Reddit reviews Gandhi: An Autobiography - The Story of My Experiments With Truth
We found 10 Reddit comments about Gandhi: An Autobiography - The Story of My Experiments With Truth. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
>Yeah, he wasn't always successful at abstaining.
He had an extraordinary and extreme complex about lust. He was a product of both Victorian-era Hindu and British prudishness and did not want to get married, but his parents forced him to when he was 13. When he discovered sex for the first time, with his wife, his ascetic inclinations got pushed to the wayside and he reveled in it as any teen would. Then his father got sick and was slowly dying in the hospital. Gandhi would visit him every day, but as he had just been married, wouldn't spend much time at the hospital because, as he himself wrote, he wanted to run home and have sex with his wife. His father ended up dying one night shortly after Gandhi left to go home and have sex. He developed a massive amount of guilt, feeling that he had failed in his duty as a son by letting his father die alone because of his lust. At the same time, his pregnant wife miscarried, which Gandhi saw as punishment for his immorality. After that he entrenched himself firmly in asceticism, and developed an Augustine- level hatred of lust and desired to conquer it in accordance with the teachings of the ascetic strain of Hinduism. His own wife reported that he would become physically disgusted by the act of sex. He eventually took a vow of celibacy.
Later on, around the time his wife died, he began testing himself in these extreme, ascetic ways by asking young women to sleep next to him to prove to himself that he had conquered lust completely and wouldn't even be mildly tempted by desire for them. It was absolutely inappropriate in several ways and obviously indefensible, but it's also important to note (contrary to the accusations of certain partisan groups) that he never had sex with them, according to their own testimony and that of others (his entire entourage, male and female, slept in the same room, partially because he wanted to be absolutely sure they were all celibate, too.) He never even touched them.
Furthermore, this wasn't some secret that was uncovered after investigative work. All the people closest to him knew about it, including other political leaders in the independence movement, most of whom disapproved and publicly criticized it. Eventually, it became public knowledge, and some of the publishers of his works resigned because they didn't want to print his writings advocating these sleeping arrangement experiments. Gandhi himself still wrote publicly about it and defended the practice, but eventually, in 1947, he bowed to pressure and stopped doing it.
EDIT: Several people have understandably asked for sources. Pretty much every major biography of Gandhi has at least some of this information in it, including his own autobiography. Try:
http://www.amazon.com/Gandhi-An-Autobiography-Story-Experiments/dp/0807059099
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Soul-Mahatma-Gandhi-Struggle/dp/0307389952
http://www.amazon.com/Colonialism-Tradition-Reform-Political-Discourse/dp/0761993827
and
Lal, Vinay (Jan–Apr 2000). "Nakedness, Nonviolence, and Brahmacharya: Gandhi's Experiments in Celibate Sexuality". Journal of the History of Sexuality 9 (1/2): 105–36. JSTOR 3704634.
EDIT: Thanks for the gold, whoever you are!
This demonstrates the power of pure truth and honesty. The only works I've ever read that demonstrate this kind of self-knowledge are Ghandi's autobiography and The Awakening of Intelligence.
Thanks for the video.
I recommend Gandhi's Autobiography "My experiments with Truth". He was the first to accept that he has many shortcomings and he works hard to overcome them". This review does shed some light on some of the negative aspects of Gandhi, but it's more of a hit piece than objective journalism.
Relevant:
Only those matters of religion that can be comprehended as much by children as by older people, will be included in this story. If I can narrate them in a dispassionate and humble spirit, many other experimenters will find in them provision for their onward march. Far be it from me to claim any degree of perfection for these experiments. I claim for them nothing more than does a scientist who, though he conducts his experiments with the utmost accuracy, forethought and minuteness, never claims any finality about his conclusions, but keeps an open mind regarding them. I have gone through deep self-introspection, searched myself through and through, and examined and analysed every psychological situation. Yet I am far from claiming any finality or infallibility about my conclusions. One claim I do indeed make and it is this. For me they appear to be absolutely correct, and seem for the time being to be final. For if they were not, I should base no action on them. But at every step I have carried out the process of acceptance or rejection and acted accordingly. And so long as my acts satisfy my reason and my heart, I must firmly adhere to my original conclusions.
Excerpt from his excellent book, Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth
Full disclosure: The above link to the amazon book contains my referral code. If you want, you can visit the direct link here.
I imagine many on this board are also introverts so I would recommend "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain. It's a popular science book about introversion, that helped me understand and better accept that part of my personality. There is a lot of misunderstanding about what extro-introversion actually is, and this can really help you and people around you understand.
"Gandhi: An Autobiography - The Story of My Experiments With Truth" by (you guessed it) Mahatma Gandhi. I read this many years ago, and it is a honest book based around Gandhi's philosophy of truth. His struggles both inwards and outwards are quite inspiring.
Incidentally, a couple of years ago there was a lesser scandal about him being a sex addict (how dare you be a non-violent activist synbol with a sex drive!), but he discusses that part of his life quite openly in the book. No fuss. He got it under control by meditating and trying different diets, if I remember correctly.
I don't have it in front of me, but I want to say it was called something along the lines of "My experiments with truth." It was essentially a series of articles Ghandi wrote about his life for a newspaper that were combined into a single volume.
EDIT: I was close. Gandhi: An Autobiography - The Story of My Experiments With Truth
Read some history books. Peaceful protests can be VERY effective. I suggest a book called, "Founding Sisters," [Find out more!]or to be more 'on base' with this case, you could research some of Martin Luther King Jr.'s peaceful protests [Find out more!].
Or you know.... anything Ghandi did.... [Find out more!]
Not a memoir but an autobiography:
Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth
You didn't even read the comments, since that first paragraph not only does it put words in my mouth that I never said. It tells me you just refused a proven idea. Read the books.
You need to read if you want an argument. stop being lazy. If you want to understand my point of view you have to enter to the discussion with knowledge of why I believe what I believe. It's not only the God presented in Christianity, it's more than that; that's why I sent you to read Leo Tolstoy and Gandhi too.
If I notice you miss information that unproves your dialog, I gave you the ways to find that missing information. I won't babysit you; no wonder you just repeat everything. I answered and explained everything you asked for; you didn't like the responce, I told you where you can find more information, you say "nope, i dont' want to".
You show no interest in learning or even thinking on others opinions. You simply refuse them without validation, you just stayed in your own mentality and think that anything that challenges your ideals is not worth the effort. That's being closed minded and ignorant. So I guess you're right, the conversation lost it's value when you decided to ignore the points being discussed.
I answered all of your questions. That you don't accept them is not my problem.
I'll leave the books here for people that find this thing and aren't afraid to challenge their knowledge.
The kingdom of God is within you
Gandhi an Authobiography
The fifth mountain
When God doesn't make sense
I really enjoyed Gandhi's autobiography. He's very frank and objective about his life's work and much funnier than one would assume.