He dealt very severely with those on whom he lavished his affection most. "On one such occasion, Kallenbach said, "He made me cry too."
One day, Kallenbach was being taken to task very severely by Gandhi for something that had happened in the domestic affairs at the Tolstoy Farm house – perhaps for something that was done badly or for something that was not done.
At the moment Gandhi was preparing to keep an appointment with Gen. Smuts.
"It is no use wasting your time over domestic trifles when you should be thinking of the interview you are to have with Gen. Smuts." remonstrated Kallenbach.
"No, No. These little things are to me of as much importance as the big ones. For, they touch the very core of our life. And Truth is one whole, it has no compartments." Replied Gandhi with eloquent eyes.
Kallenbach had bought a car to bring Gandhi home from an African prison on his release. Gandhi sat in it without a word; when he reached home he scolded Kallenbach severely for having bought a car costing so much money.
"Don't you know that we are living on certain principles? Put a match to it at once" said he.
"I am not such a rich man to afford to do so."
After much debate, Gandhi consented to his disposing it off instead of destroying it. And for eleven years thereafter Kallenbach did not own a car!
On another occasion, Kallenbach purchased silver rings for serviettes. It did not occur to him that he should have consulted Gandhi before buying them. The moment Gandhi saw them he shouted in distress "Don't you still understand me?" and straight away threw them into the rubbish can.
Day in and day out, Gandhi was preaching the abolition of untouchability. Those who believed in it, he felt, should not visit temples that were not open to Harijans.
One day, however, Kasturba, Gandhi's wife, and two others visited a temple at Puri near Calcutta, which was not open to Harijans.
When Gandhi learnt that his wife and some inmates of his Ashram, whom he regarded as his daughters, had ignored his creed his shame and humiliation knew no limits. He suffered in silence in mental agony and the torment was enough to precipitate a collapse. His blood pressure rose alarmingly high due to the tension.
When asked not to react so dangerously to such matters because it affected his health, he replied "The Gita teaches us the lesson of detachment but that detachment does not mean indifference to shocks of this kind - a failure in duty on the part of one's dearest ones."
"They went in ignorance" someone suggested.
"But I was to blame and Mahadev was more to blame" Gandhi said.
Mahadev, his secretary, was dumb struck and felt very nervous. The next day Gandhi observed silence the whole day as a precaution against a further rise in his blood pressure.