to rise above the responsibilities of the day. In season and out of season, Mr. Gandhi testified to the help of prayer in meeting his crushing responsibilities.
My first prolonged contact with Gandhiji was in 1931, when Gandhi served as the sole Congress representative at the Second Round Table Conference in London. My family and I sailed from Bombay on the same ship as Mr. Gandhi and his party. Our cabins were in the same passageway, so for a number of days we were thrown quite closely together.
My outstanding memory of the voyage is the evening prayer meetings held on the boat deck of the ship, led by Mr. Gandhi and attended by any who desired to participate. The Arabian Sea was storm-tossed, but the quiet of the Red Sea, coupled with the unusual beauty of the evening sunset, provided a rare setting for Mr. Gandhi’s evening message. The uninitiated would never have guessed that upon this frail little man’s shoulders lay the political destiny of India. His role appeared rather to be that of a religious leader. He discussed many topics, but again and again came back to prayer. “I could not bear the burdens of life apart from prayer,” he said. “Without it I should long since have become a lunatic. Prayer is my daily sustenance. I cannot live without it.”
And when a group of Indian students who were going to London for higher studies, asked for a message, it was the same advice: “Be constant in prayer. Prayer alone will sustain you in your hours of need.”
Mr. Gandhi believed both in public and private prayer. “A congregational prayer is a mighty thing . What we do not often do alone, we do together… It is a common experience for men who have no robust faith to seek the comfort of congregational prayer. All who flock to churches, temples, or mosques are not scoffers or humbugs. They are honest men and women. For them congregational prayer is like the daily bath, a necessity of their existence. These places of worship are not a mere idle superstition to be swept away at the first opportunity. They have survived all attacks up to now and are likely to persist to the end of time.”[1]
- ↑ Winslow, Jack C., and Elwin, Verrier, Gandhi: The Dawn of Indian Freedom, Fleming H. Revell Company, London, pp. 82-83.
