A window into MK Gandhi's religious views ...

[struggle4progress]

... from a translation into English of Gandhi's commentary on the Gita

The interpretation reflects a mixture of classical Indian philosophical views and yogic notions -- but also and importantly provides some indirect insight into Gandhi's attitudes towards his life-long political activities

... Even in 1888-89, when I first became acquainted with the Gita, I felt that it was not a historical work, but that, under the guise of physical warfare, it described the duel that perpetually went on in the hearts mankind, and that physical warfare was brought in merely to make the description of the internal duel more alluring ...

Krishna of the Gita is perfection and right knowledge personified; but the picture is imaginary. That does not mean that Krishna, the adored of his people, never lived ...

Because a poet puts a particular truth before the world, it does not necessarily follow that he has known or worked out all its great consequences or that having done so, he is able always to express them fully. In this perhaps lies the greatness of the poem and the poet. A poet's meaning is limitless. Like man, the meaning of great writings suffers evolution ...

The Gita is not an aphoristic work; it is a great religious poem. The deeper you dive into it, the richer the meanings you get. It being meant for the people at large, there is pleasing repetition. With every age the important words will carry new and expanding meanings. But its central teaching will never vary ...

http://members.aol.com/jajnsn/anasa.html

... Effort is within man's control, not the fruit thereof. All he has to do, therefore, is to decide his course of conduct or duty on each occasion and persevere in it, unconcerned about the result ...

The Vedic ritual lays countless ceremonies and rites with a view to attaining merit and heaven. These .. are worthless.

http://members.aol.com/jajnsn/disco02.html

... In fine, unless man uses all his physical, mental and spiritual gifts in the service of mankind, he is a thief ...

Who does not know that works of charity performed without knowledge often result in great harm? ...

http://members.aol.com/jajnsn/disco04.html

... But man is not a judge knowing past, present, and future. So for him the law is reversed and mercy or forgiveness is the purest justice. Being himself ever liable to be judged he must accord to others what he would accord to himself, viz. forgiveness ...

The five cardinal vows are: non-violence, truth, non-stealing, celibacy, non-possession ...

http://members.aol.com/jajnsn/disco05.html

... I do not understand the meaning of these two shlokas. They do not seem to me to be consistent with the teaching of the Gita ...

http://members.aol.com/jajnsn/disco08.html

... it is the Lord in every being whom we serve with devotion who accepts the service ...

http://members.aol.com/jajnsn/disco09.html

... And so even iconoclasts are at bottom no better than idol-worshippers. To worship a book, to go to church, or to pray with one's face in a particular direction — all these are forms of worshipping the Formless in an image or idol ...

http://members.aol.com/jajnsn/disco12.html

... If as a result of all this there is no renunciation of the fruit of action, ‘practice' is no ‘practice', ‘knowledge' is no ‘knowledge', and ‘concentration' is no ‘concentration' ...

http://members.aol.com/jajnsn/disco12.html

... The Gita on many occasions presents the ideal to attain which the aspirant has to strive but which may not be possible completely to realize in the world. It is like definitions in geometry. A perfect straight line does not exist, but it is necessary to imagine it in order to prove the various propositions. Even so, it is necessary to hold up ideals of this nature as standards for imitation in matters of conduct ...

http://members.aol.com/jajnsn/disco18.html

[Boojatta]

1. "to pray with one's face in a particular direction"

I presume that he was criticizing the picking of one particular direction and then always praying while facing that one direction.
Alternatively, perhaps it's good to pray while running in circles so that your face points in a variety of different directions during one session of praying.

[struggle4progress]

2. ... "One must go further, one must go further." This impulse to go further is an ancient thing ..

.. in the world. Heraclitus the obscure, who deposited his thoughts in his writings and his writings in the Temple of Diana (for his thoughts had been his armor during his life, and therefore he hung them up in the temple of the goddess), Heraclitus the obscure said, "One cannot pass twice through the same stream" .. Heraclitus the obscure had a disciple who did not stop with that, he went further and added, "One cannot do it even once" .. Poor Heraclitus, to have such a disciple! ...

Fear and Trembling
by Sören Kierkegaard
http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=2068&C=1875