Exploring Religious Meaning, Essay Example

In comparing differences between the spiritual paths of Moses and Mahatma Gandhi, a necessary contrast between East and West conceptions of transcendent experience becomes evident. As each man shaped or reflected the religious sphere of his time, so too were the experiences they manifested born of the distinct cultures.

Transcendence, or self-transcendence, very loosely translates to an abnegation of the self to achieve a higher state of being. It is in essence a discipline of focus, in which material concerns are discarded in favor of a spirituality, or nearing to truth, that cannot be otherwise achieved. The histories of Moses and Gandhi, while separated by thousands of years, both serve to illustrate how inextricably tied such pursuits are to the realities of the world.  Entering into this are the concepts of ‘free will’ and its opposite, for we are dealing always with mortal men, albeit in extraordinary circumstances, and these concepts are best explored through the choices, or lack thereof, we find in these epic lives.

In the case of Moses, the disadvantage of thousands of years of varying interpretations clouds the scant reality. However, it is Moses as a Western legacy with which we are concerned, and therefore a wide view of his religious impact is acceptable. From Old Testament to New, Moses figures as a mighty patriarch and lawgiver, and a leader of his people. In stark contrast to Gandhi’s ascendency, the life of Moses is continually marked by action and, from the beginning, doubt. “Before the burning bush, Moses’ first question is, ‘Who am I?’” (Faulconer 76). This is pivotal; it paints Moses as a blank slate, ready to be the Lord’s servant. It is as well strikingly Western in its very insistence.

Then, the actions of Moses are characterized by the primitive cultures of the time, when revenge was a duty sanctioned by God. Moses’ journey to God, and in fact his recorded alliance with God, is usually turned to as a testament to blind faith. Time and again, Moses reacts in a frustrated and seemingly subordinate role: rage over the worship of the Golden Calf he saw on descending Sinai prompted his smashing of his God’s word, and five hundred men of the tribe of Reuben were engulfed in a chasm opened by Moses’ wrath. His story is of an abnegation of the most strained and tumultuous variety, one in which his only link to the transcendental is directly through the God he often so violently serves.

Gandhi’s story far more reflects an Eastern passivity, and modern documentation permits the verifying of this. Although set in a time and place as imbued with political tension and injustice as an Old Testament locale, Mahatma Gandhi from the onset of his spiritual life exercised his will in direct opposition to the path taken by Moses. Rather than seek a God to direct him, Gandhi merely began a lifelong process of divesting himself of that which hindered access to truth, for in truth he would find God.

While it is certainly true that virulent discrimination fueled Gandhi’s objectives, his approach was unfailingly the antithesis to Western modes of reaction, and he fashioned non-violent resistance into a global ideology. His own Indian people were at first taken aback by his strategy of seeming compliance, yet they followed his example and overturned British rule in a completely nonviolent manner. It is arguable if such a strategy of peaceful but adamant opposition could have even been entertained in a Western culture.

If there is a true parallel to be found in Moses and Gandhi, it is ironically that both, aggressive or passive, served their respective societies. “Religious belief did not lead Gandhi to seek otherworldly escape, but caused him to root himself more steadfastly in the needs of the world” (Deats, Jegen 34). This unites the two leaders as nothing else does, for their paths to transcendence and God were utterly dissimilar. Each, nonetheless, sought to bring God to his people, and in so doing near God themselves.

Works Cited

Deats, Richard L. & Jegen, Mary. Mahatma Gandhi, Nonviolent Liberator: A Biography. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2005. Print.

Faulconer, James E. Transcendence in Philosophy and Religion. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2003. Print.