Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Himself and the Ashram

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35

Remarks on Public Figures in India

Mahatma Gandhi [10]

Someone was speaking to me about Gandhi’s seven-day fast. I said: “Is it to create an earthquake for the sake of the Harijans? At least his own earth (body) will quake.”

It seems to be very foolish, these fasts — as if they could alter anything at all. A fast can at most affect one’s own condition, but how can it “atone” for the doings of others or change their nature?

12 July 1934