Gandhi And Jainism

Author(s): Shugan C Jain
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 31

mind. He himself believed that the child acquires significant values and education from his parents during early years of its life. 17
Schooling and Child Marriage
Gandhi was not born a genius and did not exhibit any extraordinary faculty in early life. He had no mystic visions or talents like those Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Shankar or Vivekanand are said to have. He was just an ordinary and shy child, the traits which continued with him for a long time. He said, 'I was coward; I used to be haunted by the fear of thieves, ghosts and serpents. I did not dare to stir out of doors at night. Darkness was a terror to me. It was almost impossible for me to sleep in the dark, as I would imagine ghosts coming from one direction, thieves from another and serpents from a third. I could not therefore bear to sleep without a light in the room.
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Some of the key events and influences from his childhood, derived mostly from his work An Autobiography - The Story of My Experiments with Truth, are listed to understand Gandhi's growing value system and to be of use in our analysis later.
• Gandhi was influenced by the truthfulness of the hero of the play Harishchandra whose truthfulness he tried to emulate throughout his life, even under unfavourable situations.
· Gandhi also read with intense interest Shravana Pitribhakti Natak. This book coupled with a village drama (bioscope with pictorial slides) showing Shravana carrying his blind parents on two seats fitted on slings on his shoulders, on a pilgrimage. Such acts left an indelible impression on his mind about devotion to parents.
• Gandhi was an ordinary student in school with a Zoroastrian headmaster. Once a British school inspector came to examine the boys and set a spelling test. Mohandas made a
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