Saint Mira

Author(s): T L Vaswani
Publisher: Saint Miras English Medium School

Page 82

A PILGRIM OF ETERNITY
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He entered into the struggle for freedom of the country. At that time, Mahatma Gandhi had appeared on the Indian scene and had launched his "Satyagraha" Movement. Dadaji was one of the earliest supporters of Mahatma Gandhi's Movement and a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. The very first article on the front page of the first issue of Gandhiji's "Young India" was a contribution by Beloved Dada. He also wrote several books,including India Arisen, Awake! Young India, India's Adventure, India in Chains, The Secret of Asia, My Motherland, Builders of Tomorrow, Apostles of Freedom,-exhorting the youths to dedicate their lives to the service of India, the Mother.
It is, perhaps, not known to many that Dadaji was, in his part of the country, i. e. in Sind, the foremost interpreter and, in India, one of the earliest advocates of Mahatma Gandhi's noncooperation movement. Dadaji came, in that early period, in the field of politics and, at the Sind political Conference, he moved the resolution on the policy and programme of "non-cooperation," and he carried the resolution in the teeth of united opposition of all veteran Sind political leaders. Thus was Sind pledged to Mahatma Gandhi's movement of non-cooperation.
Later, Dadaji turned his attention to education and other spheres, emphasising that character-building is nation-building. With this in view, he started "Youth Centres" in different places. He opened the "Shakti Ashram" at Rajpur, inspired by faith in the youths of India. He lectured in different places on the "Mission of Indian Youths," pointing out that Freedom was nigh, and that he looked to the youths of India for giving right direction to the life of the nation in the coming days. Dadaji held that India's youths were the destined leaders of the nation and should be trained and disciplined in order to fulfil the task awaiting them. He held, too, that Freedom's work was yet incomplete in India.