For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Love and Mahatma Gandhi – I

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

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

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

Love and Mahatma Gandhi – I

I cannot help here giving a fable or anecdote which is exactly to the point. A king fell in love with a female tooth brush seller, who was a very Venus in beauty. As might naturally be expected she was ordered to be placed in the king's palace. She was, in fact, placed in the lap of luxury. She had the best food, the best clothes, in short, everything of the best. And lo! in proportion to the luxury, her health began to fall. Scores of physicians were in attendance, but all the drugs most regularly administered proved of no avail. Meanwhile a shrewd physician found out the real cause of all the illness. He said that she was possessed by evil spirits. Therefore, in order to satisfy them, he ordered some pieces of old cakes to be set, together with fruit in each of her many rooms. They were to disappear in as many days as there were rooms, and with them, he said, the illness would disappear. And it was so. Of course the cakes were consumed by the poor queen. 1 That the treatment of the Indians is contrary to the teaching of Christianity needs hardly any argument. The Man, who taught us to love our enemies and to give our clock to the one who wanted the coat, and to hold out the right cheek when the left was smitten, and who swept away the distinction between the Jew and the Gentile, would never brook a disposition that causes a man to be so proud of himself as to consider himself polluted even by the touch of a fellow-being. 2

They love and respect, and are in turn loved and respected by, the Natives living in their neighborhood who, as a rule, supply them with the converts. 3 The best English and Indian statesmen are of opinion that Britain and India can be indissolubly united by the chain of love. 4 The policy of the Imperial Government has throughout been a policy of conciliation a policy of winning over the Indians by love and not by force. 5 I have taken the above step deliberately and prayerfully. I feel that neither I nor my family can make any personal use of the costly presents. They are too scared to be sold by me or my heirs, and, seeing that there can be no guarantee against the last contingency, in my opinion, the only way I can return the love of our people is to dedicate them all to a sacred object. 6

Also write to me how Manilal is faring. See that no bad habits of any kind are picked up by the boys. Mould them in such a way that they always have deep love for truth. 7 They believe that the relations between the ruler and the ruled should be very close; that there should be mutual trust, that they should share in the other’s weal and woe and treat one another with love and affection. 8 All religions teach that we should all live together in love and mutual kindness. It was not my intention to preach you a sermon neither is I fit to do so. But if it has produced any favourable impression on your mind, I would appeal to you to let my brethren have its benefit and, as behoves the English people, to defend them, whenever they are maligned. 9 The First thing needful is a sufficient number of self-sacrificing young men who would devote themselves to educational work as a labour of love. 10

The person joining it gets enough exercise and thus keeps his body in good trim and improves his health. One who enlists as a volunteer is much respected. People love him and praise him, calling him a civilian

soldier. 11 Let us try and reckon up some of their good points only and see if they are worth copying. The bad points we leave aside. Throughout their whole history, we find that they have displayed a remarkable spirit of love for freedom and independence. 12 The great Saint Theresa wished to have a torch in her right hand and a vessel of water in her left, so that with the one she might burn the glories of heaven and with the other extinguish the fires of hell, and men might learn to serve God from love alone without fear of hell and without temptation of heavenly bliss. 13 Moreover, men often have a merely superficial idea of religion. Sometimes men believe in religion only as a means to ward off dangers that threaten them. It would be a mistake to dignify actions as religious where they are performed out of a love that springs from fear. 14 It does not affect my love for you. My regard for you does not decrease in the least, and I am ready to render you any service that I can and look upon it as my duty. 15 I know this well that even if only one honest man in this State of Massachusetts refuses to pay taxes in order to oppose slavery, and is locked up in jail there for, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. What is once well done is done for ever. But we love better to talk about it; that we say is our mission. There are many newspapers in the service of the movement for abolition of slavery, but not one man. 16

We have been describing blacklegs as black-faced people. That was done deliberately and without anger. It was our duty to do so. We did not, however, use that description with any ill-will, only we felt grieved because of our love for them. 17 Let us justify this view of ours. It is a matter of common observation that what we have won can be retained only by the same means through which it was got. What is won by force can be retained by force alone. A tiger seizes its prey by force, and retains it through force. Those who are forcibly locked up in jail are kept there by force. The territories acquired by emperors by use of force are retained by force. In the same manner, what is gained by love can be retained only by love. The mother feels great love for the child in her womb and rears it with the same love afterwards. Its punishment while yet a child should not be interpreted as use of force. There are also instances where a mother has lost a child altogether because she stopped loving it for some reason. 18

It is not that the common whites here are in love with us. They merely desist from acting to our detriment in matters in which they are helpless. They have the lion’s nature which they cannot transform into that of a lamb. We are lambs who must, however, become lions. When we succeed in that, mutual regard will come as a matter of course. It is the law of this world not a divine law that there can be love or friendship only among equals. Princes befriend princes. In a king there can be nothing but condescension towards his subjects. That is why some persons want republics. There is no love lost between master and servant. This is found to be true in every sphere. Wherever we find a relationship contrary to this rule that is, friendship even in the absence of equality—we know that the superior party is actuated by some self-interest, or that he is an exceptionally good person. The whites look upon us as a subject race. As long as they persist in this attitude there can be no mutual regard. In the absence of mutual regard, the cause of Indian discontent is bound to remain. The Indian community will therefore be able to exercise its rights only when it develops a lion-like nature. The beauty of the Natal Bills is that they do not apply to the Chinese, let alone the Kaffirs. If the Bills are passed, it will make out Indians to be the lowliest [among the Coloured persons]. We believe the Natal Government’s object in bringing forward these Bills is to ascertain white reaction and test Indian strength. They seem to think that, if the Indian community does not protest in this case or does so only perfunctorily, it may be possible to bring greater pressure to bear on it on future occasions.

It will not be enough, therefore, that the Natal Indians merely resist these Bills; they should challenge the very principle underlying them. They must wake up from their sleep. No one, whether businessman or not, should imagine that trade is all that matters; it is also necessary to acquire true education. Having acquired that for oneself, one must educate one’s children. It is only when the Indian community thus cultivates its talents in every way that it will learn tobe vigilant. He who becomes vigilant may become leonine. The remedy is in our hands. But then, you cannot sell your berries unless you shout your wares. 19

I love you so dearly that even if you are dead, you will be alive to me. Your soul is deathless. I repeat what I have frequently told you and assure you that if you do succumb to your illness, I will not marry again. Time and again I have told you that you may quietly breathe your last with faith in God. If you die, even that death of yours will be a sacrifice to the cause of Satyagraha. My struggle is not merely political. It is religious and therefore quite pure. It does not matter much whether one dies in it or lives. I hope and expect that you will also think likewise and not be unhappy. I ask this of you. 20 I take this to be a diamond necklace, offered not out of respect merely but out of love. It is with that feeling that I thank you. Dawad Sheth’s son, a mere child, writes from England to know why we are not united. The Hamidia Islamic Society is an institution of Muslims. I take it as a great honour that I have been garlanded on its behalf. If both the eyes, Hindus and Muslims, remain unharmed, you will prosper. If 13,000 Indians continue the fight in the name of God and if the two communities remain united, you will also be the masters of India. What is happening here will have its repercussions out there and all people will be united. 21

In Maritzburg, there is a white named Mr. Green. He refused to pay the poll-tax. So he was produce before a magistrate. He declared bluntly that, as it was an unjust tax, he was not willing to pay it. The Magistrate has sentenced him to imprisonment. Mr. Green is at present undergoing the sentence. This is an unusual case. Mr. Green does not incite others. He feels that the poll-tax is an oppressive impost. He is not much of an orator. He, therefore, resolved in his mind that so far as he was concerned, he would never pay that tax. He does not mind the sentence of imprisonment imposed on him in consequence. This is Satyagraha in the true sense of the term. Those who love truth never follow others blindly. They go on suffering for the sake of truth. 22 Boys will be taught the history of ancient and modern India so as to inculcate in them loves of India and help them grow patriotic. 23

Be sure that if you give up the idea of staying with Harilal for the present, it will do well to both of you. Harilal will grow by staying apart and will perform his other duties. Love for you does not consist only in staying with you. At times one has to live apart just for the sake of love. This is true in your case. From every side, I see that your separation is for your benefit. But it can be a source of happiness only if you do not become restless owing to separation. I think Harilal will have to stay at Johannesburg till the struggle is over. Lord Buddha left his wife and became immortal and so did his wife. This is an extreme case. By these examples I only want to show you that your separation is not going to do you any harm. That it would cause you mental agony is quite natural. That is a sign of love. 24 I think of my love for the motherland as an aspect of my religion. It is, of course, not the whole of religion. But religion cannot be considered to be complete without it. If necessary, we should bear separation from our family in order to be able to follow the dictates of our religion. We may even have to lose them. Not only is there no cruelty in this but it is actually our duty to do so. If it is true that we have pledged ourselves to fight unto death, there is nothing further to think of. Lord Roberts lost his only son for a cause inferior to ours and, being on the front, could not even attend his funeral. This history of the world is full of such instances. 25

Those who have love for India and Indians must necessarily make themselves servants of the community. I did not, and do not, deserve the honour of a coach. I have not been able to serve as well as I ought to have done. For, there are others who are still in jail as servants of the community. They return to it again and again, when they are released. 26

I imagine that the term “paid agent” means an agent who names a price adequate to the work he does, and does the work well enough no doubt, in many cases, but does it nevertheless for the money he receives and not for the love of it. If a son in a joint family dying in the performance of his son ship may be described as a paid agent, because he is clothed and fed out of the family funds, then Mr. Polak is undoubtedly a paid agent, but not until then. 27 To the Indians in England I say that—while here, we must not show indifference to this language which is our heritage, but cultivate greater love for it, taking a lesson from the British. If they make it a point to use their own ancestral language in writing or speaking to one another, that will ensure its quicker development. India will make progress, in consequence, and they will be deemed to have discharged their duty. With a little exercise of thought they will find this effort very easy. If it succeeds, it well be not only a triumph of religion, love and truth over irreligion, hatred and falsehood, but it is highly likely to serve as an example to the millions in India and to people in other parts of the world, who may be down-trodden and will certainly go a great way towards breaking up the party of violence, at least in India. If we hold out to the end, as I think we would, I entertain not the slightest doubt as to its ultimate success; and your encouragement in the way suggested by you can only strengthen us in our resolve. 28

A handful of Indian satyagrahis have pitted love or soul-force against the might of the Transvaal Government’s guns. That is the central principle of Tolstoy’s teaching, of the teaching of all religions. Khuda-Ishwar has endowed our soul with such strength that sheer brute force is of no avail against it. We have been employing that strength against the Transvaal Government not out of hatred or with a view to revenge, but merely in order to resist its unjust order. One of the accepted and “time-honoured” methods to attain the end is that of violence. The assassination of Sir Curzon Wylie3 was an illustration in its worst and [most] detestable form of that method. Tolstoy’s life has been devoted to replacing the method of violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of non-resistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence by love expressed in self-suffering. He admits of no exception to whittle down this great and divine law of Love. He applies it to all the

Problems that worry mankind. 29

One need not accept all that Tolstoy says some of his facts are not accurately stated to realize the central truth of his indictment of the present system which is to understand and act upon the irresistible power of the soul over the body, of love, which is an attribute of the soul, over the brute or body force generated by the stirring up in us of evil passions. 30 If pleaders were to abandon their profession, and consider it just as degrading as prostitution, English rule would break up in a day. They have been instrumental in having the charge laid against us that we love quarrels and courts as fish love water. What I have said with reference to the pleaders necessarily applies to the judges; they are first cousins; and the one gives strength to the other. 31 It is a cowardly thought, that of killing others. Whom do you suppose to free by assassination? The millions of India do not desire it. Those who are intoxicated by the wretched modern civilization think these things. Those who will rise to power by murder will certainly not make the nation happy. Those who believe that India has gained by Dhingra’s act and other similar acts3 in India make a serious mistake. Dhingra was a patriot, but his love was blind. He gave his body in a wrong way; its ultimate result can only be mischievous. 32

I do not wish to deduce from this that robbers will act in the above manner or that all will have the same pity and love like you, but I only wish to show that fair means alone can produce fair results, and that, at least in the majority of cases, if not indeed in all, the force of love and pity is infinitely greater than the force of arms. There is harm in the exercise of brute force, never in that of pity. 33 You can govern us only so long as we remain the governed; we shall no longer have any dealings with you.” The force implied in this may be described as love-force, soul-force, or, more popularly but less accurately, passive resistance. This force is indestructible. He who uses it perfectly understands his position. We have an ancient proverb which literally means: “One negative cures thirty-six diseases.” The force of arms is powerless when matched against the force of love or the soul. 34

The fact that there are so many men still alive in the world shows that it is based not on the force of arms but on the force of truth or love. Therefore, the greatest and most unimpeachable evidence of the success of this force is to be found in the fact that, in spite of the wars of the world, it still lives on. 35 Thousands, indeed tens of thousands, depend for their existence on a very active working of this force. Little quarrels of millions of families in their daily lives disappear before the exercise of this force. Hundreds of nations live in peace. History does not and cannot take note of this fact. History is really a record of every interruption of the even working of the force of love or of the soul. Two brothers quarrel; one of them repents and re-awakens the love that was lying dormant in him;1 the two again begin to live in peace; nobody takes note of this. But if the two brothers, through the intervention of solicitors or some other reason take up arms or go to law which is another form of the exhibition of brute force, their doings would be immediately noticed in the Press, they would be the talk of their neighbours and would probably go down to history. And what is true of families and communities is true of nations. There is no reason to believe that there is one law for families and another for nations. History, then, is a record of an interruption of the course of nature. Soul-force, being natural, is not noted in history. 36

I would say: “It is only those Indians who are imbued with real love who will be able to speak to the English in the above strain without being frightened, and only those can be said to be so imbued who conscientiously believe that Indian civilization is the best and that the European is a nine days’ wonder. Such ephemeral civilizations have often come and gone and will continue to do so. Those only can be considered to be so imbued who, having experienced the force of the soul within them, will not cower before brute-force, and will not, on any account, desire to use brute-force. Those only can be considered to have been so imbued who are intensely dissatisfied with the present pitiable condition, having already drunk the cup of poison. 37

The Christians are a small community, but from a material standpoint somewhat progressive. They have almost entirely adopted Western habits and customs. This, however, does not appear to have affected their love for the Motherland. I do not know whether the information I have given you is what you wanted. 38 I wish to say a few words to the Kanamias. I know, and everyone knows that they are strong of arms; they are making a big mistake, however, if they imagine that such brawls add to their reputation. The reason for the quarrel is of no account. I am not interested in finding out who is to blame. I only know that the fighting has helped neither side. However, those who are in love with physical strength and want occasions for its use would do well to employ it, not for purposes of revenge but in defence of others. 39 It is enough for us that King Edward followed the example of his mother, Queen Victoria, and showed love for the Indian people. He seems to have cherished kindly feelings for them in his heart. Therefore, the Indian people, whatever their views on British policies, will always bear the purest affection for the King. 40

Whatever Call is, do not worry about him or my affection for him- I cannot do otherwise than love him. He has really some very good points in him. I am sure that you too would like him one day. But what can it matter either way? 41 It is likely that whited entertain more hatred towards us than we do towards them. If, however, we make a great show of love in return for the little that they show us, there is another reason. It is that we fear them. Otherwise, so far as my experience goes, many Indians do not even distinguish between good and bad and take all whites to be bad. On the one hand, this needles fear must go; on the other, one must learn to distinguish between good and bad. I believe both will come about in the course of time. 42 I note that you are seriously affecting the lives of your people there. Your telling me that they love me now more and more flatters me, but it ought not to. They love me as they see me through your glasses. However, of this when we meet. 43 You say that you are not in love with money. One may feel unhappy in a situation which one dislikes, but one will not corrupted. I do not think Prahladji found it in any way difficult to live as a devotee of Vishnu in the midst of rakshasa; for the utterly disliked the rakshasa way of life. 44

She has been the Honorary Secretary of the Indian Women’s Association ever since its establishment. Miss Schlesin, whilst she is in love with her work, is not in love with the official position she occupies. She considers that the office should rightly belong to an Indian woman. 45 If you are staying long, how about your food? The best thing would be for you to buy sufficient meal and bake bread and biscuits yourself. You [need] not go in for the thing wholesale. The wheat you have there you may bring with you when you come. As you are falling in love with your solitude and as you light the stove regularly, it is no trouble to bake once or twice a week. We have made here banana flour and almond coffee. As Mrs. Gandhi is a fruitarian, you may expect all these delicate complications. 46 Compassion or love is man’s greatest excellence. Without this he cannot cultivate love of God. We come to realize in all the religions, more or less clearly, that compassion is the root of the higher life. 47

But children are born as a result of our sin and are dependent on us and therefore we ought to have compassion and love for them. When there are others to look after the children and it becomes necessary for us to leave them for the sake of some other duty, we should not yield to blind love, nor suffer. The children will get along quite well without us. That we may not do without them is another matter. Even so, we have never heard of any mother who has pinned away to death at the loss of her only son. Shravan’s parents burnt themselves to death. They were helpless and the significance of that story is quite different. 48 The rose has withered in its bloom. Young Hoosen has died in the prime of life, leaving a nation in mourning. He was but twenty-two, but he carried on his shoulders a head that would sit well on a wise man of forty-two. Truly do the gods take away those they love best. 49 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, 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. 50

But I shall no doubt appear cruel to you at present. The veil of ignorance which prevented me from seeing the same veil over you has vanished, leaving only pure love. This love appears cruel to you for the time being, for, like a physician, I must make you swallow bitter draughts. I have grown impatient to help you to become perfect. Impatience is my weakness. To the extent that I am impatient, I am but a fond lover. I have fondness enough in me yet to make me attached to you for being my son. When that has gone, even the cruelty that you think you see in me you will see no more. Meanwhile, please bear with me. 51 If the heart is pure, the grosser impulses of the body will have no scope. But what do we mean by the heart? And when may we believe the heart to be pure? The heart is nothing else but the atman or the seat of the atman. To imagine that it is pure is to imply perfect realization of the atman and, in the presence of such realization; the cravings of the senses are inconceivable. But ordinarily we attribute purity to the heart when we are but striving after such purity. Say, I love you. This only means that I try to cultivate such a feeling for you. 52

But my love has not been sufficiently intense and selfless to make her change her nature. What wonder if Anglia and others cannot respond to my skin-deep love? What wonder if they misunderstood me? Truly she has so far been my best teacher. She teaches me emptiness of the world; she teaches me patience, forgiveness, greater need for self-sacrifice, for love and charity. The incident leaves me, I hope, a better, wiser, more loving man if it also leaves me sadder. Yes, a man who wishes to work with detachment must not marry. I cannot complain of her being a particularly bad wife or bad woman. On the contrary no other woman would probably have stood the changes in her husband’s life as she has. On the whole she has not thwarted me and has been most exemplary. But how can a leopard change his spots? And yesterday’s incident would probably not have happened either in an ordinary household. My point is that you cannot attach yourself to a particular woman and yet live for humanity. The two do not harmonies. That is the real cause of the devil waking in her now and again. Otherwise he might have remained in her asleep and unnoticed. 53

Love is mute, it does not complain. Love is blind, it sees no fault. Love is deaf, it hears no tales. Love ever gives never demands. Love is constant, never varying whether in adversity or prosperity. Love is never hurt. Love never tires. 54 It is only when we cease to be selfishly attached to those we love that the heart feels true compassion and renders service to them. To the extent that I have grown free of such attachment for Ba, I am able to serve her better. The Buddha, by leaving his parents, brought deliverance to them as well. Gopichand, by his renunciation, displayed the purest love for his mother. In the same way, you will be serving your parents by strengthening your character and cultivating spotless morality. When your soul has grown pure, it cannot but produce a corresponding effect on all those whom you love. 55

Where it is a question of a mother’s love or a son’s affection, it is something of a moral dilemma for a third party to offer advice. But offer it I must. When you took the decision you did on the strength of your father’s letter, we were able to judge your mother’s feelings. Her letter does not introduce any new factor. It has given rise, however, to a new concern, and love has naturally gained the first place in your heart. If now you can take a decision, with a mind free from selfish attachment, your love can be transformed into a pure and divine thing. You can give it to the entire world, that is, strive to do so. That is the end to which one must love and serve one’s mother. Any other form of love is of an earthly character, such as is common in the world, a love purely of the physical frame. You recite poems, often enough, which sing of freedom from such love. Recite this one, know this world as of little good, and reflect over its inner meaning. What is the significance of The Living One’s kinship only with that which breathes? 56

This assurance I wish to give. I go away with no ill-will against a European. I have received many hard knocks in my life, but here I admit that I have received those most precious gifts from Europeans love and sympathy. 57 The honour I have received today is the highest ever in my life, for your love has been simply beyond words, and seeing so many of my indentured brothers and sisters makes me happy indeed. 58 Through that march, I learned to love human nature more, and to appreciate that no matter whether the human spirit flourished under European or Indian, under the Western or the Eastern sky, it could respond in an equal measure to the same chord. 59 There has been no limit to the love I have received from the Indians in this country. I am sure those who have given such love will always prosper. I hear it said that our community is ungrateful. My heart tells me that this is said in ignorance and impatience. 60

I can only wand to show that I am not free from responsibility for their speaking ill of me. If I had perfect love for them, they would never have better things to say against me. Such love, however, is hardly possible for man. Whilst I lack it, I shall bear their hostility; I shall not regard them as my enemies. 61 You have presented me with costly gifts. If you have at all followed my life, you would know how inconsistent these gifts are with the life I have endeavoured to lead, in however small a manner, during the past few years, the life which I have sketched out for myself in India. However I take these rich gifts as an indication of your love, of your sympathy, and your support. May God grant that I should so behave in India as to retain this love of yours? May God grant that this love, although distance may separate us, will extend as the ages go by. 62

I say good-bye, farewell. I shall never forget you. So much love, so much sympathy has overwhelmed me in spite of my trials and tribulations in South Africa, and that love and that sympathy which I have received, not only from my fellow countrymen, but from my European friends, will never be forgotten, but will always remain a sacred memory. 63 The love of our Indian brethren in their thousands and the honour they accorded us are constantly in our minds. That love reminds me of the wonderful power of the soul and its extraordinary properties. The functions at Durban, Verulam, Johannesburg, Kimberley and Pretoria are, we find, impossible to forget. The Cape Town friends, moreover, placed us under a crushing burden of gratitude by taking out a procession. Where so many showed such immeasurable love, whom shall we thank by name? The white people, too, made an excellent demonstration of their affection. During the final days, we drank the cup of their love also full to the brim. 64

The separation this time was a very painful experience. I received much love in Phoenix. “The creeper of love I have planted and watered with tears.”4 I can utter this from my own experience and rich has been the harvest I have reaped. 65 Win everyone’s love in Phoenix. That is the way of daya (charity). Think over the deep implications of daya. I have just finished reading Yogadipaka. I read in it that the atman advances through action that is natural to it and falls back through action that is contrary to its nature. I found this definition of swadharma1 more convincing than the usual one. I would very much like to go on writing, but my time-table will not permit my doing so. You will, however, be able to develop these ideas further. 66 And now a personal touch before I reach India. I have been harsh to you, apparently cruel even, rude too as you thought. But the words came out of the purest love. If I did wrong, it was not because I love you less but because I loved too well. I became impatient to see you do what I thought was the right thing. Pardon me then if I hurt you as I know I did. You made no secret of it. I did not heed it. I hope I did right in not heeding it. Let that love keep you and me on the path we have chosen. 67

His love for India was truthful and therefore he wanted nothing for India

Which he did not want for humanity also. It was not blind love, for his eyes were open to her faults and failings. If we can love India in the same way that he did, we have done well in coming to Santiniketan to learn how to live our lives for India’s sake. Copy the zeal which he showed in all he took up, the love that was the law of his life, the truthfulness which guided every action and the thoroughness which was characteristic of all his work. His love for India was truthful and therefore he wanted nothing for India which he did not want for humanity also. It was not blind love, for his eyes were open to her faults and failings. If we can love India in the same way that he did, we have done well in coming to Santiniketan to learn how to live our lives for India’s sake. Copy the zeal which he showed in all he took up, the love that was the law of his life, the truthfulness which guided every action and the thoroughness which was characteristic of all his work. 68 Such unnecessary consumption is also a violation of the vow of non-violence. If, with the ideal of non-stealing in view, we reduce our consumption of things, we would grow more generous. If we do so, actuated by the ideal of non-violence, we would grow more compassionate. In assuring, as it was, every animal or living thing that it need have no fear on our account, we entertain compassion love for it. A man who entertains such love will not find any living being inimical to him, not even in thought. That is the most emphatic conclusion of the shastras and my experience as well. 69

Fear God, therefore, and do not fear men, and remember that ahimsa is our religion, the great gift of our rishis. What we have got to do is to bring this religion of the Fear of God into all our lives and even into politics. Nothing but this and the passionate love of truth will help us. I would exhort you therefore to obey your teachers and to be true to your College motto, to be rooted in the truth of it, so that you may worthily enter the citizenship of your motherland. 70 I think I have now covered all the points you have raised. Be good to the people of Phoenix, have patience with them. They are doing their best, they are giving their all, and they mean to render services to the motherland. Help them to do so, criticize them by all means, but let your criticism be tempered with love of the settlement. Please remember me to the old folks. I should not forget you or Brian from whom I have received so much love. 71

Our religion is based upon ahimsa, which in its active form is nothing but love, love not only to your neighbours, not only to your friends but love even to those who may be your enemies. 72 Mr. Gokhale taught me that the dream of every Indian, who claims to love his country, should be to act in the political field, should be not to glorify in language, but to spiritualize the political life of the country, and the political institutions of the country. He inspired my life and is still inspiring [it]; and in that I wish to purify myself and spiritualize myself. I have dedicated myself to that ideal. I may fail, and to what extent I may fail, I call myself to that extent an unworthy disciple of my master. 73 As I was preoccupied with making all sorts of arrangements after the boys’ arrival from Gurukul, I could not write to you earlier. The boys can never forget the love you showered on them; I am highly obliged to you for giving shelter to my boys and colleagues. 74

Life here is growing sweeter I think. It is difficult but worth trying. More and more order is being evolved. Narandas, Maganlal’s brother, is also coming to us. That means that all the boys of this particular cousin of mine are to devote themselves to this kind of life. It is wonderful sacrifice. Narandas you will love when you see him. 75 I know that you will dislike my expressing, amidst all this gaiety, views which you will find unpleasant; I must, all the same, tell you what I feel. It may, of course, be questioned whether, holding the views that I do, I should have come to a gathering such as this; it is still more open to question whether I should express them. It is love which prompted me to come here and, again, it is love which has prompted me to stand up and speak. You are all very happy and I too am happy to see you honour Bhai Nanalal. 76 My patriotism is both exclusive and inclusive. It is exclusive in the sense that in all humility I confine my attention to the land of my birth, but it is inclusive in the sense that my service is not of a competitive or antagonistic nature. Sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas is not merely a legal maxim, but it is a grand doctrine of life. It is the key to a proper practice of ahimsa or love. It is for you, the custodians of a great faith, to set the fashion and show by your preaching, sanctified by practice, that patriotism based on hatred “killeth” and that patriotism based on love “giveth life”. 77

References: