E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timesof choice as to the manner in which he uses that freedom. But he is nocontroller of results. The moment he thinks he is, he comes to grief.'I have no special revelation of God's will,' Gandhi explained. 'My firm belief isthat He reveals Himself daily to every human being, but we shut our ears to the'still small voice'.., God never appears to you in person but in action.'How did Gandhi worship God? He believed in the efficacy of prayer. 'Prayer isthe key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.... As food is necessary forthe body, prayer is necessary for the soul... No act of mine is done withoutprayer ... I am not a man of learning, but I humbly claim to be a man of prayer.I am indifferent to the form. Every man is a law unto himself in that respect.'But 'it is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without aheart'. One can pray in the silence that has banished words.Nevertheless, the highway to God was through action. For ten days Gandhi andE. Stanley Jones, an American missionary, discussed a variety of topics, chieflyreligion. One day Gandhi said, 'If one is to find salvation, he must have as muchpatience as a man who sits by the seaside and with a straw Picks up a singledrop of water, transfers it and thus empties the ocean.' Salvation, according toGandhi, comes—as Dr. Jones understood it—'through one's strict, disciplinedefforts, a rigid self-mastery'."But I,' E. Stanley Jones declares, 'look on salvation, not as an attainmentthrough one's efforts, but as an obtainment through grace. I came to Godmorally and spiritually bankrupt with nothing to offer except my bankruptcy.To my astonishment He took me, forgave me, and sent my soul singing its waydown the years. By grace was I saved through > and that not of myself; it wasthe gift of God... It was at this point that the Christians and the Mahatma nevergot together.'I know,' Dr. Jones adds, 'that salvation by grace seems too cheap and easy, butit is not cheap; for when you take the gift, you belong forever to the Giver.'Gandhi took the hard road. His doctrine was: By their works shall ye knowthem. His God required him to live for humanity. 'If I could persuade myself,www.mkgandhi.org Page 343