The Danish Peace Academy

GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES

Letter, March 14, 1920

[This and the ten letters which followed it were written to help Esther Faering during the days when the announcement of her betrothal to E. K. Menon, a Hindu, resulted in a storm of criticism from Hindus as well as Christians.]

The Ashram,

March 14, 1920

My dear child,

Of course I will pray and I know I can do no better. Friends can help you little during the crisis you are passing through. May God protect you.

Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood,
For the good or evil side.
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand
And the sheep upon the right
And the choice goes by for ever,
’Twixt the darkness and that light.

I hope to pick out something like this, if I can, every day, charged with my prayers. What I have sent you today is from Lowell.

With love,

Yours,

Bapu

[PS.]

My case is decided. The court I understand has reproved us both but no penalty.

Bapu

Source: My Dear Child, page 60; Collected Works, Volume 17, pages 89-90

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