MY LIFE IS MY MESSAGE (VOLS IIV)

Most biographies of Mahatma Gandhi tell the story of a great political leader who led India to freedom. But for Gandhi, his politics was a part of his spiritual quest. Swaraj meant self-rule and not merely political autonomy and Gandhis struggles were meant to aid the quest for individual self-perfection. Everything he did the Dandi march or his fasts for self-purification was part of this struggle for self-realisation. This English translation of Narayan Desais epic four-volume biography in Gujarati, Maru Jivan Ej Mari Vani hailed as one of the finest insights into the life of Gandhi brings alive Gandhis quest as one indivisible whole, in which the political is not outside the realm of the spiritual. My Life is My Message liberates the Gandhi story from the constraining tyranny of political discourse and gives centrestage to his soulsearchings. The struggle within and the struggle without, are both seen as aspects of the same reality just as the inner journey of the self is depicted in its interaction with the life of the collective. What emerges is a full picture of Gandhi. Drawing from a wealth of sources what Gandhi wrote in letters, books and newspapers, spoke in intimate conversations with his fellow servant co-workers and in speeches and interviews, besides what those around him wrote and spoke about him the narrative is illumined, above all, by the authors own life as an inveterate Gandhijan, ever since his childhood years in Gandhis ashrams.