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Mahatma Gandhi
His Daily Routine. IT may interest readers to go behind doors and see MahatI maji at all hours of the night and day. His day begins punctually at 4 in the morning whether travelling in the train or sleeping under a roof. That is the hour of his morning prayers. He and his immediate party, and any others whose spirit should move them that way, sit down in a circie: Mahatmaji himself is wrapped in utter silence. Some members of the party repeat bhajans or cantos from the Bhaga. vad-Gita. These devotional meetings are invariably held in · 'dim religious light' almost amounting to darkness : the lamps are lowered or the curtains drawn. After this Mahat. maji plunges in work immediately A mass of papers, files, etc., loosely tied in a cloth, is always with hiin-it accompanies him in his car also. He calls this his daftar. About 6-30 in the morning, he takes some goat's milk and grapes or just honey and hot water. He is ready to go to meetings if necessary at 7 or even earlier. If there are none he continues bis work. In the present tour there is scarcely a morning when he has not to travel or address meetings, or both. At 10 he takes a warm bath followed by his breakfast which consists of curds of goat's milk, in which he would now and then put soda in order that it may be aerated, grapes, oranges and, sometimes, pulp of steamed apples. He prefers to be left after this till 3 in the afternoon, for rest and his editorial work, correspondence etc. If he has a heavy programme early in the afternoon, he spins insnatches of time; if very tired he lies down for a few minutes from time to time and gets a little sleep. From 3 to 4 is his regular time for spinping if he is permitted to; if not he makes up for lost time late at night, for he will not go to bed till he has done the prescribed amount of spinning. About 5 in the evening he takes his dipper, his last moal of the day. This is a repeti
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
