The Danish Peace Academy

GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES

Letter, September 17, 1926

The Ashram,

Sabarmati,

September 17, 1926

My dear child,

The Roman Catholic fast which you refer to in your letter is really no fasting at all, but there is or there was a real fast also amongst them. However, whether they have or they had or not is of no consequence to us. Neither fasting nor anything else that is imposed from without can be of any value. You need not have apologized for raising the question about Christ. In spite of most devout attention to every word ascribed to Jesus in the New Testament and in spite of my having read in a humble spirit all about Jesus, I have really not seen any fundamental distinction between him and the other great teachers. That you see a vast difference between Jesus and the other teachers I can understand, explain and appreciate. That is the teaching you have imbibed from childhood and you would read everything else with that unconscious conviction. Nobody taught me in my childhood to differentiate. I have therefore grown without bias one way or the other. I can pay equal homage to Jesus, Muhammed, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster and others that may be named. But this is not a matter for argument. It is a matter for each one’s deep and sacred conviction. I have no desire whatsoever to dislodge you from the exclusive homage you pay to Jesus. But I would like you to understand and appreciate the other inclusive position.

What Menon has told you about the pecuniary difficulty is quite correct. But so is your remark. You will come here if God makes the way clear for you.

Yours,

Bapu

Mrs. Esther Menon

Porto Novo

Source: My Dear Child, pages 85-86; Collected Works, Volume 31, pages 419-20

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