Book: My Religion

Overview
Published in 1955, My Religion gathers Mahatma Gandhi’s reflections on faith, ethics, and public life into a coherent portrait of his spiritual philosophy. It presents religion not as sectarian allegiance or ritual observance but as an all-encompassing discipline of truthfulness, self-restraint, and service. Gandhi treats religion as the living core of action, a principle that must govern family, work, politics, and the smallest daily choice, so that the inner life and the outer life never diverge.

Truth and Nonviolence
The book’s center is satya (truth) and ahimsa (nonviolence). Gandhi’s journey moves from saying “God is Truth” to affirming “Truth is God,” shifting emphasis from metaphysical assertion to a lived moral imperative. Truth is pursued through scrupulous honesty, fearlessness, and the willingness to suffer rather than inflict suffering. Nonviolence is described as a positive, courageous force, not mere avoidance of harm. It requires discipline, self-purification, and an unshakable faith that right means generate right ends. Satyagraha, holding fast to truth, emerges as the practical method by which moral force operates in civic struggle.

Hinduism and Universality
Gandhi speaks as a Hindu who reveres the faith’s openness, elasticity, and capacity for reform. He loves the Bhagavad Gita as a spiritual handbook, reading it as a call to duty done without attachment and as a guide to self-mastery. He defends the ideal of varna as a principle of service based on aptitude and vocation, while denouncing caste exclusiveness and the cruelty of untouchability as moral evils. At the same time, his Hinduism is porous and expansive. He finds light in the Qur’an, the Bible, the Dhammapada, and other scriptures, insisting that religions are many paths to the same summit. Aggressive proselytization is rejected; the higher form of witness is reform within one’s own tradition and loving service to others.

Discipline, Prayer, and Everyday Sacraments
Religious realization, for Gandhi, is built through vows and practices that harness craving and channel it toward service. Prayer is the daily anchor, a training of the will that steadies the mind and softens the heart. Fasting is a means of self-purification and moral appeal, never coercion. Celibacy, control of the palate, and simplicity of living cultivate inner freedom. Bread labor, spinning, and swadeshi are treated as sacraments: acts that bind the worker to the toiler, honor the dignity of manual work, and counter the violence of exploitation. Service to the poorest, Daridra Narayan, God in the poor, is the surest worship.

Social Reform and Equality
The book links religion to justice. Untouchability violates the command of compassion; it must be abolished not only by law but by personal contrition and solidarity. Women’s moral and civic equality is affirmed through the same logic of truth and fearlessness that grounds nonviolence. Trusteeship proposes that wealth is held in trust for society, turning ownership into responsibility and softening class antagonisms without hatred or force.

Politics as Moral Vocation
Public life stands under the same law as private conscience. Swaraj is self-rule in a double sense: the nation’s freedom and the citizen’s mastery over self. Satyagraha becomes the grammar of civic action, transparent aims, clean means, self-suffering, and an unwavering refusal to demonize opponents. The unity of means and ends is the safeguard against corruption of purpose; the method is the message.

Enduring Message
My Religion distills a vision in which spiritual practice and social action are indivisible. Truth is ultimate reality and guiding star; nonviolence is its method; service is its daily expression. By calling for reform within traditions, reverence for all faiths, and solidarity with the least, Gandhi sketches a universal religion of character that speaks to private conscience and public justice alike.