67. Ba's child-like simplicity

In 1939 Bapu went to Cuttack to attend a meeting of the Gandhi Seva Sangh. The temple of Jagannath, in Puri, being not very far from there, Ba, Durgabehn and some others who, too, had gone there, went one day on pilgrimage to Puri, and returned to Cuttack in the evening. When Bapu heard of this he felt greatly annoyed and pained as well, saying, "How can we ever enter a temple, which is not-open to the Harijans?"

Later on, while out on his evening walk, Bapu spoke to Ba on the subject. Simple like a child, she at once acknowledged that it was a lapse on her part and asked for his forgiveness.

Bapu's anger vanished and he said, "No, I am at fault. Though I have been your teacher, I have left your education unfinished. So you are not at all to blame."

Referring to the incident some time afterwards, Bapu remarked to Mahadevbhai, "Ba's owning up her mistake so readily simply held me spell-bound!"