Ramanama and Nature Cure |
During part of his illness my father was in Porbandar. There every evening he used to listen to the Ramayana. The reader was a great devotee of Rama Ladha Maharaj of Bileshwar. It was said of him that he cured himself of his leprosy not by any medicine, but by applying to the affected parts bilva which had been cast away after being offered to the image of Mahadeva in Bileshwar temple, and by regular repetition of Ramanama. His faith, it was said, had made him whole. This may or may not be true. We, at any rate, believed the story. And it is a fact that when Ladha Maharaj began his reading of the Ramayana his body was entirely free from leprosy. Autobiography, p. 48 Perhaps I am right in saying that the potency of Ramanama was brought vividly home to me in Uruli-Kanchan. It was there that I asserted that the surest remedy for all our ills was Ramanama. He who can make full use of it can show powerful results with very little outside effort. Harijan, 22-6-'47 There is no connection between Ramanama of my conception and jantar mantar (charms). I have said that to take Ramanama from the heart means deriving help from an incomparable power. The atom bomb is as nothing compared with it. This power is capable of removing all pain. It must, however, be admitted that it is easy to say that Ramanama must come from the heart, but to attain the reality is very difficult. Nevertheless, it is the biggest thing man can possess. Harijan, 13-10-'46 My conception of Nature Cure, like everything else, has undergone a progressive evolution. And for years I have believed that if a person is filled with the presence of God and has thus attained the state of dispassion, he can surmount handicaps against long life. I have come to the conclusion, based on observation and scriptural reading, that when a man comes to that complete living faith in the Unseen Power and has become free from passion, the body undergoes internal transformation. This does not come about by mere wish. It needs constant vigilance and practice. In spite of both, unless God's grace descends upon one, human effort comes to naught. Press Report, 12-6-'45 Nature Cure treatment means that treatment which befits man. By "man" is meant not merely man as an animal, but as a creature possessing, in addition to his body, both mind and soul, tor such a being Ramanama is the truest Nature Cure treatment. It is an unfailing remedy. The expression Ramabana or infallible cure is derived from it. Nature, too, indicates that for man it is the worthy remedy. No matter what the ailment from which a man may be suffering, recitation of Ramanama from the heart is the sure cure. God has many names. Each person can choose the name that appeals most to him. Ishwara, Allah, Khuda, God mean the same. But the recitation must not be parrot-like, it must be born of faith of which endeavour will be some evidence. What should the endeavour consist of? Man should seek out and be content to confine the means of cure to the five elements of which the body is composed, i.e., earth, water, akash, sun and air. Of course, Ramanama must be the invariable accompaniment. If in spite of this, death supervenes, we may not mind. On the contrary, it should be welcomed. Science has not so far discovered any recipe for making the body immortal. Immortality is an attribute of the soul. That is certainly imperishable, but it is man's duty to try to express its purity. If we accept the above reasoning, it will automatically limit the means permissible under Nature Cure. And man is thereby saved from all the paraphernalia of big hospitals, eminent doctors etc. The large majority of persons in the world can never afford these. Why, then, should the few desire what the many cannot have? Harijan, 3-3-'46 Shri Ganeshshastri Joshi, vaidya, tells me after reading the above article, that in Ayurveda, too, there is ample testimony to the efficacy of Ramanama as a cure for all disease. Nature Cure occupies the place of honour and in it Ramanama is the most important. When Charaka, Vagbhata and other giants of medicine in ancient India wrote, the popular name for God was not Rama but Vishnu. I myself have been a devotee* of Tulsidas from my childhood and have, therefore, always worshipped God as Rama. But I know that if, beginning with Omkar, one goes through the entire gamut of God's names current in all climes, all countries and all languages, the result is the same. He and His Law are one. To observe His Law is, therefore, the best form of worship. A man who becomes one with Law does not stand in need of vocal recitation of the name. In other words, an individual with whom contemplation on God has become as natural as breathing, is so filled with God's spirit that knowledge or observance of the Law becomes second nature, as it were, with him. Such an one needs no other treatment. The question, then, arises as to why, in spite of having the prince of remedies at hand, we know so little about it; and why even those who know, do not remember Him or remember Him only by lip-service, not from the heart. Parrot-like repetition of God's name signifies failure to recognize Him as the panacea for all ills. How can they? This sovereign remedy is not administered by doctors, vaidyas, hakims or any other medical practitioners. These have no faith in it. If they were to admit that the spring of the Holy Ganga could be found in every home, their very occupation or means of livelihood would go. Therefore, they must perforce rely on their powder and potions as infallible remedies. Not only do these provide bread for the doctor, but the patient, too, seems to feel immediate relief. If a medical practitioner can get a few persons to say: "So and so gave me a powder and I was cured," his business is established. Nor, it must be borne in mind, would it really be of any use for doctors to prescribe God's name to patients unless they themselves were conscious of its miraculous powers. Ramanama is no copy-book maxim. It is something that has to be realized through experience. One who has had personal experience alone can prescribe it, not any other. The Vaidyaraj has copied out for me four verses. Out of these, Charaka's is the simplest and most apt. It means that if one were to obtain mastery over even one out of the thousand names of Vishnu, all ailments would vanish.* Harijan, 24-3-'46 A noted Ayurvedic physician told me the other day: "All my life I have been administering drugs. But since you have prescribed Ramanama as a cure for physical ailments it has occurred to me that what you say has, too, the authority of Vagbhata and Charaka." The recitation of Ramanama as a remedy for spiritual ailments is as old as the hills. But the greater includes the less. And my claim is that the recitation of Ramanama is a sovereign remedy for our physical ailments also. A Nature Cure man would not tell the patient: 'Invite me and I shall cure you of your ailment.' He will only tell about the all-healing principle that is in every being, and how can one cure oneself by evoking it and making it an active force in his life. If India could realize the power of that principle, not only would we be free but we would be a land of healthy individuals too not the land of epidemics and ill-health that we are today. The potency of Ramanama is, however, subject to certain conditions and limitations. Ramanama is not like black magic. If someone suffers from surfeit and wants to be cured of its after-effects so that he can again indulge himself at the table, Ramanama is not for him. Ramanama can be used only for a good, never for an evil end, or else thieves and robbers would be the greatest devotees. Ramanama is for the pure in heart and for those who want to attain purity and remain pure. It can never be a means for self-indulgence. The remedy for surfeit is fasting, not prayer. Prayer can come in only when fasting has done its work. It can make fasting easy and bearable. Similarly, the taking of Ramanama will be a meaningless farce when at the same time you are drugging your system with medicines. A doctor who uses his talent to pander to the vices of his patient degrades himself and his patient.1 What worse degradation can there be for man than that instead of regarding his body as an instrument of worshipping his Maker, he should make it the object of adoration and waste money like water to keep it going anyhow? Ramanama, on the other hand, purifies while it cures, and, therefore, it elevates. Therein lies its use as well as its limitation. Harijan, 7-4-'46 I have no doubt whatsoever that the spread of Ramanama and pure living are the best and cheapest preventives of disease. The tragedy is that doctors, hakims and viadyas do not make use of Ramanama as the sovereign of cures. There is no place given to it in current Ayurvedic literature, except it be in the shape of a charm which will drive people further into the well of superstition. Ramanama has, in fact, no connection with superstition. It is Nature's supreme law. Whoever observes it, is free from disease and vice versa. The same law which keeps one free from disease, applies also to its cure. An apt question is as to why a man who recites Ramanama regularly and leads a pure life should ever fall ill. Man is by nature imperfect. A thoughtful man strives after perfection, but never attains it. He stumbles on the way, however, unwittingly. The whole of God's law is embodied in a pure life. The first thing is to realize one's limitations. It should be obvious that the moment one transgresses those limits, one falls ill. Thus, a balanced diet eaten in accordance with needs gives one freedom from disease. How is one to know what is the proper diet for one? Many such enigmas can be imagined. The purport of it all is that everyone should be his own doctor and find out his limitations. The man who does so will surely live up to 125. Doctor friends claim that they do nothing more than investigating the laws and act accordingly and that, therefore, they are the best Nature Cure men. Everything can be explained away in this manner. All I want to say is that anything more than Ramanama is really contrary to true Nature Cure. The more one recedes from this central principle, the farther away one goes from Nature Cure. Following this line of thought, I limit Nature Cure to the use of the five elements. But a vaidya who goes beyond this and uses such herbs, as grow or can be grown in his neighbourhood, purely for service of the sick and not for money, may claim to be a Nature Cure man. But where are such vaidyas to be found? Today most of them are engaged in making money. They do no research work and it is because of their greed and mental laziness that the science of Ayurveda is at a low ebb. Harijan, 19-5-'46 Gandhiji presented Ramanama to the village folk assembled at Uruli-Kanchan as a natural Therapeutic No.1 for the cure of bodily ailments: "In the song that we have just sung the devotee says: 'O Hari, you are the reliever of the people's distress.' The promise here is universal. It is not qualified or restricted to any particular kind of ailment." He told them of the conditions of success. The efficacy of Ramanama would depend on whether it was or was not backed by a living faith. "If you are subject to anger, eat and sleep for indulgence, not solely for sustenance, you do not know the meaning of Ramanama. Your recitation of it is mere lip-service. Ramanama, to be efficacious, must absorb your entire being during its recitation and express itself in your whole life." Patients began to come in from the next morning. There were about thirty of them. Gandhiji examined five or six of them and prescribed for them all, more or less, the same treatment with slight variations, according to the nature of each case, i.e. recitation of Ramanama, sun-bath, friction and hip baths, a simple eliminative diet of milk, buttermilk, fruit and fruit juices with plenty of clean, fresh water to drink. "It has truly been observed," he explained at the evening prayer gathering, "that all mental and physical ailments are due to one common cause. It is, therefore, but natural that there should be a common remedy for them, too. There is a unity of cure, as there is in disease. The Shastras say so. Therefore, I prescribed Ramanama and almost the same treatment for all the patients who came to me this morning. But we have a knack of explaining away the Shastras in life, when they do not suit our convenience. We have deluded ourselves into the belief that the Shastras are meant only for the benefit of the soul in the life to come, that the end of dharma is*to acquire merit after death. I do not share that view. If dharma has no practical use in this life, it has none for me in the next. "There is hardly anyone in this world who is completely free from ailment whether bodily or mental. For some of these, there is no earthly cure. For instance, Ramanama cannot perform the miracle of restoring to you a lost limb. But it can perform the still greater miracle of helping you to enjoy an ineffable peace2 in spite of the loss while you live, and rob death of its sting and the grave its victory at the journey's end. Since death must come soon or late to everyone, why should one worry over the time?" He then proceeded to give them his first discourse on Nature Cure principles. The following is its gist: "Man's physical body is composed of the five natural elements. The most essential of these is air. Man can live without food for several weeks, without water for some time, but without air he cannot live for more than a few minutes. God has, therefore, made air universally available. Shortages of food or water there may be at times, but of air never. In spite of it, we foolishly deprive ourselves of God's blessing of fresh and pure air by sleeping within doors, with doors and windows shut. One may shut the doors and windows if he is afraid of thieves at night. But why should one shut oneself up? "To get fresh air, one must sleep in the open. But it is not good sleeping in the open only to breathe dust and dirt-laden air. The place where you sleep must be free from both. Some people cover their faces as protection against dust and coal. It is a remedy worse than the disease. Then, there is the evil habit of breathing through the mouth. Mouth is the organ of ingestion. It is not the organ of breathing. The air passing through the nasal passages is filtered and purified and at the same time warmed up before it enters the lungs. "Anyone who fouls the air by spitting about carelessly, throwing refuse and rubbish or otherwise dirtying the ground, sins against man and Nature. Man's body is the temple of God. Anyone who fouls the air that is to enter that temple desecrates it. He takes the name of Rama in vain." Harijan, 7-4-'46 Nature Cure consists of two parts. Firstly, to cure diseases by taking the name of God or Ramanama; and secondly, to prevent illness by the inculcation of right and hygienic living. The report from the village says that the inhabitants are co-operating with them in keeping the village clean. I hold that where the rules of personal, domestic and public sanitation are strictly observed and due care is taken in the matter of diet and exercise, there should be no occasion for illness or disease. Where there is absolute purity, inner and outer, illness becomes impossible. If the village people could but understand this, they would not need doctors, hakims or vaidyas. In Kanchangaon, there are hardly any cows. That is unfortunate. There are some she-buffaloes. But all the evidence that has come to me so far shows that buffalo's milk is no match for cow's in the health-giving quality. The vaidyas specially recommend cow's milk for patients. Milk is an absolute necessity for health. Nature Cure implies an ideal mode of life and that, in its turn presupposes ideal living conditions in towns and villages. The name of God is, of course, the hub round which the Nature Cure system revolves. Harijan, 26-5-'46 Nature Cure means a change for the better in one's outlook on life itself. It means regulation of one's life in accordance with the laws of health. It is not a matter of taking free medicine from the hospital or for fees. A man who takes free treatment from the hospital accepts charity. The man who accepts Nature Cure never begs. Self-help enhances self- respect. He takes steps to cure himself by eliminating poisons from the system and takes precautions against falling ill in the future. The central feature of Nature Cure treatment is Ramanama. But it must come from the heart. Right diet and balanced diet are also necessary. Today our villages are as bankrupt as we are ourselves. To produce enough vegetables, fruits and milk in the villages, is an essential part of the Nature Cure scheme. Time spent on this should not be considered a waste. It is bound to benefit all the villagers and ultimately the whole of India. Harijan, 2-6-'46 My Nature Cure is designed solely for villagers and villages. Therefore, there is no place in it for the microscope, X-rays and similar things. Nor is there room in Nature Cure for medicines, such as quinine, emetin and penicillin. Personal hygiene and healthy living are of primary importance. And these should suffice. If everyone could achieve perfection in this art, there could be no disease. And, while obeying all the laws of Nature in order to cure illness, if it does come, the sovereign remedy ever lies in Ramanama. But this cure through Ramanama cannot become universal in the twinkling of an eye. To carry conviction to the patient, the physician has to be a living embodiment of the power of Ramanama. Harijan, 11-8-'46 The tendency of looking to the West in order to make progress in whatever we do, should be checked. If we have to go to the West to learn Nature Cure, it cannot be of much use to India. Nature Cure is a thing which everyone can practise in the home. The advice of Nature Cure experts should not be necessary for all time. It is such a simple thing that everyone can learn it. Ramanama is the very foundation of Nature Cure of my conception. Nor should it be necessary to go across the seas in order to learn the use of earth, water, ether, sun and air. This is self-evident. Whatever other knowledge is required in this direction can be had in our villages. For instance, if herbs are used, they must be village herbs. Ayurveda teachers know all about them. If some Ayurvedic physicians are scoundrels, they cannot become good men and servants of the people by going abroad. The knowledge of anatomy and physiology has come from the West. It is very useful and necessary for all physicians. But there are plenty of means of learning it in our own country. In short, whatever useful contribution to knowledge has been made by the West, it has reached everywhere and can be learnt everywhere. I might add here that the knowledge of anatomy and physiology is not essential for learning Nature Cure. The writings of Kuhne, just and Father Kneip, are simple, popular and useful for all. It is our duty to read them. Practically every Nature Cure physician knows something about them. Nature Cure has not been taken to the villages so far. We have not thought deeply and no one has thought of it in terms of the millions. This is just the beginning. No one can say where we shall stand in the end. As in all great and good enterprises, sacrifice and dedication are required to make this successful. Instead of looking up to the West, we should turn the search-light inwards. Harijan, 2-6-'46 Here is fine banter from a friend: "I wonder whether this Nature Cure has any close relation to what is being called Faith Cure. Of course, one should have faith in treatment. But there are some exclusive faith cures, for example, for smallpox, stomach pain, etc. For smallpox, as you might know, especially in the South, no treatment is given but it is considered Divine Play. We do poojas to Goddess Mariamma and it is almost miraculous to see most of the cases come out successful. For stomach pain, even chronic cases, many make vows before the deity at Thirupathi: and finding themselves cured, fulfil their ablutions and other obligations. To give you a fitting example, my mother had the same pain and after her visit to Thirupathi, she is now free from the disease. "Will you kindfy enlighten me on this, and may I ask why people should not have such faith in Nature Cure also and save the recurring expenditure to the doctors who, as Chaucer said, maintain a fin'e conspiracy with the apothecary to keep a patient always a patient, which is part of the natural order of things?" The examples that have been quoted are neither Nature Cure nor yet Ramanama which I have included in it. But they do show how Nature cures without any treatment in many cases. They are undoubtedly cases which show the part superstition plays in Indian life. Ramanama, which is the centre of Nature Cure is the enemy of superstition. Unscrupulous men will abuse Ramanama as they will any other thing or system. Mere lip-recitation of Ramanama has nothing to do with cure. Faith Cure, if I know it correctly, is blind cure such as the friend describes and thereby ridicules the living name of the living God. The latter is not a figment of one's imagination. It has to come from the heart. It is conscious belief in God and a knowledge of His Law that make perfect cure possible without any further aid. That Law is that a perfect mind is responsible for perfect health of the body. A perfect mind comes from a perfect heart, not the heart known by a doctor's stethoscope, but the heart .which is the seat of God. It is claimed that realization of God in the heart makes it impossible for an impure or an idle thought to cross the mind. Disease is impossible where there is purity of thought. Such a state may be difficult to attain. But the first step in the ascent to health is taken with its recognition. The next is taken when the corresponding attempt is made. This radical alteration in one's life is naturally accompanied by the observance of all other Nature's laws hitherto discovered by man. One cannot play with them and claim to have a pure heart. It can be said with justice that possession of a pure heart should do equally well without Ramanama. Only, I know no other way of attaining purity. And it is the way trodden by the sages of old all over the world. They were men of God, not superstitious men or charlatans. If this is Christian Science, I have no quarrel with it. The way of Ramanama is not my discovery. It is probably much older than the Christian era. A correspondent questions whether Ramanama avoids bonafide surgical operations. Of course, it does not. It cannot restore a leg that is cut off in an accident. In many cases surgical operations are unnecessary. Where they are required, they should be performed. But a man of God will not worry if a limb is lost. Recitation of Ramanama is neither an empirical method nor a makeshift. Harijan, 9-6-'46 A friend writes: "Regarding your suggested cure of malaria by Ramanama, my problem is that I do not understand how to rely on a spiritual force for my physical ailments. I am also not sure if I deserve to be cured and if 1 am justified in praying for my salvation, when there is so much misery amongst my countrymen. The day I understand Ramanama, I shall pray for their salvation. Otherwise, 1 would feel more selfish than I do today." This is from a friend whom I believe to be an earnest seeker of truth. I take public notice of his difficulty, as it is typical of that of many like him. Spiritual force is like any other force at the service of man. Apart from the fact that it has been used for physical ailments for ages, with more or less success, it would be intrinsically wrong not to use it, if it can be successfully used for the cure of physical ailments. For, man is both matter and spirit, each acting on and affecting the other. If you get rid of malaria by taking quinine, without thinking of the millions who do not get it, why should you refuse to use the remedy which is within you, because millions will not use it through their ignorance? May you not be clean and well because millions of others will not be so, ignorantly or, may be, even cussedly? If you will not be clean out of false notions of philanthropy, you will deny yourself the duty of serving the very millions by remaining dirty and ill. Surely refusal to be spiritually well or clean is worse than the refusal to be physically clean and well. Salvation is nothing more and nothing less than being well in every way. Why should you deny it for yourself, if thereby you show the way to others and beyond showing it, actually serve them in addition by reason of your fitness? But you are wholly selfish, when you take penicillin in order to get well, although you have the certain knowledge that the others cannot get it. The confusion lying behind my correspondent's argument is obvious. What, however, is true is that the taking of a pill or pills of quinine is much easier than gaining the knowledge of the use of Ramanama. It involves much effort as against the mere cost of buying quinine pills. The effort is worth making for the sake of the millions in whose name and on whose behalf my correspondent will shut Rama out of his heart. Harijan, 1-9-'46 What is the mark of him who has Rama enthroned in his heart? If we do not know this, there is danger of Ramanama being much misinterpreted. Some misinterpretation is already in existence. Many sport rosaries and put the sacred mark on the forehead and vainly babble His name. It may well be asked whether I am not adding to the current hypocrisy by continued insistence on Ramanama. I must not be deterred by such forebodings. Silence thus brought about is harmful. The living voice of silence needs to be backed by prolonged heartfelt practice. In the absence of such natural silence, we must try to know the marks of him who has Rama in his heart. A devotee of Rama may be said to be the same as the steadfast one (sthitaprajna) of the Gita. If one goes a little deeper it will be seen that a true devotee of1 God faithfully obeys the five elemental forces of Nature. If he so obeys, he will not fall ill. If perchance he does, he will cure himself with the aid of the elements. It is not for the dweller in the body to get the body cured anyhow-he*who believes that he is nothing but body, will naturally wander to the ends of the earth in order to cure the body of its ills. But he who realizes that the soul is something apart from, though in the body, that it is imperishable in contrast to the perishable body, will not be perturbed nor mourn if the elements fail. On the contrary he will welcome death as a friend. He will become his own healer instead of seeking for medical men. He will live in the consciousness of the soul within and look to the care, first and last, of the indweller. Such a man will take God's name with every breath. His Rama will be awake even whilst the body is asleep. Rama will always be with him in whatever he does. The real death for such a devoted man will be the loss of this sacred companionship. As an aid to keeping his Rama with him, he will take what the five elements have to give him. That is to say, he will employ the simplest and easiest way of deriving all the benefits he can from earth, air, water, sunlight and ether. This aid is not complementary to Ramanama. It is but a means of its realization. Ramanama does not in fact require any aid. But to claim belief in Ramanama and at the same time to run to doctors do not go hand in hand. A friend versed in religious lore who read my remarks on Ramanama sometime ago wrote to say that Ramanama is an alchemy such as can transform the body. The conservation of the vital energy has been likened to accumulated wealth, but it is in the power of Ramanama alone to make it a running stream to ever-increasing spiritual strength ultimately making a fall impossible. Just as the body cannot exist without blood, so the soul needs the matchless and pure strength of faith. This strength can renovate the weakness of all man's physical organs. That is why it is said that when Ramanama is enshrined in the heart, it means the rebirth of man. This law applies to the young, the old, man and woman alike. This belief is to be found in the West too. Christian Sciences give a glimpse of it. But India needs no outside support for a belief which has been handed down to her people from time immemorial. Hariian, 29-6-'47 Q. I have been repeating Ramanama according to your advice and I am getting better. I must add that the medical treatment for tuberculosis is also being followed. You have said that eating little and eating the right food enables a man to be healthy and promotes longevity. I have observed the rule about eating sparely for the last twenty-five years. Why should I have fallen-a prey to tuberculosis? Would you say, I should attribute this ill luck to some evil deed in this life or in the previous one? You say a man can live up to 125 years. Then, why should God have carried away Mahadevbhai, who was so useful to you? He observed the rule of eating moderately and having a balanced diet, and he served you as his God. Why did he fall a prey to high blood-pressure? Why did Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who is looked upon as an incarnation of God, fall a prey to cancer, as deadly a disease as tuberculosis? Why was he not able to fight it successfully? A. I have been expounding the rules of maintaining health as I know them. Spare and balanced diet may not be the same for everybody. It can be best worked out by the individual for himself through proper reading and careful thought. But that does not mean that the individual cannot make mistakes or that his or her knowledge is complete. That is why life has been called a laboratory. One should learn from the experience of others and go forward and, if he is not successful, he should not blame others or even himself. One should not be too ready to find fault with the rule, but if after careful thought, one comes to the conclusion that a certain rule is wrong, he should be able to tell the right one and declare it. So far as your own case is concerned, there may be several causes leading to your illness. Who can say whether you have made the right use of the five 'powers'* in your own case? So long as I believe in the law of Nature as I know them I have to say that you must have erred somewhere. As for Mahadev and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to feel that even they must have erred somehow is fitter than to say that the laws are wrong. These rules are not my creation. They are the laws of Nature according to experienced men. I believe in them and try to live up to my belief. Man is after all an imperfect creature. How can he know the whole truth? That the allopathic doctors do not believe in them or, if they do, they do so in a different sense, does not impress me. What I have said, does not and should not in any way, detract from the greatness of the individuals mentioned. Harijan, 4-8-'46 With reference to an Ashram worker who got mentally deranged and became violent, and so had to be put in confinement, Gandhiji said: "He is a fine worker. After his recovery last year, he looked after the garden and kept the hospital accounts. He worked diligently and was happy in his work. Then, he got malaria and was given a quinine injection because injection works quicker. He says the injection has gone to his head and is responsible for his mental affection. While I was working in my room this morning, I found him wandering to and fro outside, shouting and gesticulating. I went out to him and walked with him. He was quieted. But the moment I left him, he became uncontrollable again. He gets violent too, and listens to no one. So, he had to be sent to jail. "It has naturally hurt me to think that one of our workers should be sent to jail. I may be asked: 'What about your Ramanama which you have claimed to be a cure-all?' Even in the face of this failure, let me reiterate that my faith remains intact. Ramanama can never fail. The failure only means a lack in us. We must seek the cause of failure within us." Harijan, 1-9-'46
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