PART TWO 1. RAYCHANDBHAI
THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH
by Mohandas K. Gandhi
PART TWO :
1. RAYCHANDBHAI.
I said in the last chapter that the sea was rough in Bombay harbour, not an unusual thing in
the Arabian Sea in June and July. It had been choppy all the way from Aden. Almost every
passenger was sick; I alone was in perfect form, staying on deck to see the stormy surge, and
enjoying the splash of the waves. At breakfast there would be just one or two people besides
myself, eating their oatmeal porridge from plates carefully held in their laps, lest the porridge itself
find its place there.
The outer storm was to me a symbol of the inner. But even as the former left me unperturbed, I
think I can say the same thing about the latter. There was the trouble with the caste that was to
confront me. I have already adverted to my helplessness in starting on my profession. And then,
as I was a reformer, I was taxing myself as to how best to begin certain reforms. But there was
even more in store for me than I knew.
My elder brother had come to meet me at the dock. He had already made the acquaintance of
Dr. Mehta and his elder brother, and as Dr. Mehta insisted on putting me up at his house, we
went there. Thus the acquaintance begun in England continued in India, and ripened into a
permanent friendship between the two families.
I was pining to see my mother. I did not know that she was no more in the flesh to receive me
back into her bosom. The sad news was now given me, and I underwent the usual ablution. My
brother had kept me ignorant of her death, which took place whilst I was still in England. He
wanted to spare me the blow in a foreign land. The news, however, was none the less a severe
shock to me. But I must not dwell upon it. My grief was even greater than over my father's death.
Most of my cherished hopes were shattered. But I remember that I did not give myself up to any
wild expression of grief. I could even check the tears, and took to life just as though nothing had
happened.
Dr. Mehta introduced me to several friends, one of them being his brother Shri Revashankar
Jagjivan, with whom there grew up a lifelong friendship. But the introduction that I need
particularly take note of was the one to the poet Raychand or Rajchandra, the son-in-law of an
elder brother of Dr. Mehta, and partner of the firm of jewellers conducted in the name of
Revashankar Jagjivan. He was not above twenty-five then, but my first meeting with him
convinced me that he was a man of great character and learning. He was also known as
aShatavadhani (one having the faculty of remembering or attending to a hundred things
simultaneously), and Dr. Mehta recommended me to see some of his memory feats. I exhausted
my vocabulary of all the European tongues I knew, and asked the poet to repeat the words. He
did so in the precise order in which I had given them. I envied his gift without, however, coming
under its spell. The thing that did cast its spell over me I came to know afterwards. This was his
wide knowledge of the scriptures, his spotless character, and his burning passion for selfrealization.
I saw later that this last was the only thing for which he lived. The following lines of
Muktanand were always on his lips and engraved on the tablets of his heart:
I shall think myself blessed only when I see Him
in every one of my daily acts;
Verily He is the thread
which supports Muktanand's life.
Raychandbhai's commercial transactions covered hundreds of thousands. He was a
connoisseur of pearls and diamonds. No knotty business problem was too difficult for him. But all
these things were not the centre round which his life revolved. That centre was the passion to see
God face to face. Amongst the things on his business table there were invariably to be found
some religious book and his diary. The moment he finished his business he opened the religious
book or the diary. Much of his published writings is a reproduction from this diary. The man who
immediately on finishing his talk about weighty business transactions, began to write about the
hidden things of the spirit, could evidently not be a businessman at all, but a real seeker after
Truth. And I saw him thus absorbed in godly pursuits in the midst of business, not once or twice,
but very often. I never saw him lose his state of equipoise. There was no business or other selfish
tie that bound him to me, and yet I enjoyed the closest association with him. I was but a briefless
barrister then, and yet whenever I saw him he would engage me in conversation of a seriously
religious nature. Though I was then groping, and could not be said to have any serious interest in
religious discussion, still I found his talk of absorbing interest. I have since met many a religious
leader or teacher. I have tried to meet the heads of various faiths, and I must say that no one else
has ever made on me the impression that Raychandbhai did. His words went straight home to
me. His intellect compelled as great a regard from me as his moral earnestness, and deep down
in me was the conviction that he would never willingly lead me astray, and would always confide
to me his innermost thoughts. In my moments of spiritual crisis, therefore, he was my refuge.
And yet in spite of this regard for him, I could not enthrone him in my heart as my Guru. The
throne has remained vacant and my search still continues.
I believe in the Hindu theory of [the] Guru and his importance in spiritual realization. I think
there is a great deal of truth in the doctrine that true knowledge is impossible without a Guru. An
imperfect teacher may be tolerable in mundane matters, but not in spiritual matters. Only a
perfect gnani/1/ deserves to be enthroned as Guru. There must, therefore, be ceaseless striving
after perfection. For one gets the Guru that one deserves. Infinite striving after perfection is one's
right. It is its own reward. The rest is in the hands of God.
Thus, though I could not place Raychandbhai on the throne of my heart as Guru, we shall see
how he was, on many occasions, my guide and helper. Three moderns have left a deep impress
on my life, and captivated me: Raychandbhai by his living contact; Tolstoy by his book, The
Kingdom of God is Within You; and Ruskin by hisUnto this Last. But of these more in their proper
place.
/1/ A knowing one, a seer.
Next : - 2. HOW I BEGAN LIFE
Continues...
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