The global fashion magazine May 8, 2024
Living
Perry Garfinkel’s Becoming Gandhi is a well timed book, with the author following the Mahātmā’s ways and finding truth in his quotation, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’
Veteran journalist and author Perry Garfinkel chronicles how he adopted Gandhi’s six main principles—truth, non-violence, vegetarianism, simplicity, faith, and celibacy—in a quest for self-transformation that took him around the world. Filled with honesty, insight, and self-effacing humour, this work serves as a guide for anyone seeking to live with integrity in our confusing, morally compromised modern world.
Mahātmā Gandhi championed truth and nonviolence, led the struggle for India’s independence, and staunchly stood up for the marginalized. ‘When I despair,’ he said, ‘I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.’
‘As I saw myself and society moving further away from a moral point of view,’ Garfinkel says, ‘I wanted to see if an ordinary person living in the 21st century could, like Gandhi, follow a morally driven game plan.’
To many, Gandhi was a beacon of hope; to others, a lightning rod for controversy. As Perry Garfinkel found, walking (and even stumbling) in Gandhi’s footsteps can reveal how we each have a role to play in creating a more compassionate, peaceful world. ‘Being Gandhi is unattainable,’ Garfinkel observes. ‘But becoming more Gandhi-like will continue to engage me as long as I live.’ •
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