Week 6 - Post 12

The first section of Gandhi’s book talks about his family background, childhood, marriage, and friends. His mother was very religious, which played a big role later on in his life. Through out Gandhi’s childhood, he was very shy and does not like company.

Even though Gandhi was presented as a holy figure, he had couple regrets regarding his past. For example, he regretted participating in the arranged marriage that his parents arranged for him when he was at the age of 13. He strongly believed that arranged marriage for children is wrong. In addition, he also regret about incident with wife. Gandhi’s friend convinced him of his wife’s infidelity, which lead him to act against his wife. He later realized that he had a bad friend, and he had wrongfully treated his wife. Furthermore, his friend told him that eating meat can gain strength, and then can lead to hope of overcome the English. Convinced by his friend, Gandhi betrayed his religion and began eating meat. He lied to his parents about eating meat, and that strongly bothered his conscious. He later realized that it is not worth lying to his parents in order to eating meat and gaining strength, so he quit being a meat eater. In addition, Gandhi also regretted the time he took up smoking. Smoking left Gandhi in financial need, so he stole from his brother, which he was ashamed of later in his life. Gandhi drastically changed his life style, he quite smoking and moved to a smaller house so he’d have excess money, and he also walked to school, which build up his strength and made him healthier.

Gandhi is a pacifist, and he believes non-violence approach towards all actions. He believes that by avoiding confrontations, people have a clearer mind to approach with reasoning. One of the interesting things with Gandhi is his method of finding truth; he believes in “experiment with truth,” where he explores and unveils the truth through his life experiences and many good and bad choices that he made throughout his life. Through his relationship with his wives, parents, and friends, he slowly learned to live a simple life. Gandhi’s “experiment with truth” made me realize that all experiences, regardless of good or bad, can aid one towards the path of truth seeking. Gandhi’s ability to forgive his enemies and take an absolute pacifist approach towards all actions is truly inspiring and impresses me a lot. Gandhi’s approach is uncommon in today’s society, where everything is fast paced and not much relationship is built, let alone forgiveness.