The Essential Gandhi by Mahatma Gandhi Read Free Book Online

teacher, because, counting on my industry, he had recommended my promotion. So fear of the double discredit kept me at my post. When, however, with much effort I reached the thirteenth proposition of Euclid, the utter simplicity of the subject was suddenly revealed to me. A subject which required only a pure and simple use of one’s reasoning powers could not be difficult. Ever since that time geometry has been both easy and interesting for me. 11
    [Gandhi likewise had trouble with Sanskrit but after the teacher, Mr. Krishnashanker, reminded him that it was the language of Hinduism’s sacred scriptures, the future Mahatma persevered and succeeded.]
     … I never took part in any exercise, cricket or football, before they were made compulsory. My shyness was one of the reasons for this aloofness, which I now see was wrong. I then had the false notion that gymnastics had nothing to do with education. Today I know that physical training should have as much place in the curriculum as mental training.
     … I was none the worse for abstaining from exercise.… I had read in books about the benefits of long walks in the open air, andhaving liked the advice I had formed a habit of taking walks which has still remained with me. These walks gave me a fairly hardy constitution. 12
    [Mohandas envied the bigger, stronger boys. He was frail compared with his older brother, and especially compared with a Moslem friend named Sheik Mehtab, who could run great distances with remarkable speed. Sheik Mehtab was spectacular in the long and high jump as well. These exploits dazzled Gandhi.]
     … This [admiration] was followed by a strong desire to be like him. I could hardly jump or run. Why should not I also be as strong as he?
    Moreover, I was a coward. I used to be haunted by the fear of thieves, ghosts and serpents. I did not dare to stir out of doors at night. Darkness was a terror to me. It was almost impossible for me to sleep in the dark.… How could I disclose my fears to my wife, no child but already at the threshold of youth, sleeping by my side? I knew she had more courage than I and I felt ashamed of myself.… My friend knew all these weaknesses of mine. He would tell me that he could hold in his hand live serpents, could defy thieves and did not believe in ghosts. And all this was, of course, the result of eating meat.
    [The boys at school used to recite this poem.]
    Behold the mighty Englishman
,
He rules the Indian small
,
Because being a meat-eater

He is five cubits tall
.
    …
“We are a weak people because we do not eat meat” [argued Sheik Mehtab]. “The English are able to rule over us because they are meat-eaters. You know how hardy I am and how great a runner too. It is because I am a meat-eater. Meat-eaters do not have boils or tumors and even if they sometimes happen to have any, these heal quickly. Our teacher and other distinguished people who eat meat are no fools. They know its virtues. You should do likewise. There is nothing like trying. Try, and see what strength it gives.”
    All these pleas … were not advanced at a single sitting. They represent the substance of a long and elaborate argument.…
     … I was beaten.…
    A day was thereupon fixed for beginning the experiment. It had to be conducted in secret. [The family was strictly vegetarian by religious conviction, and so were almost all inhabitants of the district.] … I was extremely devoted to my parents. I knew that the moment they came to know of my having eaten meat they would be shocked to death. Moreover, my love of truth made me extra cautious.… And having insured secrecy, I persuaded myself that mere hiding the deed from parents was no departure from truth. 13
    So the day came.… We went in search of a lonely spot by the river and there I saw, for the first time in my life—meat. There was baker’s bread [with yeast] also. I relished neither. The goat’s meat was as tough as leather. I simply could not eat it. I was sick