He added two other practices to this search. One was fasting, the other brahmacharya. Fasting in its original sense is not mortification of flesh, but it is upvas, to dwell closer to Him. In this sense there could be no fast without a prayer and indeed no prayer without a fast. Such a fast was both penance and self-purification, its silent spiritual force evident to all those who came under its sway. Brahmacharya was not merely celibacy, it was not suppression of one sense, it was an attempt to bring all senses in harmony with each other. Thus understood and practised, Gandhi sought to restore to the term its original meaning, charya, that is conduct which leads to Brahman, that is Truth. Only a man who is a brahmachari, whose fast leads him closer to Him, who prays for purification, who feels the presence of Truth dwelling in him could lay claim to hear and be guided by the small, still voice residing within him, a voice that he called his ‘inner voice,’ or the voice of his conscience. Prayer was a plea, a preparation, a cleansing that enabled him to hear this inner voice.

Christ on cross symbolised for him the perfect yogi, an ideal where life was lived and death embraced in the spirit of sacrifice. His often repeated desire was that the inner voice would enable him to lead his life and meet his Maker in the true spirit of yajna, a sacrifice. His desire was fulfilled in a way that allowed his grandson Ramchandra Gandhi to claim years later that ‘Gandhi stopped three bullets on their deathly trajectory of hate.’

... contd.