Mohandas Gandhi and the Theosophists, the Plymouth Brethren, and the Ruskinites

Scene 2 – The Plymouth Brethren, Pretoria, South Africa (1893)

Mohandas Gandhi and the Theosophists, the Plymouth Brethren, and the Ruskinites

Scene 2 – The Plymouth Brethren, Pretoria, South Africa (1893)

After three years of study in London, Gandhi succeeded in being called to the bar, and he then returned home to India. But with little work or advancement coming his way, he accepted an offer of employment from an Indian firm in South Africa. Arriving in Pretoria, he met the firm’s attorney, Mr. Baker, who was also a Christian preacher with the South Africa General Mission, and also met a young Quaker, Mr. Coates, who introduced Gandhi to several books and several of his friends.

[from ‘The Story of my Experiments with Truth’, Part II, Chapter XI – Christian Contacts]

“One of these introductions was to a family which belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, a Christian sect. Many of the contacts for which Mr. Coates was responsible were good. Most struck me as being God fearing. But during my contact with this family, one of the Plymouth Brethren confronted me with an argument for which I was not prepared:

‘You cannot understand the beauty of our religion. From what you say it appears that you must be brooding over your transgressions every moment of your life, always mending them and atoning for them. How can this ceaseless cycle of action bring you redemption? You can never have peace. You admit that we are all sinners. Now look at the perfection of our belief. Our attempts at improvement and atonement are futile. And yet redemption we must have. How can we bear the burden of sin? We can out throw it on Jesus. He is the only sinless Son of God. It is His word that those who believe in Him shall have everlasting life. Therein lies God's infinite mercy. And as we believe in the atonement of Jesus, our own sins do not bind us. Sin we must. It is impossible to live in this world sinless. And therefore Jesus suffered and atoned for all the sins of mankind. Only he who accepts His great redemption can have eternal peace. Think what a life of restlessness is yours, and what a promise of peace we have.’

[Our Plymouth Brethren seems to be saying that trying to improve one’s self doesn’t matter, and doing good works doesn’t matter. Because it’s impossible to live without sin!]

The argument utterly failed to convince me. I humbly replied:

‘If this be the Christianity acknowledged by all Christians, I cannot accept it. I do not seek redemption from the consequences of my sin. I seek to be redeemed from sin itself, or rather from the very thought of sin. Until I have attained that end, I shall be content to be restless.’

To which the Plymouth Brother rejoined:

‘I assure you, your attempt is fruitless. Think again over what I have said.’

And the brother proved as good as his word. He knowingly committed transgressions, and showed me that he was undisturbed by the thought of them.

[I guess that if you’re one of the ‘elect’, it doesn’t matter how you live your life, because you’re one of the chosen ones anyway, so you may as well do whatever you want!]

But I already knew before meeting with these friends that all Christians did not believe in such a theory of atonement. Mr. Coates himself walked in the fear of God. His heart was pure, and he believed in the possibility of self-purification. The two ladies also shared this belief. Some of the books that came into my hands were full of devotion, So, although Mr. Coates was very much disturbed by this latest experience of mine, I was able to reassure him and tell him that the distorted belief of a Plymouth Brother could not prejudice me against Christianity.”

[After 3 years of working in South Africa, Gandhi decided to return home for a short period, sailing to Calcutta.

Gandhi would later write in Chapter XXIV:

“Let me finish the narrative of my voyage. I have to introduce to my readers the Captain of the S.S. Pongola. We had become friends. The good Captain was a Plymouth Brother. Our talks were more about spiritual subjects than nautical. He drew a line between morality and faith. The teaching of the Bible was to him child's play. Its beauty lay in its simplicity. Let all, men, women and children, he would say, have faith in Jesus and his sacrifice, and their sins were sure to be redeemed. This friend revived my memory of the Plymouth Brother of Pretoria. The religion that imposed any moral restrictions was to him no good. My vegetarian food had been the occasion of the whole of this discussion. Why should I not eat meat, or for that matter beef? Had not God created all the lower animals for the enjoyment of mankind as, for instance, He had created the vegetable kingdom?

These questions inevitably drew us into religious discussion. We could not convince each other. I was confirmed in my opinion that religion and morality were synonymous. The Captain had no doubt about the correctness of his opposite conviction.”

[Gandhi succeeded in rejecting the arguments of the Plymouth Brethren (who seemed to be common among the British Christian population that he met in South Africa), that religion and morality were somehow separate.]

[next week - scene 3 – The Theosophists, Johannesburg, 1903]