The Mahatma and The Poetess

Letter 59: Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji
August 1934

My beloved Little Man,
In this era of recurring miracles, when men have conquered the secret of the sea, land and the age-old mysteries of the earth and harnessed the very ethers to the service of daily life, are you not the supreme miracle that can never be superseded and surpassed? Will posterity and generations to come offer praise and prayer for the lovely and inspiring gospel preached and practised by a Man of Faith in an age of Reason and will it not be named in history the epoch of "Gandhi, the Dreamer and Doer", whose dream and whose deed are synonymous of one another... Once again will the Dreamer and Doer bear splendid testimony to the unity of his dream and deed... Once again will your frail and suffering flesh endure the long-drawn agony of hunger and pain - may be of death itself - so that your Spirit may illumine the dark places of human life with an ever more radiant light of benediction, so that they whose feet stumble and whose eyes are dim may be succoured, strengthened, guided in the steep and difficult pilgrimage along the road of self-deliverance from sin.
My beloved Little Saint! - Who will dare to question your transcendent sacrifice? A chacun son destin, says a modern French poet. "To each his own destiny", and your destiny is to bring salvation to all who need redemption from the manifold ills of humanity. May it be given to us who will share your bodily anguish through the seven days and nights of your self-chosen martyrdom also to share your victorious faith and hope?... Indeed, unworthy though I am, I do share your triumphant certainty that you who already live on the glory of eternal light will dwell for many years in our midst to shed upon our hearts and eyes something of that imperishable lustre that is your special, your inalienable possession. To me it is a source of deep sorrow that I shall not be near you through the period of your Sacrifice of Purification - not for your comfort but for mine. But another and more immediate duty claims my presence here and my service. My love, however, flies to you on the wings of the wind, and no door can be shut against the message of that love.

Your singer and most loving friend,
SAROJINI NAIDU

From: Harijan, August 17, 1934