Selected Letters of Gandhi : Part-1

TO ASHRAM SISTERS


Chapter-2: The Whole Duty of Man-Prayer

Wardha,
Magshar shudi 11 [1983]

Today also I remember you after breakfast. It is just 6:50, time for your prayer. We may miss many things in life but not prayer, which implies our co-operation with God and with one another. Prayer should be a bath of purification for the spirit of man. Physical health suffers if we do not wash our bodies; similarly the spirit becomes unclean if the heart is not washed with prayer. Please therefore never be negligent in prayer.
The life of… provides an object lesson for you…. she fills up every second of her time with purposeful activity. All of you should try to reach the same height of devotion, renunciation, and purity. Is it too much to except that you will spread all over India after you have finished your training for service? I realize our lack of sisters of mercy every moment. Very few women come out to serve their fellow countrymen. Women are the very incarnation of service, but at present they minister only to their own families. Why should they not extend the field of their ministry so as to embrace the whole of India? A truly religious person becomes a citizen of the world, but the service of one’s own country is the stepping-stone to the service of humanity. And where service is rendered to the country consistently with the welfare of the world, it finally leads to self-realization (moksha).