Selected Letters of Gandhi : Part-1

Chapter-5: Character

Betia,
1983 Paush vadi 6

If at the Ashram we cannot train sisters for lifelong service to the country, where else can we hope to do so? It is true that you have not health and strength, self-confidence, or the literary education requisite for the purpose. But if you have true bhakti (devotion), all these things will be added unto you. Bhakti means faith in God and in ourselves as His instruments, and it enables us to renounce for the mere sake of renunciation. A mother would never by choice sleep in a wet bed to spare the dry bed for the child.