Post No. 12,035
Date uploaded in London – – 23 May , 2023
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.
this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.
tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com
https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan
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Gandhiji writes in Young India,
“ The English press cuttings contain among many delightful items the news that Miss Slade, known in the Ashram as Mirabai, has embraced Hinduism. I may say that she has not. I hope she is a better Christian than when four years ago she came to the Ashram. She is not a girl of tender age. She is past thirty and has travelled all alone in Egypt, Persia and Europe befriending trees and animals. I have had the privilege of having under me Mussulman, Parsi and Christian minors. Never was Hinduism put before them for their acceptance. They were encouraged and induced to respect and read their own scriptures. It is with pleasure, I can recall instances of me and women, boys and girls having been induced to know and love their faiths better than they did before if they were also encouraged to study the other faiths with sympathy and respect. We have in the ashram today several faiths represented. No proselytization is practised or permitted. We recognise all these faiths are true and divinely inspired, and all have suffered through the necessarily imperfect handling of imperfect men. Miss Slade bears not a Hindu name but an Indian name. and this was done at her instance and for convenience.”
Young India 20-3-1930
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My Reminiscences
When I was a school boy in Madurai, my father used to take me and my brothers to Madurai Urban Jilla Congress Committee Office during some celebration (probably Independence day or Republic Day). We used to hold the National Flag and congress party flag sand raise the slogan Mahatma Gandhikku Jai in Tamil . We used to enjoy the toffees they gave us. Now I am laughing at me reminiscing those days. Over ninety years have passed since Gandhiji’s writing on Miss Slade. Now I think Gandhi has utterly failed in his mission. We see more religious conversions today and more attacks on Hindu processions. Gandhiji said “We recognise all these faiths are true and divinely inspired”. You may hear this only in Hindu meetings, but never in a Christian or Muslim gatherings. Hindus have been saying this even before Gandhi. So , Gandhi did not change anything. Why then we are hanging Gandhi’s pictures in all offices and opening more and more statue? Are we not cheating the world? Are we not cheating ourselves?
No politician dares repeating what Gandhi said about religion or proselytization leave alone practising. Let us not waste more money on pictures and statues of Gandhi. I will be happy to read some statistics about how much they spend in maintaining these statues now and how much they did spend for installing those statues.
—subham—
Tags- Gandhi, Miss Slade, Mirabai, Conversion, Proselytization, My Reminiscences
Tamil and Vedas 