MOHAN MALA -A rosary of Gandhiji's messages Mohandas was Gandhiji's first name.That is how the word Mohan is taken. Mala means a garland or a rosary used for repeating a mantra or the name of God. Here,we bring you powerful and practical messages given by Mahatma Gandhiji in the course of his life. For each day of the year, there is one message.At the end of each, the source (book) from which it is taken and then the date (wherever available) on which Gandhiji gave the message are mentioned. Read them, follow them and share them with your family and friends. Like Gandhiji, all his words are True and Eternal...... JUNE 1 If we realized the presence of God as witness to all we say and do we would not have anything to conceal from anybody on earth. For we would not think unclean thoughts before our Makers, much less speak them. It is uncleanness that seeks secrecy and darkness. JUNE 2 The tendency of human nature is to hide dirt, we do not want to see or touch dirty things; we want to put them out of sight. And so must it be with our speech. I would suggest that we should avoid even thinking thoughts we would hide from the world. JUNE 3 Whatever you do, be true to yourselves and to the world. Hide not your though. If it is shameful to reveal them, it is more shameful to think them. JUNE 4 All sins are committed in secrecy. The moment we realize that God witnesses even our thoughts we shall be free. JUNE 5 Control over thought is a long and painful and laborious process. I am convinced that no time, no labour and no pain is too much for the glorious result to be reached. The purity of thought is possi­ble only with a faith in God bordering on definite experience. JUNE 6 When your passions threaten to get the better of you, go down on your knees and cry out to God for help. Ramanama is my infallible Help. JUNE 7 Let every aspirant after a pure life take from me that an impure thought is often powerful in undermining the body as an impure act. JUNE 8 The potency of thought unsuppressed but unembodied is far greater than that of thought embodied that is translated into action. And when the action is brought under due control, it reacts upon and regu­lates the thought itself. Thought thus translated into action becomes a prisoner and is brought under subjection. JUNE 9 Always aim at complete harmony of thought, word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. There is nothing more potent than thought. Deed follows word and word follows thought. The world is the result of a mighty thought and where the thought is mighty and pure the result is always mighty and pure. JUNE 10 Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning. JUNE 11 Prayerful well-meaning effort never goes in vain and man's success lies only in such an effort. The result is in his hands. JUNE 12 'Be thou certain, none can perish, trusting Me,' says the Lord, but let it not be understood to mean that our sins will be washed away by merely trusting Him without any striving. Only he who struggles hard against the allurements of sense objects and turns in tears and grief to the Lord will be comforted. JUNE 13 It is easy enough to say, 'I do not believe in God,' For God permits all things to be said of Him with impunity. He looks at our acts. And any breach of His Law carries with it, not its vindictive, but its purifying, compelling, punishment. JUNE 14 The path of self-purification is hard and steep. To attain to perfect purity, one has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action; to use above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. JUNE 15 I believe that a healthy soul should inhabit a healthy body. To the extent, therefore that the soul grows into health and freedom from passion to that extent the body also grows into that state. JUNE 16 Cleanliness is next to godliness. We can no more gain God's blessings with an unclean body than with an unclean mind. A clean body cannot reside in an unclean city. JUNE 17 Restraint never ruins one's health. What ruins one's health is not restraint but outward suppression. A really self-res­trained person grows every day from strength to strength and from peace to more peace. The very first step in self-restraint is the restraint of thoughts. JUNE 18 An innocent youth is a priceless posses­sion not to be squandered away for the sake of a momentary excitement, miscalled pleasure. JUNE 19 Steam becomes a mighty power only when it allows itself to be imprisoned in a strong little reservoir and produces tremendous motion and carries huge weights by permitting itself a tiny and measured outlet. Even so have the youth of the country, of their own free will to allow their inexhausti­ble energy to be imprisoned, controlled and set free in strictly measured and required quantities. JUNE 20 As a splendid palace deserted by its inmates looks like a ruin, so does a man without character, all his, material belong­ings notwithstanding. JUNE 21 All our learning or recitation of the Vedas, correct knowledge of Sanskrit, Latin, Greek and what not will avail us nothing if they do not enable us to cultivate abso­lute purity of heart. The end of all know­ledge must be building up of character. JUNE 22 Knowledge without character is a power for evil only, as seen in the instances of so many 'talented thieves' and 'gentleman rascals' in the world. JUNE 23 Drugs and drink are the two arms of the devil with which he strikes his helpless victims into stupefaction and intoxication. JUNE 24 When Satan comes disguised as a champion of' liberty, civilization, culture and the like, he makes himself almost irre­sistible. JUNE 25 I hold drink to be more damnable than thieving and perhaps even prostitution. Is it not often the parent of both? JUNE 26 People drink because of the conditions to which they are reduced. It is the factory labourers and others that drink. They are forlorn, uncared for and they take to drink. They are no more vicious by nature than teetotallers are saints by nature. The majority of people are controlled by their environment. JUNE 26 People drink because of the conditions to which they are reduced. It is the factory labourers and others that drink. They are forlorn, uncared for and they take to drink. They are no more vicious by nature than teetotallers are saints by nature. The majority of people are controlled by their JUNE 27 Nothing but ruin stares a nation in the face that is a prey to the drink habit. History records that empires have been destroyed through that habit. JUNE 28 There is as mach flaw in the argument that it is an interference with the right of the people as there would be in the argument that the laws prohibiting theft interfere with the right of thieving. A thief steals all earthly possessions, a drunkard steals his own and his neighbours' honour. JUNE 29 I have a horror of smoking as of wines. Smoking I consider to be a vice. It deadens one's conscience and is often worse than drink in that it acts imperceptibly. It is a habit, which is difficult to get rid of when once it seizes hold of a person. It is an expensive vice. It fouls the breath, dis­colours teeth and sometimes even causes cancer. It is an unclean habit. JUNE 30 Smoking is in a way a greater curse than drink inasmuch as the victim does not realize its evil in time. It is not regarded as a sign of barbarism, it is even acclaimed by the civilized people. I can only say, let those who can, give it up and set the example.