The Essential Gandhi (12 page)

 … I felt that if I demanded rights as a British citizen, it was also my duty as such to participate in the defense of the British Empire. I held then that India could achieve her complete emancipation only within and through the British Empire. So I collected together as many comrades as possible, and with very great difficulty got their services accepted as an ambulance corps.
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[Gandhi led the corps. Three hundred free Indians volunteered
together with eight hundred indentured laborers furloughed by their masters. For days they worked under the fire of enemy guns and carried wounded soldiers back to base hospital. The Indians sometimes walked as much as twenty-five miles a day. England and South Africa were impressed. Gandhi and several comrades received the War Medal and the corps was mentioned in dispatches.

Gandhi hoped that the fortitude of the Indians in the war would appeal to South Africa’s sense of fair play and help to moderate white hostility. But further repressive measures were passed.]

“It was at your instance that the community helped in the war, and you see the result now,” were the words with which some people taunted me. But the taunt had no effect. “I do not regret my advice,” said I. “I maintain we did well in taking part in the war. In doing so we simply did our duty. We may not look forward to any reward for our labors, but it is my firm conviction that all good action is bound to bear fruit in the end. Let us forget the past and think of the task before us.” …
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[Gandhi had no unspent belligerence and no further plans or ambitions in South Africa—nothing foreshadowed the epic opportunity for leadership and realization that came later. He yearned to go home to India, and did, at the end of 1901.]

 … I felt my work was no longer in South Africa but in India. Not that there was nothing to be done in South Africa, but I was afraid that my main business might become merely money-making.

Friends at home were also pressing me to return and I felt that I should be of more service in India … so I requested my co-workers to relieve me. After very great difficulty my request was conditionally accepted … that I should be ready to go back to South Africa if, within a year, the community should need me. I thought it was a difficult condition but the love that bound me to the community made me accept it.

Gifts [from the Indian community] had been bestowed on me before when I returned to India in 1899, but this time the farewell
was over-whelming. The gifts, of course, included things in gold and silver but there were articles of costly diamond as well.

What right had I to accept all these gifts? Accepting them, how could I persuade myself that I was serving the community without remuneration?

I knew that I should have some difficulty in persuading my wife.…

“You may not need them,” said my wife. “Your children may not need them. Cajoled, they will dance to your tune.…”

“… You deprived me of my ornaments, you would not leave me in peace with them.… And pray what right have you to my necklace?”

“But,” I rejoined, “is the necklace given you for your service or for my service?”

“I agree. But service rendered by you is as good as rendered by me. I have toiled and moiled for you day and night. Is that no service? You forced all and sundry on me, making me weep bitter tears, and I slaved for them!”

These were pointed thrusts and some of them went home. But I was determined to return the ornaments. I somehow succeeded in extorting a consent from her. The gifts … were all returned. A trust-deed was prepared and they were deposited with a bank, to be used for the service of the community, according to my wishes or to those of the trustees.

 … The fund is still there, being operated upon in times of need, and it has regularly accumulated.

I have never since regretted the step, and as the years have gone by, my wife also has seen its wisdom. It has saved us from many temptations.

I am definitely of the opinion that a public worker should accept no costly gifts.
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[Back in India, Gandhi again traveled around the country. In Calcutta, he was invited to attend a darbar—a state function—given by Lord Hardinge, Viceroy of India.]

I was distressed to see the Maharajas [Princes] bedecked like women—silk pyjamas … pearl necklaces round their necks, bracelets on their wrists, pearl and diamond tassels on their turbans, and, besides all this, swords with golden hilts hanging from their waistbands.

I discovered these were insignia not of their royalty, but of their slavery. I had thought they must be wearing these badges of impotence of their own free will, but I was told that it was obligatory for these Rajas to wear all their costly jewels at such functions. I also gathered that some of them had a positive dislike for wearing these jewels and that they never wore them except on occasions like the darbar.

How heavy is the toll of sins and wrongs that wealth, power and prestige exact from man!
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During these days I walked up and down the streets of Calcutta.…

[An Indian friend] had spoken to me about the Kali [Hindu goddess of death and destruction] temple, which I was eager to see.… On the way I saw a stream of sheep going to be sacrificed to Kali.… [At the temple, Gandhi and some beggars “were greeted by rivers of blood.”] I could not bear to stand there. I was exasperated and restless. I have never forgotten that sight.

 … I felt the cruel custom ought to be stopped. I thought of the story of Buddha, but I also saw the task was beyond my capacity.

 … I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.… It is my constant prayer that there may be born on earth some great spirit, man or woman, fired with divine pity, who will deliver us from this heinous sin.…
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Just when I seemed to be settling down [in Bombay] as I had intended, I received an unexpected cable from South Africa: “Chamberlain expected here. Please return immediately.” … I gave up the [law office] chambers and started for South Africa.

[Joseph Chamberlain, the British Colonial Secretary, was making a trip to South Africa, one which the Indian community regarded as fateful; they wanted Gandhi to present their grievances to him.

Kasturbai and the boys remained in Bombay.]

The separation from wife and children, the breaking up of a settled establishment, and the going from the certain to the uncertain—all this was for a moment painful but I had inured myself to an uncertain life. I think it is wrong to expect certainties in this world where all else but God that is Truth is an uncertainty.…
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[Chamberlain, Gandhi assumed, had come to get a gift of thirty-five million pounds from South Africa and to cement the post-war bonds between the Boers and the British. Britain was ministering to Boer wounds and therefore did not intend to wound Boer sensibilities by redressing Indian grievances.]

Mr. Chamberlain … gave a cold shoulder to the Indian deputation.

“You know,” he said, “that the Imperial Government has little control over self-governing colonies. Your grievances seem to be genuine. I shall do what I can but you must try your best to placate the Europeans if you wish to live in their midst.”

The reply cast a chill over the members of the deputation. I was also disappointed. It was an eye-opener for us all.…

 … It was well that he did not mince matters. He had brought home to us in a rather gentle way the rule of might being right or the law of the sword.

But sword we had none. We scarcely had the nerve and the muscle even to receive sword-cuts.
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[The Gandhi who worsted the South African government in prolonged combat first conquered himself and transformed his living habits and inner essence.]

While I was working with the [Indian ambulance corps during the Boer War], two ideas which had been floating in my mind became firmly fixed. First, an aspirant after a life devoted exclusively to service must lead a life of celibacy. Secondly, he must
accept poverty as a constant companion through life. He may not take up any occupation which would prevent him or make him shrink from undertaking the lowliest of duties or largest risks.
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About the time I took up chambers in Bombay [a year later], an American insurance agent had come there—a man with a pleasing countenance and a sweet tongue. As though we were old friends, he discussed my future welfare.…

Up to this time I had given the cold shoulder to all the agents I had met in South Africa and India, for I had thought life assurance implied fear and want of faith in God.… As he proceeded with his argument I had before my mind’s eye a picture of my wife and children. “Man, you have sold almost all the ornaments of your wife,” I said to myself. “If something were to happen to you, the burden of supporting her and the children would fall on your poor brother.…”

But when my mode of life changed in South Africa, my outlook changed too.… What happened to the families of the numberless poor in the world? Why should I not count myself as one of them?
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 … I already had faith in the Gita, which had a fascination for me. Now I realized the necessity of diving deeper into it.…

[Gita or “Song” is short for Bhagavad-Gita, the “Song of God” or “Song of Heaven.” It is an exquisite poem of seven hundred stanzas, as sacred to Hinduism as the Koran is to Islam, the Old Testament to Judaism and the New Testament to Christianity.]

[To] me the Gita became an infallible guide of conduct.… Just as I turned to the English dictionary for the meanings of English words that I did not understand, I turned to this dictionary of conduct for a ready solution of all my troubles and trials. Words like Aparigraha [Non-Possession] and Samabhava [Equability] gripped me.… How was one to treat alike insulting, insolent and corrupt officials, co-workers of yesterday raising meaningless opposition, and men who had always been good to one? How was one to divest oneself of all possessions?… Were not wife and children possessions? Was I to destroy all the cupboards of books I had? Was I to give up all I had and follow Him? Straight came the answer: I
could not follow Him unless I gave up all I had. My study of English law came to my help.

 … I understood the Gita teaching of non-possession to mean that those who desired Salvation [union with God, the attainment of freedom from birth and death] should act like the trustee who, though having control over great possessions, regards not an iota of them as his own.… I then wrote to … allow the insurance policy to lapse … for I had become convinced that God, who created my wife and children as well as myself, would take care of them. To my brother … I wrote explaining that I had given him all that I had saved up to that moment, but that henceforth he should expect nothing from me, for future savings, if any, would be utilized for the benefit of the community.
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I cannot tell you with truth that when this belief came to me I discarded everything immediately. I must confess to you that progress at first was slow.… It was also painful in the beginning. But as days went by I saw I had to throw overboard many other things which I used to consider as mine, and a time came when it became a matter of positive joy to give up those things. One after another, then by almost geometric progression, things slipped away from me. [A] great burden fell off my shoulders, and I felt I could now walk with ease and do my work also in the service of my fellow men with great comfort and still greater joy. The possession of anything then became a troublesome thing and a burden.

Exploring the cause of that joy, I found that if I kept anything as my own, I had to defend it against the whole world.… And I said to myself: if [other people] want it and would take it, they do so not from any malicious motive but … because theirs was a greater need than mine.

And I said to myself: possession seems to me to be a crime, I can only possess certain things when I know that others who also want to possess similar things are able to do so. But we know … such a thing is an impossibility. Therefore, the only thing that can be possessed by all is non-possession, not to have anything whatsoever. Or … a willing surrender.…
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From the standpoint of pure Truth, the body too is a possession. It has been truly said that desire for enjoyment creates bodies for the soul. When this desire vanishes, there remains no further need for the body and man is free from the vicious cycle of births and deaths.… We thus arrive at the ideal of total renunciation and learn to use the body for the purposes of service so long as it exists, so much so that service, and not bread, becomes with us the staff of life. We eat and drink, sleep and awake, for service alone. Such an attitude of mind brings us real happiness.…

 … Therefore … such must be my constant desire that this body also may be surrendered … and while it is at my disposal, must be used not for dissipation, not for self-indulgence, not for pleasure, but merely for service.… And if this is true with reference to the body, how much more with reference to clothing and other things that we use?

And those who have followed out this vow of voluntary poverty to the fullest extent possible … testify that when you dispossess yourself of everything you have, you really possess all the treasures of the world.
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My brother gave me up, and practically stopped all communication. I was deeply distressed, but it would have been a greater distress to give up what I considered to be my duty.… But that did not affect my devotion to him.… His great love for me was at the root of his misery.… Near the end of his life, however, he appreciated my viewpoint.… He commended his sons to my care, to be brought up as I thought fit.… His sons had been brought up in the old atmosphere and could not change their course of life. I could not draw them to me. It was not their fault.… Who can erase the impressions with which he is born? It is idle to expect one’s children and wards necessarily to follow the same course of evolution as oneself.

This instance to some extent serves to show what a terrible responsibility it is to be a parent.
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