The Gita according to Gandhi 168

The Gita according to Gandhi -Mahadev Desai

VIII. CONCLUSION John of the Gross; of Chaitanya, Kabir, and Tulsidas; of Jnaneshvar, Ramdas and Tukaram; of Mirabai and Andal; of Akho and Narasinha Mehta; of Spinoza and Lessing and Savonarola; of Pascal and Fenelon; of Bunyan,, Wesley and Fox; of Howard and Pasteur and Madame Curie; of Father Damien and Cardinal Newman y of Lincoln and General, Gordon not I to mention the names, of the living, or of those of our own times. The reader will not fail to notice that I have included in these names those of Lincoln, who directed one of the fiercest, civil wars in history; and of Gordon Whose hands may be said to be dripping, with blood for the best part of his life,^ and o£ Pasteur much of whose work for humanity depended on his experiments involving vivisection In doing so, I am not oblivious of Gandhiji’s view that perfect renunciation or yoga is impossible without perfect observance of truth and nonviolence, I have included these names because I cannot forget that if it can be said with truth of any, one that he waged a war "with malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right”, it can be said of Lincoln, the whole whose life was one of spotless self-dedication and whose every private or public individual action revealed a devotion; to truth and non-violence; because in the transparent record of Gordon's life one can read the truth of his statement that he was a chisel which cuts the wood; the carpenter directs it.