Evaluating the Upanishads, Gandhi and Ramakrishna

Overview

Main successes that can be credited to Gandhi and main failures that can be laid against Gandhi.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Give the case that the Upanishads remain important for Hindus today.

   Model answer

   They supply the concepts every school still argues about, Brahman, atman, karma and moksha, every Vedanta teacher must expound them, and their teaching that the divine is within the self underlies both meditation and the modern claim that Hinduism is a universal spirituality.

2. 2

   Give the case that the importance of the Upanishads is limited in practice.

   Model answer

   Very few Hindus read them, they are in Sanskrit and philosophically demanding, and the devotional life of most households is shaped by the epics, the Puranas and festival worship rather than by texts that say almost nothing about deities, temples or ritual.

3. 3

   Give the case that the Katha Upanishad is the most important of the Upanishads.

   Model answer

   It puts the question of death directly and answers it, it contains the chariot image that became the standard account of self-mastery, its statement of the Self beyond the senses is quoted everywhere, and its dramatic form makes it the most accessible of the collection.

4. 4

   Give the case that other Upanishads matter more than the Katha.

   Model answer

   The Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya are older, far longer and more systematic, and they carry the great sayings on which the schools of Vedanta build, including that thou art, so the Katha is one voice within a larger conversation.

5. 5

   Give the case that Gandhi's achievements were more political than religious.

   Model answer

   What he actually accomplished was the mobilisation of a mass independence movement and the end of British rule, he is remembered as a national leader, and his religious ideas reached most Indians as a political programme of non-cooperation rather than as a doctrine.

6. 6

   Give the case that Gandhi's achievements were more religious than political.

   Model answer

   His authority rested on his personal discipline, his fasts, his vows and his prayer meetings, his campaign against untouchability was an argument about what Hinduism is, and his lasting influence has been on how people think about conscience and non-violence rather than on Indian government.

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