Stealing and Atonement
=> As a child, Gandhi and his friend tried to imitate a family member and took to smoking.They enjoyed the fun in blowing out clouds of smoke. They stole money from the servant's purse to fullfill their aspiration of smoking cigarettes. Gandhi knew that to do anything , they had to take permission from their elders.Like all teenagers , they too wanted freedom. They felt that life was not worth living and they should die.
Gandhi and his friend obtained poisonous seeds called Dhatura but could not have the courage to eat them. They went to a temple where they realized their mistake. They abandoned the thought of suicide and decided never to smoke and steal. After some time, Gandhi took some gold from his brother's armlet to repay his debt.
He felt guilty for the act of stealing and wanted to confess about this to his father. Gandhi knew that on hearing it his father would be pained. Still he wrote a letter in which he admitted his mistake. and asked for punishment. He also requested his father not to punish himself. He saw his father in tears which were not only of pain, but also of love and forgiveness. Gandhi learnt his lesson of Ahimsa.
Possible questions from this Chapter
1) In your view, which one is greater, punishment or forgiveness? write an essay on punishment versus forgiveness.
Ans:- Punishment is neither good, nor bad and forgiveness itself is also neither good nor bad, their goodness and badness depend on the relative situation because it is understood and described in different ways.
Forgiveness means to forget someone's bad deed or mistake, and don't punish him/her on that bad deed or mistake, or on bad behavior. Sometimes, a person performs such act which is damaging for us, hurt us, or anyone does such mistake which make our life or a part of life tough. And when we react in response to that act or mistake, it can cause damage on both sides. For example, we fight or try to take revenge which means we do the same bad deed which the other did. There will be no difference between that person and us. Secondly if we forgive someone then we are at higher place. There will be no damage to our self - respect, instead we become more respectable.
When we avoid forgiveness, a feeling to take revenge always resides in our heart which can cause frustration and as result we may damage our personality. But if we forgive someone on his bad deeds, we feel light, our heart and mind become relaxed, and it has a great impact on our personality.
If we think on national and international level, forgiveness and revenge play a very important role in the development of the world. By looking in the past, much warfare was happened as a result of some kind of revenge which caused the death and decline of many nations. It is the need of time to create a sense of forgiveness in ourselves. Otherwise, many lives can be the victim of our so-called ego and revenge. Forgiveness is the virtue that increases the friendship, trust, harmony among the people and it is the therapy that changes the people's attitude, thinking and perceptions. Forgiveness always defeats the punishment and punishment always increases the feeling of enmity, hostility and it produces different imbalanced conditions in human body. Therefore, in today's modern world, forgiveness can be applied as an ointment in the wound of punishment.
2)why does be consider stealing gold was more serious than pilfering coppers?
Ans:- He ponders stealing gold was more serious than pilfering coppers because he stole coppers when he was 12 or 13 years old, but he stole gold,when he was 15. Besides, when he stole gold, it put the meat eating brother into debt .Also, gold is more precious and expensive than copper. Gandhi thought he might get addicted to stealing, so he opined it more serious.
3) why did he write a letter to his father ? what was in the letter?
→ Gandhi decides to confess his stealing to his father in order to purify himself .But, he had no courage to tell it to his father because it would cause pain to his father. Being unable to speak face-to-face, Gandhi wrote a small note to his father and gave it to him by himself. In the note, Gandhi wrote all his mistakes & confessed his guilt and requested his father to give him any punishment he deserved, & decided never to stead again in his life.
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