GANDHIS EXPERIMENT WITH

CELIBACY
By Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari

Ii is well known that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the most trusted and the most loyal
stooge of the British crown, served the British interest through his Satyagraha or the
nonviolent freedom struggle. But most of the people of this country, who take him to be a
man of high moral, do not know what short vile lechery he indulged in in the name of
keeping Brahmacharys or celibacy, or in experimenting with the same. In 1903, when he
was only 34 years old ( alternatively in 1906, when he was 37), or in other words, when
he was at the zenith of his youth, he took a vow that he will observe celibacy and will
remain a brahmachari for the rest of his life (D Keer, Mahatma Gandhi, pp-73)..

But the question remains, what made Gandhi, an extremely sensual man, to take such a
vow? Gandhi was so sensual that when his father Karamchand was dying, he preferred to
make love and have sex with his wife Kasturba in another room of the same house. So,
when such a sensual Gandhi took vow to keep celibacy, one becomes suspicious that
there must have been an evil intention behind that vow. Many believe that at that time, he
developed some form of aversion towards Kasturba, an illiterate mother of three children,
or in other words, he disliked to share bed with her. So, his intention was to abandon
Kasturba as a sleeping partner in the name of keeping celibacy.

In 1882, when Mohandas was married to Kasturba, he was 13 and Kasturba was 14.
While he was in South Africa, he came in contact with several educated and well bred
women through his profession and Gandhi liked their company very much. From their
company, Gandhi used to obtain a special kind of intellectual pleasure, which was not
possible from Kasturba. At that time, more than a dozen women came very close to him
and six of them were of Western origin. They were Graham Polak, Nilla Cram Cook,
Madelline Slade (aka Miraben), Margarate Spiegel, Sonja Schlesin and Esther Faering (M
V Kamath, Mahatma and Celibacy, Organiser, 2.7.2006). His closest Indian women were
Srimati Prabhavati Devi (wife of Jaiprakash Narain), Kanchan Shah, Prema Ben Kantak,
Sushila Nair (sister of Pyarelal), Manu Gandhi (wife of his grand-nephew Joysukhlal
Gandhi), Ava Gandhi and Saraladevi Chaudhurani. This Saraladevi was a niece of the
poet Rabindranath Tagore and her mother was Srimati Swarnakumari Devi (M V
Kamath, ibid).

To narrate the affair between Gandhi and Saraladevi, Sri Girija Kumar says, Saraladevi
Caowdhurani came very close to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Their whirl wind
romance lasted for barely two years, but it upset the balance of the Gandhian
establishment and shook its very roots. She is now a part of history and a footnote in
contemporary Gandhian literature. She, however, left a scar in the minds of Gandhiji for
the rest of his life. (Brahmacharya: Gandhi and his Women Associates, as quoted by M
V Kamath, ibid.). Gandhi used to admit that his relation with Saraladevi went up to
sexuality (Girija Kumar (1997), The Book on Trial: Fundamentalism and Censorship in
India, Har-Anand Publishers. pp. 73107).

Next to Saraladevi was Prabhavatidevi. While commenting on Gandhis affair with her,
Girija Kumar writes, "Prabhavati became so obssessed with Gandhi that she would not
tolerate separation from him even for a single day. .... Her hysteria was highest
manifestation of her desperation. She would remain unconscious for hours together...",
(Brahmacharya: Gandhi and his Women Associates, as quoted by M V Kamath, ibid.). In
his own way, without, obviously meaning it, the Mahatma ruined many lives. It was only
when he was jailed at the Agha Khan Palace that he came to be reconciled with Kasturba.
And it was only after Gandhi died that Prabhavati came to live a normal life with her
husband, until she died a premature death. Many detested Gandhis so-called
experiments with celibacy (M V Kamath, ibid). In 1938, Prema Ben Kantak wrote
Prasad and Diksha, narrating her sex life with Gandhi, which triggered a widespread
uproar in Maharastra.

However, the entire episode of his sexual perversion in the name of experimenting with
celibacy or brahmacharya after coming back to India in 1915 and setting up the
Sabarmati Ashram. And as a consequence, Gandhi started naked display of sex with his
women associated, in a big way. This obviously aroused commotion among the other
members of the ashram. The main reason behind this uproar was his double standard.
While for other members, he declared strict law for renunciation of women, he kept
himself above all such restrictions. As an excuse, he used to say that he was an
ardhanariswar (or half man and half woman, the other name of Lord Shiva ) and hence
devoid of any carnal desire (Yashodhara Roychowdhuri, Bengali daily Ananda Bazar
Patrika, 25.6.2006). To hoodwink the other members, he used to say that he was the
mother of all and hence every women of the ashram were either his mother or a sister. He
used to deceive others in another way. He used to say that whatever he was doing, he was
doing according to the command of his inner voice, or, in other words, according to the
command of the God and hence all his deeds were sacred.

Though, due to the above mentioned uproar by the other members of the ashram, Gandhi
was compelled to stop his sexual activities for a time being. But that was only to resume
it with a new enthusiasm in the name of experiments on celibacy and sleeping naked with
several naked women on the same bed. At first, he and his women, though shared the

same room but slept on different beds. But after a short while, naked Gandhi and his
naked women companions started to share the same bed. He used to say that lying with
so many naked women kept him warm and the practice was a type of naturopathy for him
(Patricia Caplan (1987). The Cultural construction of sexuality, Routledge. pp. 278 &
Parekh, Bhikhu C. (1999). Colonialism, Tradition and Reform: An Analysis of Gandhi's
Political Discourse, Sage. pp-210 ). He also used to say that lying with so many naked
women helped him a lot to assess his success in keeping celibacy, (Kumar, Girja (1997).
The Book on Trial: Fundamentalism and Censorship in India, Har-Anand Publications.
pp. 98, and Gandhis letter to G D Birla in April, April, 1945). It should be mentioned
here that Gandhi considered his experiment a success if, despite such extraordinary
provocation, his private part refused to erect.

Many will refuse to believe that, after Satyagraha (or nonviolence), sex was his second
major subject of his articles and letters he wrote to his eulogists. He wrote a series of five
articles of his experiments on celibacy, i.e. lying naked with so many naked women,
which were later published in Harijan ( Kumar, Girja (1997). The Book on Trial:
Fundamentalism and Censorship in India, Har-Anand Publications. Pp-98.). In the
present context, it should also be mentioned that, in general, young and adolescent boys
experience wet dream. When he was in South Africa, Gandhi had wet dream at least once
in a month. But it is unbelievable that he had such an experience in Mumbai, when he
was an old man of 67. This single incidence is more than enough to expose Gandhis
sexual perversion. Moreover, Gandhi admitted that till his death, he failed to get rid of his
sexual perversion (D Keer,ibid, p-678).

According to Gandhi, active-celibacy meant perfect self control in the presence of

opposite sex. Gandhi conducted his experiments with a number of women such as Abha,
the sixteen-year-old wife of his grandnephew Kanu Gandhi.. Gandhi acknowledged that
this experiment is very dangerous indeed, but thought that it was capable of yielding
great results (Tidrick, Kathryn (2007). Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life. I.B.Tauris.
pp. 302304). Many believe that, in the name of active celibacy, he not only used those
women, but as he never sought for consent of them, he committed sexual oppression on
them. On the other hand, the victims had no other alternative but to endure all such
oppressions silently (Yashodhara Roychowdhuri, Ananda Bazar Patrike, 25.6.2006).

While commenting on this aspect of Gandhis life, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, a real
brahmachari and the most earnest follower of Gandhi, said, There was no need for
Gandhi to experiment with brahmacharya. In case Gandhi was a perfect brahmachari, he
did not require his brahmacharya to be tested; and if he was an imperfect brahmachari, he
should have avioded the experiments on principle (M V Kamath, Organiser-2.7.2006).
But Gandhi maintained that all his experiments yielded very good results (Tidrick,

Kathryn (2007). Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life, I.B.Tauris. pp. 302304).

It has been pointed out above that Gandhi conducted his experiments with a number of
young women such as Abha, the sixteen-year-old wife of his grandnephew Kanu Gandhi.
Another victim was 19 year-old Manu Gandhi, the daughter of his another grand-naphew
Joysukhlal Gandhi. After making her a sleeping partner, Gandhi wrote to Joysukhlal that
Manu had started to share his bed so that he may "correct her sleeping posture" ( Tidrick,
Kathryn (2007). Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life, I.B.Tauris. pp.302304.).

Gandhi went to Noakhali in December, 1946, and at that time Manu Gandhi was his
sleeping partner. He used to say that at that time he was immensely benefitted by lying
naked with naked Manu. And it helped him to assess the serious problems like Partition
and the Hindu-Muslim amity. Gandhi used to say that he slept with Manu like her mother
and Abha and Manu were his walking sticks. It should be mentioned here that at that
time, Manu Gandhi was married and her husbands name was Surendra Mashruwala. In
March, 1945, Gandhi told the press reporters that lying with naked Abha and Manu, he
achieved great success in his experiment on celibacy. Previously I carried out similar
experiments with Kasturba, but that did not yield so much ( Tidrick, Kathryn (2007).
Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life, I.B.Tauris. pp. 302304.).

Obviously, Gandhi became the target of bitter criticism, even by his closest companions,
due to his sexual perversion in the name of experiments on brahmacharya. One day his
stenographer R P Parashuram, observing him lying naked with naked Manu Gandhi,
submitted his resignation letter and left the ashram. Gandhi told him that he was at liberty
to do whatever he wanted. He could remain at the ashram or go. (Kumar, Girja (1997).
The Book on Trial: Fundamentalism and Censorship in India, Har-Anand Publishers. pp.
73107).

Nirmal Kumar Basu was one of the closest associates of Gandhi and accompanied him
during his Noakhali tour. There an incident took place on 17th December that turned
Nirmal Kumar into a severe critique of Gandhi. On that night Gandhi was sleeping, as
usual naked, with Manu Gandhi and Dr Sushila Nair. Sushila was a doctor and

accompanied Gandhi to look after his healthy. Just before dawn, it appeared that
something unusual was happening in the room where Gandhi was sleeping with Manu
and Sushila. It was found that Gandhi was screaming in shrill voice and slapping his
forehead.

Neither Manu nor Sushila had ever disclosed what happened on that fateful night. But it
was not so difficult to guess. Most probably, Gandhi made sexual advances to Sushila and
tried to rape an unwilling Sushila. She, on the other hand, prevented Gandhi and cried for
help and that made Gandhi to scream out of frustration. After this incident, Nirmal Kumar
decided to abandon Gandhi and he permanently left him on 18th March, 1947 (Ghose,
Sankar (1991). Mahatma Gandhi, Allied Publishers. pp. 356, D Keer, p-759 &
Yashodhara Roychowdhuri, ibid.).

Later on, Nirmal Kumar expressed his grievances through a letter. He wrote that, perhaps
he, lying naked with several naked women, wanted to test whether that aroused his sexual
passion. But, in fact, he was ruining the lives of his young women associates. It is a
shame that we are still using the word Mahatma before the name of such a sexually
pervert man.

Gandhi's Private Life

Was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's popularity with women partly due to his practice
of 'brahmacharya' (voluntary celibacy)? Did women perceive him as non-threatening?
Did his renunciation of sexuality help build up relationships of trust? These interesting
ideas came up at the recent book release function of the book, " 'Brahmacharya' Gandhi
and His Women Associates" published by Vitasta, in New Delhi.
According to author Girja Kumar, Gandhi was "irresistibly attractive" to many women. In
the wider ethos of male aggression and abuse, the practice of 'brahmacharya', which
involves restraint in thought, speech and action, might make a man, paradoxically, more
attractive to women. Uma Vasudeva, a well- nown writer, noted, "Gandhi was absolutely
frank about his sexual experiments. He wrote about them meticulously. He saw his
experiments as important for history."
Gandhi took a vow of lifelong celibacy in 1906, after 23 years of what he described as
"marital bliss". Kasturba, his lifelong companion, was willy-nilly party to this vow. Gandhi
saw celibacy as a restoration of autonomy not only for himself, but also for his partner.
Yet, he never quite consulted her on this important issue, though she was undoubtedly a
strong woman with a will of her own.
Renunciation of sexuality was part of Gandhi's spiritual discipline. It was extremely
difficult and challenging, becoming no easier with age. He tried to institutionalize his
ideal of marital celibacy by persuading couples at the Sabarmati (Gujarat) and
Sewagram (Maharashtra) Ashrams to adopt it, with varied results. Whereas Prabhavati,
for instance, adopted 'brahmacharya' much to the dismay of her socialist husband, Jaya
Prakash Narain, Kanchan Shah objected, and eventually rebelled against the injunction,
with the passive cooperation of her husband, Munnalal Shah, a staunch Gandhian.
Gandhi's 'brahmacharya' was not the old Indian ascetic ideal that abjured all interactions
with women. Quite the opposite: Gandhi had countless close women associates, many
of whom he characterized as daughter, sister, mother, and so on. Even his 'romantic'
relationship with Sarladevi Chowdhrani, whom Gandhi once acknowledged as his
'spiritual wife', was reframed as follows: "So far as I can see our relationship is that of
brother and sister... I must plead gently like a brother ever taking care to use the right
word even as I do to my oldest sister. I must not be father, husband, friend or teacher all
rolled into one." (July 21, 1920, 'Young India')
Kumar has explored the lives and thinking of some of Gandhi's closest women
associates. These include his Jewish secretary, Sonja Schlesin, who was a matchless
manager, well-known for her whole-hearted commitment to 'satyagraha' (nonviolent
resistance) movements in South Africa. She exchanged hundreds of letters with Gandhi
after his return to India, right up to November 1947. There others like Millie Polak and
Jayakunwar Doctor in South Africa; Esther Faering, a Danish missionary in India;
Mirabehn, who spent years serving Gandhi at Sewagram; Sushila Nayyar, Gandhi's
personal physician and masseur; and Manu Gandhi, a grand-niece who was his
companion in the last years of his life. Each relationship involved intense engagement,
with a great deal of feeling, many ups and downs, challenges and mutual learning.
Gandhi was drawn not only to women, but also to womanhood as such. Kumar writes,

"Gandhi had a great desire to be a woman..." (p 17). His experiments with sexual selfrestraint involved the ideal of becoming less masculine - what we might describe as
'non-macho'. It meant developing qualities of femininity within his self, in line with the
traditional ideal of 'Ardhanarishwara' - a composite being who is half-man and halfwoman. He developed feminine qualities in himself, wiping out the exclusively masculine
persona - thus trying to become the 'ideal eunuch' or 'unisex' (Kumar, p 10). Manu
Gandhi later wrote a book entitled 'Bapu, My Mother', confirming that he did succeed in
awakening feminine, even maternal, qualities within himself.
During his later years, Gandhi's experiments extended to sleeping with younger women,
to test and affirm his own sexual self-control. This was highly unconventional and
became the subject of gossip as well as serious disapproval. He explained the ideal he
was trying to reach: "One who never has any lustful intention, who by constant
attendance upon God has become proof against conscious or unconscious emissions,
who is capable of lying naked with naked women, however beautiful they may be,
without being in any manner whatsoever sexually excited. Such a person should be
incapable of lying, incapable of intending or doing harm to a single man or woman in the
whole world, is free from anger and malice and detached... Such a person is a full
'brahmachari'." (In a letter to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, on March 17, 1947)
Varsha Das, Director of Gandhi Museum, noted that 'brahmacharya' provided Gandhi
with a sense of great freedom. As a human being, he felt freer to interact with others,
irrespective of gender. As a political leader, he was able to avoid the kind of problems
several male leaders have confronted due to fraught sexual proclivities - well-known
examples include Leo Tolstoy, Abraham Lincoln, Jawaharlal Nehru and John F. Kennedy.
Real affairs as well as imagined scandals rendered life problematic for these political
figures.
While everybody will not be able to emulate the Gandhian paradigm, it is useful to look
at. It emphasizes - not only for men but also for women - a different kind of approach: to
judiciously deal with one's desires rather than simply give in to them. It asks for a
different kind of effort in order to handle the self and relationships better.
Gandhi's 'brahmacharya' - interpreted as a conscious effort to transcend the limitations
of fixed gender identity - is of interest to contemporary feminists, psychologists and
social scientists. In his deliberate molding of the 'brahmacharya' ideal to merge with
wider public goals, Gandhi worked with sexual desire, as a universal human trait that
can be dealt with in diverse ways.
In his worldview, the personal realm was intimately connected to the political. He wanted
to be able to have close relations with human beings, including women, without any
interference of sexual feeling. This did allow him to have deep relationships with women,
who trusted him with personal confidences and rewarded him with lifelong loyalty. At the
same time, several questions remain. For instance - why cannot sexuality be accepted
as just another dimension of life, which could be satisfied without necessarily threatening
any other human being? The search for answers continues.
Tara Bhattacharya, Gandhi's granddaughter and Vice Chairperson, Gandhi Smriti and
Darshan Smriti, New Delhi, noted, "People keep researching Gandhi and discovering
new things, which are relevant even today. I find more people interested in Gandhi than,
say, 30 years ago. We, his family, lay no claim to him. He belongs to everybody. Or, in
fact, he is beyond belonging to anybody!"

WAS GANDHI A TANTRIC?

By Nicholas Gier
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
University of Idaho (ngier@uidaho.edu)
For a complete version, which will appear in Gandhi Marg (2007) click here.
For a 900-word version click here.
My meaning of brahmacharya is this: "One who never has any lustful intention,
who . . . has become capable of lying naked with naked women . . . without
being in any manner whatsoever sexually excited."

--M. K. Gandhi

The greater the temptation, the greater the renunciation.

--M. K. Gandhi

I threw you in the sacrificial fire and you emerged safe and sound.

--Gandhi to his grandniece Manu Gandhi

I can hurt colleagues and the entire world for the sake of truth.
--M. K. Gandhi (letter to Sushila Nayar)

[Gandhi] can think only in extremeseither extreme eroticism or asceticism.

--Jawaharlal Nehru

The professional Don Juan destroys his spirit as fatally as does the professional ascetic,
whose [mirror] image he is.

--Aldous Huxley, Do What You Will

Some scholars believe that it is unseemly to write about the sex lives of great thinkers.
William Bartley, for example, has been criticized for documenting, quite successfully in my
opinion, Ludwig Wittgenstein's homosexual encounters, information that helps us better
understand his life and work. If we use this information in an ad hominem attack against these
thinkers' worldviews, then we have indeed erred and done them an injustice.

Full and accurate biographies, however, are essential for those of us who wish to capture
the full measure of a person's life and character. It is therefore unfortunate that D. K. Bose,
Gandhi's faithful secretary and interpreter in Bengal, was forced to self publish his book My Days
with Gandhi. He only thought that he was being truthful, but many considered him an apostate,
and Sushila Nayar, one of Gandhi's female intimates, thought he had "a dirty mind."

Most people would rather not hear about Martin Luther King's extramarital liaisons, but
they remain embarrassing facts, along with the plagiarized passages in his doctoral dissertation,
that must be integrated into our understanding of this great saint of nonviolence. King confessed
that what he did was wrong and he sought forgiveness from his wife and sought repentance.
Sadly, I do not think that we can say that same thing about Gandhi's response to those who
criticized his intimate relations with young women. Furthermore, King did not defend his actions
by saying that they were part of his spiritual development, something that Gandhi of course did.

It is now widely known that Gandhi shared his bed with young women as part of his
experiments in brahmacharya, a Sanskrit word usually translated as "celibacy," but generally
understood as the ultimate state of yogic self-control. Gandhi believed that Indian ascetics who
sought refuge in forests and mountains were cowards, and he was convinced that the only way to
conquer desire was to face the temptation head-on with a naked female in his bed.

I take Gandhi at his word that he did not have carnal relations with these womenhis
sleeping quarters were open to all to observeso he was not among the left-handed Tantrics who
engaged in ritual sex with their yoginis. At the same time, Gandhi's Tantricism cannot be righthanded kind because this school proscribes intimate contact with women.

As would be expected, we will find that Gandhi was a very distinctive Tantric. Perhaps it
can be said that Gandhi was somehow simultaneously a left-handed and right-handed Tantric.
Raihana Tyabji, a close associate with a Tantric past, thought that Gandhi's position straddling
right-handed and left-hand Tantra was untenable, and that the only way to free himself and his
women from sexual desire was "to give free rein to itto indulge it and satiate it. But he
wouldn't listen."

It is not widely known that Gandhi subscribed to Shakta theology, one that puts skakti,
the power of the Hindu Goddess, at the center of existence. Shakta theology is the foundation of
Hindu Tantricism. Scholars have warned us that not all Shaktas are Tantrics, but Gandhis sexual
experiments with young women definitely suggest some association with Tantra. It is also
possible that that Gandhis sexual experiments may have been an abuse of personal power rather
than a practice of Hindu spirituality.

One defense that could be made for Gandhi's actions is that he experienced intimate relations with
men as well. Hermann Kallenbach, a South Africa associate, was very close to the Mahatma.
Kallenbach promised that he would travel to the "ends of the earth in search of [Gandhian]
Truth," and he also promised Gandhi that he would never marry. Gandhi reciprocated by
declaring unconditional love and a declaration that they would always be "one soul in two
bodies."

Gandhi was also very close to Pyarelal Nayar, Sushila Nayar's brother, and boasted that Pyarelal
slept closer to him than his sister did. For Gandhi, however, sleeping with men was different from
sharing a bed with women. Abha Gandhi's husband Kanu once objected to his wife sleeping with
the Mahatma and offered himself as a "bed warmer." Gandhi rejected his proposal by making it
clear that brahmacharya tests required young women as bedmates. Finally, if someone makes an
appeal to the Indian custom and necessity of intimate Indian family sleeping arrangements, Girja
Kumar is not convinced: "Not even in India do grown-up daughters sleep with their fathers."

I
In his book My Days with Gandhi Bose does mention in passing that Gandhis techniques
are reminiscent of the Tantras, and Gandhi himself said that he read the books on Tantra written
by Sir John Woodroofe, but, as far as I know, only Gopi Krishna has argued at any length about
Gandhis Tantricism.

In his on-line essay Mahatma Gandhi and the Kundalini Process, Krishna argues that
the only way that we can explain Gandhis actions with these young women is to assume he was a
kundalini yogi. Krishna speculates that upward flow of reproductive energy [shakti] started as
soon as he committed himself to brahmacharya in 1906. Gandhi was 37, the usual time, from
Krishnas own experience, for the spontaneous arousal of the Serpent Power.

As evidence that Gandhi had perfected this state, Krishna cites this passage from
Gandhis Key to Health: [the brahmacharis] sexual organs will begin to look different. . . . He
does not become impotent for lack of the necessary secretions of sexual glands. But these
secretions in his case are sublimated into a vital force pervading his whole being. Krishna claims
that this passage makes it patently clear that Gandhi had attained the state of brahmacharya,
but it is not clear that Gandhi is writing about himself, and that, except during the crisis with
Manu, he rarely ever claimed spiritual perfection.

As the kundalini yogi matures, Krishna states that he needs constant stimulation to
increase the supply of reproductive juices. . . . The Tantras and other works on kundalini clearly
acknowledge the need of an attractive female partner in the practices undertaken to awaken
shakti. Gandhi does in fact say that my brahmacharya . . . irresistibly drew me to woman as
the mother of man. She became too sacred for sexual love.

Krishna admits that Gandhi himself most likely had no inkling of the transformative
process at work in him, even though he claims that Gandhi noticed that his male organ had
shrunk. Krishna brushes aside criticism of Gandhis actions and also concern for the young
womens mental health, because nature accomplishes her great tasks in her own way and leaves
short-sighted mortals wondering how it could happen. Apart from the speculative nature of
Krishnas theory, we should be most concerned about his disregard for the womens well being,
as well has the implication that Gandhi was driven by forces over which he had no control.

II
For Gandhi the virtues of patience, self-control, and courage were absolutely essential to
defeat the temptation to retaliate and respond with violence. Gandhi made it clear that each of
these virtues were found most often in women. Gandhi once said that he wanted to convert the
woman=s capacity for "self-sacrifice and suffering into shakti-power." Gandhi describes
womankind as follows: "Has she not great intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not
greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage?" He also claimed that nonviolence is
embodied in the woman: she is "weak in striking. . . strong in suffering."

The women around Gandhi were amazed how comfortable they felt in his presence and
how much of a woman he had become to them. Millie Polak observed that "most women love

men for [masculine] attributes. Yet, Mohandas Gandhi has been given the love of many women
for his womanliness." His orphaned grandniece Manu considered Gandhi as her new mother, and
she simply could not understand all the controversy surrounding their sleeping together.

The fact that women felt no unease in his presence was proof to Gandhi that he was
approaching perfection as a brahmachari. Indeed, Bose contends that Gandhi attempted to
conquer sex was by becoming a woman. Gandhi told Pyarelal Nayar that he once tore the
burning sari off a woman in his ashram, but "she felt no embarrassment, because she knew I was
a brahmachari and so almost like a sister to her." Alternatively, Gandhi says that his goal was the
state of "complete sexlessness" recommended by Jesus and that this condition could be achieved
by becoming a eunuch by prayer not by an operation.

Gandhi is no doubt referring to shakti when he states that "all power comes from the
preservation and sublimation of the vitality that is responsible for the creation of life." Gandhi
may very well be indicating a Tantric process of empowerment that involves the preservation and
sublimation of a male vitality that has its source in shakti. When Gandhi did his first radio
broadcast on November 12, 1947, he declared that the phenomenon of broadcasting demonstrated
shakti, the miraculous power of God."
When Gandhi once described himself as "half a woman, an alternative view of
masculine and feminine power suggests itself. The Chinese/Jungian view of complementary yin
(anima) and yang (animus) energies is found in this passage: "A man should remain man and yet
should learn to become woman; similarly, a woman should remain woman and yet learn to
become man." Hsi Lai uses the yin/yang model to explain Gandhis sexual experiments: He
didnt do this for the purpose of actual sexual contact, but as an ancient practice of rejuvenating
his male energy. . . . Taoists called this method using the yin to replenish the yang.
The source of Gandhis dipolar views of male and female may have been Christian rather
than Asian. While a young man in England, Gandhi came into contact with the Esoteric Christian
Union, whose interpretation of the image of God meant that the individual "must comprise within
himself the qualitiesBmasculine and feminineBof existence and be spiritually both man and
woman." When he confessed to Kedar Nathji and Swami Anand that his sexual experiments were
unorthodox, Gandhi says that his views on this subject had been influenced by Western writers
on this subject.
III
It is the male who is active in Tantric rites. Only males undergo initiation, and the only
instruction females receive, if they get any, is that they "should not even mentally touch another
male." Gandhi's Tantricism definitely follows this androcentric approach. Gandhi also takes the
defiant stance of the Tantric who says that he cares nothing for what others thinks of his practice:
"The whole world may forsake me but I dare not leave what I hold is the truth for me. Gandhi
once admonished a critic that he would sleep with a thousand women if that is what it took to
reach spiritual purity. Gandhi's experiments in truth took on the value free aspects of the scientific
method, and left-handed Tantrics believe that their actions are above conventional law and
morality.

Normally Tantric practices are tightly structured, highly ritualized, and the initiation
procedures, guided by a guru, are esoteric. The only bona fide guru in Gandhis spiritual
development was Raichandcharya, a Jain saint, not a Tantric, with whom Gandhi corresponded
during his formative South Africa period. Gandhi officiated at daily worship and hymn singing,
encouraged the chanting of the Ramanama (the god Rama's name), and followed an
unconventional diet, but these practices are not Tantric in any way. The chanting of the
Ramanama is said to have magical properties, but its use is so widespread in India it may not
indicate any special Tantric associations. Nevertheless, Gandhi does connect the chanting of
Rama's name with "an alchemy [that] can transform the body" that leads to "the conservation of
vital energy."
Gandhis experiments with truth were highly personalized but not spiritually esoteric as
are Tantric practices. Only after the sexual experiments came under public scrutiny did Gandhi
started telling his female associates to keep their activities secret. Not until his last days, when his
sleeping with Manu became public, did Gandhi confess that this secrecy was actually a sign of
untruthfulness. Gandhi's secrecy was simply expedient and not spiritually required.

IV
Before Gandhi started his brahmacharya experiments in 1938, he had a string of intimate
relationships with European and Indian women. While he was in South Africa, Gandhi fell in love
with Millie Polak, the wife of Henry Polak, both of whom lived with Gandhi at Phoenix Farm.
Kumar describes their first contact as follows: "Gandhiji and Millie started conversing through
their eyes. They made a pact between them immediately. Poor Henry was left stranded." As with
all of his female friends, Gandhi insisted that he and Millie be sisters or alternatively that he be
her father, but after they were together in London in 1909 without Henry, Gandhi dared to suggest
that he was a substitute husband.

Even though Millie was smitten by him, she stood up to Gandi's controlling nature and
argued against his absurd dietary ideas and his goal to force chastity on all his coworkers. This
independent spirit that defines most of his female intimates of this early period stands in
instructive contrast to the passive participants in the later brahmacharya experiments. For
example, Kumar describes Manu as a devotee who "was prepared to sacrifice her life at the altar
of her personal God." Gandhi controlled every aspect of Manu's life, and when she once forgot
his favorite soap at their last stay, he made her walk back through a dark jungle to retrieve it.

When Millie finally broke off their 3-year affair, Gandhi's attentions turned to Maud
Polak, Henry's sister. Maud worked with Gandhi at Phoenix Farm as his personal secretary until
1913. In a letter to Henry, Gandhi described Maud seeing him off at a railway station: "She
cannot tear herself from me. . . . She would not shake hands with me. She wanted a kiss. [This
incident] has transformed her and with her me."

Esther Faering, a young Danish missionary, was the next major love in Gandhi's life.
From her very first visit at the Satyagraha Ashram in 1917, Kumar describes Faering as

"completely hooked on" Gandhi, and as with Millie Polak, "an instant chemistry developed"
between them. Gandhi "experienced an intensely personal passion for Esther," and she praised
him as the "Incarnation of God in man."

The other ashramites were alarmed at Gandhi's obsession with Faering, and Kasturba
Gandhi was particularly cool to her husband's new love interest. Gandhi made matters worse by
siding with Faering against his wife. While he was away from the ashram, he wrote daily letters
to Faering, which Kumar describes as having the passionate intensity of the poets of Hinduism
and Sufi Islam. He hazards a guess that "Esther must have stirred," as young beautiful women are
supposed to do in the Tantric yogi, "the serpent resting uncoiled in [Gandhi's] kundalini."

One would expect Gandhi to have at least been serially monogamous in his relationships, but that
was not the case. While Faering was struggling against Kasturba and other ashramites, and
receiving Gandhi's constant support from afar, he was conducting what Kumar calls a "whirlwind
romance" with Saraladevi Chowdharani, a Bengali revolutionary married to a Punjabi musician.
Her father was a secretary of Indian National Congress in Calcutta, and by virtue of her singing
and activism, Saraladevi was celebrated as Bengal's Joan of Arc and as an incarnation of the
Goddess Durga. She rose to the challenge and wrote that "my pen reverberated with the power of
Shiva's trumpet and invited Bengalis to cultivate death."

After the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919, Gandhi stayed at Saraladevi's home in Lahore and
then toured India together during 1920. Her husband, R. D. Chowdhary, was in jail for the first
eight months this period, but he was content, as was Henry Polak, to share his wife with the
Mahatma. Gandhi agreed with Chowdhary that Saraladevi was the "greatest shakti of India."

Gandhi called Saraladevi his "spiritual wife" after "an intellectual wedding," and he reported that
he bathed in her deep affection as she showered "her love on [him] in every possible way."
Kasturba Gandhi had refused to wear khadithe homespun and hand woven garments that
Gandhi made famousbut Saraladevi became the Mahatma's most elegant khadi model. Kumar
describes them as "lovelorn teenagers with stars in their eyes," and depicts Saraladevi as
"aristocratic, gorgeously dressed, sensuously beautiful, and imperious. In short, she had
everything that [Kasturba] lacked."

In contrast to his later brahmacharya mistresses, Saraladevi, just as Millie Polak before
her, did not bow to Gandhi's authority in any way. For example, as the quotation above implies,
she agreed with fellow Bengalis, such as the young Aurobindo, that independence required
violent revolution. Following her Goddess, Durga's shakti was always accompanied by violence,
and Saraladevi eventually broke with Gandhi over this very issue.

Kumar concludes that just as his relation to Faering, while "full of sensuality," was
asexual, Gandhi's romance with Saraladevi was "probably . . . entirely platonic." There was,
however, a "large component of eroticism" and the "line of demarcation between sexual,
sensuous, erotic and platonic was only of degree and not of kind."

Kumar's phrasing is unfortunate and logically incoherent, because "degree" means a

slippery slope and not a strict line between the intellectual/spiritual and the physical. In letters to
Saraladevi in July, 1920, Gandhi insists that being "spiritually" married means that the "physical
must be wholly absent," but he then admits that he is "too physically attached to" her for there to
be a true "sacred association."

In his conversations with Margaret Sanger, Gandhi refers to a "woman with whom I
almost fell," and "the thought of my wife kept me from going to perdition." Writing to Rajkumari
Amrit Kaur, a later bedmate, he admitted the he, "with one solitary exception," had never "looked
upon a woman with lustful eyes." These two references must have been to Saraladevi
Chowdharani.

Madeleine Slade, who became Gandhi's beloved Mirabehn, was the daughter of a British
naval officer who was once stationed in Bombay. Mirabehn first learned of Gandhi through
Romain Rolland, who was then writing a Gandhi biography. She wrote to Gandhi requesting that
she become a member of the Sabarmati Ashram, but he required that she live as an ascetic for one
year before coming to India. More than any of his disciples, Mirabehn eagerly took to the
austerities that Gandhi demanded. As opposed to Kasturba, who disliked latrine duties, Mirabehn
eagerly took charge of the toilets, even those for all the delegates to a meeting of the Indian
National Congress.

At their first meeting in November, 1925, Mirabehn found Gandhi "divine," and she was
able to confirm Rolland's claim that he was indeed the second Christ. They fell in love with one
another and Kumar says that "Mira was Saraladevi . . . all over again." Once again, because of
Gandhi's fascination for her, Mirabehn was shunned by the ashramites. Gandhi soon discovered
that Mirabehn's emotional instability caused his blood pressure to rise, so he frequently sent her
away on other tasks. They did, however, keep in contact with weekly self-described "love
letters," and Gandhi wrote that she haunted his dreams.

Mirabehn agreed with Gandhi's depiction that their passion was like a "bed of hot ashes,"
a veritable ascetic-erotic rhapsody of yogic tapas. Gandhi also shared with Mirabehn agonies
about his spontaneous erections, daytime ejaculations, and wet dreams, for which he castigated
himself unmercifully, and they even discussed the causes and cures of constipation.

V
Of the women closely associated with Gandhi, at least ten were said to have slept in his bed.
They can be identified as follows:

Sushila Nayar was only 15 when she came to the Sabarmati Ashram and then
became Gandhi's intimate companion, with some periods of alienation and
remove, for the rest of his life. Gandhi claimed that Nayar was a natural
brahmachari, having observed it from childhood. They bathed together and even
used the same bath water, but Gandhi assured everyone that he kept his "eyes
tightly shut."

Lilavati Asar, associated with Gandhi from 1926-1948, slept in his bed and gave
him "service," which meant bathing and massaging.

Sharada Parnerkar slept "close" to Gandhi and rendered "service." She was very ill
in October, 1940, and Gandhi gave her regular enemas.

Amtul Salaam, whom Gandhi called his "crazy daughter," was a Punjabi from
Patiala. She was also a bedmate and masseuse. Gandhi once wrote about the joy
he gave Salaam when she received a massage from him.
Prabhavati Narayan, a Kashmiri, lived in an unconsummated marriage with
Jayaprakash Narayan, Indira Gandhi's most famous political foe. Because of her

lack of sexual interest or desire, Gandhi thought that Prabhavati would be a

perfect married brahmachari. In addition to sleeping with Gandhi, she also gave
him "service."

Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur, married to a Rajasthani prince, was Indias first health
minister and was a Gandhi associate for 30 years. Although older, she slept right
along with the younger women in Gandhi's quarters. She also helped with baths
and massages.

Sucheta Kriplani, a member of Parliament and professor at Benares Hindu

University, was a member of Gandhis Peace Brigade in East Bengal in 1947.
She maintained a brahmachari marriage with J. B. Kriplani, a famous socialist
and saint. Gandhi fought their union tooth and nail. Although Gandhi invited
Mrs. Kriplani to his bed on a regular basis, he insisted that married couples in his
ashrams always sleep in different quarters.

Abha Gandhi was a Bengali who accompanied the Mahatma in East Bengal. She
started sleeping with Gandhi when she was 16; she also bathed him and washed
his clothes.

Kanchan Shah, also a married woman, had a "one night stand" with Gandhi and
was banned from brahmacharya experiments because she reputedly wanted to
have sex with him. Gandhi gave the following instructions on brahmachari
marriage to Shah and her husband: "You should not touch each other. You shall
not talk to each other. You shall not work together. You should not take service
from each other." But Gandhi of course received "service" from his women on a
daily basis. On the hypocrisy of taking what he denied to others, Kumar has this
to say: "The vow of brahmacharya was a revenge he took upon everyone else."

 Manu Gandhi was his brothers granddaughter and she was his constant companion
for the last eight years of his life. Interestingly enough, there is a temple to
Manu, a powerful rain goddess, in Gandhis home city of Porbandar.

Most accounts of Gandhis spiritual experiments focus on those with Manu in 1946-47 in East
Bengal. Although he conceded at the time that it may be a delusion and a snare, and although
he seemed to be recalling his earlier experiments at SevagramI have risked perdition before
nowhe was still confident that he had launched on a sacrifice [that] consists of the full
practice of truth and the development of a non-violence of the brave. He said that these tests
were no longer an experiment, which could be seen as optional, but a compulsory sacred duty
(yajna). His hut where he slept with Manu was called "holy ground," and Manu's father had to
sleep elsewhere when he visited.

There is some confusion about whether the women simply slept next to him or shared the same
cover, or whether they slept clothed or unclothed. The scenario appeared to be that they first slept
next to him, then slept under the same cover without clothes. Significantly, Gandhi admitted that
"all of them would strip reluctantly. . . and they did so at my prompting." As to the reason for
complete nakeness, Sushila Nayar recalls Gandhi's explanation to Manu: "We both may be killed
by the Muslims at any time. We must both put our purity to the ultimate test. . . and we should
now both start sleeping naked."

Gandhi described his sleeping with Manu as a bold and original experiment, one that required a
practiced brahmachari such as he was, and a woman such as Manu who was free from passion.
Confessing as she even might have done with her own mother, Manu told Gandhi that she had not
ever experienced sexual desire. Presumably because of these ideal conditions, Gandhi predicted
that the heat would be great. It is not clear whether Gandhi was speaking of the yogi heat of
tapas, or the heat of the negative reactions that he anticipated.

One has to admire Manu because it was she, not Gandhi, who suggested that they not sleep
together any longer. It is harder to credit Gandhi, particularly when he said that the experiments
ceased because of Manus inexperience, not because of any failing on his part. As Kumar
states: "Just five days before Gandhiji was assassinated, he charged her with failing to realize the
potential of mahayajna." So it was Manu's fault, not his.

Controversy about the practice continued during the summer of 1947, but Gandhi was pleased
when two editors of his journal Harijan, who had resigned in protest about the experiments,
confessed that they had misjudged Gandhi. It is not clear that the experiments stopped because
Pyarelal notes that "the practice was for the time being discontinued"; indeed, after returning to
Delhi, Manu and Gandhi resumed sleeping together and "continued right till the end."

Gandhis "sacred associations" actually began at his Sevagram ashram as early as 1938, when his
wife Kasturba was still alive. Sushila Nayar not only slept with him there, but also gave him
regular massages, sometimes in front of visitors, and they, as I have noted, bathed together.
About his relations to Nayar, Gandhi states: "She has experienced everything I have in me. . . .
She is more absorbed in me. Hence I would even make her sleep by my side without fear." Nayar
told Ved Mehta that long before Manu came into the picture, I used to sleep with him just as I
would with my mother. . . . In the early days there was no question of calling this a
brahmacharya experiment. It was just part of a nature cure. Later on, when people started asking
questions about his physical contact with women, the idea of brahmacharya experiments was
developed. The fact that Gandhi changed the justification for these experiments after closer
public scrutiny suggests that his motivation for these actions may not have been as pure as he
wanted people to assume.

In an extremely candid confession, Gandhi admits that at Sevagram he had made a grave mistake:

I feel my action was impelled by vanity and jealousy. If my experiment was dangerous, I
should not have undertaken it. And if it was worth trying, I should have encouraged my
co-workers to undertake it on my conditions. My experiment was a violation of the

establishment norms of brahmacharya. Such a right can be enjoyed only by a saint like
Shukadevji who can remain pure in thought, word and deed at all times of day.

Gandhi, however, could not maintain his resolve, because shortly thereafter (as soon as 12 hours!)
intimate contact with women of the ashram resumed. According to Mark Thomson, Gandhi
explained that he could not bear the pain and anguish suffered by women devotees denied the
opportunity to serve him in this fashion. Gandhi confessed that he "could not bear the tears of
Sushila and fainting away of Prabhavati." In February, 1939, there was another crisis. Gandhi
admitted that four women at Sevagram did not like "giving service" and they were ordered to
sleep "out of reach" of his arms.

When Gandhi spoke of the dangers of his sexual experiments in 1938, he must have realized that
he was not ready for the test. While he did claim that he can keep [sexual desire] under control,
he admitted he had not completely eradicated the sex feeling, a criterion that he had honored
from the traditional rules of brahmacharya. Gandhi openly admitted that there were some black
nights, presumably sleeping with his women, in which God saved me in spite of myself.

One of these dark nights must have been May 9, 1938. In a letter to Nayar's brother, Gandhi
admitted that he may have had "a dirty mind" and may have played "the role of Satan." His
"diseased mind" might have "aroused him" and thereby compromised Nayar, causing her "untold
misery." Gandhi was obviously wrong when he claimed previously that Nayar's natural purity
could "forestall any mistake I may make," and that "contact with her has brought greater purity to
me." Although he took all the blame upon himself, Gandhi appears incredibly obtuse in assuming
that Nayar had no reason to feel disturbed or unhappy about the psychological effects of her
intimate relations with him.

Sushila Nayar was away from the ashram for long periods for her medical education. When she
finished, Gandhi begged her to return as the ashram's doctor. He was upset that she now refused
to be called his daughter, and he urged her, without her preconditions, to "rush to me and become
one with me." Reading the dozens of letters exchanged during this time, it is clear that Nayar was

still very troubled about what happened at Sevagram. She wrote that she would return only on
"conditions," which were that she would not have to give Gandhi "service." Nayar reluctantly
submitted to Gandhi's indomitable will in September, 1940. While he was in Delhi, she did give
him a massage, but she came to him "with great difficulty." She also sent him a letter beforehand,
which he described as "hurtful." While describing himself as unhappy, he acknowledged that
Nayar was suffering "deep misery."It looked as if Nayar could have succeeded in tearing herself
away from Gandhi's possessive domination, just as his earlier intimates had, but she did
eventually return to him and was with him and Manu in East Bengal.

Although Gandhi declared that he, compared to other men, could take greater liberty" with
women, and that no woman "has been harmed by contact with me or been prey to lustful
thoughts," there is sufficient evidence to prove that Gandhi's experiments had a deleterious effect
on his female intimates' mental health. There was intense competition among the women for
Gandhis attention. For example, Lilavati Asar and Amtul Salaam were very jealous of Sushila
Nayar, and Gandhi promised Asar that he would stop sleeping with Nayar because of her anger.

Gandhi was always inclined to blame others for not understanding the unique nature of his
experiments. In 1940 Gandhi admitted that the "atmosphere here [Sevagram] cannot be said to be
natural for anyone," but nevertheless the conflict was caused by those who were not properly
"absorbed" in it. Those who had learned "master the atmosphere" could live at Sevagram
"comfortably and grow." Several visitors attested to definite signs of psychological turmoil
among Gandhi's women companions. In 1947 Swami Ananda and Kedar Nath, two visitors with
substantial spiritual credentials, queried Gandhi as follows: Why do we find so much disquiet
and unhappiness around you. Why are your companions emotionally unhinged? The former
Tantric Raihana Tyabji observed that the more Gandhi's young women "tried to restrain
themselves and repress their sexual impulses . . . the more oversexed and sex-conscious they
became."

After learning of the experiments, Bose wrote that he would never tempt [himself] like that; nor
would my respect for a womans personality permit me to treat her as an instrument of an
experiment undertaken only for my own sake. He was also concerned about the womens

emotional health: Whatever may be the value of the [experiment] on Gandhijis own case, it
does leave mark of injury on the personality of others who are not of the same moral stature as he
himself is, and for whom sharing in Gandhijis experiment is no spiritual necessity.

Bose was also concerned about Gandhis own emotional state, observing that Sushila Nayars
presence brought him out of his normal unruffled composure. On December 17, 1946 at 3:20
AM, Bose heard two loud slaps and deeply anguished cry from Gandhis sleeping quarters. He
went in to find both Nayar and Gandhi in tears. Bose had assumed that Gandhi had slapped
Nayar, but she insisted that Gandhi had hit himself on the forehead twice, a physical form of
Gandhis self-suffering that Manu had witnessed as well. Bose also mentions an unnamed
woman Z, who was not always disinterested in her relations with with Gandhi, and who also
upset him and distracted him from his political work.

VI
In conclusion, if we can call Gandhi a Tantric, then it is a very unique
nonritualistic, nonesoteric practice combining aspects of both left- and right-handed
Tantric schools. It also must be said, no matter how much we want to hold Gandhi in the
highest esteem, that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that Gandhi was inconsistent
in his justifications for his sexual experiments and not completely sincere in carrying
them out. This would then lead one to question whether these experiments were a
spiritual necessity or simply a personal indulgence and abuse of power.
If the goal of the true Tantric is to transform desire into something sacred, then
personally I am less and less certain that Gandhi achieved this goal. As Aldous Huxley
once said: "The professional Don Juan destroys his spirit as fatally as does the
professional ascetic, whose [mirror] image he is."