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samuchchaya for reading. Gandhi read and referred to these books regularly. Gandhi also spent time observing Rajchandra perform his business duties successfully in a detached manner, lead simple life, write and teach. These interactions with Rajchandra cemented Gandhi's earlier moral values like Vow of Brahmacharya, Vegetarian food and Dietetic experiments, Simplicity, Religious harmony, Equanimity, Aparigraha, Compassion, Dharma, Spiritual yearning and Service to humanity and soul. Thus the Jain values and way of life which were acquired by Gandhi from his parents and community during his childhood and schooling kept on growing on him. These values, though latent, as Gandhi himself has said, had a profound impact on him. In this manner, Gandhi later on adopted such legacies with his autonomous interpretation and subsequent variations for social uplift as well.
Gandhi's life in India was the beginning of the formative phase of his life as bread earner and to acquire and experience spiritual values and their application in life, a process which was greatly impacted by Jain doctrine through Rajchandra. However due to difficulties Gandhi faced in earning money to support his family in India, he accepted an offer to go to South Africa in 1893. Within a year of his reaching South Africa, Gandhi underwent several experiences of racial discrimination/ hatred (appearance in the court dressed in a turban, train and coach journey to Johannesburg and Pretoria) that gave him a clear picture of the plight of Indians there as well as his own status in a state under colonial rule. He settled there as God's wish and continued various social uplift activities even at the cost of his professional career. His friends in South Africa were pressing Gandhi to convert to Christianity or Islam. Gandhi was bewildered and had started wondering if Hindu religion was suitable enough to meet his religious needs. He entered into correspondence in India and
Gandhi & Jainism Pg. 129
