LETTER TO ANAND T. HINGORANI

476 Pages·1956·1.12 MB·English

1. LETTER TO ANAND T. HINGORANI
Y. M.,
August 23, 1930
MY DEAR ANAND,
I have your delightful letter. You do not tell me how you fared
physically. I have already written to you. I am glad Vidya is with you
and has seen a little of the Ashram life. Tell me how you are in mind
and body.
Love.
BAPU
From a microfilm. Courtesy: National Archives of India and Anand
T. Hingorani
2. LETTER TO KASHINATH TRIVEDI
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 23, 1930
CHI. KASHINATH,
I have your letter. After Shanta and Kalavati have tried the
medicine given by the doctor, write to me and tell me what effect it
has. If the latter has taken a pledge to join the struggle, I think she
cannot leave. But you have already written to Father. You should both
do as your hearts bid you.
Blessings from
BAPU
From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 5249
3. LETTER TO CHANDRAKANTA
Y. M.,
August 23, 1930
CHI. KANTA,
I have your letter. If any questions arise with regard to the vow
of not indulging the palate, ask me.1 You have not mentioned
anything about your health in your letter this time. I therefore assume
1 For Gandhiji’s observations on the control of the palate, vide “Letter to
Narandas Gandhi”, 12-8-1930.
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that you are well. Do you go for a walk every day? Physical exercise
is necessary.
Blessings from
BAPU
[PS.]
Blessings to Brother. When you write to Mother and Father, say
that I often think of them.
BAPU
From a photostat of the Gujarati: Chandrakanta Papers. Courtesy: Gandhi
National Museum and Library
4. LETTER TO VIDYA HINGORANI
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 23, 1930
CHI. VIDYA,
I have your letter. Look upon the Ashram as your home. Try to
improve your Hindi handwriting still further.
Blessings from
BAPU
From a microfilm of the Hindi. Courtesy: National Archives of India and
Anand T. Hingorani
5. LETTER TO MIRABEHN
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 24, 1930
CHI. MIRA,
I have your love letter written during your journey to Madras. I
am hoping that this strain will not prove too much for you. Your
descriptions are all valuable. Yes, I had a strenuous time during the
Nehrus’ visit. It was with difficulty that I was able to spin 375 rounds
without doing which I should feel most unhappy. The box wheel is
working very well and undoubtedly causes less strain. It gives more
satisfactory work now that I have put on it the thin mal you sent me.
The thick mal was causing trouble. The carding-bow is working to
perfection. It imposes no strain on me. Kakasaheb rolls the slivers. He
has yet to learn carding which he proposes to begin shortly. The
translation of the bhajans continues as before regularly but slowly
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and I see no immediate chance of greater output. I am keeping well.
The weight fluctuates. Last week I regained one pound out of two or
three I seemed to have lost. There has been no loss of energy. The
water here is hard and therefore constipation requires a little handling.
Love.
BAPU
[PS.]
You will be glad to know that the tant has not once broken.
From the original: C.W. 5409. Courtesy: Mirabehn; also G.N. 9643
6. LETTER TO PRABHAVATI
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 24, 1930
CHI. PRABHAVATI,
I didn’t see any letter from you in the mail this week. You must
have received my letters to Jayaprakash and to you. My weight, which
was going down, has again increased by one pound. What is your
daily programme of work these days? Vallabhbhai told me that
Jayaprakash was not in good health. How is that?
Blessings from
BAPU
From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 3367
7. LETTER TO SUSHILA GANDHI
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 24, 1930
CHI. SUSHILA (MANILAL),
You seem to have dried up? Is it out of compassion for me or
through laziness? If you had compassion for me, you would write to
me. How is Sita? Why does she fall ill so often? I hope you are not
being miserly about fruit. What is the condition of your ears? How do
you keep generally? How is Tara? How is Nanabhai’s health? Think
about other similar questions yourself. I hope you, always find
Manilal with a smile on his face and joking. Does he read anything in
jail?
Blessings from
BAPU
From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 4770
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8. LETTER TO RASIK DESAI
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 24, 1930
CHI. RASIK (DESAI),
Did you uphold my honour? Did you keep the vows which you
had taken? Give me all the details. How did you spend the time? Were
you lazy? Were you talkative? Did you keep good health? Reply to
these and many other similar questions. What friends did you make?
Blessings from
BAPU
From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 6617
9. LETTER TO MRIDULA SARABHAI
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 24, 1930
CHI. MRIDU,
I have preserved your last letter. I did not reply to it. But after
reading about your heroism I cannot help writing. Deal patiently with
the situation. I would advise you not to do anything on an impulse.
Does it need mentioning that pure sacrifice calls for careful thought, a
sense of discrimination, restraint and patience? Since Khurshedbehn
was with you, I felt reassured and satisfied.
Blessings from both of us.
MOHANDAS
From the Gujarati original: C.W. 11109. Courtesy: Sarabhai Foundation
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10. LETTER TO NARANDAS GANDHI
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 24/26, 1930
CHI. NARANDAS,
This time I got the letters earlier than usual, that is, on
Wednesday instead of on Thursday. Among the letters is one for Satis
Babu. He is Krishnadas’s guru, Satis Mukherjee. His address is
Harra Road, Calcutta. I have forgotten the number of the flat. You will
find it somewhere in my papers. Surendra is likely to know it. Or
you will get it in the Ashram office itself. How is Devdas’s health?
Tell him that I often think of him. Has Ramdas’s health recovered? I
have before now asked for the names of those who have been
released. It would be better if against each name the quantity of
carding and spinning done by the person is also mentioned. If, when
you do not get a cloth-lined envelope, the ordinary envelope is tightly
secured by a string, like a packet sent as book post, there will be no
risk afterwards. Keshu seems to have lost health again.Take immediate
and effective measures to help him to recover. Giriraj’s illness has
lasted quite long. His blood must be impure. I have not received the
guide to Singer’s. If you find it difficult to secure a copy, give up the
attempt. I understand what you write about Hasmukhrai. Give him the
letters if and when you think you may. Read the letter to Zaulinger
before giving it to her. Hence I don’t write about her in this letter.
You must have sent an acknowledgment to Dhangopal. How is
Jamnadas? Do the authorities let you visit him occasionally?
Tuesday morning, August 26, 1930
Non-possession is allied to non-stealing. A thing not originally
stolen must nevertheless be classified as stolen property if we possess it
without needing it. Possession implies provision for the future. A
seeker after truth, a follower of the law of love, cannot hold anything
against tomorrow. God never stores for the morrow; He never creates
more than what is strictly needed for the moment. If, therefore, we
repose faith in His providence, we should be assured that He will give
us every day our daily bread, meaning everything we require. Saints
and men of faith have always found justification for it from their
experience. Our ignorance or negligence of the Divine Law, which
gives to man from day to day his daily bread and no more, has given
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rise to inequalities with all the miseries attendant upon them. The rich
have a superfluous store of things which they do not need, and which
are therefore neglected and wasted; while millions starve to death for
want of sustenance. If each retained possession only of what he
needed, no one would be in want and all would live in contentment.
As it is, the rich are discontented no less than the poor. The poor man
would fain become a millionaire, and the millionaire a
multi-millionaire. The poor are not content if they get their daily
needs. They have a right, however, to get enough for their daily
needs and it is the duty of society to help them to satisfy them.
The rich should take the initiative in dispossession with a view to
universal diffusion of the spirit of contentment. If only they keep
their own property within moderate limits, the starving will be easily
fed and will learn the lesson of contentment along with the rich.
Perfect fulfilment of the ideal of non-possession requires that man
should, like the birds, have no roof over his head, no clothing and no
stock of food for the morrow. He will indeed need his daily bread, but
it will be God’s business, and not his, to provide it. Only very very
few, if any at all, can reach this ideal. We ordinary seekers may not
be repelled by the seeming impossibility. But we must keep the
ideal constantly before us, and in the light thereof critically examine
our possessions and try to reduce them. Civilization, in the real
sense of the term, consists not in the multiplication, but in the
deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants. This alone promotes
real happiness and contentment and increases the capacity for service.
Judging by this criterion, we find that in the Ashram we possess many
things the necessity for which cannot be proved, and we thus tempt
our neighbours to steal. If people try, they can reduce their wants and,
as the latter diminish, they become happier, more peaceful and
healthier. 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 and sustains them. When this desire vanishes, there
remains no further need for the body and man is free from the vicious
cycle of births and deaths. The soul is omnipresent; why should she
care to be confined within the cage-like body, or do evil and even kill
for the sake of that cage? We thus arrive at the ideal of total
renunciation and learn the use of the body for the purposes of service
so long as it exists, so much so that service, and not bread, becomes
for us the staff of life. We eat and drink, sleep and wake, for service
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alone. Such an attitude of mind brings us real happiness and the
beatific vision in the fulness of time. Let us all examine ourselves
from this standpoint.
We should remember that non-possession is a principle
applicable to thoughts as well as to things. A man who fills his brain
with useless knowledge violates that inestimable principle. Thoughts
which turn us away from God or do not turn us towards Him are
unnecessary possessions and constitute impediments in our way. In
this connection we may consider the definition of knowledge
contained in Chapter XIII of the Gita. We are there told that humility,
amanitvam, etc., constitute knowledge and that all the rest is
ignorance. If this is true—and there is no doubt that it is true—much
that we hug today as knowledge is ignorance pure and simple, and
therefore only does us harm instead of conferring any benefit. It
makes the mind wander and even reduces it to a vacuity, and
discontent flourishes in endless ramifications of evil. Needless to say,
this is not a plea for inertia. Every moment of our life should be filled
with mental or physical activity, but that activity should be sattvik,
tending towards truth. One who has consecrated his-life to service
cannot be idle for a single moment. But we have to learn to
distinguish between good activity and evil activity. This discernment
goes naturally with a single-minded devotion to service.
Blessings from
BAPU
[PS.]
Kakasaheb’s weight has again increased by one pound, and his
cheerfulness has also increased. I have regained one pound from what
I had lost. For the past three days, I have been taking boiled
vegetables in addition to curds. You will see that today’s letters are put
into one of the envelopes received from you, fresh slips of paper
being pasted on it. You can use the envelope again.
BAPU
[PPS.]
There are 53 letters.
From a microfilm of the Gujarati: M.M.U./I
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11. LETTER TO PREMABEHN KANTAK
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 29, 1930
CHI. PREMA,
I got your letter. No one should be amused at my writing on
slips of paper or be angry with me for that reason. That is the proper
thing for me to do. Though I write on such slips, I try to make each
letter as interesting as I can in the time I get.
Why are you alarmed by the suspicion that you have got some
disease in your body? What would it matter even if you had a disease
and that too a grave one? “The body may live or perish, what should
endure is one’s devotion to God.’’1 We have learnt at least this in the
Ashram, if nothing more. If you fast for a few days, the body will be
cleansed. You require Kuhne baths, hip-baths and particularly friction
sitz-baths. If you do not know about them, ask Kanta or Radha. I
think they know. You may also read about them in Kuhne’s book.
Whenever women suffer from any disease, it becomes necessary to
know the facts about their monthly periods. Are they normal with
you? Are they regular in appearance and duration? Are they painful?
If necessary, consult a doctor.
I have not read Arvind Babu’s book. I alone know how limited
is my reading. My main interest is in reading the book of nature. I
shall never finish reading it.
You should have enough sleep. You should observe the rule of
sleeping from 9 to 4.
Blessings from
BAPU
From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 10232; also C.W. 6680. Courtesy:
Premabehn Kantak
1 From the Marathi saint Namdev
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12. LETTER TO MAHALAKSHMI MADHAVJI THAKKAR
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 29, 1930
CHI. MAHALAKSHMI,
Was there any letter to which I did not reply? I do think every
day about you and all other sisters. I would have been happy, too, if
you had spent a few months with me. However, both of you have so
trained yourselves, though you lived away from me, that I don’t know
what more you would have gained if you had stayed with me. It is
good that the children still live on fruit, etc., and that you have started
on it again. Why has not Dahibehn written to me? My blessings to all
sisters.
Blessings from
BAPU
From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 6797
13. LETTER TO MANSHANKAR J. TRIVEDI
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 29, 1930
CHI. MANU (TRIVEDI),
Gangabehn writes and tells me that you have become impatient
to go out [for work]. This was before you got my letter. I hope that
my letter has overcome your restlessness. Can a soldier ever ask why?
He goes on doing, silently and cheerfully, the work assigned to him.
Let Kakasaheb’s condition be fulfilled. It is not long now before he
will be released. If you are still not satisfied let me know.
Blessings from
BAPU
From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 7761
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14. LETTER TO PRABHAVATI
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 29, 1930
CHI. PRABHAVATI,
I have your letter. If Kamalabehn willingly lets you go and there
is an opportunity for work in Bihar, it is your first duty to take it up. I
hope Jayaprakash is keeping good health. Take care of your health. I
got Mrityunjay’s letter.
I am more or less all right. I have at present substituted fresh
vegetables for raisins and dates in my diet. I shall watch the effect of
the change. Don’t worry about me.
Blessings from
BAPU
From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 3368
15. LETTER TO MAITRI GIRI
YERAVDA MANDIR,
August 29, 1930
CHI. MAITRI,
You should write regularly to me. I feel happy to hear from
Gangabehn that she is satisfied with you. I hope you keep good
health.
Blessings from
BAPU
From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 6218
10 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF MAHATMA GANDHI