Two lectures that featured New York Times contributor Perry Garfinkel regarding his book, “Becoming Gandhi,” were held on April 8 and 9. These lectures were organized by the Department of Philosophy and Veena Howard, director of the M.K. Gandhi Peace Center.
The Wednesday lecture was titled “What We Can STILL Learn from Gandhi’s Philosophies in These Violent Times.” Garfinkel began by talking about himself and his past, which included his time in India and why he chose India for his travels.
Though he visited India in the 1970s, it was not until the early 2000s that he was able to visit India again, where he had a major assignment from National Geographic magazine with the mission to explore why Buddhism had gotten so popular in the west.
The talk transitioned into him talking about Gandhi’s six principles: Celibacy, faith, vegetarianism, non-violence, simplicity and truth.
Though Gandhi is mentioned in the title of the book, Garfinkel’s talks mostly centered around discussing the principles that he has worked on in his own life, as well as discussing the principles with students.
Garfinkel said that he took the step to remove more violence from his life by limiting his news intake that involves violence, staying away from violent movies and working to not curse himself out or beat himself up.
He also talked about multiple other principles, such as vegetarianism. He changed his diet to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle for some time before becoming a pescatarian to better suit his personal needs.
After the lecture, the Q&A began. One student, Ganeev Virk, a political science major, asked how Garfinkel could continue to advocate for Gandhi as a vessel for these values, saying that Gandhi has proven throughout history that he is not the man he claimed to be.
“I have separated Gandhi the human being, who’s flawed, from the principles,” Garfinkel said.
Garfinkel also said that Gandhi had sexual hangups. He brought up his book, explaining that more of what he meant could be found in it.
“This was in my mind, an experiment that famously was flawed,” Garfinkel said. “It was like stupid. It showed me that he didn’t understand what sex was — an expression of true love.”
This question, brought up by the student, comes from a critical view of Gandhi being known to have slept naked next to his grand niece to test his chastity.
The Thursday lecture
The April 9 talk was called “How to Gandhi in 6 (sometimes) Easy Steps,” where he elaborated on the six principles. This talk took place in the Table Mountain Rancheria Reading Room, where vegetarian pizzas were offered.
His book was the main focus of the talk. There was also a “Becoming Gandhi” book club on campus, where roughly 20 students were offered free copies weeks beforehand. The information for the book club could be found through student emails and the CSU Learn website.
Garfinkel elaborated more on the six principles during this talk, such as simplicity, addressing how people spend so much time on their phones and buy things they don’t need.
One student asked how Garfinkel applied the principles to his time in India. He said that he took the six principles and stayed conscious of them, to be aware of when he messed up or when he had achieved one.
Garfinkel also talked about how the six principles affect his work as a writer, and he is always analyzing the integrity of the words being used.
“I’m always on this fine line between what I do as a journalist by probing into people’s thoughts and feelings,” Garfinkel said. “Is it too intrusive? Or is my cause célèbre to tell the truth and write the truth eventually as I see it, but informed by the thoughts and actions of other people?”
At the end of the event, books were available for purchase to be signed by Garfinkel, and attendees stayed for discussions.
