Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/415

 THE SATYAGRHASHRAMA

and clothed. Then there is the vow of non-possession which follows as a matter of course. Then I go to

THE VOW OF SWADESHI.

The vow of Swadeshi is a necessary vow. But you are conversant with the Swadeshi life and the Swadeshi spirit. I suggest to you we are departing from one of the sacred laws of our being when we leave our neighbour and go out somewhere else in order to satisfy our wants* If a man comes from Bombay here and offers you wares, you are not justified in supporting the Bombay merchant or trader so long as you have got a merchant at your very door, born and bred in Madras. That is my view of Swadeshi. In your village-barber, you are bound to support him to the exclusion of the finished barber who may come to you from Madras. If you find it necessary that your village barber should reach the attainments of the barber from Madras you may train him to that. Send him to Madras by all means, if you wish, in order that he may learn his calling. Until you do that, you are not justified in going to another barber. That is Swadeshi. So, when we find that there are many things that we cannot get in India, we must try to do without them* We may have to do without many things which we may consider necessary; but believe me, when you have that frame of mind, you will find a great burden taken off your shoulders, even as the Pilgrim did in that inimitable book, " Pilgrim's Progress." There came a time when the mighty burden that the Pilgrim was carrying on his shoulders unconsciously dropped from him, and he felt a freer man than he was when he started on the journey* So will you feel freer men than you are now, immediately you adopt this Swadeshi life. We have also

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