It was freezing cold in Delhi. At that time
Gandhiji was staying in Birla Bhavan. Before the morning prayers, he would
wash his face with freezing cold water. Anybody watching him would think
that he would better use warm water. He would decline it if someone
suggested so. He would say, “Why burden someone to warm the water?”
In that winter, finishing the morning prayers,
he saw a big heap of used postal envelopes. He took the scissors and started
cutting them neatly. He made a writing pad from those papers. He couldn’t
tolerate the wastage of paper in a poor country like ours. While cutting the
envelopes, his hands started shivering with cold. To dissuade him from doing
it in that cold weather someone said, “Bapuji, you are shivering with cold.”
Bapuji replied, “No, I am not shivering with cold. This natural cold is
beneficial for the body. But the thought of our countrymen and their poverty
does make me shiver,” and he continued cutting the envelopes.