“Being born in the Vaishnava faith, I had to often go to the Haveli (place of Vaishnava worship). In the tenth chapter – ‘Glimpses of Religion’ – of his autobiography, he wrote, Photo: Mehul DevkalaĬontrary to this, Gandhi was not particularly inclined towards the Vaishnava faith. She was deeply religious,” Gandhi wrote in the first chapter of his autobiography. “The outstanding impression my mother has left on my memory is that of saintliness. Gandhi in his childhood, accompanying his mother, had often visited the Pranami temple near his home in Porbandar. Gandhi’s mother Putlibai was from Dantrana village. Gandhi was born in a Bania caste, which traditionally follows the Vaishnava sect of Hinduism. But very less is written about the influence of the Pranami sect and its philosophy of syncretism on Gandhi during his childhood. Much has been written about Gandhi’s childhood and we all know about his favourite bhajan, ‘Vaishnava Jan To’, written by Gujarati poet Narsinh Mehta. But in our temple, the priest used to read from the Muslim Koran and the Hindu Gita, moving from one to the other as if it mattered not which book was read as long as God was worshipped,” said Gandhi, superbly portrayed by Ben Kingsley, in the 1982 film Gandhi by Richard Attenborough. Always full of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Persians.
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