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between them was that of friends, but gradually it changed to that of a teacher and a disciple. On many occasions Gandhi sought Rajchandra's advice on religious / spiritual matters of importance to him and was satisfied with his responses and the advice he received from him. Of particular note was the advice Gandhi received from Rajchandra when he was in South Africa and his Christian and Muslim friends were pressing him 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 corresponded with his friends in England and India to seek their advice. He made a questioner of 27 questions (these 27 questions and their answers by Rajchandra are given in Appendix-IV) and mailed to his friends from different religions in India and England. He also expressed the difficulty to Rajchandra in a letter and got his response promptly. Thereafter Gandhi wrote two more letters to Rajchandra. Gandhi says: "...I entered into correspondence with every person in India in whom I had some trust, Raychandbhai being the chief among them.”36 The concluding remark in Rajchandra's letter was: “On a dispassionate view of the question I am convinced that no other religion has the subtle and profound thought of Hinduism, its vision of the soul, or its charity,"7 that remark cleared all doubts of Gandhi and he decided to remain within the folds of Hindu religion in which he was born."
Rajchandra gave Gandhi 'peace of mind' in his time of spiritual turmoil and gave him the reassurance that Hinduism could give him 'what he needed'. He no longer had to consider changing his faith. Gandhi says, 'I became convinced that those (religious ideas we can accept are found in Hinduism. Raychandbhai was responsible for bringing me to this position. The reader can thus imagine how much my respect for him must have increased.°39 In a letter to his friend Henry Polak, Gandhi recommended that everyone at the Phoenix Settlement should read Tolstoy and that
Pg.282 Gandhi & Jainism
