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lsparrow's review against another edition
2.0
I was interested in a book that helped me to understand this amazing person who had so much to say about resistance, non violence and justice. However this book more read like a series of journal entries. I found it hard to follow and connect to the writing and I did not really feel that I understood him better after reading this.
soniapage's review against another edition
4.0
Unfortunately this was an abridged library audiobook and I'm left wondering what was left out.
watlingtonmark's review against another edition
3.0
Too much of this book is about Gandhi's obsession with fruits and nuts
sfstagewalker's review against another edition
3.0
This is not the most compelling autobiography in the world, although it's by a compelling person. Gandhi's account of his experiments with truth are dry and factual, and he provides very little in the way of context, instead preferring to direct the reader to other books for background. This is, in short, not a book written for his own personal reasons and due to the urging of friends and not because he had a clear purpose in mind. Indeed, that purpose seems to shift and change as the book goes on, as he was discovering what he wanted to do with the book but didn't want to go back and do a second edit.
Nevertheless, I'm quite glad I read it. It was a valuable exposure to a worldview radically different from my own and it frequently challenged me to stop and think about how he reached the conclusions that he did. By the end I was particularly intrigued by his faith, which appears to be a non-diest theism. He only mentions a Hindu god by name once, and that is to express his disturbance with the blood spilled in sacrifice. When God is named, it is named as Truth. This reminds me of Bonhoeffer's emerging concept of a "religionless Christianity" and also connects to Gandhi's exposure to Theosophy early in his life.
This becomes remarkable given his extreme asceticism, which becomes fueled not by a religious vision or adherence to a specific tradition, but evolves out of his own understandings. His vegetarianism grows increasingly militant, and his relationship to his own body could be described as masochistic... the more he denies his physical nature, the more connected to Truth he feels. Thus one step leads to another, to another, to another... and he goes from a man of principle to an ascetic who routinely driving his body to illness and the brink of death.
I'm also fascinated by how this path led him from a man who studied to be a lawyer in order to best serve his family and community became someone who (to his own mild regret) completely sacrificed literary education in exchange for moral education. The fact that he himself would not have been able to make any of the social changes he pushed for if he didn't have that level of education and practice as a lawyer never seems to come up.
Overall, I want to know more about this man. I saw the classic film when it came out in the 80's, which painted him in the most glowing light possible, but I'm curious to learn more about what his wife and children thought about who he was and what he was doing. What about his political allies and detractors, who often agreed with his goals but strongly opposed him in other respects?
In short, this book led me to think about a lot of things ... including the nature of "great men" who seem to accomplish so much, but who upon examination are seen to be standing on the shoulders of many, many, many others who had pushed things to the tipping point. In the end, did Gandhi make history, or did history make Gandhi? (Of course, the answer is a little of both)
Nevertheless, I'm quite glad I read it. It was a valuable exposure to a worldview radically different from my own and it frequently challenged me to stop and think about how he reached the conclusions that he did. By the end I was particularly intrigued by his faith, which appears to be a non-diest theism. He only mentions a Hindu god by name once, and that is to express his disturbance with the blood spilled in sacrifice. When God is named, it is named as Truth. This reminds me of Bonhoeffer's emerging concept of a "religionless Christianity" and also connects to Gandhi's exposure to Theosophy early in his life.
This becomes remarkable given his extreme asceticism, which becomes fueled not by a religious vision or adherence to a specific tradition, but evolves out of his own understandings. His vegetarianism grows increasingly militant, and his relationship to his own body could be described as masochistic... the more he denies his physical nature, the more connected to Truth he feels. Thus one step leads to another, to another, to another... and he goes from a man of principle to an ascetic who routinely driving his body to illness and the brink of death.
I'm also fascinated by how this path led him from a man who studied to be a lawyer in order to best serve his family and community became someone who (to his own mild regret) completely sacrificed literary education in exchange for moral education. The fact that he himself would not have been able to make any of the social changes he pushed for if he didn't have that level of education and practice as a lawyer never seems to come up.
Overall, I want to know more about this man. I saw the classic film when it came out in the 80's, which painted him in the most glowing light possible, but I'm curious to learn more about what his wife and children thought about who he was and what he was doing. What about his political allies and detractors, who often agreed with his goals but strongly opposed him in other respects?
In short, this book led me to think about a lot of things ... including the nature of "great men" who seem to accomplish so much, but who upon examination are seen to be standing on the shoulders of many, many, many others who had pushed things to the tipping point. In the end, did Gandhi make history, or did history make Gandhi? (Of course, the answer is a little of both)
uditnair24's review against another edition
4.0
First of all the name of the book is the Gandhi stories or Gandhi Katha. The book basically complies the little anecdotes about the habits and attitude of mahatma in everyday life. One thing which comes out beautifully through these stories is that the greatness of a person is the result of the smaller habits and way life. I
clarks_dad's review against another edition
2.0
Things I've learned reading The Story of My Experiments with Truth:
- Being vegan is hard. Like really, really, really hard.
- Earth treatments and hydropathy apparently cure everything.
- Ignorant and dirty people ruin third class passage, but we should all ride there anyway...so we can, you know, help them "change their ways."
- Gandhi would laugh at our current usage of the word "austerity."
- If you drink a lot of milk, you're going to have a bad time.
To say that I was disappointed with this book is a bit of an understatement. What little I know of Gandhi stems from the excellent Oscar-winning performance of Ben Kingsley and the casual glance we get of him in readings on European imperialism and de-colonialism or the obligatory quotes we get on occasions of great solemnity or inspiration. Needless to say, I was really stoked to learn more about the philosophy and life of one of the world's most inspiring and humble leaders.
The work was narrated to an assistant who recorded Gandhi's words (supposedly verbatim) in weekly sessions from 1925 to 1929, appearing in installments in several journals Gandhi worked with. The narrative recounts his earliest recollections through 1921, but many of the stories are repetitive in theme and purpose and if you think you're going to get 500 pages of inspired religious rhetoric about compassion and the use of non-violent resistance in campaigns, you'll be disappointed until you hit the last tenth of the book or so, where he delves into satyagraha in Indian protests of the Rowlatt Acts. In many instances, it's difficult to be certain what the campaigns are in response to and the precise position of the narrative in the course of events, but then again, Gandhi didn't keep a diary and was narrating off the cuff.
What you do end up geting in this volume is about 200 pages of amateur dietician proclaiming the health and spiritual benefits of a vegan diet. So much does diet dominate the narrative that they should seriously think about reclassifying this book and moving it to the "Health" section of the library and call it The Story of My Experiments with Food. As the narrative progresses, Gandhi becomes more and more austere with the vows and restrictions he imposes upon himself, sometimes for no other discernable reason than to see if he can. About 100 pages are devoted to pure medical quackery and the remainder a mix of recollections both mundane and insightful that keeps dragging you back for the brief glimpses at genius and compassion that we miss so much in the landscape of the 21st century. Are there enough of these moments to make it worth it? Not really. Stick to the quotes and watch the movie. Read a third-person biography from a historian with a little more narrative sense and you'll be more satisfied.
Obviously, the 2 star rating has nothing to do with Mr. Gandhi personally or his philosophy, both of which are fascinating...it's just that this narrative is so difficult to get through that I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone.
- Being vegan is hard. Like really, really, really hard.
- Earth treatments and hydropathy apparently cure everything.
- Ignorant and dirty people ruin third class passage, but we should all ride there anyway...so we can, you know, help them "change their ways."
- Gandhi would laugh at our current usage of the word "austerity."
- If you drink a lot of milk, you're going to have a bad time.
To say that I was disappointed with this book is a bit of an understatement. What little I know of Gandhi stems from the excellent Oscar-winning performance of Ben Kingsley and the casual glance we get of him in readings on European imperialism and de-colonialism or the obligatory quotes we get on occasions of great solemnity or inspiration. Needless to say, I was really stoked to learn more about the philosophy and life of one of the world's most inspiring and humble leaders.
The work was narrated to an assistant who recorded Gandhi's words (supposedly verbatim) in weekly sessions from 1925 to 1929, appearing in installments in several journals Gandhi worked with. The narrative recounts his earliest recollections through 1921, but many of the stories are repetitive in theme and purpose and if you think you're going to get 500 pages of inspired religious rhetoric about compassion and the use of non-violent resistance in campaigns, you'll be disappointed until you hit the last tenth of the book or so, where he delves into satyagraha in Indian protests of the Rowlatt Acts. In many instances, it's difficult to be certain what the campaigns are in response to and the precise position of the narrative in the course of events, but then again, Gandhi didn't keep a diary and was narrating off the cuff.
What you do end up geting in this volume is about 200 pages of amateur dietician proclaiming the health and spiritual benefits of a vegan diet. So much does diet dominate the narrative that they should seriously think about reclassifying this book and moving it to the "Health" section of the library and call it The Story of My Experiments with Food. As the narrative progresses, Gandhi becomes more and more austere with the vows and restrictions he imposes upon himself, sometimes for no other discernable reason than to see if he can. About 100 pages are devoted to pure medical quackery and the remainder a mix of recollections both mundane and insightful that keeps dragging you back for the brief glimpses at genius and compassion that we miss so much in the landscape of the 21st century. Are there enough of these moments to make it worth it? Not really. Stick to the quotes and watch the movie. Read a third-person biography from a historian with a little more narrative sense and you'll be more satisfied.
Obviously, the 2 star rating has nothing to do with Mr. Gandhi personally or his philosophy, both of which are fascinating...it's just that this narrative is so difficult to get through that I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone.
scheu's review against another edition
4.0
I chose to read Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography (written decades before his death) because I've always greatly admired the man and his work. The book has much to offer any reader as it covers Gandhi's personal struggles, his spiritual progress, his health and his recollections of the many people (great and small) he knew in India, South Africa and England. I enjoyed the spiritual portions of the book the most.