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.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
God is Love and the Supreme Good
Topic: Divine Love & Goodness
I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever dying, there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and re-creates. That informing power or spirit is God. And since nothing else that I see merely through the senses can or will persist, He alone is.
And is this power 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.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (born October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, in the Kathiawar region of present-day Gujarat – died January 30, 1948, in New Delhi) is revered worldwide as a moral and spiritual leader whose philosophy of nonviolent resistance profoundly shaped India’s struggle for independence. Raised in a devout Hindu household, Gandhi was formed by the religious pluralism of Gujarat, where Jain, Muslim, and Hindu traditions coexisted. After studying law at the Inner Temple in London, he traveled to South Africa in 1893 to work as a legal advocate. There, his encounters with racial discrimination and the injustices faced by Indian laborers awakened his conscience and inspired his lifelong commitment to satyagraha—steadfast adherence to truth through nonviolent action.
During his two decades in South Africa, Gandhi developed the principles that would define his life: nonviolence (ahimsa), civil disobedience, and the pursuit of self-rule grounded in moral discipline. Returning to India in 1915, he became a central figure in the movement for independence from British rule. Through peaceful protests, fasting, and broad programs of social reform, he worked to reshape not only political structures but the ethical character of society. He challenged caste discrimination, campaigned against untouchability, and encouraged simplicity, self-reliance, and the use of homespun cloth (khadi) as symbols of dignity and resistance. His mass movements—such as the 1930 Salt March—became landmarks in the global history of nonviolent struggle.
Gandhi’s life embodied a living synthesis of faith and action. Drawing wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita, the Sermon on the Mount, Jain ethics, and other religious traditions, he sought unity among faiths and dignity for all people. Though he was assassinated in 1948, his legacy endures as a moral compass for those seeking justice through peace. His life continues to testify that transformation begins within—and that courage, truth, and love remain among the most powerful forces for shaping a just society.
My Religion
Easwaran, Eknath. God Makes the Rivers to Flow: an Anthology of the World's Sacred Poetry & Prose. Nilgiri Press, 2009, p. 203 [Mahatma Gandhi, My Religion (Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan, 1955)].
Mohandas K. Gandhi
Theme: Divine Love
About This Mohandas K. Gandhi Quotation [Commentary]
Mahatma Gandhi begins with what he “dimly perceive[s]”: while everything around him is “ever changing, ever dying,” there is “underlying all that change a living power that is changeless.” His thought moves in a clear sequence. He starts with the passing nature of what is seen through the senses, then points to the deeper reality that “holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and re-creates.” God is not introduced here as a theory, but as the living presence beneath change. So when Mohandas K. Gandhi says, “He alone is,” he is naming the one reality that does not pass away.
He then asks, “And is this power benevolent or malevolent?” His answer comes from what he sees: “in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.” The repeated word “persists” is the heart of the passage. Death, untruth, and darkness do not have the final word. Life persists. Truth persists. Light persists. From this, Mohandas K. Gandhi says, “Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light.” In the theme of Divine Love and Goodness, his words keep the focus where he keeps it: on the signs of what endures at the heart of reality.
The passage ends with great simplicity: “He is Love. He is the Supreme Good.” These words complete the movement of the passage. The changeless power beneath all change is not only living; it is benevolent. It is Love. It is the Supreme Good. Mohandas K. Gandhi does not deny death, untruth, or darkness. He names them plainly. But he places beside them what “persists,” and that changes the whole meaning of the passage. Divine Love and Goodness are not added from outside; they are present in the very life, truth, and light that remain.
Eknath Easwaran Commentary About Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948; Mahatma means “great soul”) was born in British India and led his country to freedom through a thirty year struggle based completely on nonviolence. His formulation of satyagraha (“holding to truth”) as a systematic method for transforming conflict into unity among individuals, communities, and nations, is one of the inspired innovations of the twentieth century. His daily guidebook was the BHAGAVAD GITA, a core scripture of Hinduism, which he translated into his life. When he fell to an assassin’s bullet in January 1948, Albert Einstein was among the millions around the world who mourned, saying, “Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walk upon the earth.” Gandhi’s own estimation of himself was characteristically different: “I have not the slightest doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.”
“The Path” and “In the Midst of Darkness,” from articles Gandhi wrote for his weekly paper Young India in the 1920s, are included in many collections of Gandhi’s writings, including My Religion (Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan, 1955). Gandhi read “In the Midst of Darkness” for Columbia Gramophone Company while he was in England working for India’s independence in 1931―the first and the last time his voice was preserved in a studio recording.
―Eknath Easwaran [Blue Mountain Center of Meditation].
Mahatma Gandhi’s Quotation on the Moral Superiority of Women
The Linguistic Limitations in Gandhi’s English Translations [Commentary]
The English language often obscures the gender-balanced intentions of Mohandas K. Gandhi by imposing a masculine identity on universal concepts. While Mohandas K. Gandhi explicitly identified woman as immeasurably man’s superior in moral power and the natural leader of nonviolent resistance, the grammatical conventions of the early twentieth century frequently required the use of masculine pronouns like He when referring to the informing power or God. This creates a linguistic tension between his stated belief in the spiritual strength of women and the gendered language used to describe the benevolent spirit. Because English lacked a widely accepted neutral pronoun for the divine during his time, the translated and English-original texts often fail to capture a truth that Mohandas K. Gandhi saw as transcending gender, ultimately limiting the expression of a philosophy that placed woman at the center of humanity’s moral future.
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