Sabarmati Ashram tour

ASHRAM DARSHAN ( A view of the ashram)

While at Sabarmati, Gandhiji lived in a small cottage which is now known as 'Hridaya (Heart)  Kunj'. It is a place of great historic value, where even today visitors find some of the things which Gandhiji used- a writing desk, a khadi kurta, a yarn spun by him and some of his letters.

Nandini:

It is on the right hand side of 'Hridaya Kunj'. It is an old Ashram guest house, where guests from India and abroad are put up.

Vinoba Kutir:

Named after Acharya Vinoba Bhave  who stayed here,  and also known as Mira Kutir after Mirabahen, Gandhiji's disciple, daughter of a British Admiral.

Upasana Mandir:

 It is an open -air prayer ground, situated between 'Hridaya  Kunj' and 'Magan Kutir' (the hut where Maganlal Gandhi, the ashram manager, used to stay).

Here, Gandhiji used to refer to individual questions after prayers and as the head of the family analysed and gave his solutions.

Gandhi Sangrahalaya:

An important feature of the Ashram is Gandhi Sangrahalaya, a museum inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru on May10,1963.

It has five units and a library, two photo-galleries and an auditorium.

When Gandhiji toured the villages of India to understand the nation and its people better, on the advice of his mentor Gokhale, he observed that a majority of the population in India was poor. If he were to actually do something for the country, he would have to connect with them and this could only happen if he learnt their way of living. Hence he shed all his fancy wear and preferred to change to the simple attire of a dhoti. Also the Khadi movement was another step in this direction, to connect to the mass poor population in India.

Gandhiji had to undergo a lot of changes in order to embrace the ideals that he had set for himself. It would have been very difficult for him to shed all his inhibitions and beliefs which he had been holding on to for so long. He had to move out of his comfort zone to enter into a very uncomfortable zone. Even in the Sabarmati Ashram, he was faced by stiff opposition from the inmates when he admitted a Harijan family. Even Kasturba was finding it difficult to live upto Gandhiji's great expectations of treating everyone as equal. But Gandhiji was so true to his ideals that he did not stop his own sister, Raliyaben, from leaving the ashram when she placed an impossible demand of not wanting to share the same kitchen as the Harijan family. He was not operating out of a single tradition, he was basically a hybrid religion person. Gandhiji was an intuitive leader in every sense. He was a very good strategist too. He had realised very early on that in order to create a nation, he had to do something for every section of the society so that they would feel connected to the concept of the nation at an emotional level and not feel detached. He addressed the needs of all kinds of people in India. 

Rowlatt Act 1919, marked Gandhiji's entry into politics. These were a few of his powerful words:
"There is no courage in not taking weapons

My notion of democracy is that under it even the weakest should have the same oppurtunity as the strongest"

We learnt a lot about Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's journey from being an ordinary man to the Mahatma, the One Man Army who changed the course of the colonial wind prevailing here and helped us breathe the fresh air of freedom.

After this memorable trip to the Ashram, we all wished that some "Chemical Locha",  would happen to us so that apunko Bapu sach mei dikhne lage!