The Essential Gandhi (41 page)

 … If a dying man has his heart in the world he is unhappy himself and the cause of unhappiness in others, the same is the case with a prisoner in jail, who should cease to think of the outside world, for imprisonment means civil death.… This prescription of mine is no new discovery. Bunyan could not have written
The Pilgrim’s Progress
and Lokamanya Tilak his commentary on the Gita if in prison they had continued to worry about the outside world.
⁷

 … Self-control is the best thing for a prisoner and his friends and dear ones. But self-control to be self-control must brace one up. It becomes mechanical or superimposed when it unnerves or saddens one.…
⁸

[Train] yourself to … 
. feel happy
. In a manner everybody trains himself to do without things when he cannot get them. A follower of the Gita dharma [duty] trains himself to do without things
with happiness …
for happiness of the Gita is not the opposite of unhappiness.
It is superior to that state. The devotee of the Gita is neither happy nor unhappy. And when that state is reached, there is no pain, no pleasure, no victory, no defeat, no deprivation, no possession. Prison life is a life of privilege if we learn to practise the Gita teaching.…
⁹

[Describing life in prison with Gandhi, Desai noted in his diary, “We take honey and lime juice after prayers at 4
A.M
. Boiling water is poured upon [it], we then wait for a few minutes until the beverage is fit to drink. Since yesterday Bapu has begun to cover his tumbler with a piece of cloth.”]

Mahadev, do you know why I cover my tumbler? There are many minute germs in the air which might fall into the tumbler if it is uncovered, and the piece of cloth keeps them out.
¹⁰

[Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Gandhi’s co-prisoner, who was a Congress Party leader and later headed the provisional government of Independent India, commented, “We cannot observe Ahimsa [Non-Violence] to such an extent.” “Bapu laughed,” Desai wrote. “Bapu” or “Father” was the affectionate title given to Gandhi by his followers. Everyone called him Bapu.]

We may not observe Ahimsa but we must see that our food and drink are free from dirt.

We must make the best possible use of the invaluable leisure in jail. Perhaps the best of uses would be to cultivate the power of independent thought. We are often thoughtless and therefore like only to read books or, worse still, to talk.… As a matter of fact, there is an art of thinking just as there is an art of reading. We should be able to think the right thought at the right time and not indulge in thinking useless thoughts as well as in reading useless books.… It is my experience during every incarceration that it affords us a fine opportunity of thinking … to some purpose.…
¹¹

 … My own reading is quite odd. I am doing some Urdu at present. I am also trying to get some idea of currency and exchange, as
ignorance of it would be inexcusable. There is the desire to render service at the back of these studies. The same desire impels me to deepen my knowledge of Tamil as well as Bengali and Marathi. If we have to stay in jail for a pretty long time, I may recommence the study of all these languages.…
¹²

[Never] write a bad hand whether there is hurry or not. This lesson everyone should learn from my misfortune. Bad writing and bad everything is truly [violence]. We have a rare opportunity of learning the virtue of patience in prison life.
¹³

 … The word “criminal” should be taboo from our dictionary. Or we are all criminals. “Those of you that are without sin cast the first stone.” And no one was found to dare cast the stone at the sinning harlot. As a jailer once said, all are criminals in secret.… Let them therefore be good companions. I know this is easier said than done. And that is exactly what the Gita and as a matter of fact all religions enjoin upon us to do.
¹⁴

 … There is need for reform in the administration of prisons. A prison should be a house of correction and not punishment. [Why] should a forger have fetters on his legs in prison? The fetters will not improve his character.…
¹⁵

 … The more we punish, the more persistent crimes become. They may change color but the substance is the same. The way to serve the adversary’s soul is to appeal to the soul. It defies destruction, but it is amenable to appeals tuned to the required pitch. Souls must react upon souls. And since non-violence is essentially a quality of the soul, the only effective appeal to the soul must lie through non-violence. And do we not arrogate to ourselves infallibility when we seek to punish our adversaries? Let us remember that they regard us to be as harmful … as we regard them.…
¹⁶

 … I would draw the distinction between killing and detention … I think there is a difference not merely in quantity but also in quality. I can recall the punishment of detention. I can make reparation to the man upon whom I inflict corporal punishment. But once a man is killed, the punishment is beyond recall or reparation. God alone can take life because He alone gives it.
¹⁷

[While Gandhi was in Yeravda Jail he decided to fast as a protest against Hindu mistreatment of India’s sixty million untouchables, whom he called “Harijans”—Children of God. He announced that unless there was an improvement in the Hindu attitude toward untouchables he would fast unto death.]

 … The Harijan movement is too big for mere intellectual effort. There is nothing so bad in the world. And yet I cannot leave religion and therefore Hinduism. My life would be a burden to me if Hinduism failed me. I love Christianity, Islam and many other faiths through Hinduism.… But then I cannot tolerate it with untouchability.…
¹

[Gandhi began his fast on September 20. He awoke at 2:30
A.M.
, made his ablutions and wrote a letter to Tagore.]

 … I enter the fiery gates at noon. If you can bless the effort I want it. You have been a true friend because you have been a candid friend often speaking your thoughts aloud.… Though it can now only be during my fast, I will yet prize your criticism, if your heart condemns my action. I am not too proud to make an open confession of my blunder, whatever the cost of the confession, if I find myself in error. If your heart approves of the action I want your blessing. It will sustain me.…
²

[Just as Gandhi posted this letter he received a telegram from Tagore: “It is worth sacrificing precious life for the sake of India’s unity and her social integrity … I fervently hope that we will not
callously allow such national tragedy to reach its extreme length Stop Our sorrowing hearts will follow your sublime penance with reverence and love.”
³

Gandhi thanked Tagore for his] loving and magnificent wire. It will sustain me in the midst of the storm I am about to enter.
⁴

What my word in person cannot do my fast may.…
⁵

 … Under certain circumstances [fasting] is the one weapon which God has given us for use in times of utter helplessness. We do not know its use or fancy that it begins and ends with mere deprivation of physical food.… Absence of food is an indispensable but not the largest part of it. The largest part is the prayer—communion with God. It more than adequately replaces physical food.
⁶

[There] is no inherent merit in mortification of the flesh.
⁷

[As Gandhi’s fast continued and he grew physically weaker, fear spread throughout India that he might die.]

It is a wrong thing to rehearse a calamity (an event believed by us to be a calamity, though in fact it may be a blessing) and to reproduce in advance the feelings one would have. It is enough that we hold ourselves prepared for the worst.…
⁸

I am not aching for martyrdom but if it comes in my way in the prosecution of what I consider to be the supreme duty in defence of the faith I hold … I shall have earned it.
⁹

[It] is not always a fact that the pain of death is greater for men than the pain of living. It is we ourselves who have made of death a fearful thing.…
¹⁰

[People] die only to be born again. Sorrow therefore is entirely uncalled for.…
¹¹

 … It is nature’s kindness that we do not remember past births. Where is the good either of knowing in detail the numberless births we have gone through? Life would be a burden if we carried such a tremendous load of memories. A wise man deliberately forgets many things, even as a lawyer forgets the cases and their details as soon as they are disposed of.…
¹²

 … It is well if we live and it is equally well if we die.… Somehow or other we refuse to welcome death as we welcome birth. We refuse to believe in the evidence of our senses, that we could not possibly have any attachment for the body without the soul, and we have no evidence whatsoever that the soul perishes with the body.
¹³

 … The idea that death is not a fearful event has been cherished by me for many a year, so that I recover soon enough from the shock of the deaths even of near and dear ones.
¹⁴

 … Both birth and death are great mysteries. If death is not a prelude to another life, the intermediate period is a cruel mockery. We must learn the art of never grieving over death, no matter when and to whom it comes. I suppose that we shall do so when we have really learnt to be utterly indifferent to our own [deaths], and the indifference will come when we are every moment conscious of having done the task to which we are called.…
¹⁵

 … It is better to leave a body one has outgrown. To wish to see dearest ones as long as possible in the flesh is a selfish desire, and it comes out of weakness or want of faith in the survival of the soul after the dissolution of the body.… True love consists in transferring itself from the body to the dweller within and then necessarily realizing the oneness of all life inhabiting numberless bodies.…
¹⁶

[The day before the fast started, twelve temples in Allahabad were made accessible to Harijans for the first time. On the first day of the fast some of the most sacred temples throughout the country
opened their doors to untouchables. Every subsequent day scores of holy places lowered the bars against Harijans.

Mrs. Swarup Rani Nehru, Jawaharlal’s very orthodox mother, let it be known that she had accepted food from the hand of an untouchable. Thousands of prominent Hindu women followed her example. At the strictly Hindu Benares University, Principal Dhruva, with numerous Brahmans, dined publicly with street cleaners, cobblers and scavengers. Similar meals were arranged in hundreds of other places.

In villages, small towns and big cities, congregations, organizations, citizens’ unions, etc., adopted resolutions promising to stop discriminating against untouchables. Copies of these resolutions formed a man-high heap in Gandhi’s prison yard.

Villages and small towns allowed untouchables to use water wells. Hindu pupils shared benches formerly reserved for untouchables. Roads and streets were opened to Harijans.