Mohan-Mala - Mahatma Gandhi

Mohan-Malaseem to me to present a phase far richer than happiness of life. What is lifeworth without trials and tribulation which are the salt of life?YI, 12 March 1930May 27My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannotremove, one must fast and pray.YI, 25 Sept. 1924May 28There is nothing so powerful as fasting and prayer that would give us therequisite discipline, spirit of self-sacrifice, humility and resoluteness of willwithout which there can be no real progress.YI, 31 March 1920May 29Fasting is a potent weapon in the Satyagraha armory. It cannot be taken byeveryone. Mere physical capacity to take it is no qualification for it. It is of nouse without a living faith in God. It should never be a mechanical effort nor amere imitation. It must come from the depth of one's soul.H, 18 March 1939May 30One fast for health's sake under laws governing health, fasts as penance for awrong done and felt as such. In these fasts, the fasting one need not believe inahimsa. There is, however, a fast which every votary of non-violencesometimes feels impelled to undertake by way of protest against some wrongdone by society and this he does when he as a votary of ahimsa has no otherremedy left.www.mkgandhi.org Page 41