The Story of My Experiments with Truth

Most of us know M. K. Gandhi and his work, but it always makes a difference to know him from his own writings. " The Story of My Experiments With Truth" portrays events from his childhood to the time he was honored by the title Mahatama. His contributions in the political field are well known, not only to India, but also to a civilized world. For him, they had not much value, because he had longed for other important things, rather.

His uniform experience had convinced him that there was no other God than truth. And he has claimed, "if every page of this book does not proclaim to the readers that the only means for the realization of truth is Ahimsa (2), I shall deem all my labor in writing these chapters to have been in vain."

For him, truth was the sovereign principle, which included numerous principles. Truth refers not only to truthfulness in word, but also in thought. In fact, the instruments for the quest of truth are difficult, as they may appear quite impossible to an arrogant person.

The experiments narrated in this book should be regarded as illustrations, in the light of which everyone may carry on his/her own experiments according to his/her own inclination and capacity. But, the illustrations may help only to limited extent, because the author's purpose in the book is to explain the experiments in the science of Satyagraha (3).

This book help readers remind about the non-violence, celibacy and other principles of conduct believed to be distinct from truth. It consists of a three-page table of contents, dividing each into parts with several special topics. It has started with beautiful introduction and ended by one page caption---farewell.

The original manuscript was written in Gujarati (4), which ran through five editions, with nearly 50,000 copies having been sold. The reviewed book is the English version translated by Mahadev Desai and the first edition of this book was published in 1927.

I think readers will get a chance to gain extensive abstraction from this book, and can also figure out what this great man had given to the world. Each part is full of narration and explanations of his experiments with several aspects of politics and spiritual life.

Especially in part two of the book, the author has explained to what extent he had to tolerate offenses on his way to Pretoria on a train. That very milestone had strained him to decide to fight for his rights and the contemporary issues in South Africa.

Notes:
(1) The title given to M.K. Gandhi after his great deeds, meaning great soul.
(2) Literally, not-hurting
(3) Satya-truth, Graha-firmness
(4) One of the Indian regional languages

Credits

Editing : Reeta Sinha
Reeta Sinha is a librarian living in Northern California. In her spare time (she makes sure she has plenty of it now) she reads, writes, walks, takes photos, watches movies, listens to music, and reaches out in as many ways as possible to new friends and old, and her family that is spread around this world.