Gandhis Teachers Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta

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

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Gandhi's Teachers : Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta
the innermost passions lingering in the recesses of the heart and try to get rid of them. So long as the mind is not under control, a self-disciplined life and the practice of brahmacharya are not possible. 32
Simplicity
When Gandhi was growing up in India, spiritual values were in prominence and life was simple. Gandhi's own father and mother were two examples of a religious and simple living. Though the prime minister of the Kathiawad States and well-off, Gandhi's father led a simple and renunciated life. Gandhi's mother also was very religious and she led a simple life. Gandhi was much influenced by them as well as by the social and cultural milieu of the time. In England also, Gandhi kept a simple life style. His elder brother used to send him money for his stay and studies expenditures. Gandhi felt concerned about it and tried to reduce the expenditures by renting cheaper rooms, shifting the living quarters periodically in order to be closer to the places of study and engagements, and walked rather than use public transportation. He started preparing own breakfast and dinner at home, substituted cheaper ingredients in the meals, ate outside in cheaper restaurants when necessary, preplanned all the expenditures, and kept full account of the expenditures in a notebook to the last penny. Thus he was able to live on a shilling and three pence a day, which was a reduction of almost half in the expenditures.33 Gandhi adds:34
"Let not the reader think that this living made my life by any means a dreary affair. On the contrary, the change harmonized my inward and outward life. It was also more in keeping with the means of my family. My life was certainly more truthful and soul knew no bounds of joy."
After his returned to India, Gandhi used to watch Rajchandra at his home and place of business and observed how he lived a detached and simple life in the spirit of vairagya. 35 Whatever Rajchandra did, whether eating, resting,