The most prominent feature of the settlement is that you see religion everywhere. Every room has a cross, and on the entrance a small receptacle for holy water which every inmate reverently applies to his eyelids, the forehead, and the chest. Even the quick walk to the flour mill is not without some reminder of the cross. It is a lovely footpath. On one side you have a magnificent valley through which runs a small rivulet which murmurs the sweetest music, and on the other, little rocks wherein are carved the various inscriptions reminding you of the scenes of the Calvary. The valley is wholly covered with a green carpet of vegetation, studded with beautiful trees here and there. A lovelier walk, or a lovelier scenery could not well be imagined. The inscriptions carved in such a place cannot fail to produce a grand effect on the mind. They are carved at such regular intervals that no sooner has one completed his thoughts on one inscription, another meets one's gaze.
The walk thus forms a continuous exercise for calm contemplation, unmarred by any other thoughts or outside noise and bustle. Some of the inscriptions are "Jesus falls a first time" ; Jesus falls a second time" ; Simon carries the Cross" ; "Jesus is nailed to the Cross" ; "Jesus is laid in his mother's lap," etc., etc.
Of course, the natives too are chiefly Vegetarians, although they are not prohibited from partaking of flesh meat, they are not supplied with any on the settlement.
There are about twelve such settlements in South Africa, most of which are in Natal. There are in all about 300 monks and 120 nuns.
Such are our Vegetarians in Natal. Though they do not make of Vegetarianism a creed, though they base it simply on the ground that a Vegetarian diet helps them crucify the flesh better, and though perhaps they are not even aware of the existence of the Vegetarian societies, and would not care to read any Vegetarian literature, where is the Vegetarian who would not be proud of this noble band, even a casual intercourse with whom fills one with a spirit of love, charity, and self-sacrifice, and who are a living testimony to the triumph of Vegetarianism from a spiritual point of view? I know from personal experience, that a visit to the farm is worth a voyage from London to Natal. It cannot but produce a lasting holy impression on the mind. No matter whether one is a Protestant, Christian, or a Buddhist, or what not, one cannot help exclaiming, after a visit to the farm—"If this is Roman Catholicism, everything said against it is a lie." It proves conclusively to my mind, that a religion appears
no match
divine or devilish, according as its professors choose to make it appear.
M. K. Gandhi
