My profession progressed satisfactorily, but that was far from
satisfying me. The question of further simplifying my life and of
doing some concrete act of service to my fellowmen had been
constantly agitating me, when a leper came to my door. I had not the
heart to dismiss him with a meal. So I offered him shelter, dressed
his wounds, and began to look after him. But I could not go on like
that indefinitely. I could not afford, I lacked the will, to keep him
always with me. So I sent him to the government hospital for
indentured labourers.
But I was still ill at ease. I longed for some humanitarian work of
a permanent nature. Dr. Booth was the head of the St. Aidan's
Mission. He was a kind-hearted man and treated his patients free.
Thanks to a Parsi Rustomji's charities, it was possible to open a
small charitable hospital under Dr. Booth's charge. I felt strongly
inclined to serve as a nurse in this hospital. The work of
dispensing medicines took from one to two hours daily, and I made up
my mind to find time from my office-work, so as to be able to fill
the place of a compounder in the dispensary attached to the
hospital. Most of my professional work was chamber work,
conveyancing and arbitration. I of course used to have a few cases
in the magistrate's court, but most of them were of a
non-controversial character, and Mr. Khan, who had followed me to
South Africa and was then living with me, undertook to take them if
I was absent. So I found time to serve in the small hospital. This
meant two hours every morning, including the time taken in going to
and from the hospital. This
work brought me some peace. It consisted in ascertaining the
patient's complaints, laying the facts before the doctor and
dispensing the prescriptions. It brought me in close touch with
suffering Indians, most of them indentured Tamil, Telugu or North
Indian men.
The experience stood me in good stead, when during the Boer War I
offered my services for nursing the sick and wounded soldiers.
The question of the rearing of children had been ever before me. I
had two sons born in South Africa, and my service in the hospital
was useful in solving the question of their upbringing. My
independent spirit was a constant source of trial. My wife and I had
decided to have the best medical aid at the time of her delivery,
but if the doctor and the nurse were to leave us in the lurch at the
right moment, what was I to do? Then the nurse had to be an Indian.
And the difficulty of getting a trained Indian nurse in South Africa
can be easily imagined from the similar difficulty in India. So I
studied the things necessary for safe labour. I read Dr.
Tribhuvandas' book, Ma-ne Shikhaman - Advice to a mother - and I
nursed both my children according to the instructions given in the
book, tempered here and there by experiences as I had gained
elsewhere. The services of a nurse were utilized - not for more than
two months each time - chiefly for helping my wife, and not for taking
care of the babies, which I did myself.
The birth of the last child put me to the severest test. The travail
came on suddenly. The doctor was not immediately available, and some
time was lost in fetching the midwife. Even if she had been on the
spot, she could not have helped delivery. I had to see through the
safe delivery of the baby. My careful study of the subject in Dr.
Tribhuvandas' work was of inestimable help. I was not nervous.
I am convinced that for the proper upbringing of children the
parents ought to have a general knowledge of the care and nursing of
babies. At every step I have seen the advantages of my careful study
of the subject. My children would not have enjoyed the general
health that they do today, had I not studied the subject and turned
my knowledge to account. We labour under a sort of superstition that
a child has nothing to learn during the first five years of its
life. On the contrary the fact is that the child never learns in
after life what it does in its first five years. The education of
the child begins with conception. The physical and mental states of
the parents at the moment of conception are reproduced in the baby.
Then during the period of pregnancy it continues to be affected by
the mother's moods, desires and temperament, as also by her ways of
life. After birth the child imitates the parents, and for a
considerable number of years entirely depends on them for its
growth.
The couple who realize these things will never have sexual union for
the fulfillment of their lust, but only when they desire issue. I
think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act
is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. The
world depends for its existence on the act of generation, and as the
world is the play-ground of God and a reflection of His glory, the
act of generation should be controlled for the ordered growth of the
world. He who realizes this will control his lust at any cost, equip
himself with the knowledge necessary for the physical, mental and
spiritual well-being of his progeny, and give the benefit of that
knowledge to posterity.