Gandhi, M.K: The Scientist

As mandatory textbook in during my high school, I have read (studied) Gandhiji’s autobiography ‘ The Story of My Experiments with Truth’. But I cannot say that it influenced me in any way. It was just a curricular activity for me. I do remember bits and parts of it. I remember a number of touching moments in the story. Particularly, several mistakes he made in early life such as meat eating, cigarette smoking, stealing etc. and also his initial struggles in South Africa. But I never thought carefully the depth of his experiences and most importantly his philosophies on various aspects of life.

I am re-reading the book now. It gives me a new perspective on the ideologies of one of the most talked about personalities in the world. In fact, I can better appreciate the experiments that he has performed with truth. Since I last read the abridged version of this books almost 20 years ago, I have changed a lot. I have gone through many experiences, both good and bad. I have had my own share of successes and failures, happiness and sorrows, mistakes made and lessons learned, repentance and gratitude. I have a mind that is considerably altered with all the experiences of last 20 years. “A mind stretched by new experience(s) can never go back to its old dimensions”(O.W Holmes).  That is true, but it will be able to appreciate new values and trash old ideologies in the light of these accrued experiences.

This is a book that describes several social experiments. Experiments on dietetics, brahmacharya, lifestyles, education, children and many more things. The methods are very well explained and the results are described in more or less dispassionate manner. Many of these experiments are very hard to repeat in an ordinary persons life who leads normal family life. Certainly, I won’t be doing that. But as a scientist, I can very well appreciate the rigor with which these experiments are conducted. The major difference between conventional scientific experiments and Gandhiji’s system is that, in the case of former the null hypothesis is that the idea under consideration is false, whereas in case of Gandhiji’s experiments, there is no such statistical considerations. But I like the overall approach. In terms of conception of an idea to its execution there is not much difference between scientific methods and Gandhiji’s methods.  An idea is generated by reading a book or by discussion, which is followed by the designing specific experiments and recording the observations carefully. The results are made public eventually. 

It is a fun way to live. Not necessarily practicing the extremely difficult physical challenges described in the book, but by approaching each event in one’s life as an experiment. By carefully observing each event and logging the out come of each of these experiments every day. It will help us in several ways (1) Paying attention to what one is doing with life (2) Making sure that one is doing meaningful experiment, i.e. doing things worth writing about  (3) Avoid repeating mistakes (4) Being wiser and smarter with time, and (5) Making sure that each experience and every moment in life is well accounted for.

Image Courtesy:
http://wilsonsketchblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/mahatma-gandhi-ink-drawing.html#.UuS615Gtt-U