Spillenaar, Mrs. Johanna Batteejee

Letter, December 9, 1926

[Mrs. Spillenaar, born and educated in Holland, went to Sumatra where her son was born in 1915. They came to America in 1919 and she worked as a music teacher in New York. She lost interest in her work and was disillusioned with Western civilisation. She had been searching for "spiritual enlightenment" and became interested in theosophy, yoga and the Ethical Culture movement. In a lengthy letter to Gandhiji on October 20, 1926, she wrote: "A few days ago, after a period of quiet meditation, it came to me as a flash of lightning to write to you and to ask, if you could allow occidentals to enter Satyagraha Ashram for instruction, and to apply for admission for myself and my eleven-year-old boy."162]

As at the Ashram,
Sabarmati,
December 9, 1926

Dear friend,
I have your letter. There is no bar to anybody who enjoys good health and who is prepared to go through hardships of life, to live in poverty, and to do continuous labour, being admitted as a member of the Ashram. But I would advise you not to come to India whose climate is different from yours and where customs and habits are also so different. I think that you should try to reproduce the Ashram life there with such changes as may be found necessary. I cannot advise you to undertake the risk of coming to India and endangering your health or being otherwise disappointed.

Yours sincerely,

Johanna Batteejee Spillenaar
61, P.W. 114th Street
New York City

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