Selected Letters of Gandhi : Part-1

YERAVDA MANDIR


Chapter-50: How to Finance Service

To Shri Nanabhai Bhatt

Why are you worrying over Dakshinamurti finance? Here you can by all means take a leaf from my book, for I am in except in the subject. I had mastered one lesson long before the country made a mahatma of me. Just as one may not carry on trade with borrowed capital, one may not conduct a public institution has to send out the ablest members of its staff in order to collect the necessary funds, I had mastered one lesson before the country made a mahatma of me. Just as one may not carry on trade with borrowed capital, one may not conduct a public institution has to send out the ablest members of its staff in order to collect the necessary fund, I would say that it operates on a credit basis. Instead of pitching upon a certain sum of money as your target, you should limit the number of admissions so as to be able to manage with the funds actually collected. It is the easiest thing in the world to carry out my suggestion. You have only to make up your mind; that is all. At the beginning of the year you should fix the amount of money you will need. If you get that amount without leaving your post of duty at the school, you carry on. If you don’t, you close the school down. Your school has an excellent record and efficient teachers. Why then don’t you have faith? Dedicate the whole thing to God who will conduct it if He so wills. ‘He has never been known to let down his servants’, as the Gujarati poet puts it. You say you could have surmounted the difficulty if the Sardar or I had been available. But where is the difficulty? And who are we to help you forward? One blind man cannot lead another. Therefore cast your burden on Him alone.

Translated from Gujarati