24. Stern Discipline

Once I got into a fix. Whatever Bapuji did, whether it was eating or anything else, everything had to be done properly. One 'ser' (equivalent of 1 kg.) raisins were bought from the market. Bapuji said, "This should last for eight days. Count it divide it into eight equal portions so as to know how much be used everyday." I do remember that it came to twenty raisins a day. I thought that it would be insufficient, but I also knew that it was no use talking to him about it. So I started picking up twenty bigger ones and gave him every day. But they were over in a few days. Now Bapuji's permission had to sought before increasing the number of raisins. I told him, "The bigger raisins have been consumed and the smaller ones would not provide enough nutrition. We would better increase their number." I knew that he would be angry and upset too. I expected so but the things turned rather serious. Gandhji demanded an explanation as to why I did so and said, "Now I will have to assign this chore to someone else." But it was a jail, not the Ashram to delegate the job to anyone else. If I was not allowed to do it, he would do it himself. Although I am not soft hearted yet I wept a lot on that day. Bapuji too was sorry about it and the job was left to me again. Then for the rest of the days I would give him twenty raisins only however small they might be.