God is Life, Truth, Light, Love and The supreme Good
Mahatma Gandhi
Address at Kingsley Hall
Delivered 17 October 1931, London
There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not
see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof because it is so
unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses.
But it is possible to reason out the existence of god to an [unintelligible] exchange. Even in
ordinary affairs we know that people do not know who rules, or why, and how he rules. And
yet they know that there is a power that certainly rules.
In my tour last year in Mysore I met many poor villagers and I found upon inquiry that they
did not know who ruled Mysore. They simple said some god ruled it. If the knowledge of these
poor people was so limited about their ruler, I, who am infinitely lesser in respect to god than
they to their ruler need not be surprised if I do not realize the presence of god, the king of
kings.
Nevertheless I do feel as the poor villagers felt about Mysore, that there is orderliness in the
universe. There is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or
lives. It is not a blind law, for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings. And thanks
to the marvelous researches of Sir J.C. Bose, it can now be proved that even matter is life.
That law then which governs all life is god. Law and the lawgiver are one. I may not deny the
law or the lawgiver because I know so little about it or him, just as my denial or ignorance of
the existence of an earthly power will avail me nothing. Even so, my denial of god and his law
will not liberate me from its operation. Whereas, humble and mute acceptance of divine
authority makes life’s journey easier even as the acceptance of earthly rule makes life under it
easier.
I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever dying, ever guiding, there is
underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together; that
creates, dissolves, and recreates. That informing power of spirit is god. And since nothing else
that I see merely through the senses can or will persist, he alone is.
And if this power is benevolent or malevolent, I see it as purely benevolent. For, I can see
that in the midst of death, life persists. In the midst of untruth, truth persists. In the midst of
darkness, light persists. Hence I gather that god is life, truth, light. He is love.
He is the supreme good. But, he is no god who merely satisfies the intellect, if he ever
does. God to be god must rule the heart and transform it. He must express himself in ever
smallest act of his [goodery?]. This can only be done through a definite realization more real
than the fives senses can ever prove use.
Sense perceptions can be and often are false and deceptive however real they may appear to
us. Where there is realization outside the senses it is [imperial?], it is proved not by extreme
extraneous evidence, but in the transformed conduct and character of those who have felt the
real presence of god within. Such testimony is to be found in the experiences of an unbroken
line of prophets and sages in all countries and climes. To reject this evidence is to deny
oneself. This realization is preceded by an immovable faith. He who would in his own person,
test the fact of god’s presence can do so by a living faith.
And since faith itself cannot be proved by extraneous evidence, the safest course is to believe
in the moral government of the world and therefore in the supremacy of the moral law, the
law of truth and love. Exercise of faiths will be the safest where there is the clear
determination summarily to reject all that is contrary to truth and love.
I confess that I have no argument to convince through reason. Faith transcends reason. All
that I can advise is not to attempt the impossible.
http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/Gandhi/I-Meet-Gandhi.php
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