" With characteristic courtesy, the Mahatma
handed me this hastily-written note as Mr. Desai led our party from
the writing room toward the guest house.
Our guide led us through orchards and flowering fields to
a tile-roofed building with latticed windows. A front-yard well,
twenty-five feet across, was used, Mr. Desai said, for watering
stock; near-by stood a revolving cement wheel for threshing rice.
Each of our small bedrooms proved to contain only the irreducible
minimum-a bed, handmade of rope. The whitewashed kitchen boasted a
faucet in one corner and a fire pit for cooking in another. Simple
Arcadian sounds reached our ears-the cries of crows and sparrows,
the lowing of cattle, and the rap of chisels being used to chip
stones.
Observing Mr. Wright's travel diary, Mr. Desai opened a page and
wrote on it a list of SATYAGRAHA {FN44-2} vows taken by all the
Mahatma's strict followers (SATYAGRAHIS):
"Nonviolence; Truth; Non-Stealing; Celibacy; Non-Possession;
Body-Labor; Control of the Palate; Fearlessness; Equal Respect for
all Religions; SWADESHI (use of home manufactures); Freedom from
Untouchability. These eleven should be observed as vows in a spirit
of humility."
(Gandhi himself signed this page on the following day, giving the
date also-August 27, 1935.)
Two hours after our arrival my companions and I were summoned
to lunch. The Mahatma was already seated under the arcade of the
ashram porch, across the courtyard from his study.
Pages:
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575