THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH : by Mohandas K. Gandhi

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY:


THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH
by Mohandas K. Gandhi


INTRODUCTION



Four or five years ago, at the instance of some of my nearest co-workers, I agreed to write my
autobiography. I made the start, but scarcely had I turned over the first sheet when riots broke out
in Bombay and the work remained at a standstill. Then followed a series of events which
culminated in my imprisonment at Yeravda. Sjt. Jeramdas, who was one of my fellow-prisoners
there, asked me to put everything else on one side and finish writing the autobiography. I replied
that I had already framed a programme of study for myself, and that I could not think of doing
anything else until this course was complete. I should indeed have finished the autobiography
had I gone through my full term of imprisonment at Yeravda, for there was still a year left to
complete the task, when I was discharged. Swami Anand has now repeated the proposal, and as
I have finished the history of Satyagraha in South Africa, I am tempted to undertake the
autobiography forNavajivan. The Swami wanted me to write it separately for publication as a
book. But I have no spare time. I could only write a chapter week by week. Something has to be
written for Navajivan every week. Why should it not be the autobiography? The Swami agreed to
the proposal, and here am I hard at work.



But a God-fearing friend had his doubts, which he shared with me on my day of silence. 'What
has set you on this adventure? he asked. 'Writing an autobiography is a practice peculiar to the
west. I know of nobody in the East having written one, except amongst those who have come
under Western influence. And what will you write? Supposing you reject tomorrow the things you
hold as principles today, or supposing you revise in the future your plans of today, is it not likely
that the men who shape their conduct on the authority of your word, spoken or written, may be
misled. Don't you think it would be better not to write anything like an autobiography, at any rate
just yet?'



This argument had some effect on me. But 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. But I shall not mind, if every page of it speaks only of my experiments. I believe,
or at any rate flatter myself with the belief, that a connected account of all these experiments will
not be without benefit to the reader. My experiments in the political field are now known, not only
in India, but to a certain extent to the 'civilized' world. For me, they have not much value; and the
title of Mahatma that they have won for me has, therefore, even less. Often the title has deeply
pained me; and there is not a moment I can recall when it may be said to have tickled me. But I
should certainly like to narrate my experiments in the spiritual field which are known only to
myself, and from which I have derived such power as I posses for working in the political field. If
the experiments are really spiritual, then there can be no room for self-praise. They can only add
to my humility. The more I reflect and look back on the past, the more vividly do I feel my
limitations.



What I want to achieve,—what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years—is
self-realization, to see God face to face, to attain Moksha./1/ I live and move and have my being
in pursuit of this goal. All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the
political field, are directed to this same end. But as I have all along believed that what is possible
for one is possible for all, my experiments have not been conducted in the closet, but in the open;
and I do not think that this fact detracts from their spiritual value. There are some things which are
known only to oneself and one's Maker. These are clearly incommunicable. The experiments I
am about to relate are not such. But they are spiritual or rather moral; for the essence of religion
is morality.



Only those matters of religion that can be comprehended as much by children as by older
people, will be included in this story. If I can narrate them in a dispassionate and humble spirit,
many other experimenters will find in them provision for their onward march. Far be it from me to
claim any degree of perfection for these experiments. I claim for them nothing more than does a
scientist who, though he conducts his experiments with the utmost accuracy, forethought and
minuteness, never claims any finality about his conclusions, but keeps an open mind regarding
them. I have gone through deep self-introspection, searched myself through and through, and
examined and analysed every psychological situation. Yet I am far from claiming any finality or
infallibility about my conclusions. One claim I do indeed make and it is this. For me they appear to
be absolutely correct, and seem for the time being to be final. For if they were not, I should base
no action on them. But at every step I have carried out the process of acceptance or rejection and
acted accordingly. And so long as my acts satisfy my reason and my heart, I must firmly adhere
to my original conclusions.



If I had only to discuss academic principles. I should clearly not attempt an autobiography. But
my purpose being to give an account of various practical applications of these principles, I have
given the chapters I propose to write the title of The Story of My Experiments with Truth. These
will of course include experiments with non-violence, celibacy and other principles of conduct
believed to be distinct from truth. But for me, truth is the sovereign principle, which includes
numerous other principles. This truth is not only truthfulness in word, but truthfulness in thought
also, and not only the relative truth of our conception, but the Absolute Truth, the Eternal
Principle, that is God. There are innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are
innumerable. They overwhelm me with wonder and awe and for a moment stun me. But I worship
God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him. I am prepared to
sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest. Even if the sacrifice demanded be my
very life, I hope I may be prepared to give it. But as long as I have not realized this Absolute
Truth, so long must I hold by the relative truth as I have conceived it. That relative truth must,
meanwhile, be my beacon, my shield and buckler. Though this path is strait and narrow and
sharp as the razor's edge, for me it has been the quickest and easiest. Even my Himalayan
blunders have seemed trifling to me because I have kept strictly to this path. For the path has
saved me from coming to grief, and I have gone forward according to my light. Often in my
progress I have had faint glimpses of the Absolute Truth, God, and daily the conviction is growing
upon me that He alone is real and all else is unreal. Let those who wish, realize how the
conviction has grown upon me; let them share my experiments and share also my conviction if
they can. The further conviction has been growing upon me that whatever is possible for me is
possible even for a child, and I have sound reasons for saying so. The instruments for the quest
of truth are as simple as they are difficult. They may appear quite impossible to an arrogant
person, and quite possible to an innocent child. The seeker after truth should be humbler than the
dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble
himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then, and not till then, will he have a glimpse of
truth. The dialogue between Vasishtha and Vishvamitra makes this abundantly clear. Christianity
and Islam also amply bear it out.



If anything that I write in these pages should strike the reader as being touched with pride, then
he must take it that there is something wrong with my quest, and that my glimpses are no more
than a mirage. Let hundreds like me perish, but let truth prevail. Let us not reduce the standards
of truth even by a hair's breadth for judging erring mortals like myself.
I hope and pray that no one will regard the advice interspersed in the following chapters as
authoritative. The experiments narrated should be regarded as illustrations, in the light of which
everyone may carry on his own experiments according to his own inclination and capacity. I trust
that to this limited extent the illustrations will be really helpful; because I am not going either to
conceal or understate any ugly things that must be told. I hope to acquaint the reader fully with all
my faults and errors. My purpose is to describe experiments in the science of Satyagraha, not to
say how good I am. In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to
be. Measuring myself by that standard I must exclaim with Surdas :



Where is there a wretch
So wicked and loathsome as I?
I have forsaken my Maker,
So faithless have I been.
For it is an unbroken torture to me that I am still so far from Him, who, as I fully know, governs
every breath of my life, and whose offspring I am. I know that it is the evil passions within that
keep me so far from Him, and yet I cannot get away from them.
But I must close. I can only take up the actual story in the next chapter.
M. K. GANDHI
The Ashram, Sabarmati.
26th November, 1927