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Summary: Must Read for everyone who trusts non violance
Review: The MohanDas K Gandhi, the crusader of peace, non voilance was one of the great souls of this century. Ths book is one of his marvel and gives you insight of this thoughts and beliefs
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Summary: It's all about his experiments with truth ...
Review: This book is about the experiments. The book is not about Gandhi. And only covers his thought process till the 1920s (I think). From an Indian perspective, his life from 1920s-1948 is very interesting, because it is at this time that he makes significant and direct contribution to the Indian struggle against the British. It's a pity he did not update the book in the late 40s before he was killed.For a more interesting history check out Discovery of India by Nehru or Freedom at Midnight by Collins, et al. There have been many books on Gandhi but this is the only one he wrote. I would recommend this to anybody trying to understand the concept of non-violence, ahimsa. Was Gandhi a re-incarnation of Buddha ? I don't know, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that he continues to make a difference to a billion FREE Indians almost 50 years afer he died.
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Summary: A must read.
Review: This book is translated as if Gandhi had written it in English. If you want to learn more about Gandhi, or his ideas, this is the best source.
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Summary: Great work by Great Man
Review: This book should not be read for literary purposes. It will come as an disppointment for people who expect poetry or prose in their readings. My idea was to learn more about Gandhi and I was very satified as this book nearly accomplished that for me. This book is as simple to read as the man himself. Gandhi tells us most sincerely and honestly that he would not have been what he became, if it was not for certain events that changed his life. Even in his writings Gandhi reflects his modesty and simplicity. He does not fall short of acknowledging his weaknesses and his wrongs. Great philosphy right out of the mind of the great philospher!
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Summary: Gotta give it up for the great one.
Review: This book was NOT at all what I expected. I expected the story of a great man traveling around India and teaching the masses how to overthrow tyrants and live in peace. This is a more realistic story of a boy becoming a man. Ghandi did have normal struggles like trying to reconsile his relligeous beliefs in the modern world. I think he went on and on about his diet a little more than I would have liked, I don't think his five pages on whether or not a good Hindu could drink milk was well spent. In spite of the little quirks I do have to give a man this great 5 stars.
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Summary: This book shall change your perspective of gandhi
Review: This book will change your perspective of gandhi as being a mahatma, and a saint. One can clearly understand the other side of gandhi, the self questioning youngman and the dilemmas he faced on being caught in the middle of history. It shows his broad perspective of life and the book definitely offers insight into what could have made the man into what he was. But the book has no account of the period when he refined his concepts of satyagraha and of his involvement in the freedom struggle. This is not a history book, but a book that offers a glimpse into his thought process and his principles, and how he conceived them in the first place. Some of the events that gandhi describes in the book are surprising. Among these is his first introduction to the bhagavad gita through reading Edwin Arnold's translation of Gita(Song Celestial), and the shame of his ignorance of hinduism. Equally surprising is his stand towards the british empire, whom he goes forth to serve among the ambulance corps in the boer war and in other ways during worldwarI. A very good book if one were to try to understand this great person. Also recommended: Light of Asia -- Edwin Arnold , Unto the Last -- John Ruskin
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Summary: A very honest and great man
Review: This is a must read for everyone, it is a study not only of Ghandi, not only of India nor nonviolence, it is a study of what it is to be a human being. Ghandi was a great man but he was also a very human man -one not clouded by the overbuilt ego of other great leaders, but rather a man not afraid to show his own weaknesses. I was taken by this book and believe that if you decide to read you too will be charmed.
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Summary: THOSE SUCCESSFUL "EXPERIMENTS"
Review: This seminal son of Asia needs no introduction in any part of the world. Popularity, adulation, controversy and patience followed him wherever he went. Till this day, both friends and foes continue to pay him his due. He is another 'Profile-In-Courage'.
Mr Mohandas Ghandi proved that non-violent protests can achieve what machine-guns and bombs could not. He was a great man: the giant on whose shoulders icons like Martin luther King (Jr.) and Nelson Mandela stood in order to see farther.
His well-knitted autobiography made a captivating read.
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Summary: Great.
Review: This version seems to have been well translated. It is also easy to understand. A must read for any Indian interessted in their country or suscribers to non-violence
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Summary: Meet Gandhi, the man.
Review: Unlike a couple readers below, I was pleasantly surprised to find this a very readable and well-written story. I felt like I was meeting the great reformer in person, with no interpreters or spin doctors between us. Gandhi surprised me with his transparency. He honestly expresses doubts about (or limited awareness of) God, his own weaknesses, and the mistreatment of women in Hinduism. He frankly relates quarrels with his wife ("numerous bickerings" that end in peace, with the wife the victor -- I wonder about that part, though) and that his son disagreed with his ascetic lifestyle. I gave this book five stars not because I agree with all of Gandhi's ideas, but because he explains them well, the stories he tells are so interesting, because the search for truth is what life is all about, and because Gandhi is one of the great figures of the 20th Century. A couple years ago I did a research paper on the young Mao Zedong. One thing that surprised me here was to find that, despite their very different attitudes about violence, the fathers of the world's two biggest modern states shared much in common. Both agreed that "the life of labor is the only life worth living," and founded communes with friends as young men. Both strengthened themselves through ascetic self-disciplines. Both were men of contemplation and action. Both shared an ambivalent relation to the party that was the vehicle of their success, yet were also masters at the use of power. Both freed their countries from foreign domination over many decades, by use of dialectic strategy and an appeal to the peasants. Gandhi was a man of ideas and of action, and also I think of passion, despite his philosophical commitment to "desirelessness." I found the book engaging on all three levels, though I also was disappointed that it ended without relating later actions in the history of India's movement towards independence. Gandhi seemed to live with a great deal of guilt, which he relates to the death of his father, revealed in his attitude towards sex and eating. "Renunciation without aversion is not lasting," he quotes a pundit. He seemed to feel life itself was occasion for guilt. "Man cannot for a moment live without commiting outward himsa, destruction of life." In this regard, of course, Gandhi and Mao were opposites, the latter embracing an ideology that encouraged him to locate guilt in the other, the former one by which he took on the guilt of others. As a Christian, one of the most interesting parts of the book was his visit to the temple to Kali. He was horrified by the animal sacrifices he saw. "To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being," he noted. "I must go through more self-purification and sacrifice, before I can hope to save these lambs . . . ." He said he prayed constantly that "some great spirit" of a person would bring an end to these "immoral" sacrifices. Yet the people doing the sacrifices were themselves looking for a solution to the same problem of guilt that haunted Gandhi, as well as Tolstoy, his hero. This shows that the wisdom of Gandhi was not all the wisdom of India, still less of humanity. The Rig Veda says that sacrifice is "the mainstay of the world" and the only way to find forgiveness of sins. It spoke of a God who would sacrifice himself for the sins of the people, in prophetic imagery remarkably similar to the events recorded in the Gospels. And, when Jesus died, animals were no longer sacrificed. I wonder if it ever occurred to Gandhi that his prayer for lambs (not to mention guilt-ridden people) had already been answered at the cross? author, Jesus and the Religions of Man d.marshall@sun.ac.jp
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