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Reminiscences
Of Gandhi
Gandhiji-Romain Rolland Meeting
- Miraben
AN IMPRESSION
(The following, which is taken from The Nation (New York), is a letter written
by the late Romain Rolland to an American friends of his on the visit of
Gandhiji to his home. - MIRABEN}
How I should have liked ,to have you' here during the visit of the Indians! They
stayed five days - from the 5th to 11th December at the Villa Vionette. The
little man, bespectacled and toothless, was wrapped in his white burnoose but
his legs, thin as a heron's stilts, were bare. His shaven head with its few
coarse hairs was uncovered and wet with rain. He came to me with a dry laugh.
his mouth open like a good dog panting, and flinging an arm round me leaned his
cheek against my shoulder. I felt his grizzled head against my cheek. It was, I
amuse myself thinking, the kiss of Saint Dominie and Saint Francis.
Then came Mira (Miss Slade), proud of figure and with the stately bearing of a
Demeter, and finally three Indians, one a young son of Gandhi, Devadas, with a
round and happy face. He is gentle, and but little aware of the grandeur of his
name. The others were secretaries - disciples -two young men of rare qualities
of heart and mind Mahadev Desai and Pyarelal.
As I had contrived shortly beforehand to get a severe cold on my chest, it was
to my house and to. the chamber on the second floor where I sleep at Villa Olga
- you) will remember it- that Gandhi came each morning for long conversations.
My sister interpreted, with the assistance of Mira, and I had also a Russian
friend and secretary, Miss Kondacheff, who took notes on our discussions. Some
good photographs by Schlemmer, our neighbor from Montreux recorded the aspect of
our interviews.
"Evenings, at seven o'clock, prayers were held in the first-floor salon. With
lights lowered, the Indian seated on the carpet, and the little assembly of the
faithful grouped about, there was a suite of three beautiful chants - the first
an extract from the Gita, the second an ancient 'hymn on the Sanskrit texts
which Gandhi has translated, and the third a canticle of Rama and Sid intoned by
the warm, grave voice of Mira.
"Gandhi held other prayers at three o'clock in the morning, for which, in
London, he used to wake his harassed staff, although he had not retired until
one. This little man, so frail in appearance, is tireless, and fatigue is a word
which does not exist in his vocabulary. He could calmly answer for hours the
heckling of a crowd, as he did at Lausanne and Geneva, without a muscle of his
face twitching. Seated on a table, motionless, his voice always clear and calm,
he replied to his adversaries open or masked -and they were not lacking at
Geneva - giving them rude truths which left them silenced and suffocated.
The Roman bourgeoisie, and nationalist, who had at first received him with
crafty looks, quivered with rage when he left. I believe that if his stay had
lasted any longer, the public meetings would have been forbidden. He pronounced
himself as unequivocally as possible on the double questions of national
armaments and the conflict between capital and labour. I was largely responsible
for steering him on this latter course.
His mind proceeds through successive experiment's into action and he follows a
straight line, but he never stops, and one would risk error in attempting to
judge him by what he said ten years ago, because his thought is in constant
revolution. I will give you a little example of it that is characteristic.
GOD Is TRUTH
"He was asked at Lausanne to define what he understood by God. He explained how,
among the noblest' attributes which the Hindu scriptures ascribed to God, he had
in his youth chosen the word" truth" as most truly defining the essential
element. He had then said, 'God is Truth.' "But," he added, .. two years ago I
advanced another step, now say, Truth is God. For; even the atheists do not
doubt the necessity for the power of truth. In their passion for discovering the
truth, the atheists have not hesitated to deny the existence of God, and, from
their point of view, they are right." You will understand from this; single
trait the boldness and independence of this religious spirit from the Orient. I
noted in him traits similar to Vivekanand.
And yet not a single political ruse catches him unprepared. And his own politics
are to say everything that he thinks to everybody, not concealing a thing.
On the last evening, after the prayers, Gandhi asked me to play him a little of
Beethoven. He does not know Beethoven, but he knows that Beethoven has been the
intermediary between Mira and me, and consequently between Mira and himself, and
that, in the final count, it is to Beethoven that the gratitude of us all must
go, I played him the Andante of the Fifth Symphony. To that I added, "Les Champs
Elysees" of Gluck- the page for the orchestra and the air for the flute.
He is very sensitive to the religious chants of his country, which somewhat
resemble the most beautiful of our Gregorian melodies, and he has worked to
assemble them. We also exchanged our ideas on art, from which he does not
separate his conception of truth, nor from his conception of truth that of joy,
which he thinks truth should bring. But it follows of itself that for this
heroic nature joy does not come without effort, not even life itself without
hardship. The seeker after truth hath a heart tender as the lotus, and hard as
granite.
"Here, my dear friend: are a few hints of those days of ours together on which I
have taken much more detailed notes. What I do not dwell on to you is the
hurricane of intruders, loiterers, and half-wits which this visit loosed on our
two villas. No, the telephone never ceased ringing; photographers in ambuscades
let fly their fusillades from behind every bush. The milkmen's syndicate at
Leman informed me that during all the time of this sojourn with me of the King
of India they intended to assume complete responsibility for his victualling".
We received letters from 'Sons of God'. Some Italians wrote to the Mahatma
beseeching him to indicate for them the ten lucky numbers for the next drawing
of his weekly national lottery!
"My sister, having survived, has gone to take ten day's rest at a cure in
Zurich. She returns shortly. For my part I have entirely lost the gift of sleep.
If you find it, send it to me by registered mail !
Harijan, Vol.11, p.403
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