Page:MKGandhi patriot.djvu/159

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the sufferings of motherhood. After we had bent togother in prayer, the Moulvie spoke a few words of comfort in Urdu, and we each followed, saying what we could in our own way to give her cheer. It was one of the many glimpses which we have lately had of that divine love, which mocks at boundaries of creed, and limits of race or colour. It was a vision of Mr. Gandhi's ideal.

Owing, chiefly to his sense of the sacredness of life, and of his views of health, Vegetarianism is with him a religious principle. The battle was fought out in childhood under his mother's influence. But since that time, abstinence from all animal food has become a matter of strong conviction with him, and he preaches it zealously. When, in these Transvaal prisons, the authorities persisted in cooking the the crushed mealies of the prisoners in animal fat, his followers preferred to starve rather than touch it.

It is also part of his creed to live simply. He believes that all luxury is wrong. He teaches that a great deal of sickness, and most of the sins of our day, may be traced to this source. To hold in the flesh with a strong hand, to crucify it, to bring the needs of his own life, Thoreau and Tolstoi-like, within the narrowest limits, are positive delights to