The Phoenix settlement near Durban in South Africa comprised of 100 acres of land that was purchased by Mahatma Gandhi in 1904. It was on this settlement that Gandhi Ji started his journey of transforming from a successful lawyer to a simple person with a passion for liberation, nonviolence, and spirituality. It had an “ashramic character” that is, each member was aware of the ashram observances and the ideal conduct that they were expected to strive towards and follow them.
The ashram and its community were Gandhi’s greatest experiment. The ashram was a community of co-religionists, co-practitioners, bound together by a shared quest and a set of obligatory observances. It was a community that had its foundations in truth, which alone is eternal. Gandhi’s intense yearning was that such truth should illuminate his heart. In the absence of truth, or even in case of violation of it, the ashram could not be. It was simultaneously a community that aspired for ahimsa.
In July 1913, a moral lapse involving his son Manilal and Jaykuvar Doctor, the daughter of his close associate Dr. Pranjivandas Mehta, had prompted Gandhi to go on a fast for seven days and a vow to have only one meal a day for a period of four and a half months. Gandhi later said that he was moved by “the purest pity for them.” And yet, there was a reoccurrence of the lapse that had forced him to undertake a fourteen-day fast and continue with one meal a day vow till June 1914. In effect, Gandhi had fasted from July 12, 1913 till June 26, 1914, which involved both complete fasting and the one-meal-a-day observance.
Both actions, fast and one meal a day, are called Anuvrat or small vow.
People Also Ask:
Do Jains believe in the afterlife?
Jainism explains that, as a result, of karmas associated with their souls, living beings have been going through the cycle of birth and death since times immemorial. Unless the soul gets rid of its karmas, it will never be free. When a living being dies it gets reborn.
