Celebrating The First International Day of Yoga

LIVES OF THE SAINTS
Lives of the Saints
Mahatma Gandhi
In this special YogaLife edition dedicated to the International Day of Yoga, we bring you the next in
our series on Lives of the Saints by presenting the life of a modern saint through the eyes one of his
contemporaries, another great saint of modern India, Sri Swami Sivananda. The following article is an
edited version of “Mahatma Gandhi” from Swami Sivananda’s Lives of the Saints.
Mohandas
Karamchand
Gandhi, the
youngest son
of Karamchand
Gandhi and Putlibai, was born
on October 2, 1869. His birth -
place was Porbander, a small
seaside town in the Kathiawar
peninsula of western India.
His mother was a devout and
religious woman who attended
temple services daily and
never ate before she prayed.
At school in Porbander,
Gandhiji was very shy and
lacked the confidence and
poise necessary to talk to
strangers. But he was
admirably punctual and
obedient, and participated
actively in school games.
In compliance with the
prevailing custom of child
marriage, Mohandas married
at the age of thirteen.
Kasturbai, his illiterate wife,
was simple, persevering, bold
and independent.
A Student of Law
in England
Karamchand Gandhi died
in the year 1885, leaving little
property for his family. In 1887,
Mohandas completed his
matriculation and left for
England to study law. He lived
in London, where he found
the life strange and difficult
to adjust to. Although he
adopted English dress and took
dancing and violin lessons,
he was nevertheless quite
In Einstein on Peace scientist, thinker
and peace activist Albert Einstein said,
‘Generations to come will scarce believe
that such a one as this ever in flesh and
blood walked upon this earth.’ The one
who Einstein was speaking of was
Mahatma Gandhi.
unsucc essful in conforming
to the British mode of life. His
friends tried to compel him
to eat meat but he abstained,
adhering very rigidly to a
vegetarian diet. He joined
vegetarian clubs and very
soon became a champion of
vegetarianism. In fact it was
in England where Gandhiji’s
experiments in diet began.
A transformation in
Gandhiji’s life and character
now began to take place. His
heart ached deeply for religion.
He was inspired by meetings
with Madame Blavatsky and
Annie Besant. He read their
books on Theosophy and read
the Bible. He was impressed
by the similarity of the
teachings of the Sermon on
the Mount and the Gita. He
began reading the Gita only
during his second year in
London, and in it found the
comfort and solace he sought.
Gandhiji studied French,
Latin and science. He was
called to the Bar in 1891,
after which he at once sailed
for India. On his return to his
native land he began to study
Indian Law. At Rajkot he
established a moderately
successful practice. While
there, he was insulted by a
political agent, a British officer
who was prejudiced against
Gandhiji’s brother. This insult
changed the course of his life,
inspiring him with the desire
to learn something about the
politics of his country.
60 YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015