The Danish Peace Academy

GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES

Letter, February 28, 1932

Y.C.P.

February 28, 1932

My dear child,

I was delighted to have your letter again and the unexpected scribble from Nani.

I see you have a cosmopolitan company.¹⁵⁵ I only hope this does not give you more than your health can manage.

No, the Gita does not teach differently. What it does teach is that all our acts must be natural and spontaneous even when unconscious. When they are so, there is no thought of reward or result. There is, therefore, in pure love no giving and no taking. Put in another way there is no giving on earth without taking. Love gives because it must; it is its nature. It therefore does not calculate whether there is a corresponding gain. It is unconscious of the giving and more so of the taking. Love is its own reward. When there is that ineffable love, there is a joy which is above all the so-called joys we think we experience from outward circumstances. It is that joy I want you to possess. There was a time when you thought, I thought, you had it. But you had not then gone through the fire. The joy that will surely be yours one day will come out of the purifying richness of that fire. It will steal over you when it does come. May it come soon.

We are both well.

Love.

Yours,

Bapu

Source: My Dear Child, pages 88-89; Collected Works, Volume 49, page 165

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