Gandhi Before Gandhi

SR No.: 007501
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai
Publication Year: 2009
Total Pages: 198
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & History
File Size: 34 MB

Page 148

GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI4
Speech by Virchand Gandhi
My brothers and sisters of America: By your indulgence and brotherly kindness, I have been permitted to deliver to you the message which I was commissioned to bear from my people in India to you, and it has been received in the spirit in which I endeavored to present it. For this unexpected reception, I do not find words at my command to express my gratitude.
My subject to-day may be properly called impressions that I have received during my sojourn in this country, the impressions of various characters.
Hospitality of the American people.
My first impression concerns the hospitality of the American people. This is an impression that has grown with every day's and with every hour's acquaintance. Here I do not mean by this that whatever I have been permitted to say on all occasions, respecting the people of my own country, their philosophy and their religion, has met with unchallenged acceptance. What I mean to say and do say, is, that in every instance I have been received with perfect cordiality, and have been listened to with the friendliest attention. I came to America with liberal expectations, and when I say (which I gladly do) that thus far my fondest expectations have been more than realized, I only state the truth in moderate terms; for this is true in America as in India, that behind all outward expressions of welcome, of tolerance and reciprocity, there is the spirit which is larger and deeper, and prophetic of greater expressions than a short acquaintance can give. Whatever permanent lessons, favorable or unfavorable, I may carry away with me, I am sure that this impression will
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not be weakened but deepened and heightened. What I have said refers to all portions of the country that I have visited, and to all classes of people that I have had the honor to meet, It is due to you who are before me, the representatives of and believers in Spiritualism, dwelling temporarily in this beautiful Cassadaga, which I have heard is called the Mecca of Spiritualism in America, that I should say, that the welcome you have accorded to me and the interest you have shown in my mission, and the attention you have given to my feeble words, intensify the impression that I have referred to, and touch my heart in a way I shall never forget. It is impossible, for me to put in words the permanent effect these delightful spiritual and intellectual communing will have upon me, after I return to my native land. When I shall speak to my family and my people of all this and then show them pictures of you until your faces shall become familiar to them, the bonds of sympathy that shall unite us will strengthen and strengthen, and vibrate in mutual and in increasing fellowship.