The Story of Antaryami

On 23 November 1925, after two days of agony M. K. Gandhi decided to go on a fast for seven days. There was a ‘moral lapse’ among the young boys and some girls at the Satyagraha Ashram at Sabarmati. This fast was to commence on 24 November and last up to the 30th. On the day of the decision Gandhi had a talk with the boys and girls of the Ashram. And had told them, rather ominously, ‘Do not become the cause of my death.’

This had led to a series of confessions, not private but public confessions. Two of the principal Ashramities Mahadev Desai and Kishorelal Mashruwala objected to the public nature of these confessions and argued that they and by extension none of the other Ashramities with the exception of the founder of the ashramic community, Gandhi, had a right and more crucially the necessary spiritual attainment to hear the confessions. Gandhi argued and showed the inherent beauty in the act of confession but did not insist upon the public admission of wrong doing
and attendant guilt, nor did he share with anyone that which was shared with him. Gandhi, even if wanted, could not have fasted for more than seven days. Maganlal Gandhi, the person who held the ashramic routine and organization together during Gandhi’s long absences- sometimes enforced by a prison sentence- from the ashram at Sabarmati, had bound Gandhi to a promise that in the event of a fast he would not undertake one that exceeded seven days.