The Danish Peace Academy

GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES

Letter, August 20, 1926

The Ashram,

Sabarmati,

August 20, 1926

My dear child,

I have your letter. I did not misunderstand your remark about typewriters. On the contrary, I liked it.

The literal meaning of an ‘ashram’ is an abode, but the associations about the ashram are these: It should be simple. It should not be merely a teaching institution. It should contain predominantly those who are pledged to perpetual continence. It should have associations of sannyasa, meaning detachment from the world. It should, therefore, be a voluntarily poor organization. There should, therefore, be rigid simplicity about it. Its object must invariably be formation of character with a view to self-realization. The idea of master and servant is wholly repugnant to such an institution. All men and women in an ashram are expected to do bodily labour and all enjoy an equal status. The idea of superiority has no place in it. The head of an ashram is in the place of a parent and he is expected to regard the rest as his own children. I wonder if I have now given you fairly the characteristics of an ashram.

It grieves me whenever I find that a medical man is weak or ailing. It is a perpetual reminder to us that medicine is such an incomplete, such an unreliable, and such an empirical science. If we think about it with sufficient detachment, we would at once realize its inherent weakness by understanding that there is no such thing as an absolute cure. The most potent drugs admit of innumerable exceptions. The most successful operation leaves literally and in the spirit a scar behind. It would certainly be a good thing, if you could hasten your departure for Denmark. Change of climate will be the best cure.

What you say about fasting is quite true. It has no absolute value and it certainly does not produce the slightest spiritual effect if the motive behind it is not really spiritual. Fasting with a mixed motive ends with purely material results. But fasting for the sake of unfoldment of the spirit is a discipline I hold to be absolutely necessary at some stage or other in the evolution of an individual. I always considered Protestantism to be deficient in this particular. Every other religion of any importance appreciates the spiritual value of fasting. Crucifixion of the flesh is a meaningless term unless one goes voluntarily through pangs of hunger. For one thing, identification with the starving poor is a meaningless term without the experience behind. But I quite agree that even an eighty days’ fast may fail to rid a person of pride, selfishness, ambitions and the like. Fasting is merely a prop. But as a prop to a tottering structure is of inestimable value, so is the prop of fasting of inestimable value for a struggling soul.

With love,

Yours,

Bapu

Source: My Dear Child, pages 84-85; Collected Works, Volume 31, pages 318-19

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