What motivated Gandhi?

cows, ghandi loved cows and he wanted them to live in freedom and not used for food
Taken as-is from Wikipedia:

No book was more central to Gandhi's life and thought than the Bhagavadgita, which he referred to as his "spiritual dictionary". During his stay in Yeravda jail in 1929, Gandhi wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita in Gujarati The Gujarati manuscript was translated into English by Mahadev Desai, who provided an additional introduction and commentary. It was published with a ForeWord by Gandhi in 1946 expressed his love for the Gita in these Words: I find a solace in the Bhagavagītā that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavagītā. I find a verse here and a verse there and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies - and my life has been full of external tragedies - and if they have left no visible, no indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavagītā.