In his Autobiography, Gandhi wrote, ยWhat I want to achieveยwhat I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty yearsยis self-realization, to see God face to face. . . . All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to this same end.โ While hundreds of biographies and histories have been written about Gandhi (1869ย1948), nearly all of them have focused on the national, political, social, economic, educational, ecological, or familial dimensions of his life. Very few, in recounting how Gandhi led his country to political freedom, have viewed his struggle primarily as a search for spiritual liberation.
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Shifting the focus to the understudied subject of Gandhiโs spiritual life, Arvind Sharma retells the story of Gandhiโs life through this lens. Illuminating unsuspected dimensions of Gandhiโs inner world and uncovering their surprising connections with his outward actions, Sharma explores the eclectic religious atmosphere in which Gandhi was raised, his belief in karma and rebirth, his conviction that morality and religion are synonymous, his attitudes toward tyranny and freedom, and, perhaps most important, the mysterious source of his power to establish new norms of human conduct. This book enlarges our understanding of one of historyโs most profoundly influential figures, a man whose trust in the power of the spirit helped liberate millions.