Gandhis Teachers Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta

Author(s): Satish Sharma
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyapith Ahmedabad

Page 68

Gandhi's Teachers: Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta
understand why there had to be multitudes of castes and sects with prescribed duties and behaviors.
This was also the time when Muslim friends were putting pressure on Gandhi to convert to Islam, indicating that their was the truer path and a certain way to heaven and salvation." Bewildered, Gandhi wrote letters to friends in London and India and expressed his difficulties. He also corresponded with the religious authorities in India and received responses from them. One of the letters he wrote was to Rajchandra, his early friend and associate in India. Rajchandra wrote him back and it was his reply that pacified Gandhi and relieved him of the mental turmoil. In the closing remark, Rajchandra had written: "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."10 Rajchandra advised Gandhi to be patient and study Hinduism more deeply. Gandhi later wrote as follows about the whole ordeal:"
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"In the year 1893, I came into close contact with some Christian gentlemen in South Africa. Their lives were pure and they were devoted to their religion. Their main work in life was to persuade followers of other faiths to embrace Christianity. Though I had come into contact with them in connection with practical affairs, they began to feel solicitude for my spiritual welfare. I realized that I had one duty: that until I had studied the teachings of Hinduism and found that they did not satisfy my soul. I should not renounce the faith in which I was born. I, therefore, started reading Hindu and other scriptures. I read books on Christianity and Islam. I carried on correspondence with some friends I had made in London. I placed my doubts before them. I entered into correspondence with every person in India in whom I had some trust, Rajchandra being the chief among them. I had already been introduced to him and a close bond had grown between us. I had respect for him, and so I decided to get from him everything he could give. The result was that I gained peace of mind. I felt