1. Letter to Krishnadas1 2. Letter to Balkrishna Bhave
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1. LETTER TO KRISHNADAS1 SATYAGRAHA ASHRAM, SABARMATI, September 10, 1928 MY DEAR KRISHNADAS, Your letter about Ram Binod gives me much relief. I am sending copies to Jamnalalji and others. You do not say anything about re-ported purchases by Ram Binod. Is there any truth in those allega-tions? I received the Bengali edition of Seven Months2. Is it selling well? The English edition badly lacks an index. There are mis- prints too. How are you keeping in health and how is Guruji? The Ashram is undergoing many drastic changes of which per- haps Giriraj writes to you. With love, BAPU From a microfilm: S.N. 13654 2. LETTER TO BALKRISHNA BHAVE ASHRAM, SABARMATI, September 10, 1928 CHI. BALKRISHNA, I have your letter. But I have never held that one who is actually a soldier—and not one in outward appearance should‘also be a jnani3. But I would certainly say that anyone who was not a soldier, or could not become one, could never be a jnani. The same is true about being a brahmachari. We do not see in life that anyone who has mastered one of his senses is necessarily a man of knowledge, but all of us hold that immorality is impossible in a jnani. I do not 1 In reply to his letter dated August 30, 1928, wherein he had absolved Ram Binod of the charges of having misused funds placed at his disposal for khaddar work in Berar 2 Seven Months with Mahatma Gandhi, by the addressee 3 Man of knowledge VOL. 43 : 10 SEPTEMBER, 1928 - 14 JANUARY, 1929 1 think I need to be a jnani to be able to put my hands on the shoulders of girls when walking without being disturbed by the touch. A father with many daughters who has pure feelings towards them may still be sunk in ignorance in other respects. He may even have impure feelings towards other women. It is but natural that I should have fatherly feelings for the girls in the Ashram. I have cultivated this state of heart over the years. Though I have, thus, pure feelings towards them as towards most women, I am not in a position to claim further that I have always experienced such pure feelings towards every woman. My present condition is cer-tainly pure, but, so long as I have not become completely free from every kind of impure feeling, I cannot say that I feel no fear about the future too. I have never believed or felt myself to be a jnani. On the contrary, I realize my state of ignorance every day. I have never felt that I am committing the slightest wrong in putting my hands on the shoulders of girls, for I know that they are but daughters to me. That being so, it is also not true that I have done them harm by my conduct. I have felt that through such intimacy I have entered their heart and that in consequence they have become purer in their feelings towards men. I have also considered the matter from the point of view of the effect of my conduct on society. There is certainly a belief among Hindus that even a father should shrink from touching his daughter. This seems to me a wrong notion, an enemy of brahmacharya. That brahmacharya which enter-tains such fear is no brahmacharya. Rishyashringa’s1 brahmacharya is not our ideal. Nevertheless, for the past three weeks I have practically given up putting my hands on the shoulders of girls regarded as grown-up, for the doubt which occurred to you occurred also to other inmates of the Ashram. In such a matter I need not insist on my own point of view. Putting one’s hands on the shoulders of girls cannot be a matter of principle, and therefore as soon as the issue was raised I discussed the matter with everyone and gave up the practice. ‘The girls have felt a little hurt by this, but on the whole they are reconciled to it and in time will get completely reconciled. No one, of course, should imitate my practice. Anyone who has fatherly feelings towards girls will not shrink, when necessary, from touching them in a manner befitting a father and the world also will not censure him. 1 A character in the Ramayana. He had no acquaintance with women and was lured away by the first woman he met. 2 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF MAHATMA GANDHI I do not understand what you write about . .1 and why you are pained by the matter. You admit that you made a mistake in writing to him and advising him to follow my advice and in asking me to guide him. After that, where was the need for me to discuss the matter with you? Moreover, how could I believe that you could tell me anything more than what . would about his relation to his wife? Despite what you write and tell me, I believe that my advice to . was the right one. I have sent him there with the advice, and in the hope that, if he was sincere in the vow of brahmacharya which he had taken in regard to his wife, he would even now observe it. He has gone there to demonstrate that he is a brother and a friend of his wife. This is my view of the matter, which he has completely under stood. If, instead of behaving as a brother, he acts like a husband, you may assume that his vow of brahmacharya in regard to his wife was insincere. It was only waiting for an opportunity to be broken. I suppose you have not overlooked the fact that he was never free from impure feelings towards other women. If. still writes to you about himself, I suggest that you should come and see me in the matter. I had suggested this course to you even earlier. I think it best that you should give up the attempt to guide . independently. If you do not understand what I have said in this letter, ask me again. You should have no doubt at all, I have none, about the rightness of my advice to . If you have any, however, or feel any doubt later, ask me again and again. I very much liked your caution regarding the common kitchen. Our ideal of the Ashram is that even visitors should observe brahmacharya while they stay in it. This rule is made categorical in the new set of rules. That has naturally added to the number of those taking their meals in the common kitchen. How can we say that even those who take the vow of brahmacharya are not brahmacharis of their own will? I, however, believe your statement that many have joined the common kitchen out of their respect for me. The kitchen has led to a new idea during the past few days. There is no suggestion that it should be abandoned, but a proposal is being discussed whether those who cannot sincerely be its members and cannot whole-heartedly adopt its other implications should not leave the Ashram. I shall await your letter regarding the effect of the use of linseed oil. How do you obtain fresh linseed oil? Do you obtain a day’s or a 1 Name omitted VOL. 43 : 10 SEPTEMBER, 1928 - 14 JANUARY, 1929 3 month’s requirement, at a time? Do you get oil pressed by an indigenous or an English mill? If it is oil pressed in an indigenous mill and if you know the process through which the seed is passed before it is pressed, please let me know. If you do not know this, get the information and let me have it. Blessings from BAPU From a copy of the Gujarati: C.W. 801. Courtesy: Balkrishna Bhave 3. SPEECH ON BIRTH CENTENARY OF TOLSTOY 1 September 10, 1928 My present state of mind does not at all permit me to join in celebrating any day or festival. Some time ago a reader of Navajivan or Young India asked me a question: “You have stated2, writing about shraddha, that the right way of performing the shraddha of our elders, on their death-anniversary day, is to recall their virtues and make them our own. May I ask you, therefore, how you observe the shraddha days of your elders?” I used to observe these days when I was young, but I don’t mind telling you that now I do not even remember the dates on which they fall. I do not recall to have observed any such day during the past many years. Such is my unhappy state of mind, or rather, you may say, my charming or, as some friends believe, profound, ignorance. I believe it is enough if we fix our attention every minute of the day on the task in hand, think about it and do it as methodically as we can. We thereby celebrate the death anniversary of our elders as also the memory of men like Tolstoy. If Dr. Hariprasad had not drawn me into the net, it is quite likely that I would have arranged no celebration in the Ashram on this day, the 10th: it is even likely that I would have forgotten the day altogether. I had letters three months ago from Aylmer Maude and others engaged in collecting Tolstoy’s writings, requesting me to send an article on the occasion of this centenary celebration and to draw the country’s attention to this date.