GREAT SOUL; THE GROWTH OF GANDHI

by Herrymon Maurer '35.Doubleday if Cos. 1949- pp. 128. $2.00.

There is no question about Mr. Maurer's admiration for Gandhi. The remarkable thing about this volume of tribute is the persuasive ease with which he has combined panegyric with biography. He reviews with deft brevity Gandhi's early humiliations as a dark-skinned law apprentice in the Transvaal; his call to African residents of all faiths to combat the prejudices of class and color by peaceful means; his progressive simplification of life; his founding of ashrams or religious communities where members might experiment with the ways of the spirit—with techniques of useful labor, of natural healing, of absolute non-violence toward others, and above all of self-purification and spiritual concentration; his gradual clarification of a life philosophy; his return to India in 1915 where he became the central figure in one of the contemporary world's greatest dramas.

Maurer rightly insists that both in theory and in practice Gandhi's philosophy was realistic: he did not ever "believe that he had only to speak truth in a loud voice from the housetops and thereby save India. He was a man who had only one aim, which was to experiment humbly with truth and seek to grow in it." What he urged each hearer to consider was not the last step but the next step: a next step guided, however, by uncompromising allegiance to truth as it becomes revealed through silent prayer.

As a convenient, if frankly partisan, introduction to Gandhi's life and teachings the book serves its purpose well. And for the more inquisitive there are suggestions for further reading, with guiding comments. Whatever one's initial judgment of Gandhi may be, Mr. Maurer's incisive enthusiasm invites a renewed interest in the man; and to be interested in Gandhi is to confront some of the most inward and most persistent questions of human living.