There was only one English passenger in the compartment. He took the guard to task. ‘ What do you mean by troubling the gentle- man?’ he said. ‘Don’t you see he has a first class ticket? I do not mind in the least his travelling with me.’ Addressing me, he said, “You should make yourself comfortable where you are.’
The guard muttered: ‘If you want to travel with a coolie, what do I care?’ and went away.
At about eight o’clock in the evening the train reached Pretoria.
x FIRST DAY IN PRETORIA one on behalf of Dada Abdulla’s attorney to Thad expecta ga hat no Indian would be there meet me at Pretoria station. I knew t I to receive me, since I had particularly promised not to put up at an Indi e. But the attorney had sent no one. I understood later hat ag had arrived on a Sunday, he could not have sent anyone without inconvenience. I was perplexed, and wondered where to go, as I feared that no hotel would accept me.
R i i in 1893 was quite different from what it was in 1914. ne pee burning dimly. The travellers were few. I let all the other passengers go and thought that, as soon as the ticket collector was fairly free, I would hand him my ticket and ask him if he could direct me to some small hotel or any other such place where I might go; otherwise I would spend the night at the station. I must confess I shrank from asking him even this, for I was afraid of being insulted. The station became clear of all passengers. I gave my ticket to inquiries. lied to me cour- the ti tor and began my inquiries. He replied eg y ae that he could not be of any considerable help.
But an American Negro who was conversation.
‘I see, said he, ‘that you are friends. If you will come with me, standing near by broke into the an utter stranger here, without any I will take you to a small hotel, 86 MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH of which the proprietor is an American who is very well known to me. I think he will accept you.’
I had my own doubts about the offer, but I thanked him and accepted his suggestion. He took me to Johnston’s Family Hotel. He drew Mr. Johnston aside to speak to him, and the latter agreed to accommodate me for the night, on condition that I should have my dinner served in my room.
‘I assure you,’ said he, ‘that I have no colour prejudice. But I have only European custom, and, if I allowed you to eat in the dining-room, my guests might be offended and even go away.’
‘Thank you,’ said I, ‘even for accommodating me for the night. I am now more or less acquainted with the conditions here, and I understand your difficulty. I do not mind your serving the dinner in my room. I hope to be able to make some other arrangement tomorrow.’
I was shown into a room, where I now sat waiting for the dinner and musing, as I was quite alone. There were not many guests in the hotel, and I had expected the waiter to come very shortly with the dinner. Instead Mr. Johnston appeared. He said: ‘I was ashamed of having asked you to have your dinner here. So I spoke to the other guests about you, and asked them if they would mind your having your dinner in the dining-room. They said they had no objection, and that they did not mind your staying here as long as you liked. Please, therefore, come to the dining-room, if you will, and stay here as long as you wish.’
I thanked him again, went to the dining-room and had a hearty dinner.
Next morning I called on the attorney, Mr. A. W. Baker. Abdulla Sheth had given me some description of him, so his cordial reception did not surprise me. He received me very warmly and made kind inquiries. I explained all about myself. Thereupon he said: ‘We have no work for you here as barrister, for we have engaged the best counsel. The case is a prolonged and complicated one, so I shall take your assistance only to the extent of getting necessary information. And of course you will make communication with my client easy for me, as I shall now ask for all the information I want from him through you. That is certainly an advantage, I have not yet found rooms for you. I thought I had better do so after having seen you. There is a fearful amount of colour pre- judice here, and therefore it is not easy to find lodgings for such as you. But I know a poor woman. She is the wife of a baker. I think she will take you and thus add to her income at the same time. Come, let us go to her place.’
So he took me to her house. He spoke with her privately about me, and she agreed to accept me as a boarder at 35 shillings a week. Mr. Baker, besides being an attorney, eae, was a staunch lay preacher. He is still alive and now engaged purely te in missionary work, having FIRST DAY IN PRETORIA 87 given up the legal profession. He is quite well-to-do. He still corresponds with me. In his letters he always dwells on the same theme. He upholds the excellence of Christianity from various points of view, and contends that it is impossible to find eternal peace, unless one accepts Jesus as the only son of God and the Saviour of mankind.
During the very first interview Mr. Baker ascertained my reli- gious views. I said to him: ‘I am a Hindu by birth. And yet I do not know much of Hinduism, and I know less of other religions. In fact I do not know where I am, and what is and what should be my belief. I intend to make a careful study of my own religion and, as far as I can, of other religions as well.’
Mr. ‘Baker was glad to hear all this, and said: ‘I am one of the Directors of the South Africa General Mission. I have built a church at my own expense, and deliver sermons in it regularly. I am free from colour prejudice. I have some co-workers, and we meet at one o’clock every day for a few minutes and pray for peace and light. I shall be glad if you will join us there. I shall introduce you to my co-workers who will be happy to meet you, and I dare say you will also like their company. I shall give you, besides some religious books to read, though of course the book of books is the Holy Bible, which I would specially recommend to you.’
I thanked Mr. Baker and agreed to attend the one o’clock prayers as regularly as possible. ‘So I shall expect you here tomorrow at one o’clock, and we shall go together to pray,’ added Mr. Baker, and we said good-bye.
I had little time for reflection just yet. I went to Mr. Johnston, paid the bill and removed to the new lodgings, where I had my lunch. The landlady was a good woman.
She had cooked a vegetarian meal for me. It was not long before I made myself quite at home with the family.
the friend to whom Dada Abdulla had given a A noe ee rae teen more about the hardships of Indians in South Africa. He insisted that I should stay with him, I thanked him, and told him that I had already made arrangements. He urged me not to hesitate to ask for anything I needed. returned home, had my dinner, went to my bed in deep thought. There was not any i i r me. I informed Abdulla Sheth of it. What, I enrages een meaning of Mr. Baker’s interest in me? What shall I gain from his religious co-workers? How far should I under- take the study of Christianity? How was I to obtain literature about Hinduism? And how was I to understand Christianity in its proper Perspective without thoroughly knowing my own religion? I could come to only one conclusion: I should make a dispassionate study of all that came to me, and deal with Mr. Baker’s group as God It was now dark. I room and lay there absor 8g MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH might guide me; I should not think of embracing another religion before I had fully understood my own.
Thus musing I fell asleep.
XI CHRISTIAN CONTACTS The next day at one o’clock I went to Mr. Baker’s prayer-meeting. There I was introduced to Miss Harris, Miss Gabb, Mr. Coates and others. Everyone kneeled down to pray, and I followed suit. The prayers were supplications to God for various things, according to each person’s desire. Thus the usual forms were for the day to be passed peacefully, or for God to open the doors of the heart.
A prayer was now added for my welfare: ‘Lord, show the path to the new brother who has come amongst us. Give him, Lord, the peace that Thou hast given us. May the Lord Jesus who has saved us save him too. We ask all this in the name of Jesus.’ There was no singing of hymns or other music at these meetings. After the supplication for something special every day, we dispersed, each going to his lunch, that being the hour for it. The prayer did not take more than five minutes.
The Misses Harris and Gabb were both elderly maiden ladies. Mr. Coates was a Quaker. The two ladies lived together, and they gave me a standing invitation to four o’clock tea at their house every Sunday.
When we met on Sundays, I used to give Mr. Coates my religious diary for the week, , and discuss with him the books I had read and the impression they had left on me. The ladies used to narrate their sweet experiences and talk about the peace they had found. Mr. Coates was a frank-hearted staunch young man. We went ou for walks together, and he also took me to other Christian riends.
s i my shelf was filled with them. He loaded me with books, as it were.
on reading them we discussed them. I read a number of such books in 1893. I q names of them all, but they included Pee ee the Commentar s y of the City Temple, Pearson’s Many i eee Analogy. Parts of these Were unintelligible to me Ili things in them, while I did not wae were proofs in support of the r was morally stimulating, who had no faith in the pr CHRISTIAN CONTACTS 89 struck me to be a very profound and difficult book, which should be read four or five times to be understood properly. It seemed to me to be written with a view to converting atheists to theism. The arguments advanced in it regarding the existence of God were un- necessary for me, as I had then passed the stage of unbelief but the arguments in proof of Jesus being the only incarnation of God and the Mediator between God and man left me unmoved.
But Mr. Coates was not the man easily to accept defeat. He had great affection for me. He saw, round my neck, the Vaishnava necklace of Tulasi-beads. He thought it to be superstition and was pained by it. ‘This superstition does not become you. Come, let me break the necklace.’
‘No, you will not. It is a sacred gift from my mother.’
But do you believe in it?’: x ‘I do not know its mysterious significance. I do not think I should come to harm if I did not wear it. But I cannot, without Sufficient reason, give up a necklace that she put round my neck Out of love and in the conviction that it would be conducive to my Welfare. When, with the passage of time, it wears away and breaks of its own accord, I shall have no desire to get a new one. But this Necklace cannot be broken.’
Mr. Coates could not appreciate my argument, as he had no regard for my religion. He was looking forward to delivering me from the abyss of ignorance. He wanted to convince me that, no matter Whether there was some truth in other religions, salvation was im- Possible for me unless I accepted Christianity which represented he truth, and that my sins would not be washed away except by e intercession of Jesus, and that all good works were useless.
Just as he introduced me to several books, he introduced me to Several friends whom he regarded as staunch Christians. One of these introductions was to a family which belonged to the Plymouth rethren, a Christian sect.
Many of the contacts for which Mr. Coates was responsible were 800d. Most struck me as being God-fearing. But during my contact With this family, one of the Plymouth Brethren confronted me with an argument for which I was not prepared: “You cannot understand the peauty of our religion. From what you Say it appears that you must be prooding over your transgressions every moment of your life, always mending them and atoning for them, How can this ceaseless cycle of action bring you redemption 4 ou can never have peace. You admit that we are all sinners. Now Ook at the perfection of our belief. Our attempts at improvement and atonement are futile. And yet redemption we must have. How Can we bear the burden of sin? We can but throw it on Jesus. te is.the only sinless Son of God. Tt is His word that those who elieve in Him shall have everlasting life. Therein lies God’s in- Nite mercy. And as we believe in the atonement of Jesus, our 90 MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH i i i is i ible to live in sins do, not bind us. Sin we must. It is impossib this world sinless. And therefore Jesus suffered and atoned for all the sins of mankind. Only he who accepts His great redemption can have eternal peace. Think what a life of restlessness is yours, and what a promise of peace we have.’
The argument utterly failed to convince me. I humbly replied: ‘If this be the Christianity acknowledged by all Christians, I cannot accept it. I do not seek redemption from the consequences of my sin. I seek to be redeemed from sin itself, or rather from the very thought of sin. Until I have attained that end, I shall be content to be restless.’
“To which the Plymouth Brother rejoined: ‘I assure you, your attempt is fruitless. Think again over what I have said.’
And the Brother proved as good as his word. He knowingly com- mitted transgressions, and showed me that he was undisturbed by the thought of them.
But I already knew before meeting with these friends that all Christians did not believe in such a theory of atonement. Mr. Coates himself walked in the fear of God. His heart was pure, and he believed in the possibility of self-purification. The two ladies also shared this belief. Some of the books that came into my hands were full of devotion. So, although Mr. Coates was very much disturbed by this latest experience of mine, I was able to reassure him and tell him that the distorted belief of a Plymouth Brother could not prejudice me against Christianity.
My difficulties lay elsewhere. They were with regard to the Bible and its accepted interpretation.
XII SEEKING TOUCH WITH INDIANS Before writin other experienci the conditions of Indi i i which he gladly agreed to give. ee Hs gas M i E CER a of all the Indians in Pretoria D T N Bigiat hence eir condition in the Transvaal.
of Sheth Haji Muhammad Haji a Ji attended by Meman nS eee eae oduction. It was principall rchants, though there was a sprinkling oi SEEKING TOUCH WITH INDIANS 91 Hindus as well. The Hindu population in Pretoria was, as a matter of fact, very small.
My speech at this meeting may be said to have been the first public speech in my life. I went fairly prepared with my subject, which was about observing truthfulness in business. I had always heard the merchants say that truth was not possible in business. I did not think so then, nor do I now. Even today there are merchant friends who contend that truth is inconsistent with business. Busi- hess, they say, is a very practical affair, and truth a matter of reli- gion; and they argue that practical affairs are one thing, while religion is quite another. Pure truth, they hold, is out of the question in business, one can speak it only so far as is suitable. I strongly Contested the position in my speech and awakened the merchants to a sense of their duty, which was two-fold. Their responsibility to be truthful was all the greater in a foreign land, because the Conduct of a few Indians was the measure of that of the millions of their fellow-countrymen.
I had found our people’s habits to be insanitary, as compared With those of the Englishmen around them, and drew their atten- tion to it. I laid stress on the necessity of forgetting all distinctions Such as Hindus, Musalmans, Parsis, Christians, Gujaratis, Madrasis, Unjabis, Sindhis, Kachchis, Surtis and so on.
I suggested, in conclusion, the formation of an association to make representations to the authorities concerned in respect of the hard- Ships of the Indian settlers, and offered to place at its disposal as much of my time and service as was possible.
I saw that I made a considerable impression on the meeting.
My speech lowed by discussion. Some offered to supply me With fasts, a EREA! I saw that very few amongst my audience knew English. As I felt that knowledge of English would Ey Useful in that country, I advised those who had leisure to learn Nglish, I told them that it was possible to learn a language even at an advanced age, and cited cases of people who had done so. I under- took, besides, to teach a class, if one was started or personally to instruct individuals desiring to learn the language- By The class w rted, but three young men. expressed their feadiness to ee ee convenience, and on condition that I went their places to teach them. Of these, two were Musalmans — one Of them a barber and the other clerk — and the third was a Hindu, a betty shopkeeper. I agreed to suit them all. I had no misgivings Yegardin A My pupils might become tired, but m ty to teach. My pup: e, Not I, in ene ea that I would go to their places only to fin them engaged in their pusiness. But I did not lose patience. None Of the three desired a deep study of English, but two may be said ave made fairly good progress 1D about eight months. Two learnt nough to keep accounts and write ordinary business letters. The arber’s ambition was confined to acquiring just enough English for 92 MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH dealing with his customers. As a result of their studies, two of the pupils were equipped for making a fair income.
I was satisfied with the result of the meeting. It was decided to hold such meetings, as far as I remember, once a week or, may be, once a month. These were held more or less regularly, and on these occasions there was a free exchange of ideas. The result was that there was now in Pretoria no Indian I did not know, or whose condi- tion I was not acquainted with. This prompted me in turn to make the acquaintance of the British Agent in Pretoria, Mr. Jacobus de Wet. He had sympathy for the Indians, but he had very little influence. However, he agreed to help us as best he could, and invited me to meet him whenever I wished.
I now communicated with the railway authorities and told them that, even under their own regulations, the disabilities about travel- ling under which the Indians laboured could not be justified. I got a letter in reply to the effect that first and second class tickets would be issued to Indians who were properly dressed. This was far from giving adequate relief, as it rested with the Station Master to decide who was ‘properly dressed’.
The British Agent showed me some papers dealing with Indian affairs. Tyeb Sheth had also given me similar papers. I learnt from ee how cruelly the Indians were hounded out from the Orange ree State.
In short, my stay in Pretoria enabled me to make a deep study of the social, economic and political condition of the Indians in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. I had no idea that this study was to be of invaluable service to me in the future. For I had thought of returning home by the end of the year, or even earlier if the case was finished before the year was Á F out, But God disposed otherwise.
mee XIII WHAT IT IS TO BE A *COOLIE’ proud be out of place here to describe fully the condition of gest in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. I would sug- ior at those who wish to have a full idea of it may turn to my SEA a of Satyagraha in South Africa. It is, however, necessary to i ere a brief outline.
Eit the Orange Free State the Indians were deprived of all their s = by a special law enacted in 1888 or even earlier. If they Bote, to stay there, they could do so only to serve as waiters in es or to pursue some other such menial calling. The traders No driven away with a nominal compensation. They made aie and petitions, but in vain.
It Waly stringent enactment was passed in the Transvaal in 1885. ame sA Slightly amended in 1886, and it was provided under the for oded law that all Indians should pay a poll tax of £3 as fee ni, the laws for the coloured people were Indians might not walk on public se tPaths, and might not move out of doors after 9 p.m. without a mit. The enforcement of this last regulation was elastic so far Indians were concerned. Those who passed as ‘ Arabs’ were, natu, matter of favour, exempted from it. The exemption thus rally depended on the sweet will of the police.
h these regulations. I often alk with Mr. Coates, and we rarely got What if the police arrested me?
Dac. Cates was more oncerned about this 3 On to his NESO arans! But how could he give one to me? one’.2 Master might issue a permit to a servant. If I had wanted hay, 24d even if Mr. Coates had been ready to give it, he could not 5 ie so, for it would have peen fraud. a Dr T. Coates or some friend of his took me to the tate Attorney, fact jrause. We ried out to be barristers of the same Inn. The 9° that I needed a pass to enable me to be out of doors after Inston’ was too much for him. He expressed sympathy for me. ead of ordering for me a Pass: ave me a letter authorizing to be out of Spat at all hours without police interference. I UR aYS kept this letter on me whenever I went out. The fact that er had to make use of it was 2 mere accident. ace, and we may be said to have bege Krause invi to his Pl > “ome S pyne P e called on him, and it was through 93 94 MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH him that I was introduced to his more famous brother, who was Public Prosecutor in Johannesburg. During the Boer War he was court-martialled for conspiring to murder an English officer, and was sentenced to imprisonment for seven years. He was also dis- barred by the Benchers. On the termination of hostilities he was released and, being honourably readmitted to the Transvaal bar, resumed practice.
These connections were useful to me later on in my public life, and simplified much of my work.
The consequences of the regulation regarding the use of footpaths were rather serious for me. I always went out for a walk through President Street to an open plain. President Kruger’s house was in this street — a very modest, unostentatious building, without a gar- den, and not distinguishable from other houses in its neighbour- hood. The houses of many of the millionaires in Pretoria were far more pretentious, and were surrounded by gardens. Indeed President Kruger’s simplicity was proverbial. Only the presence of a police patrol before the house indicated that it belonged to some official. I nearly always went along the footpath past this patrol without the slightest hitch or hindrance.
Now the man on duty used to be chan one of these men, without giving me the slightest warning, without even asking me to leave the footpath, pushed and kicked me into the street. I was dismayed. Before I could question him as to his behaviour, Mr, Coates, who h appened to be passing th horseback, hailed me and said: Seer ae _ ‘Gandhi, I have seen everything. I shall gladly be your witness in court if you proceed against the man. I am very sorry you h been so rudely assaulted.’ is 7 pa “You need not be sorry,’ I said. ‘What does the poor man know? All coloured People are the same to him. He no doubt treats Negroes Just as he has treated me. I have made it a rule not to go to court M respect of an i i agenesis y personal grievance. So I do not rena to proceed WoL just like you,’ said Mr. Coates, ‘ but do think it over again. % hen spoke to the policeman Dutch, Eea im. I could not follow their talk, as it was in ged from time to time. Once kick? I therefore selected a different ey South another The incident deepened m: found necessary to do so, AN Svin aking a test case; the matter of these regulations. a a ie British Agent in PREPARATION FOR THE CASE 95 ices made an intimate study of the hard condition of the an settlers, not only by reading and hearing about it, but by i experience. I saw that South Africa was no country for a Fi “respecting Indian, and my mind became more and more occu- Pied with the question as to how this state of things might be improved.
ee my principal duty for the moment was to attend to the case Dada Abdulla.
XIV PREPARATION FOR THE CASE ae year’s stay in Pretoria was a most valuable experience in a Here it was that I had opportunities of learning public and acquired some measure of my capacity for it. Here it was i me became a living force, and here se. The suit was for £40,000. it was full of intricacies of ac- on promissory notes, and part There specific performance of promise to deliver promissory notes.
and efence was that the promissory notes were fraudulently taken fact lacked sufficient consideration. There were numerous points of and law in this intricate case.
he best attorneys and counsel. I thus dying their work. The preparation of Race Abdulla’s was no small ca ing out of business transactions, Co) ae Part of the claim was based the see opportunity of stu eee aintiff’s case for the att of his trusted to m! case had been ef pted, and how much he rejected ee ho w Yin cce fro, uch the attorney a much use the counsel made he7 i how x pre also to see;; forte brief pea Sy the attorney. I saw that this preparation e case would give me @ fair measure of my powers of Prehension and my capacity for marshalling evidence. n the case. Indeed I threw myself into OO: mto y the E t interest 1:: aie it, I ad eee pertaining to the transactions. My in tt was a man of great ability and reposed absolute confidence bo me, and this rendered my work easy. I made a fair study of to a3 ~keeping. My capacity for translation wes iroproves by having : t i e most part i Suara slate the correspondence which was for bait in ati.
Alth keen interest in religi Y ough, +4 pefore, I took a gious °mmunion bak ae ae S and always gave some of my time 96 MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH re not then my primary interest. The preparation = anand ia primary interest. Reading of law and looking up law cases, when necessary, had always a prior claim on my time. As a result, I acquired such a grasp of the facts of the case as oa haps was not possessed even by the parties themselves, inasmuc as I had with me the papers of both the parties.
I recalled the late Mr. Pincutt’s advice — facts are three-fourths of the law. At a later date it was amply borne out by that famous barrister of South Africa, the late Mr. Leonard. In a certain case in my charge I saw that, though justice was on the side of my client, the law seemed to be against him. In despair I approached Mr. Leonard for help. He also felt that the facts of the case were very strong. He exclaimed, ‘Gandhi, I have learnt one thing, and it is this, that if we take care of the facts of a case, the law will take care of itself. Let us dive deeper into the facts of this case.’ With these words he asked me to study the case further and then see him again. On a re-examination of the facts I saw them in an entirely new light, and I also hit upon an old South African case bearing on the point. I was delighted and went to Mr. Leonard and told him everything. ‘Right,’ he said, ‘we shall win the case. Only we must bear in mind which of the judges takes it’ When I was making preparation for Dada Abdulla’s case, I had not fully realized this paramount importance of facts. Facts mean truth, and once we adhere to truth, the law comes to our aid naturally. I saw that the facts of Dada Abdulla’s case made it very strong indeed, and that the law was bound to I also saw that the litigation, would ruin the Plaintiff and the defendant, both belonged to the same city. No one might go on. Should it be allowed to conti g0 on indefinitely and to t t k arty. Both, therefore, desired an immediate termination of ren $ possible.
I approached Tyeb Sheth and requeste to arbitration. I rec ommended him to f y me mutual ill-will y increasing. I became disgusted with i lawyers the counsel on both sides were bond. E A law 1n support of their o RELIGIOUS FERMENT 97 I could bear. I felt that my duty was to befriend both parties and bring them together. I strained every nerve to bring about a compromise. At last Tyeb Sheth agreed. An arbitrator was appointed, the case was argued before him, and Dada Abdulla won.
But that did not satisfy me. If my client were to seek immediate execution of the award, it would be impossible for Tyeb Sheth to meet the whole of the awarded amount, and there was an unwritten law among the Porbandar Memans living in South Africa that death should be preferred to bankruptcy. It was impossible for Tyeb Sheth to pay down the whole sum of about £ 37,000 and costs. He meant to pay not a pie less than the amount, and he did not want to be declared bankrupt. There was only one way. Dada Abdulla should allow him to pay in moderate instalments. He was equal to the occasion, and granted Tyeb Sheth instalments spread over a very long period. It was more difficult for me to secure this conces- sion of payment by instalments than to get the parties to agree to arbitration. But both were happy over the result, and both rose in the public estimation. My joy was boundless. I had learnt the true Practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men’s hearts. I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby — not even money, certainly not my soul.
XV RELIGIOUS FERMENT It is now time to turn again to my experiences with Christian friends. piss $ Mr. i anxious about my future. He took me to the e The Protestant Christians organize such gatherings every few years for religious enlightenment or, in other words, self-purification. One may call this religious restora- tion or revival. The Wellington Convention was of this type. The Chairman was the famous divine of the place, the Rev. Andrew Murray. Mr. Baker had hoped that the atmosphere of religious exaltation at the Convention, and the enthusiasm and earnestness of the people attending it, would inevitably lead me to embrace ristianity. TRS But hi was the efficacy of prayer. He had an abiding faith E rR his firm conviction that God could not but listen to prayer fervently offered. He would cite the instances of Men like George Muller of Bristol, who depended entirely on prayer 7 98 MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH even for his temporal needs. I listened to his discourse on the efficacy of prayer with unbiased attention, and assured him that nothing could prevent me from embracing Christianity, should I feel the call. I had no hesitation in giving him this assurance, as I had long since taught myself to follow the inner voice. I delighted in submitting to it. To act against it would be difficult and painful to me.
So we went to Wellington. Mr. Baker was hard put to it in having ‘a coloured man’ like me for his companion. He had to suffer inconveniences on many occasions entirely on account of me. We had to break the journey on the way, as one of the days happened to be a Sunday, and Mr. Baker and his party would not travel on the sabbath. Though the manager of the station hotel agreed to take me in after much altercation, he absolutely refused to admit me to the dining-room. Mr. Baker was not the man to give way easily. He stood by the rights of the guests of a hotel. But I could see his difficulty. At Wellington also I stayed with Mr. Baker. In spite of his best efforts to conceal the little inconveniences that he was put to, I could see them all.
This Convention was an assemblage of devout Christians. I was delighted at their faith. I met the Rev. Murray. I saw that ; ] \ many were praying for me. I liked some of their hymns, they were very sweet.
The Convention lasted for three day: appreciate the devoutness of those whi My difficulties lay deeper. It was mo; i eee nes las: more than I could believe that RELIGIOUS FERMENT 99 had heard of among Christians. Philosophically there was nothing extraordinary in Christian principles. From the point of view of Sacrifice, it seemed to me that the Hindus greatly surpassed the Christians. It was impossible for me to regard Christianity as a berfect religion or the greatest of all religions.
I shared this mental churning with my Christian friends when- ever there was an opportunity, but their answers could not satisfy Me.
Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being Such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability Could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas Were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran?
As’ Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, even so Were Musalman friends. Abdulla Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say Tegarding its beauty.
I expressed my difficulties in a letter to Raychandbhai. I also Corresponded with other religious authorities in India and received Swers from them. Raychandbhai’s letter somewhat pacified me.
€ asked me to be patient and to study Hinduism more deeply. One of his sentences was to this effect: ‘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.’
T purch ‘5 translation of the Koran and began reading it. also erani books on Islam. I communicated with Christian “lends in England. One of them introduced me to Edward Maitland, with whom I opened correspondence. He sent me The Perfect Way, book he had written in collaboration with Anna Kingsford. The ok was a repudiation of the current Christian belief. He also sent ™e another book, The New Interpretation of the Bible. I liked both. ed seemed to “support Hinduism. Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God S Within You overwhelmed me. It left an abiding impression on ae Before the independent thinking, profound morality, and the Tuthfulness of this book, all the books given me by Mr. Coates s mas Semed to pale into insignificance.
My studi ied me in a direction unthought of by the Christine rete: so, a EIE with Edward Maitland was airly prolonged, and that with Raychandbhai continued until his eath, I read some of the books he sent me. These included Panchi- aran, Maniratnamala, Mumukshu Prakaran of Yogavasishtha, Haribhadra Suri’s Shaddarshana Samuchchaya and others.
I 100 MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH Though I took a path my Christian friends had not intended for me, I have remained for ever indebted to them for the religious quest that they awakened in me. I shall always cherish the memory of their contact. The years that followed had more, not less, of such sweet and sacred contacts in store for me.
XVI MAN PROPOSES, GOD DISPOSES The case having been concluded, I had no reason for staying in Pretoria. So I went back to Durban and began to make preparations for my return home. But Abdulla Sheth was not the man to let me sail without a send-off. He gave a farewell party in my honour at Sydenham.