> as i have lent it out, i don't have the book on my shelf to
>illegally quote from, but somewhere in _Compassion: The Ultimate Ethic_ by
>Victoria Moran, she mentions Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma" Gandhi & the
>she-goat that followed him for years, giving milk. Someone correct me if
>my memory sounds way off base, but apparently Gandhiji said something in
>his later years to the effect of:
>"Goat milk! That she-goat has been the greatest tragedy of my life."
My Yoga teacher once loaned me a book on diet and nutrition written by MK
Gandhi. (Probably published about 75 years ago.)
I got the impression that Gandhi was anti-dairy, but the reason was that he felt
that dairy was elitist and not accessable to the poor person in India. He spent
some time investigating soy substitutes.
Here were my impressions of the book and it's author:
(1) MK Gandhi was an extremist: he would carry out aspects of his dietary
theories to life-threatening extremes.
(2) He didn't appear to be influenced in the slightest by Hindu dogmas
and religious beliefs
(ex: ghee and milk are the food of the Gods...)
However he did remain a vegetarian for religious reasons.
(3) His knowledge of diet and nutrition was amazingly advanced.
One hears a lot about his political and leadership side.
I was impressed by the clarity of his langauge, his views on
diet & nutrition, and his logical approach.
(4) His primary (exclusive) thrust in dietary research was to help find
optimal diets for the poorest of his countrymen.
(5) He was strongly influenced by the Acid/Alkaline theory. His book
contained a detailed classification of common foods, and he spent
a significant amount of ink supporting a low-acid diet.
[I would expect Gandhi to be more influenced by Ayurveda, but I
didn't see any such evidence of that. Ayurveda does classify
everything into "cooling" and "heaty", which roughly matches
the macro-biotic "yin" and "yang", but I thought Gandhi sounded
like he was more influenced by macro-biotics than ayurveda.]
(6) There was a definate emphasis towards eating food raw in prefernce
to cook. Surprising in a British Indian environment, where both
cultures tend to cook the daylights out of their foods before they
are ready to eat it.
> "That she-goat has been the greatest tragedy of my life."
I suspect he is referring to an incident that occurred when he was studying for
the bar in England. He found the lack of suitable food (he was a strict
vegetarian) and the cold was taking a toll on his health. One day he was
influenced by an English friend to eat some goat meat. Apparently for several
nights after that he had nightmares of the mother goat calling out to it's
offspring, whom Gandhi had consumed. After that incident Gandhi remained a
staunch vegetarian. I think the "she-goat" was in reference to this incident.
>i've heard bapu drank his urine. comments?
I wouldn't be surprised - the man was wild.
If it wasn't solid rock, he would try eating it and study the effects on his
body.
While we are on the subject of the lesser known facets of Gandhi's personality,
from all accounts, Gandhi's personal life was a mess. While he was the
benevolent leader to millions of Indians, by all accounts he was a tyrant to his
own family. One of his sons ran away from home and denounced his father.
Many of his strategies for countering the British "Raj" were ruthless and
sleazy.
Gandhi also preached "bramacharya", or sexual continence. However on at least
one occasion took a really young girl to bed (young enough to be his
grand-daughter). Later he defended this with some statement to the effect that
he was just lying down with her to test his own will power, or something.
Gandhi seemed to have a remarkably good PR machine, because these darker sides
to his personality are pretty well-hidden.
I have mixed feelings about the man. I really like his writings, but I'm not
sure he deserves the deifiction of zillions of people throughout the world.
Regards,
Roy
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