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ABSTRACT
Although Gandhi had rigorously identified himself as a ‘Sanātanī Hindū (traditional Hindu)’, his idea and practice of religious politics (i.e. satyāgraha) have inspired people across the world. Recent studies point out that Gandhi’s life-long experiments with ‘brahmacarya (sexual celibacy)’ were the key to understand Gandhi’s contextualized-universal idea of religious politics. This paper aims to examine the intellectual evolution of Gandhi’s concept of brahmacarya. Gandhi was a trilingual speaker in Gujarati, Hindi, and English, and no previous works have studied Gandhi’s concept of brahmacarya using primary materials in all three languages. In this paper, I will proffer a cross-linguistic exploration into the genealogy of Gandhi’s concept of brahmacarya. In so doing, I will highlight some of the professed ‘deep influence(s)’ on his life; I will assess how Śrīmad Rājcandra (a native Gujarati poet), Svāmī Vivekānanda (a Bengali intellectual and nationalist), and western progressive thinkers such as Havelock Ellis, Edward Carpenter, and John Woodroffe, ‘influenced’ Gandhi. As a result of these explorations, this paper concludes that Gandhi’s brahmacarya is best seen as a concept that entails multi-layered roots which transcend the epistemological boundaries between ‘Indian’, ‘imaginative’, and even the hybrid amalgam of ‘the (other) wests’.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 These words from Carpenter are collected as one case of ‘sexual inversion in men’ in Ellis’s Studies in the Psychology of Sex I, 46–7.
2 Gāndhī, Sampūrṇ Gāndhī Vāṅgmay, 544. In this article, all translations from Gujarati and Hindi texts to English are mine, unless otherwise stated.
3 A quote from St. John Chrysostom’s Against Those Who Keep Virgins in Their Houses in Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex VI, 154.
4 During his political career, Gandhi recurrently insisted that there could be ‘no politics without religion’ and uttered his wish to substantialise ‘dharm rāj (the rule of the right religious order)’. See Skaria, “‘No Politics without Religion’ of Secularism and Gandhi”; Lal, “Gandhi’s Religion”; Hazama, “The Paradox of Gandhian Secularism.”
5 The theory and practice of satyāgraha is popularly known as ‘non-violent resistance’. However, satyāgraha etymologically means ‘āgraha (holding firm)’ onto ‘satya (truth)’ in Sanskrit and Gujarati languages. Gandhi’s concept of satya entails a metaphysical implication of the realisation of oneness of ‘sat (Being)’ (Hazama, “The Paradox of Gandhian Secularism,” 1405). Gandhi’s satyāgraha is, thus, by no means a mere political strategy, but encapsulates religio-spiritual connotations.
6 Gāndhi, Hind Svarājya.
7 In this respect, Charles Taylor admiringly comments on Gandhi’s Hind Svarāj as follows: ‘You read Hind Swaraj and, in some ways, you’re totally shocked, because it is so anti-modern, so anti-industrialization, so antidevelopment. But there’s working up there a fantastic vision of nonviolent resistance and what it can produce. It jumps over to Martin Luther King and it jumps over to Mandela. This is fantastic.’ See Mendieta, The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere, 116–7.
8 Akeel Bilgrami argues that ‘[u]niversalisability is not to be confused with universality’. This is because ‘[u]niversality suggests that a moral value, whether or not someone in particular holds it, applies to all persons. Universalisability suggests merely that if someone in particular holds a moral value, then he must think that it applies to all others (in relevantly similar situations). Yet despite the fact that it is much weaker than universality in this sense, it still generates the critical power which Gandhi finds disquieting.’ Bilgrami, “Gandhi’s Integrity,” 84.
9 Alter, Gandhi’s Body; Howard, Gandhi’s Ascetic Activism; Hazama, Gāndhī no Sei to Nationalism; “The Paradox of Gandhian Secularism”; Rudolph and Rudolph, Gandhi; Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition, and Reform, 191–227; Lal, “Nakedness, Nonviolence, and Brahmacharya,” 105–36.
10 Alter, Gandhi’s Body, 24.
11 Howard, Gandhi’s Ascetic Activism.
12 In this respect, I owe much to Husserl’s philosophical exploration on the meaning of the intersubjective operation of ‘influence’ (gewirkt) in the formation of a cultural community. See Husserl, Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität, 207–32.
13 I must express my deep gratitude to Professor Vinay Lal of UCLA, who generously provided me precious comments on this paper, particularly regarding Gandhi’s self-claimed “influences.”
14 Also known as Rāycandrabhāī Rāvjībhāī Mahetā.
15 See AK, part. 2, chap. 15, and GA, XXXII, 3. Also see GA, III, 218; IX, 290–1; XIII, 135, 271–4, 282–3; XXV, 340; XXXVII, 246–52; and XLIII, 111.
16 There is a book that compiles the total 833-page length of Rājcandra’s Gujarati writings, entitled Śrīmad Rājcandra, but there is currently no English translation for this. In this article, except Rājcandra’s independent publications and letters, I cite his writings from Śrīmad Rājcandra. GA (XXXII, 495–500) compiles Rājcandra’s first letter to Gandhi (20th October, 1894), but GA does not collect Rājcandra’s second (15th March, 1895) and third letter (9th October 1896). In this article, I use Rājcandra, Śrīmad Rājcandra ane Gāndhījī for these three Gujarati letters.
17 Jordens, Gandhi’s Religion, 45–60.
18 Skaria, “‘No Politics without Religion’ of Secularism and Gandhi,” 177–210.
19 Jordens, Gandhi’s Religion, 67–77.
20 Jordens also examines the three books that Rājcandra sent to Gandhi, which were Yogavāsiṣṭha, Pañchīkaraṇa, Maṇiratnamamālā, but Jordens never provides an account for Rājcandra’s Mokṣmāḷā. For the analysis on the relationship between Gandhi’s thought and Yogavāsiṣṭha, see Parel, Gandhi’s Philosophy and the Quest for Harmony, 14–7.
21 Skaria, “Secularism and Gandhi,” 177–80.
22 Ibid., 175, 177, 181, 187, 190, 202, 205–6.
23 Rājcandra, Mokṣmāḷā, 63.
24 ‘m. transaction, dealings; business; behaviour; social custom or usage; social intercourse; intercourse’ (Deśpāḍ, Gujarātī-Aṅgrejī Kośa, 829).
25 ‘m. determination, resolve; decision; assurance, certainty’ (ibid., 535).
26 Rājcandra, Mokṣmāḷā, 81–3.
27 Rājcandra, Mokṣmāḷā, 83. See also, ibid., 116, 70–1.
28 Ibid., 82.
29 Ibid., 83.
30 Skaria, “Secularism and Gandhi,” 179.
31 Rājcandra had a strong interest in social reform and ‘worldly things (saṃsārī tṛṣṇāo)’ during his teenage years. Moreoever, he notes in his autobiographical writing that despite the fact that his mother was a Sthānakvāsi Jain, until 13 years old he was an ardent Kṛṣṇa Bhakta under the influence of his grandfather, who was a Vaiṣṇava Hindu. During the years of Kṛṣṇa Bhakta, Rājcandra ‘was craving the joyful state (ānanddāyak daśā) being engrossed happily (sukhmāṃ) in [the] company of women […]’ (Rājcandra, “Samuccayvaycaryā” in Śrīmad Rājcandra, 204–5; Kalārthī, Śrīmad Rājcandra, 10–12).
32 Rājcandra, Mokṣmāḷā, 166.
33 Skaria, “Secularism and Gandhi,” 181–2.
34 Rājcandra, Mokṣmāḷā, 237–8.
35 Ibid., 125–6, 185–7.
36 See note 16 above.
37 These themes are shared in most of Rājcandra’s answers. With the exception of six of his 27 answers (10, 11, 12, 19, 20, 26), all his answers are related to the concept of either ātmā or jīv. Kalārthī, Rājcandra ane Gāndhījī, 93–112.
38 Ibid.
39 Rājcandra, “Annya Śaraṇnā Āpnār Evā Śrī Sadgurudevne Atyant Bhaktithī Namaskār” in Śrīmad Rājcandra, 394–6.
40 The concept of kartā means a supposed primordial agency of each jīv which receives karmic consequences of actions.
41 Ibid., 394–5.
42 Kalārthī, Rājcandra ane Gāndhījī, 95–100.
43 Ibid., 123.
44 Ibid., 113.
45 Ibid., 114.
46 Ibid., 221–2, 282, 407, 452, 490–1, 584, 630, 697, 742, 757, 772.
47 Kalārthī, Śrimad Rājcandra, 23–30.
48 Jordens wrongly mentions that the third letter was written in the early 1896 (Jordens, Gandhi’s Religion, 51).
49 Rājcandra, Ātma Siddhi.
50 Kalārthī, Rājcandra ane Gāndhījī, 116.
51 Ibid., 118.
52 Rājcandra, Ātma Siddhi, 38. See also, ibid., 28, 30, 32, 34, 41, 58, 74, and 77.
53 Ibid., 6, 14, 20, 89.
54 Ibid., 76.
55 Howard, Ascetic Activism; Hazama, “The Paradox of Gandhian Secularism.”
56 Gandhi quoted some lines from the chapter on brahmacarya in Rājcandra’s Mokṣamāḷā (185–7), but Gandhi did not mention Rājcandra’s name in the Harijanbandhu. Instead, Gandhi only explained these lines as ‘certain rules laid down in India’ (CWMG, LXXXVIII, 101). For more details on this, see Hazama, “The Paradox of Gandhian Secularism,” 1410–2.
57 Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi, 588, 599–600.
58 Rājcandra, Mokṣamāḷā, 186.
59 Gandhi quoted these lines by his memory. Gandhi first read Mokṣamāḷā during his stay in South Africa. See Hazama, “The Paradox of Gandhian Secularism,” 1410–2.
60 Harijanbandhu of 15 June, 1947.
61 Ibid.
62 CWMG, LXXI, 208.
63 CWMG, LXXXVII, 108.
64 Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi, 578, emphasis in original.
65 GA, XXXII, 384–90; XXXII, 1–9.
66 Jordens, Gandhi’s Religion, 22, 26.
67 Jordens erroneously mentions this verse ‘37’ (ibid., 26).
68 In Raja Yoga, Vivekānanda translates brahmacarya as either ‘chastity’ or ‘continence’ (Vivekananda, Raja Yoga, 48, 67–8, 71, 140, 188, 191).
69 Ibid., 142.
70 n. manliness, valour, strength, power, energy; heroism, heroic deed; manly vigour, virility, semen virile (Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 1006).
71 ‘Brahmacaryapratiṣṭhāyāṃ vīryalābhaḥ 38. 38. By the establishment of continence energy is gained’ (Vivekananda, Raja Yoga, 142).
72 Jordens, Gandhi’s Religion, 26; Vivekānanda, Raja Yoga, 48.
73 Jordens, Gandhi’s Religion, 25.
74 Gandhi, “Indian Home Rule,” 79.
75 Gāndhī, Hind Svarājya, 205.
76 Vivekananda, Raja Yoga, 19, 23.
77 Ibid., 144.
78 Gāndhī, Hind Svarājya, 203.
79 Ibid., 205.
80 Ibid., 195.
81 In this respect, see particularly Vivekananda, Lectures from Colombo to Almora.
82 Desāī, Mahādevbhāīnī Ḍāyrī, 266.
83 Vivekananda believed that the distinction was indispensable for the national awakening: ‘First of all, our young men must be strong. Religion will come afterwards. […] You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of the Gita’ (Vivekananda, Lectures from Colombo to Almora, 157).
84 Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi, 588; CWMG, LXXXVII, 90.
85 Bose, My Days with Gandhi, 149. Gandhi conducted his first phase of yajña (often called ‘mahāyajña’) with Manu in Noākhālī from 19th December 1946 to 25th February 1947. They stayed in Noākhālī until 4th March, at which point they departed for Bihār. This conversation was held between 14th and 16th March in Bihār with Svāmī Ānand and Kedār Nāth. Only Pyarelal records the content of this conversation. We cannot find out about the conversation in Manu’s diary on these days (Manubahen Gāndhī, Bihārnī Komī Āgamāṃ, 48–67).
86 Although Russell’s Marriage and Morals also triggered a controversy, particularly in the United States and England, but was published in 1929, which was not during Gandhi’s South African years. A possible work by Russell on ‘sex’ during Gandhi’s South African years may be an article entitled “Anti-Suffragist Anxieties” (1910), but it does not seem that Gandhi was referring to this article in relation to his later distinct view on brahmacarya.
87 The first volume was published in 1896 in London, but was proscribed. The first and second volumes were published in Germany in 1899, and after this Ellis reproduced these volumes in the United States in 1901. He then published all the remaining volumes, from three to six, in the United States (1903–1910).
88 See particularly the chapter, “The Function of Chastity” in Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex VI, 143–77. See also ibid., 125, 179, 198, 200–14; Psychology of Sex I, 146–7; Psychology of Sex 3, 156–7.
89 See the chapter, “The Problem of Sexual Abstinence” in Ellis, Psychology of Sex VI, 178–216.
90 Ellis positively explains ‘asceticism’ as follows: ‘if we agree to mean by asceticism or ascesis, the athlete quality of self-discipline, controlling, by no means necessarily for indefinitely prolonged periods, the gratification of the sexual impulse’ (ibid., 175).
91 Ibid., 179.
92 Ibid., 175.
93 Ibid., 151.
94 Ibid., 151–2.
95 Ibid., 211, 214.
96 Ibid., 155.
97 Ibid., 143, 176.
98 Ibid., 168.
99 Ibid., 167.
100 Ellis, Psychology of Sex I, 46–7, 142; Psychology of Sex V, 110–1; Psychology of Sex VI, 46, 53, 79–80, 116, 172, 419, 510.
101 Carpenter, Love’s Coming of Age.
102 Ellis, Psychology of Sex I, 142.
103 Ellis also quotes from Carpenter’s The Art of Creation: Essays on the Self and Its Powers (1904). See, Ellis, Psychology of Sex V, 110–1.
104 Ellis, Psychology of Sex VI, 172.
105 Ibid., 116.
106 Carpenter, Civilisation, 262.
107 The chapter ‘The New Morality’ in ibid., 243–64.
108 See particularly, ibid., 263.
109 Gandhi, Affective Communitie, 63.
110 Hazama, Gāndhī no sei to nationalism, 127–69; Kumar, Mahatma Gandhi’s Letters on Brahmacharya, 337–61; CWMG, XCVI. Gandhi destroyed all the letters received from Kallenbach for some reason. See Hazama, Gāndhī no sei to nationalism, 130–1; Hunt and Bhana, “Spiritual Rope-Walkers,” 175.
111 See the ‘Jainism to Tantrism?’ section in Hazama, “The Paradox of Gandhian Secularism,” 1407–17.
112 Harijanbandhu, 18th August 1946; Harijanbandhu, 22nd June 1947. N. K. Bose wrote in a letter that Gandhi’s experiments with brahmacarya in his last years entailed a ‘new way of thinking’ (N. K. Bose Papers, Group 14, Correspondence, National Archives of India, New Delhi, No. 68).
113 See GA, XXVI, 402; XXX, 229; XXXI, 167; CWMG, XXXIII, 145. N. Gier also emphasises Gandhi’s tantric influence of śakti, but his work does not refer at all to Woodroffe’s work, and the argument was more hermeneutic than historical. See Gier, “Was Gandhi a Tantric?.”
114 CWMG, LXXI, 71, 208; LXVII, 194–8.
115 See note 84 above.
116 Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi, 589; CWMG, LXXXVII, 91.
117 Woodroffe, Shakti and Shākta.
118 GA, XXIII, 177; XXV, 85.
119 Hazama, “The Paradox of Gandhian Secularism,” 1416–7.
120 GA, LXXXVII, 22. See the detailed discussion in the subsection, “The Influences of ‘Modern Thought’” in Hazama, “The Paradox of Gandhian Secularism,” 1412–7.
121 For example, see the argument on the relationship between Gandhi’s concept of ‘rasa’ and Narsiṃh Mahetā’s bhakti poetry in Shukla-Bhatt, Narasinha Mehta of Gujarat, 173–206. For some important discussions on the erotic Vaiṣṇava mythology, see Lal, “Nakedness, Nonviolence, and Brahmacharya,” 130–3; Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform, 225–7; Howard, Ascetic Activism, 159.
122 Carpenter, From Adam’s Peak to Elephanta.
123 GA, XLIX, 473–4.
124 Carpenter, Love’s Coming of Age, 20, 79, 173.
125 Carpenter, Adam’s Peak, 135–201.
126 Ibid., 159–60.
127 Ibid., 154–5.
128 Ibid., 155.
129 Ibid., 115–6.
130 Ibid., 122.
131 Ibid., 122–3.
132 Ibid., 304–17.
133 Ibid., 307–8.
134 See note 110 above. There is a letter sent from Gandhi to Carpenter on 29th July 1911, in which Gandhi introduces Kallenbach to Carpenter (The Carpenter Collection, Sheffield City Council, No. 376. 9).
135 See note 2 above.
136 Bose, My Days with Gandhi, 163.
137 These articles are the following: “Meṃ Kem Śarū Karyuṃ” (“How Did I Start?”) in the Harijanbandhu of 8th June 1947; “Brahmacarya Vāḍ” (“The Fence of Brahmacarya”) in the Harijanbandhu of 15th June 1947; “Īśvar Kyāṃ ne Koṇ?” (“Where and Who is God?”) in the Harijanbandhu of 22nd June 1947; “Nāmsādhanānāṃ Cihn” (“The Sign of Name Exercise”) in the Harijanbandhu of 29th June 1947; and “Ek Mūñjhvaṇ” (“A Confusion”) in the Harijanbandhu of 6th July 1947.
138 Bose, My Days with Gandhi, 163.
139 “Meṃ Kem Śarū Karyuṃ” in the Harijanbandhu of 8th June 1947.
140 Manubahen Gāndhī, Gāndhījīnī Noākālīnī Dharmayātrānī Ḍāyrī, 79.
141 This Gujarati adjective was used several times in his yajña in Noākhālī. See particularly ibid., 157, 162. The word has various connotations other than ‘unique’ such as ‘altogether different’, ‘uncommon’, and ‘extraordinary’, as well as ‘not separate’ and ‘joint’ (Deśpāḍ, Gujarātī-Aṅgrejī Kośa, 3).