One day, a little boy visited Gandhiji at his ashram. He was not happy to see a great man like Gandhiji dressed in a very simple way. “Why are you not even wearing a shirt?” the boy asked him finally. “I am very poor. I don’t have enough money to buy a shirt,” Bapu told him. On hearing this, the boy told him that his mother sewed well and would happily sew a nice shirt for him. Bapu thought for a moment. Then he asked the boy, “How many shirts can she make?” “As many as you need. One, two, three…,” replied the boy. Bapu smiled and said, “I have a very large family, son. Will she be able to sew clothes for all of them?” “How many shirts do you really need?” asked the boy again. “Forty crore shirts! I have so many brothers and sisters,” Bapu said lovingly. That was India’s population at that time! The astonished boy understood why Bapu took to simple dressing.
The Spirit of Compassion
