When Gandhi was asked to state the secret of his success he replied that his oneness with the masses had made him what he was. Further, to achieve his aim in life, he relied on the following: An intense faith in God; A passion for Truth; A clear heart; Intense and frequent prayer; A cool head; No alcohol, no carnal food, no smoking and no condiments; A strictly vegetarian diet; Live for all his fellowmen.
One day, Gandhi was travelling in a railway compartment and the train was nearing a station. His companion saw a hole in his clothes and suggested that Gandhi should change it, but there was not much time. Gandhi rushed to the bathroom and trying it to the other way round, he came back in a minute. "As a student in London, I took ten minutes to dress my hair. Now, I need only half a minute for my entire toilet." Gandhi said with bounding enthusiasm.
He was a lover of his mother tongue. When a Parsi journalist began his interview in English, he said to him: "Friend, your mother tongue is Gujarati and so is mine. Do you think I have forgotten my mother tongue because I have lived in South Africa or do you consider it more dignified to talk in English because I am a barrister?"
The Parsi journalist was taken aback and then the interview began in Gujarati.
In the Congress Subjects Committee, someone sent a loyalty resolution to the British Government. Gandhi read it and tore it up. He said if anybody asks why the loyalty resolution was not brought before the conference as usual, the reply was to be: It was Gandhi's doing.
He added "It would be vulgar to pass such a resolution. So long as we do not rebel, we must be taken to be loyal. There is no need to shout it from the house tops. Does a woman go about advertising her faithfulness to her husband?"
When Gandhi returned to India and started working for the Bihar peasant against the Government, he was asked to leave the province.
"I am here to serve my countrymen and I cannot leave the place" he protested.
He therefore returned his medal and wrote "It is not without a pang that I return the Kaisar-I-Hind medal granted to me by your predecessor for my humanitarian work in South Africa."
His son Manilal was married to one Sushila and, after the marriage, the party started on their return journey homewards.
At the railway station, Gandhi said: "Manilal, sit elsewhere, not along with us. Take Sushila with you and engage yourself in sweet conversation with her. Try to know her intimately."
When Gandhi was a prisoner in the Yeravda jail, he had a Negro servant. One day he came running to Bapu writhing with the pain of a scorpion-bite on his hand. Gandhi without wasting time, washed the wound with water, dried it and, putting his mouth on it, began sucking the poison out. He sucked almost all the poison out and the servant felt better in a short time.
This Negro became very attached to Gandhi.
Swami Anand was a sadhu and a cook had insulted him one day. The sadhu lost his temper and gave the cook a blow on the cook's knees.
The matter reached Gandhi's ears.
"Had it been a quarrel between you and another of your rank, you would not have raised your hand in passion. Make no distinction between man and man. Go and apologise to the cook" said Gandhi in a firm voice.
Swami's pride prevented him from apologising. Noticing this, Gandhi said "Well, if you are not going to apologise to him, you may leave me."
Instantly, the swami went and apologized.
In the ashram, a girl was in charge of distribution of fruits to the sick. She sincerely believed that there was a difference between social workers and men of importance. So she sent selected fruits to important people in the ashram and fruits of inferior quality to ordinary workers. Mr. Birla, a business magnate, got the best fruits. Gandhi came to know of this and he at once withdrew the distribution work from her as he saw no difference between man and man.
Gandhi was to attend a senate meeting of the Gujarati Vidyapith but no conveyance had been sent for him. As there was not much time left when he started, he went walking. On the way, he met a khadi (hand spun cloth) clad cyclist pedaling along the road. He stopped him and politely said, "Give me your cycle, please. I have to go to the Gujarati Vidyapith." The man gave the cycle and on it Bapu rode in his little loin cloth and bare body and reached the place in time. Gandhi on the cycle! It was a sight worth seeing.
In the early days of the ashram, no servants were engaged. Everyone, including Gandhi, had his share of manual work to do. One day, Gandhi was not feeling quite well and he was therefore asked not to go to the well to fetch a pot of water for the ashram. But he persisted, quickly arrangements were made to keep all the available vessels with the children only. Gandhi had no vessel but he took his place in the queue without a pot. Suddenly, he caught hold of a children's bathing tub lying near and said "fill this." The man who was there said later "mutely I filled it and mutely I placed it on his head and saw him carry it off."
One day Gandhi was going to his bath with his vessel to pour water and fresh clothes for a change. On the way, one of his companions met him and offered to carry them for him.
"No, No, they are not heavy", Gandhi said.
Then, he asked to be allowed to wash the clothes.
"Oh, I do it myself everyday." he replied.
One day, Gandhi was sitting on his bed. He had a shawl thrown over his shoulders.
While talking to Gandhi a companion of his noticed a snake crawling into the shawl. In a low tone he said to Gandhi "There is a snake on your neck. Keep quite still."
He kept still and the snake went into one of the folds of the shawl and settled there. The shawl was then slowly gathered from the corners and thrown away.
About this incident, Gandhi said, "I had one moment of terror, but only one moment. I recovered myself immediately and I felt nothing. If it had bitten me, I thought, I would say to everyone that the snake must not be killed. The snake that has bitten me must have nothing to fear. It must be allowed to go free."
One night, a burglar entered the ashram kitchen. The inmates woke up, caught him and brought him before Gandhi the next morning.
"Has he been given breakfast?" was his first query without listening to his act of theft.
The man was then taken away, fed to his satisfaction and brought back before Gandhi who in a stern tone and wise words told him how thieving was a bad habit. Gandhi said, he would be given work in the ashram if he wished. He, however, chose not to work in the ashram. He was thereupon freed. On this incident, Gandhi commented thus: "Burglary takes place in society because most people do not have enough for food and clothing while a few roll in plenty even without working. If the villagers in the neighbourhood become envious of us, what is there to wonder at? We should so conduct ourselves that we do not cause resentment to others."
Gandhi was a great social reformer. He evolved a simple and austere ceremony for solemnizing marriages in the ashram.
Jamnalal Bajaj was a multi-millionaire. He threw away his riches and became Gandhi's follower. His daughter Kamala was to be married. Jamnalal wanted Gandhi to solemnise the marriage. Gandhi agreed and did it without any fuss. He asked Pandit Khare to recite the Saptapadi (the vedic text of the seven steps) and some verses and the ceremony was over in an hour. The bride and bridegroom garlanded each other and came to Gandhi for his blessings. The couple were given a heavy thump on each of their backs by way of blessing and Gandhi advised them thus: "Do not fail to read the Bhagavat Gita daily; when disappointment stares you in the face, select a hymn from the hymn book and begin reading some verses. Live peacefully."
The things in his room were kept in an orderly fashion. His writing materials used to be kept in front of him and the pencil on the right hand side. Once he stretched his right hand for a pencil. It was not there. Pyarelal had left it on the left side. Gandhi was upset. His face showed disappointment. He commented, "There must be orderliness in one's life. If the sun, the moon and the earth do not observe their laws, the entire universe would collapse. Every minute of mine is scheduled for certain duties. If I do not find my things in their proper places, much of my time would be wasted."
The shirt of a co-worker was slightly torn at the shoulder. Gandhi saw it and pointed it out to the man. He explained that his wife was not well and could not therefore mend it. "A well dressed person like you, should not become careless. It is not compulsory to wear a shirt, but if you wear one, the shirt should be clean and properly stitched. Unclean and torn clothing signifies laziness, ignorance and a lack of culture," commented Gandhi with a smile.
In one of the evening chats in Africa, Mrs. Millie Graham Polak remarked "I find Indian women always waiting on the pleasure of man. Please justify it:"
"In the great things of life, she is man's equal or superior. In the lesser things, she may serve him, but is it not the privilege of the great to serve the 'little'?"
"But do men think like that?"
"Do not mistake appearance for reality" replied Gandhi "Nearly all know it in their hearts."
When he was a young practising lawyer in Africa he had much humour in him. He often had serious discussions with West, Polak and other colleagues at dinner time. Boyish laughter was characteristic of him. One day, after hearing Gandhi say that Abraham's offer of his son as a sacrifice to the Lord was a great act, Mrs. Millie Graham remarked impatiently "This is not the man's sacrifice. It is the son's. If a man offered himself as a sacrifice that is perhaps his affair but he may not offer another, not even his own child. He has no such right over it. The child is his to protect, not to destroy."
Gandhi said: "The beauty of the story lies in the test of Abraham's love and belief in the Lord, so that, he was willing to sacrifice even his beloved son to the Lord when he was asked for. It was Abraham's agony and faith that mattered and this is why the story is told as though it mainly concerns him."
It was a rule in the ashram that no one should possess money or private property. Manilal, his son had some balance in the Savings Bank Deposit account before he joined the ashram. His brother knowing this asked for some money from Manilal and Manilal withdrew the required sum and sent it to him.
The postal receipt was sent to the ashram and it fell in the hands of Gandhi. That a son of his should have ignored the discipline of the ashram was to Gandhi's mind a crime. He wanted to fast but relented and sent his son out of the ashram instead.
After a full discussion and mature deliberation, he took the vow to be a Brahmachari in 1906 though he had practically lived a life of self control from 1901. To be a true Brahmachari, the first essential, he learnt, was the control of the palate. This, he began to do seriously and religiously. He made dietetic experiments from this point of view. As a result, his food was little in quantity, simple, spiceless, when possible, uncooked. He realised that a Brahmachari's ideal food was fresh food and nuts.
One day discussing about drinking milk Kallenbach stated "We constantly talk about the harmful effects of milk. Why, then, do we not give it up?"
Gandhi was agreeably surprised at the suggestion. He warmly welcomed it as he was told it stimulated passion. Consistent with his vow to be a Brahmachari, he decided that milk was not at all a necessary item of diet. So, he gave it up while he was at the Tolstoy farm in 1912.
Gandhi was once ill in Matheran with dysentery. He was becoming weaker and weaker as the diet he was taking was not nutritious enough. He refused milk, as he had taken a vow not to drink it.
When he was explaining to the doctor, his reasons for taking the vow, Ba's ingenuity came to her aid. She said "Your vow was against taking cow's or buffalo's milk, but not the milk of goat. So, you can take goat's milk and still keep the vow."
"You women are very persistent and clever" remarked Gandhi.
Gandhi yielded and said "The vow of course meant giving up milk of all animals. I wanted to live, I contented myself with adhering to the letter of my vow only and sacrificed its spirit and took goat's milk. I killed the spirit and that is what annoys me."
A crowd of women were sitting by the side of Gandhi, listening to his words. "Such a dear creature he looks with his tiny baby-like limbs?" said one woman to another with a smile.
"What is she saying?" asked Gandhi when he saw them talking about him.
One of them told him that she was talking about his physical appearance.
"So they only see the thin body? Don't they see the champion of the women in me?"
When Gandhi was in London in connection with the Round Table Conference, Bernard Shaw was granted a ten minutes interview. Both sat on the floor. Gandhi went on with spinning his wheel. Shaw began the conversation saying, "We had met before. You wanted to know where you could have dancing lessons" Shaw reminded him.
"I wanted to become an English gentleman. I had come out to qualify as a barrister and meant to master, at the same time, the graces of civilisation; was it you I asked for the name of a good English tailor and whether it was possible to perfect one's accent with the help of an elocution teacher?"
"Fortunately, for both of us, we both escaped the graces of civilisation" humorously remarked Shaw.
Yusuf Meherally was travelling abroad and he had been told that if an Indian travelled in a foreign country, the first question he was asked was about Gandhi. It was quite correct.
When he was travelling between New York and Mexico, his attendant asked Yusuf: "What country do you come from?"
"India"
"India! Eh! How is good old Gandhi."
"FINE!"
"Is he still fasting?"
"Sure"
"How is the goat?"
"Going strong!"
Gandhi had, in Africa, a large and beautiful portrait of Jesus Christ hanging on the wall above his desk. He loved to have it there, so that, whenever he raised his eyes from his desk, he could see it.
The gentle figure of Christ captivated him. For him, he was an example of the perfect man on earth. "I did once seriously think of embracing Christianity" he said.
But he did not embrace the Christian faith even though he was "tremendously attracted to Christianity." He said there was no need to change his religion as he came to the conclusion that there was nothing really in the Christian scriptures that was not in Hinduism, that to be a good Hindu was to be a good Christian. Hinduism entirely satisfied his soul.
He could repeat the verses from the Bible as if he were a Christian, and, in fact, many of the people around him took him to be a Christian, for he was so touched by the teachings in the Bible, especially the Sermon on the Mount, that he became eloquent whenever he talked about Christianity.
He began to wear a loin cloth for a special reason. In England and also in India he used to wear ordinary clothes. But once when he was travelling in Orissa, he saw a woman clad in dirty and torn clothes. When Kasturba asked her why she was so ill clad, she replied that she had no other cloth to wear. Gandhi was then shocked to know the real India. He at once started covering only a loin cloth and save unnecessary cloth. He began to wear the dhoti up to his knees to identify himself with the poor, Indian peasant.
He had an iron wash basin. It was not bought or made for him but it was given to him when he was a prisoner in the Yeravda Jail, Poona, as the prisoner's bowl for his everyday meal. He used to call himself a regular goer to jails and he preserved it as a memento, till his death.
Gandhi was always seen with his watch dangling from his waist in a special way. There is an interesting anecdote about it. When Gandhi was at Allahabad in 1930, Jawaharlal Nehru presented his daughter's watch to him. It remained with him till 1946, when it was stolen. Later, the watch manufacturers presented him with a new watch similar to the one that had been stolen. This new watch remained with him till his death.
When he was touring in Noakhali, a hat made of coconut leaves was presented to him. He treasured it and used to wear it whenever he was basking in the sun, praised its usefulness. It was so simple and cheap.
This man of the people had occasion to meet the King of England face to face. He dressed himself in a poor man's costume with half his legs exposed in defiance of the wishes of his friends and well wishers and strode out of his East End abode in London to meet Royalty.
The meeting was at the Buckingham Palace. Gandhi went in, and the King asked: "Mr. Gandhi, how is India?"
"Look at me, you will know from me, what India is like" replied Gandhi.
"My feeling about Nehru is nothing but that of love and admiration. We are not estranged from each other. I hear from him nearly twice a week. There are differences between us, but in spite of them our affection has not diminished. He has never kept from me whatever he has felt from time to time." This is what Gandhi said when he was asked about the rumour that Nehru and Gandhi had fallen out.
Webb Miller, the journalist, wanted Gandhi's autograph in his cigarette case – a cigarette case in which Clemenceau, Lloyd George and other world figures had written their names in pencil.
Gandhi examined it closely and chuckled.
"This is a cigarette case. Isn't it? You know what I think about the use of tobacco. I would not want my name covered with tobacco. If you will promise never to put cigarettes in it, I will sign for you."
Miller promised most readily.
Then Gandhi signed his name and Webb Miller used it thereafter as a card case. Gandhi's was the clearest and most legible of all the signatures on the cigarette case.
When Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel brought to his notice a newspaper report that Lord Linlithgow had sent him an advance copy of his speech, Gandhi called it "a delicious lie."
"But you have a knack of pleasing all Gods."
"Oh, yes" replied Gandhi "that was what my mother taught me. She took me to the Haveli (a Vaishnava temple) and also to the Shiva temple and you may be interested to hear that when we married, we were taken, to worship, not only to all Hindu shrines but also to a Fakir's Shrine."
When an American interviewer asked him for his views on the world situation, he replied "I am like a frog in a well and the whole of the universe for me is contained in India and in Sevagram. I do not study world affairs as some of my colleagues do."
While he was in jail in South Africa, he was doing manual labour with a shovel along with his co-prisoners. The jail warden was unnecessarily shouting "Go on, Go on." Gandhi was after hard work feeling exhausted, and was resting. As soon as the warden saw Gandhi resting he gave him a big thump and upbraided him. Gandhi replied that there was no necessity for him to have done so as he was doing his best. In fact, while he was in jail, he was a model prisoner and would stick to the jail rules and did not ask for any relaxation of the rules or any favours.
In one of his letters, he says, "I am given a light so that I can read the Gita Chapters according to our custom. I am gradually recovering from my exhaustion. I rest regularly at eight in the morning and at twelve noon and, thus, have two or three hours sleep in the day.... I have left off honey. The goat is milked in my presence. I eat dates and raisins. There is no reason to be anxious about my diet."
"Hind Swaraj" was his first creative effort. It was written by hand, in 275 written pages while he was on board the S.S. "Kildonan Castle" on his journey to Africa in November 1909. It is wonderful that in the manuscripts only three lines had been scored out and a few words, here and there changed.
The whole book was finished in less than ten days. The ideas contained in this book became his convictions.
General Smuts – or perhaps his Secretary – wrote that the sandals made in the Tolstoy Farm were good and the General would like to have a pair. Before his final departure, in July 1914, Gandhi sent him a pair of sandals stitched by him. General Smuts wore them every summer at his own farm near Pretoria. Smuts says "I have worn these sandals for many summers since then, even though I may feel that I am not worthy to stand in the shoes of so great a man."
When he arrived in South Africa, he was belaboured by Mir Alam. It was Rev. Doke who took Gandhi to his house and had him treated there for his cuts and bruises. Gandhi wanted to show his gratitude to Rev. Doke by paying him a visit. One day, he said to Andrews: "Charlie, I want to take you on a pilgrimage. I am going to the house of Rev. Doke who nursed me back to health like a mother when I was injured."
Then both walked together, hand in hand, Gandhi narrating to Andrews about the touching incident when Mir Alam gave him blows.