Religion and Truth by Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi's essay “Religion and Truth” suggests that religion and God as a whole should be taken as more of a subjective interpretation of faith rather than a Western objective stance on faith like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Gandhi defines religion as “a belief in ordered moral government of the universe,” and as “different roads converging to the same point,”(Religion and Truth). Gandhi means that all religions, regardless of how objectively different they seem from one another, are all operated by the same faith. This faith Gandhi believes brings “us face to face with our maker,” which is another way of saying, God (Religion and Truth). Gandhi describes God as “to me, God is truth and love; God is ethics and morality…God is conscience he is even the atheism for the atheist,”(Religion and Truth). Gandhi suggests that God is more of an action or a practice of faith rather than a blind devotion to a particular holy text claiming it is the word of God. For Gandhi, religion is one of the many conduits that faith can be channeled through, and “God,” is utilizing this faith in a person’s daily life/actions. Gandhi adds to properly use one’s faith one must actively seek to know God. For Gandhi, what it means to know God is "to see god through service of humanity, for I know that is neither in heaven, nor down below, but in everyone,”(Religion and Truth). Gandhi explains that to truly know God is to know him through other people, particularly through helping and contributing to humanity in a faithful positive way through the practice of Ashima. Ahimsa is the peaceful, pacifistic, and nonviolent approach to life that comes with the process of earnestly striving for self-purification. What Gandhi says about obtaining self-purification is “to attain to perfect purity one has to become passion-free in thought, speech, and action; to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion,”(Religion and Truth). Gandhi continuously articulates this process by also saying “to see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest creation of oneself,”(Religion and Truth). Self-purification is the ultimate form of selfless love, compassion, and acceptance toward humanity. One must even view a person who could be dangerous, have ill intentions, or with no virtue with the same loving faith as they would a friend, a mother, or a mentor. If a person actively seeks self-purification by which Gandhi defines the term then that person will be better equipped to know God. An example of knowing “God,” could manifest through working in social services like a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, and even numerous kinds of non-profits. To know God can also come from helping another person on an individual level. One can start getting to know God by helping a stranger with a flat tire, giving a beggar loose change that one will never use, or even holding space for a friend who has just lost somebody. By doing these actions, however, are not transactional and should be done with the purpose of love and truth and not done for the expectation of any sort of monetary gain for oneself. Gandhi would have viewed these actions listed as some examples of a person striving to know God. The reason Gandhi uses the phrase “more or less” to describe the truthfulness of religion is that religion is inherently flawed because humanity has put its hands on it. “I believe that everything that the human hand touches, because of the very fact that human beings are imperfect,” although there exists faith within the practice of religions the practice cannot be taken literally or objectively because the humans who wrote these texts do not have the capabilities to accurately translate the word of God (Religion and Truth). With all of this being considered, Gandhi still believed that all holy texts still had some merit to them by saying “I believe the Bible, the Koran and the Zend Avesta, to be as much divinely inspired as the Vedas,”(Religion and Truth). Gandhi is not saying we should throw out religion altogether he is simply warning humanity that religion needs to be handled with a subjective viewpoint of the text rather than accepting every single word of holy scriptures. To practice a religion truthfully and authentically through the lens of subjectivity one must practice religion by action. Gandhi proclaims that “Divine knowledge is not borrowed from books. It has to be realized in oneself. Books are at best an aid, often even a hindrance,”(Religion and Truth). A person who is authentic and honest within their religion treats their holy text with a grain of salt and denies any objective claim that could allow them to do anything immoral to themselves or somebody else. A person can only authentically practice religion by the actions that they take and not by simply believing a holy text and ending there. Gandhi provides an example of how Christians can live authentically with their faith by saying “it is better to allow our lives to speak for us than our words. God did not bear the cross only 1,900 years ago, but He bears it today, and He dies and is resurrected from day to day,”(Religion and Truth). Gandhi argues that even though the Christian God has already died for their sins many years ago they must not be complacent to this fact. “Do not preach the God of history, but show Him as He lives today through you,” Gandhi further emphasizes that Christians cannot only have faith based on the old written story of their prophet (Religion and Truth). Instead, Christians need only to be Christian by living like their prophet was alive on earth today. To take action and use their faith and reason to serve the greater good of humanity rather than only relying their practice of religion on an outdated human-soaked scripture that is riddled with imperfect objective claims within it. One of the major problems Gandhi had with certain people practicing their religions objectively was that they ran into the risk of wanting to convert other people to their side. “I do not believe in people, telling others of their faith, especially with a view of conversion. Faith does not admit to telling. It has to be lived and then it becomes self-propagating,”(Religion and Truth). When people start making claims that their religion is the true word of God then this will inevitably start unnecessary conflicts. Properly utilizing one's faith can only truly occur when a person has faith through their endeavors and intentions, also simply saying an objective claim about faith is rooted in fallacy. For the sole reason that for Gandhi all religions have the same faith attached to them saying that one is more true than the other is inherently wrong because objectifying an extremely subjective faith all of humanity shares causes separation and detachment from other people who practice their faith through a different religion. Gandhi’s approach to religion is vastly different from the Western religions. For example, the first commandment says that “they shall not believe in other gods,” which shows an objective claim that a person must accept the word of god as the truth (Exodus 20:3:). Gandhi is saying that the scriptures are imperfect documents even though they may be divinely inspired by the word of God they were still translated, interpreted, and written by humans who are imperfect beings. For Gandhi following the text alone isn't the way to live by God because some parts of any holy texts if abided by can make a person commit immoral acts against other people that directly defy the pursuit of self-purification. Gandhi explains that one has to be subjective with their faith for a person to truly know God. The underlying religion of all religions is the practice of serving humanity as a whole and striving for self-purification. If not then that person cannot know God because to know God doesn't mean grabbing coffee with the guy and asking how his day was. No, what Gandhi is trying to conclude is that God is a practice, a pursuit of love and truth through a person's daily actions that benefit humanity in some way. A person’s intentions should be making the world a better place and dedication to becoming pure of heart so that person can show up every day with humanity's best interest in mind. My appreciation of Gandhi is immense and the ideas expressed in his essay are beyond important and needed in modern times. The way Gandhi defines faith is such a beautiful way to look at it. Faith is not exclusive to one religion or even just religions in general. Faith to Gandhi says to me that having faith is all about being a humanist to the utmost degree. Genuinely taking on the responsibility to show up every day and choose to help, benefit, and love every single person encountered frankly is the type of spirit that humanity needs at the moment. All this discrimination and separation that objectifying faith brings is such a regressive approach to this life. The belief that a person’s faith in a religion is more valid than another person’s faith is missing the entire point of having faith! Faith could care less about a person's objective claim to it. Faith only resides and lives by a person who practices rather than preaches. I would much rather go into battle with an atheist who draws their faith towards humanity over a person who ends their faith after the last period in their text. I may be an idealist but I truly believe that if the entire globe realized that faith is not exclusive but rather shared then we can all agree that we have the same ground to walk on. With this collective realization instead of having faith in selfish and absolute reasons. We as a world can have faith in each other and serve one another in the pursuit of making the world a better place for everybody. Having the willingness to connect and have one another best intentions in mind while having a moral obligation to society at large is the only definition of God that satisfies me.