Luther King, Jr., and in popular culture, including quotations, a blockbuster film, and interest in Hindu spirituality and practices.
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From Publisher
Mohandas K. Gandhi is one of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his classic autobiography he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century. In a new foreword, noted peace expert and teacher Sissela Bok urges us to adopt Gandhi's "attitude of experimenting, of tesing what will and will not bear close scrutiny, what can and cannot be adapted to new circumstances,"in order to bring about change in our own lives and communities. All royalties earned on this book are paid to the Navajivan Trust, founded by Gandhi, for use in carrying on his work.
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Collins Maranga (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-21 00:00>
Barrister Gandhi, in his book Gandhi and Autobiography: The Story of my Experiments With Truth is a real account of experiments with truth or what is percieved to be the truth. Gandhi, the youngest of three sons was born and brought up in Porbandar, India. His love for truth and respect for all humanity was put in him by his father who was "...a lover of his clan, truthful, brave and generous... " His mother too left him with an "... outstanding impression... of saintliness" as "she was deeply religious", a woman devoted to prayer and fasting. It's on this background that Mr. Gandhi built his life of Experiments on.
After reading the whole book I came out with the impression that he conducted the experiments to validate his parents' belief systems. One outstanding thing that jumped out at me is the fact that while his father, though uneducated, believed in literary education and sent him to school, Gandhi, though educated, did not believe in it. The result is that his boys, like their mother, never got a formal education as they were taught by their father at the "Tolstoy Farm" in Phoenix, South Africa. The hunger for literary education is seen in his eldest son who "... has often vent to his distress privately before me and publicly in the press..." about his lack of literary education.
Nevertheless, he used his education to teach everyone he came across. As a result, he helped start an organisation to help Indians in South Africa as well as led his Country to independence.
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Kramerizio (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-21 00:00>
The book is truly the story of his experiments with defining his life style and credos: it is not a chronicle of the struggle with the British Empire.
It is an excellent description of his personal journey toward a philosophy that preaches extreme humility and non-violence. The towering personality of this man is evident especially in moments of contrast with the rest of the world, when normal people attack him and he responds with grace, kindness and respect. The apparent simplicity of his philosophy hides the greatest challenge we have as humans: to control ourselves, to conquer our inside before even thinking of influencing the outside. Obviously, the shortcut everybody takes is to neglect the all-too-difficult control of the inside for the much easier conquest of the material world.
His search for Truth is a real adventure: perhaps the only adventure we should all pursue. His quest ties together with Zorba, the Bible, Jim Rohn: Truth will set you free, free to amend your errors, to live your own life, to blossom to the person you are really set to be. But Truth is upstream, as any other great thing: it is difficult to pursue.
And Truth can only be achieved through joyful service rendered to others.
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Daniel Lawler (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-21 00:00>
In the book's introduction, Gandhi ascribes these words of the Hindu poet to himself:
Where is there a wretch
So wicked and loathsome as I?
I have forsaken my Maker,
So faithless have I been.
The cause of this wretchedness, Gandhi wrote, was "the evil passions within that keep me so far from Him, and yet I cannot get away from them." These thoughts echo those of the Apostle Paul who, while desiring to do good, found that evil worked within him. He bemoaned, "Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?" Both men realized they could not perform what the truth required, and because they loved truth, it made them feel wretched.
Who then is righteous, if not Gandhi and Paul? The prophet Ezekial spoke of God's promise to "put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes." But such righteousness is seldom seen. Gandhi wrote disapprovingly of one Christian acquaintance "who knowingly committed transgressions, and showed me that he was undisturbed by the thought of them." Paul saw among his own converts in Corinth such immorality "that does not even exist among the heathens."
The promise does not fail, but faith wavers. The promise must be put to the test, as an experiment with truth. Then those who love the Truth may be revealed.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-21 00:00>
I'd strongly recommend everyone to read Gandhi's bio (www.gandhismriti.org) and learn about India's freedom struggle before even touching this book. This book is an unedited translation of Gandhi's original work in Gujarati. As others have mentioned, it not a history textbook or an encyclopedia of Gandhi's acheivements. As the title says, the book is about only the personal experiments that Gandhi had conducted from his childhood to the 1920's when he was imprisoned at the Yeravada jail. It is a very personal account and includes the smallest of the details of his daily life. It is not for casual reading.
Personally I found the autobiography to be very very thought provoking. Being an Indian, Gandhi was always a "mahatma" to me. But only after reading this book, could I truly appreciate the greatness and super human qualities of this man. I was completely blown away by the transparency. This book was written when Gandhi's popularity was at it's peak in India. I don't think anyone but Gandhi could have admitted their mistakes and transgressions so matter-of-factly. Every single decision that Gandhi made in his life, the composition of his diet to the political strategies he espoused, was given equal thought and was grounded on truth. Many think Gandhi's concept of satyagraha and non-cooperation were brilliant political strategies. I always thought his fast-unto-death concept to be emotional blackmail. After reading the book I realized that Gandhi adopted those techniques only because he thought that those paths would take him nearer to the truth. In fact it appears that Gandhi's only all consuming passion in life is to achieve the truth and nothing else. India's independence appears to be a by product of that process. Many of his controversial and not so popular decisions - his initial allegiance to the British throne, his support for the British during the Boer war and the First world war, the suspension of the non-cooperation movement - now make sense. He made those decisions only because he actually thought he would deviate from the truth if he did otherwise.
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