3 Review(s)

It is not my purpose to attempt a real autobiography. I simply want to tell the story of my numerous experiments with truth, and as my life consists of nothing but those experiments, it is true that the story will take the shape of an autobiography. Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification; without self purification, the observance of the law of ahimsa must remain an empty dream; God can never be realised by one who is not pure of heart. Self-purification, therefore, must mean purification in all walks of life. And purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to the purification of one's surroundings. But the path of self-purification is hard and sleep. To attain to perfect purity one has to become absolutely passio-fee in thought, speech and action; to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know that I have not in me as yet the triple purity, in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world's praise fails to move me, indeed it very often strings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to me to be harder for than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms. Ever since my return to India I have had experiences of the dormant passions lying hidden within me. The knowledge of them has made me feel humiliated though not defeated. The experiences and experiments have sustained me and given me great joy. But I know that I have still before me a difficult path to traverse. I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creature, there is no salvation for him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility.   Table of Contents Translator's Preface Introduction Part-I: Birth and Parentage Childhood Child Marriage Playing the Husband At the High School A Tragedy Stealing and Atonement My Father's Death and My Double Shame Glimpses of Religion Preparation for England Out caste In London at Last My Choice Playing the English Gentleman Changes Experiments in Dietetics Shyness My Shield The Canker of Untruth Acquaintance with Religious Nirbal Ke Ball Ram Narayan Hemchandra The Great Exhibition 'Celled'-But Then? My Helplessness Part-II: Raychandbhai How I Began Life The First Shock Preparing for South Africa Arrival in Natal Some Experiences On the Way to Pretoria More Hardships First Day in Pretoria Christian Contacts Seeking Touch with Indians What It Is to be a 'Coolie' Preparation for the Case Religious Ferment Man Proposes, God Disposes Settled in Natal Colour Bar Natal Indian Congress Balasundaram The Tax Comparative Study of Religious As a Householder Homewatd In India Two Passions The Bombay Meeting Poona and Madreas 'Return Soon' Part-III: Rumblings of the Storm The Storm The Test The Calm after the Storm Education of Children Spirit of Service Brahmacharya I Brahmacharya II Simple Life The Boer War Sanitary Reform and Famine Relief Return to India In India Again Clerk and Bearer In the Congress Lord Curzon's Durbar A Month with Gokhale-I A Month with Gokhale-II A Month with Gokhale-III In Benares Settled in Bombay? Faith on its Trial To South Africa Again Part-IV: Loves' Labour's Lost? Autocrats from Asia Pocketed the Insult Quickened Spirit of Sacrifice Result of Introspecion A Sacrifice to Vegetarianism Experiments in Earth and Water Treatment A Warning A Tussle with Power A Sacred Recollection and Penance Experiments in Earth and Water Treatment A Warning A Tussle with Power A Sacred Recollection and Penance Intimate European Contacts European Contacts Indian Opinion Coolie Locations or Ghettoes? The Black Plague-I The Black Plague-II Location in Flames The Magic Spell of a Book The Phoenix Settlement The First Night Polak Takes the Plunge Whom God Protects A Peep into the Household The Zulu 'Rebellion' Heart Searchings The Birth of Satyagraha More Experiments in Dietetics Kasturbai's Courage Domestic Satyagraha Towards Self-restraint Fasting As School Master Literary Training Training of the Spirit Tares Among the Wheat Fasting as Penance To Meet Gokhale My Part in the War A Spiritual Dilemma Miniature Satyagraha Gokhale's Charity Treatment of Pleurisy Homeward Some Reminiscences of the Bar Sharp Practice? Clients Turned Co-workers How a Client was Saved Part-V: The First Experience With Gokhale in Poona Was It a Threat? Shantiniketan Woes of Third Class Passengers Wooing Kumbha Mela Lakshman Jhula Founding of the Ashram On the Anvil Abolition of Indentured Emigration The Stain of Indigo The Gentle Bihari Faxe-to-Face with Ahimsa Case Withdrawn Methods of Work Companions Penetrating the Villages When a Governor is Good In Touch with Labour A Peep into the Ashram The Fast The Kheda Satyagraha The Onion Thief End of Kheda Satyagraha Passion for Unity Recuriting Campaign Near Death's Door The Rowlatt Bills and My Dilemma That Wonderful Spectacle! The Memorable Week! I The Memorable Week! II A Himalayan Miscalculation Navajivan and Young India In the Punjab The Khilafat Against Cow Protection? The Amritsar Congress Congress Initiation The Birth of Khadi Found at Last! As Instructive Dialogue Its Rising Ride At Nagpur Farewell