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Strengthen the roots: His stay in England was full of hardships due to his adherence to his roots and values. He faced hostilities from the moment he boarded the ship to England. He had serious problems in finding vegetarian food on the ship, ignorance of using knife and spoons to eat and above all his shyness. Such traits forced him to be alone on deck till Mr. Majumdar came to help. On arrival in England, he faced embarrassment of being turned away by the first hotel due to his dress, high cost and non availability of suitable food at the hotel he went. Such experiences might have forced someone else either to change or go back home.
Dr. Pranjivan Mehta appeared as a saviour to him. He helped Gandhi to get adjusted while adhering to his values. Gandhi kept on finding a suitable and economical place to stay, experimented with food at different places and finally cooking at home, walking instead of using public transport etc. He kept a diary and recorded each and every expense, no matter how small, so that he could cut the wasteful expenses. All such experiments through self adjustment or self restraint /suffering adhere to family values of simple and economic life style and vegetarian diet show his firm belief in their efficacy to achieve his mission. In England, he established the efficacy of values inherited in hostile situations. Earlier in India, he practised such values out of faith but now he did so by choice and became their proponent.
Becoming one with the environment in which one exists i.e. belief in co-existence: Gandhi experimented with English dresses, music, dancing, elocution etc to be one of them as he felt their essentiality in learning their way of life and legal system and education. Narayan Hemchandra, whom he met, made a profound impact on him by his own life style and irrelevance of local customs to achieve one's mission. He said, "You civilized fellows are all cowards. Great men never look at a person's exterior. They think of his heart"19 He decided to focus his time and energy on the legal examination, the very objective for which he came to England.
Gandhi & Jainism | Pg.31