Jesus "True Satyagrahist"

For Gandhi, to say that Jesus was the only begotten son of God was to say that in Jesus' own life was the key of his nearness to God that he expressed as no other could, the spirit and will of God. He does believe that something of the spirit that Jesus exemplified in the highest measure; in its most profound human sense exist.

If he did not believe it, should be a skeptic, and to be a skeptic is to live a life that is empty and lacking moral content. Or, what is the same thing, to condemn the human race to a wrong end. Gandhi believed that in every man there was an impulse for good and a compassion that is the spark of divinity that will one day burst into the full flower that is the hope of all mankind.

An example of this flowering, he said, may be found in the figure and in the life of Jesus. "I refuse to believe that there not exists or has ever existed a person that has not made use of his example to lessen his sins, even though he may have done so without realizing it. The lives of all have, in some greater or lesser degree, been changed by His presence, His actions and the words spoken by His divine voice... I believe that he belongs not solely to Christianity, but to the entire world; to all races and people, it matters little under what flag, name or doctrine they may work, profess a faith or worship a God inherited from their ancestors.

"For Gandhi Jesus was the true satyagrahist who passed the test of non-violence even if he seemed to be otherwise a failure.This is the true test of Ahimsa is being passed when being killed bears no anger against his murderer and even asks God to forgive them is truly non-violent.

History relates this of Jesus Christ. With his dying breath on the Cross, he is reported to have said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what to do." According to the theory of Satyagraha, said Gandhi, an adequate appeal to the heart never fails. “Seeming failure is not of the law of Satyagraha but of incompetence of the Satyagrahist by whatever cause induced. The name of Jesus at once comes to the lips. It is an instance of brilliant failure. And he has been acclaimed in the west as the prince of passive resisters. I showed years ago in South Africa that the adjective 'passive' was a misnomer, at least as applied to Jesus. He was the most active resister known perhaps to history."