24. Stern Discipline |
Once I got into a fix. Whatever Bapuji did,
whether it was eating or anything else, everything had to be done properly.
One ‘ser’ (equivalent of 1 kg.) raisins were bought from the market. Bapuji
said, “This should last for eight days. Count it divide it into eight equal
portions so as to know how much be used everyday.” I do remember that it
came to twenty raisins a day. I thought that it would be insufficient, but I
also knew that it was no use talking to him about it. So I started picking
up twenty bigger ones and gave him every day. But they were over in a few
days. Now Bapuji’s permission had to sought before increasing the number of
raisins. I told him, “The bigger raisins have been consumed and the smaller
ones would not provide enough nutrition. We would better increase their
number.” I knew that he would be angry and upset too. I expected so but the
things turned rather serious. Gandhji demanded an explanation as to why I
did so and said, “Now I will have to assign this chore to someone else.” But
it was a jail, not the Ashram to delegate the job to anyone else. If I was
not allowed to do it, he would do it himself. Although I am not soft hearted
yet I wept a lot on that day. Bapuji too was sorry about it and the job was
left to me again. Then for the rest of the days I would give him twenty
raisins only however small they might be.
|