No good work can be done in a day : Health with Mahatma Gandhi

Extracts from Letters written by Gandhiji to Uruli-Kanchan Workers

Take only as many patients as you can attend to well. Our main object is to prevent disease. I would regard our treat­ment as perfect if we could teach the people there how to keep free from disease. So please explain our viewpoint to all there — to boys, girls and older folk.

Never mind if no patient turns up. We should visit the houses of the people and teach them cleanliness. We may also go to schools to teach it. Give every moment to this work. Clean­liness is the main thing to be taught as it includes most else.

It is good that your work is proceeding well. It is necessary for one to have kshetra sannyasa for getting on with the work.

No good work can be done in a day. If it could be accomplish­ed within a day, it would have little value. We must cultivate patience, and for cultivating patience, we should develop an attitude of disinterestedness. Where there is disinterestedness, only good can result out of doing what is good. Such is my firm faith. Therefore, pray do not bother about results. Just as we are free from anxiety knowing fully well that the sun will rise tomorrow, similarly we should be free from anxiety in regard to every good work. There may be a day when the sun will not rise but there will never come a day when good does not result out of one’s efforts from doing what is good. We should, therefore, persist in our work in the faith that some day people will come to understand it.

I shall be satisfied with the work at Uruli if it is steady and sound. Never mind if the progress is slow.

Children should not go without milk. It is certainly desirable to raise a few cows there.

I doubt if we can do without milk. It is difficult to come to a decision in this matter without experimenting oneself. You may certainly try it with some one who can live entirely without milk.

There is no harm if one takes ghee and milk along with purnanna. If one gets on without milk, that is a different matter, and a great achievement, but I am afraid that it is not possible.

I very much like the idea of purnanna. I myself want to try it If I succeed, I can free myself from great bother. But I am sorry I have not been able still to make the experiment.

Rather than gruel in the morning it is perhaps better to take homemade biscuits which require to be chewed, and fruits. You may have milk immediately after that or in the afternoon. But this is only a suggestion.

Do you collect and make use of the seeds of the mango fruit or do you throw them away?

Does Dr. Bhagwat carry on experiments in diet? Here the water is unwholesome. Can he suggest a simple means of purifying it?

I do not see any harm in providing the latrines with good septic tanks. Only you must realize that if they are not pro­perly constructed or if they are not satisfactorily looked after, they will prove dangerous.

If the tub in which a diseased person has taken his bath is disinfected with ashes hot as cinders, the tub becomes fit for use by others, howsoever contagious the disease may have been. I myself would not mind bathing in such a tub.

In the absence of planks you may have thick bamboos tied together, they will serve as planks to step on. This will be very cheap and will do as a bridge. Pits without such planks or bamboos are useless. One can use even old iron rails in the place of planks.

It is not proper if the land has been registered in my name. I do not mind if I am declared as one of the trustees of the land If the land is registered in my name, and I expire, it will create complications. In such a contingency, you may make use of this letter and have all disputes arising out of it cleared. You may then state, that the land is not mine personally, but that it is meant to be utilized for (he preservation of the health of the poor inhabitants of Uruli-Kanchan and for all other projects arising out of it.

Full article in Ayurved Sutra Vol. 06 Issue 12

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