experiences for us, but they have given us no infallible and universal prescription. For perfection
or freedom from error comes only from grace, and so seekers after God have left us mantras,
such as Ramanama, hallowed by their own austerities and charged with their purity. Without an
unreserved surrender to His grace, complete mastery over thought is impossible. This is the
teaching of every great book of religion, and I am realizing the truth of it every moment of my
striving after that perfect brahmacharya.
But part of the history of that striving and struggle will be told in chapters to follow. I shall
conclude this chapter with an indication of how I set about the task. In the first flush of inthusiasm,
I found the observance quite easy. The very first change I made in my mode of life was to stop
sparing the same bed with my wife or seeking privacy with her.
Thus brahmacharya which I had been observing willynilly since 1900, was sealed with a vow in
the middle of 1906.
Chapter 103
THE BIRTH OF SATYAGRAHA
Events were so shaping themselves in Johannesburg as to make this self-purfication on my
part a preliminary as it were to Satyagraha. I can now see that all the principal events of my life,
culminating in the vow of brahmacharya, were secretly preparing me for it. The principle called
Satyagraha came into being before that name was invented. Indeed when it was born, I myself
could not say what it was. In Gujarati also we used the English pharse 'passive resistance' to
describe it. When in a meeting of Europeans I found that the term 'passive resistance' was too
narrowly construed, that it was supposed to be a weapon of the weak, that it could be
characterized by hatred, and that it could finally manifest itself as violence, I had to damur to all
these statements and explain the real nature of the Indian movement. It was clear that a new
word must be coined by the Indians to designate their struggle.
But I could not for the life of me find out a new name, and therefore offered a nominal prize
through Indian Opinion to the reader who made the best suggestion on the subject. As a result
Maganlal Gandhi coined the word 'Sadagraha' (Sat=truth, Agraha=firmness) and won the prize.
But in order to make it clearer I changed the word to 'Satyagraha' which has since become
current in Gujarati as a designation for the struggle.
The history of this strugle is for all practical purposes a histroy of the remainder of my life in South
Africa and especially of my expriments with truth in that sub-continent. I wrote the major portion of
this history in Yeravda jail and finished it after I was released. It was published in Navajivan and
subsequently issued in book form. Sjt. Valji Govindji Desai has been translating it into English for
Current Thought, but I am now arranging to have the English translation published in book form at
an early date, so that those who will may be able to familiarize themselves with my most
important experiments in South Africa. I would recommend a perusal of my history of Satyagraha
in South Africa to such readers as have not seen it already. I will not repeat what I have put down
there, but in the next few chapters will deal only with a few personal incidents of my life in South
Africa which have not been covered by that history. And when I have done with these, I will at
once proceed to give the reader some idea of my experiments in India. Therefore, anyone who
wishes to consider these experiments in their strict chronological order will now do well to keep