Discovery of Truth and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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Discovery of Truth and Mahatma Gandhi

 

I must have piled up claims on you in some previous life. Else, how could I deserve so much love from you? Still, the love that you showed me in my misfortune yesterday was beyond description. For this, I pray, may you both grow brighter in your souls? You should pray, likewise, that having experienced this love [of yours], I may grow the stronger in my faith in soul-force. If a trivial pledge, none too important in itself, i.e., the mere undertaking of tapascharya, can achieve so much, there can be no measuring, as the simple rule of three will show, how much may be achieved by tapascharya actually practised quite so. Had I not taken the vow, I would not have tasted pure love as I did; there would have been no speedy discovery of truth and the poor children would not have been proved innocent as they actually were.  The reference here, therefore, to these experiments is not meant to demonstrate their success. I cannot claim complete success for any experiment. Even medical men can make no such claim for their experiments. My object is only to show that he who would go in for novel experiments must begin with himself. That leads to a quicker discovery of truth, and God always protects the honest experimenter. 1

I have been fagged out and for some days cutting down the daily work to the minimum Hence the delay in reply. Even so, I enter into a discussion of your message for the sake of elucidating truth. I know how busy you are and care-worn. But the only way Satyagraha works is by a continuous discovery of truth and action based on it. In the progress towards full discovery the satyagrahi has to show that he is ever ready and even eager to learn and appreciate the opponent’s side. It is in that spirit that I approach your message. 2

 

References:

1. Letter to Raojibhai Patel, After February 15, 1914
2. Letter to Sir Reginald Maxwell, December 2, 1940