Part 76 (1/2)
I remarked on several very recent Western books on diet which lay on his desk
”Yes, diet is important in the SATYAGRAHA movement-as everywhere else,” he said with a chuckle ”Because I advocate co to find out the best diet for the celibate One must conquer the palate before he can control the procreative instinct Semi-starvation or unbalanced diets are not the answer After overco the inward GREED for food, a SATYAGRAHI etarian diet with all necessary vitamins, minerals, calories, and so forth By inward and outisdo, the SATYAGRAHI'S sexual fluid is easily turned into vital energy for the whole body”
The Mahatood meat-substitutes
”The avocado is excellent,” I said ”There are nuroves near my center in California”
Gandhi's face lit with interest ”I wonder if they would grow in Wardha? The SATYAGRAHIS would appreciate a new food”
”I will be sure to send soeles to Wardha” {FN44-10} I added, ”Eggs are a high-protein food; are they forbidden to SATYAGRAHIS?”
”Not unfertilized eggs” The Mahathed reminiscently ”For years I would not countenance their use; even now I personally do not eat the of ree, and advised hi-substitute
”'Gandhiji,' the doctor said, 'unfertilized eggs contain no life sperave pers; she was soon restored to health”
On the previous night Gandhi had expressed a wish to receive the KRIYA YOGA of Lahiri Mahasaya I was touched by the Mahatma's open-mindedness and spirit of inquiry He is childlike in his divine quest, revealing that pure receptivity which Jesus praised in children, ”of such is the kingdom of heaven”
The hour for my promised instruction had arrived; several SATYAGRAHIS now entered the rooale, and a few others who desired the KRIYA technique
I first taught the little class the physical YOGodA exercises The body is visualized as divided into twenty parts; the will directs energy in turn to each section Soon everyone was vibrating beforeeffect on Gandhi's twenty body parts, at all tih very thin, he is not unpleasingly so; the skin of his body is sroup into the liberating technique of KRIYA YOGA
The Mahations The Jain scriptures, the Biblical New Testas of Tolstoy {FN44-11} are the three main sources of Gandhi's nonviolent convictions He has stated his credo thus:
I believe the Bible, the KORAN, and the ZEND-AVESTA {FN44-12} to be as divinely inspired as the VEDAS I believe in the institution of Gurus, but in this ageto find a co But one need not despair of ever knowing the truth of one's religion, because the fundaeable, and easily understood
I believe like every Hindu in God and His oneness, in rebirth and salvationI can nofor Hinduism than for my oife She moves me as no other woman in the world can Not that she has no faults; I daresay she hasof an indissoluble bond is there
Even so I feel for and about Hinduishts me so much as the music of the GITA, or the RAMAYANA by Tulsidas When I fancied I was taking my last breath, the GITA was ion In it there is room for the worshi+p of all the prophets of the world {FN44-13} It is not a ion in the ordinary sense of the term It has no doubt absorbed many tribes in its fold, but this absorption has been of an evolutionary, imperceptible character Hinduis to his own faith or DHARMA, {FN44-14} and so lives at peace with all religions
Of Christ, Gandhi has written: ”I a men, He would bless the lives of many who perhaps have never even heard His namejust as it is written: 'Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lordbut he that doeth the will of ave hule objective tohich we all ought to aspire I believe that He belongs not solely to Christianity, but to the entire world, to all lands and races”
Onwhich had been called by Mr Desai in Town Hall The rooed to thesills with about 400 people assea I spoke first in Hindi, then in English Our little group returned to the ashralimpse of Gandhi, enfolded in peace and correspondence
Night was still lingering when I rose at 5:00 AM Village life was already stirring; first a bullock cart by the ashrae burden balanced precariously on his head
After breakfast our trio sought out Gandhi for farewell pronAMS
The saint rises at four o'clock for his ood-by!” I knelt to touch his feet ”India is safe in your keeping!”
Years have rolled by since the Wardha idyl; the earth, oceans, and skies have darkened with a world at war Alone areat leaders, Gandhi has offered a practical nonviolent alternative to arrievances and remove injustices, the Mahatain have proved their effectiveness He states his doctrine in these words:
I have found that life persists in the her law than that of destruction Only under that laould well-ordered society be intelligible and life worth living
If that is the law of life we must work it out in daily existence
Wherever there are wars, wherever we are confronted with an opponent, conquer by love I have found that the certain law of love has answered in my own life as the law of destruction has never done
In India we have had an ocular demonstration of the operation of this law on the widest scale possible I don't claim that nonviolence has penetrated the 360,000,000 people in India, but I do claim it has penetrated deeper than any other doctrine in an incredibly short ti to attain a mental state of nonviolence It is a disciplined life, like the life of a soldier The perfect state is reached only when the mind, body, and speech are in proper coordination Every problem would lend itself to solution if we determined to make the law of truth and nonviolence the law of life