Customer Reviews

Gandhi on Non-Violence: A Selection From the Writings of Mahatma Gandi

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was disappointing. Although the quotations are excellent, by themselves they are little more than random sentences. Without the context of Gandhi's story, without knowing what his life and actions were all about, having a book with some words he said is practically meaningless. As I read the quotations, I found myself referring to Louis Fischer's biography of Gandhi, and Gandhi's own autobiography to find out what the quotes meant when Gandhi actually said or wrote them. When I got too lazy to look up the quote somewhere else, the words merely passed before my eyes in a way that could not be described as reading. The entire volume has an engineered, overprocessed quality because of the topical, rather than chronological or situational, arrangement of entries.

The introductory essay seemed to run on forever, but it is an interesting insight into Gandhi's motives and choices. Generally, though, it is verbose and tedious, not at all the engaging and lively reading I would hope would be associated with such a charismatic subject.

I can see this volume being useful for gathering direct quotes for a paper or speech about Gandhi, but without background information found in other materials, the meaning behind the quotes in this book will be next to impossible to understand.

In short, for general reading on Gandhi's life, find another volume. Get this only if you're looking for sound bytes arranged by topic for use as one liners.

I deeply regret other reviewers cannot appreciate the historic context of this book{s writing forty yeares ago and of our reading it now in an era of overwhelming and genocidal thoughtless unreflective imperialist violence.

Please study carefully Jim Forrest's excellent introduction to Thomas Merton's Peace in a Post-Christian Era to understand why he had to take this round-about way to address pressing issues of war and peace while under obedience to not personally address them.

His preface is neither "tedious" nor "verbose" as another reviewer here calls it. It is a profoundly stirring call to action written as succinctly and clearly, as comprehensively and completely as possible. We need to hear it now more than ever in our age of total destruction of populations in Iraq, the Afghan, Palestine, etc., as well as in our radically individualized society n which we hate everyone else on the road or in the supermarket line or even silent in Church, and cut them all with a killing coldness.

Rather than removed from context, Merton fully and masterfully, as the long time spiritual teacher he was in the Novitiate, places the quotes from Gandhi into the most universal context which must touch even us now here today, with the slightest effort at meditation and reflection on our part. Here this message these two great spiritual masters send to us across the generations, purely and unadulterated.

this is what it is: a collection of one-liners by Gandhi on non-violence with an extensive and comprehensive and LEARNED explanation by THOMAS MERTON (sorry for screaming, non-violently) for God's sake of the concept of ahimsa, or non-violence in society.

Where's the down side? Why so many sad and unsatisified reviewers here?

If you want more context, certainly get further reading. Amazon offers a very complete Gandhi library, and Merton of course. If you find Merton too scholarly and thoughtful, well, heck, he was a MONK and a Novice MAster and a contemplative Catholic Trappist well known for his erudition and compassion. ANd perhaps this was the only way he could express his firmly Catholic based faith against war and ofr peace in a time and nation eager and profitting from war (as it ever more deeply does).

We urgently need at this time both these voices: Merton's elaborations and Gandhi even spoonfed. Merton "verbose and tedious"??!! I weep for our fallen civilization.

We owe a great deal of gratitude to the Amazon for presenting this great and essential New Directions book. Please visit the entire New Directions catalogue as published in the back of this excellent epigrammatic collection.

Merton interpreting Gandhi and ahimsa for us, the American public. Where's the downside, people?

If you want to start with Ghandi's experience on non-violence, this is a good book to begin with. Altough brief, the thoughts and feelings of Ghandi are clearly shown.

This is a useful book in times such as ours if you find yourself in need of a short, pithy statement on nonviolence. It is a sort of "wit and wisdom" collection, with no passage longer than a few sentences. While that certainly doesn't allow the reader any in-depth study of Gandhi's philosophy, it is useful for readers already familiar with that philosophy who are seeking simple and quick access to essential statements.

This is an informative, but slim read. Merton has taken some good quality material from Gandhi's thoughts, but he has missed many gems. Fischer's Essential Gandhi provides a much more comprehensive summary of Gandhi's thought. This volume has a few quotes that Fischer's works lacks, however. It is a good, slim volume, and Merton's introduction has some fine observations on Non-violence. Original sources and places where Merton found the quotes are missing, however, so the reader is left dependent on Merton's academic integrity, which one ought to think is fairly good. Overall a good work, but not exceptional.

I truly enjoyed this book. It does exactly what it is supposed to; it discusses important writings of Mahatma Ghandhi. There are tons of additional books for further reading, however this book is a concise and powerful collection of the writings of Ghandhi. Truly an inspiration that should be a required reading for every human being on this earth.

Highly recommended.

I would also have to say that the book is "lacking" because though the quotes are interesting and give you some insight about his thought process and a bit about his feelings, if you are unfamiliar with his teachings, or know little of him in general you will find it difficult to identify with and understand why he thinks and says the things he does. Thus, for the uninitiated it may seem a bit too dry.

This collection of brief selections of Gandhi's thought has proved to be an exceptionally useful and concise intro to his amazing insight. There are only a couple other books I've found to be as useful -- the brief biographies of Richard Deats and Eknath Easwaran -- and either of which would serve as helpful companions to this volume. The Merton intro is wonderful; I'm looking forward to see what Kerlansky adds.

...but it's a good selection of Gandhi's thoughts on the topic, and Merton's intro is wonderful.