Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/974

 36 ssvannxx u and similar things are in reality the opposite, being added enjoymeuts or means of gratifying the senses. Medicine does not escape his judgment ; he calls it black magic and actually says it is better to die than be saved by a drug prescribed by the doctor. The fear of immorality and unhealthy modes of life has been materially weakened if not totally removed by the hope of being saved from the evil consequences by the help of the doctor. A return to the cure of nature and her simple ways would redeem mankind. These and similar doctrines, which appear harsh to the ordit nary person, form the substance of Mr. Gandhi’s ethics. Le; it not be supposed that they are logical abstractions formulated for the purposes of s moral treat-iss or sermon, and with no intended application to life. Their propounder practises them in the spirit and in the letter, and the limitations on their practice do not proceed from any tenderness for himself or his relatives. His renunciation of worldly goods has already been mentioned. He does not seek the medical man in sickness. He eats hard fare. He wears Khctddar woven by his own hands and in that dress and barefooted appears before the Vtceroy of Indra. He knows no fear and shrinks from nothing which he advises others to do. In fact his love of sudering and hardship as a means of spiritual progress is almost morbid. Hts composion and tenderness are infinite like the ocean, to use an eastern simile, The present writer stood by as he wiped the sores of a leper with the ends ot his own garment. In fact it is his complete mastery of the passions, his realization of the ideal of a " sanyasin." in all the rtgcur of its eastern con- ception, which accounts for the great hold he has over the masses cf India and has crowned him with the title of Mahatma or the Great Soul. Now to a few other doctrines of a subordinate grade. Curious- ly enough he is a believer in the system of caste, though the pride of caste and its exclusiveness will receive no quarter from him., Apparently he is convinced of its bensfticence, if maintained in its original purity, and holds it to be of the essence of Hinduism. In this belief, however, he is not likely to be followed by a great section of his countrymen, who are anxious to restore their reli· gion to its ancient purity. But he is at one with them and in fact with thc awakened conscience of India in desiring to exorcism the demon of untcuchabtlity. Millions of people are held by caste Hindus to be beneath their physical touch and live in condi- tions which are scarcely fit for human beings. These be would uplift, asserting that Hinduism gives no kind of justification for the abuse. But his work for the depressed classes, as they are called, would take the form which has quite recently been given to social work of that kind, inthe West. He would have the worker cast aside his own status and live the life of the class to be helped, do their work and earn their wage, exactly as they do. So