Selected Letters of Gandhi : Part-1

Chapter-20: Humility

I would say that only now your classes are functioning in the right way. For you are having an object lesson in service. Literary education is intended only to quicken our spirit of service. Now that you have the opportunity to render service, pour your soul into it and learn to enjoy it thoroughly. When you serve, do not yourself up to spiritual pride and say, “I do it.” The service of the proud is nothing worth. The Gita is there to teach us that we do nothing, that we can do nothing. We are only the instruments of God’s will. What is the different between a watch and a human being? A watch does not work by itself; it is set going by a man. In the same way, we do not move, we do not act by ourselves. The power that moves us is God. Just as a watch stops when its wound up spring has run out, so also when our spring is done, our cart comes to a dead halt. While it is still on the move, we feel that a certain freedom of action is granted to us. Let us use that freedom to learn and do the will of the great Carpenter.