Vimala Thakar - Philosophical Views

Philosophical Views

Vimala Thakar’s philosophy was influenced by the spiritual teachings of J. Krishnamurti and the nonviolent social change philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and Vinobe Bhave. She sought to reconcile the often separated worlds of spirituality and social action, arguing that in fact each is indispensable to the other: “In this era, to become a spiritual inquirer without social consciousness is a luxury that we can ill afford, and to be a social activist without a scientific understanding of the inner workings of the mind is the worst folly. Neither approach in isolation has had any significant success. There is no question now that an inquirer will have to make an effort to be socially conscious or that an activist will have to be persuaded of the moral crisis in the human psyche, the significance of being attentive to the inner life. The challenge awaiting us is to go much deeper as human beings, to abandon superficial prejudices and preferences, to expand understanding to a global scale, integrating the totality of living, and to become aware of the wholeness of which we are a manifestation.”