Truth for Gandhi was a virtue which he considered to be the core of all morality and as his philosophy of truth expanded it became inseparably linked with non-violence.
Once when Gandhi was 15 years of age he stole a bit of gold out of his brother's armlet of solid gold.
However, he soon confessed it to his father in a note and asked for adequate punishment.
In another instance, once during school inspection when the inspector gave five words to be written and Gandhi could not spell the word ‘kettle’ correctly, the teacher prompted him to copy it from his neighbour’s slate.
Gandhi refused to copy and wondered how a teacher, who was present to check the use of unfair means, could encourage him to cheat.
One idol from the Indian epics that had a great effect on Gandhi was the most truthful king Harishchandra.
Gandhi was so deeply impacted by the king that he enacted the role of Harishchandra many times to himself.
Gandhi’s Champaran campaign for the rights of indigo farmers has been termed by him as a bold experiment with Truth and Ahimsa.
Quotes:
"Truth is like a vast tree, which yields more and more fruit, the more you nurture it."
"The deeper the search in the mine of truth the richer the discovery of the gems buried there, in the shape of openings for an ever greater variety of service."
"In the march towards Truth, anger, selfishness, hatred, etc., naturally give way, for otherwise Truth would be impossible to attain."
"A successful search for Truth means complete deliverance from the dual throng such as of love and hate, happiness and misery."
"To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself."
