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In his autobiography, Gandhi ji tells about a Gujarati stanza which was his guiding principle. Here is its translation: Return Good for Evil For a bowl of water give a goodly meal; For a kindly greeting bow thou down with zeal; For a simple penny pay thou back with gold; If thy life be rescued, life do not withhold; Thus the words and actions of the wise regard; Every little service tenfold they reward; But the truly noble know all men as one, And return with gladness good for evil done. Is not it wonderful?

Gandhi ji’s autobiography “My Experiments with Truth”, presents many circumstances where he was lured by others to convert into other religions. And on each occasion, he came out unscathed. It was because he was such possessed humbleness and humility. This paragraph describes his idea: They also took me on one occasion to the Blavatsky Lodge and introduced me to Madame Blavatsky and Mrs. Besant. The latter had just then joined the Theosophical Society, and I was following with great interest the controversy about her conversion. The friends advised me to join the Society, but I politely declined saying, “With my meagre knowledge of my own religion I do not want to belong to any religious body.” I recall having read, at the brothers’ instance, Madame Blavatsky’s ‘Key to Theosophy’. This book stimulated in me the desire to read books on Hinduism and disabused me of the notion fostered by the missionaries that Hinduism was rife with superstition. Whenever someone said that the religion...

These are excerpts taken from Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography “My Experiments with Truth”, abridged version as published by Navjivan Trust. This portion comes when he describes his life in South Africa. Mr. Baker (whom Mohandas met in South Africa), besides being an attorney, was a staunch lay preacher. He is still alive and now engaged purely in missionary work, having given up the legal profession. He is quite well-to-do. He still corresponds with me. In his letters he always dwells on the same theme. He upholds the excellence of Christianity from various points of view, and contends that it is impossible to find eternal peace, unless on eaccepts Jesus as the only son of God and the Saviour of mankind. During the very first interview Mr. Baker ascertained my religious views. I said to him: “I am a Hindu by birth. And yet I do not know much of Hinduism, and I know less of other religions. In fact I do not know where I am, and what is and what should be my belief. I intend to make a ...

These are excerpts taken from Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography “My Experiments with Truth”, abridged version as published by Navjivan Trust: My father had Musalman and Parsi friends, who would talk to him about their own faiths, and he would listen to them always with respect, and often with interest. Being his nurse (Young Mohandas nursed his father who was ill), I often had a chance to be present at these talks. These many things combined to inculcate in me toleration for all faiths. Only Christianity was at the time an exception. I developed a sort of dislike for it. And for a reason. In those days Christian missionaries used to stand in a corner near the high school and hold forth, pouring abuse on Hindus and their gods. I could not endure this. I must have stood there to hear repeating them once only, but that was enough to dissuade me from repeating the experiment. About the same time, I heard of a well known Hindu having been converted to Christianity. It was the talk of the tow...