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these three things kept him a slave in England where he could have been free. He could have looked into many aspects of life which were not available in India, but it was impossible because those three oaths were so binding. He did not make friends, he did not go to any meetings, sermons. He simply kept himself with his books and prayed to God, "Somehow finish my course so I can be back in India."
Now, such a person cannot become a great legal expert. His examination was good, he passed. But when he came to India, in his first case, when he went to the court again the same thing happened as had happened in the prostitute's house. He simply said, "My lord ..." and that was all! People waited a few minutes, then again he said, "My lord ...." And he was trembling so that the justice said, "You take him and let him relax."
That was Gandhi's first and last case in India, in an Indian court. Then he never dared to take any case because just after "My lord," he might stop, and that would not make sense. And the reason was simply that he had no experience of meeting people, talking with people, conversing with people. He had become almost like an isolated monk who had lived in a faraway monastery, alone, and then had been brought again to Bombay where he was not at all at ease.
And this man became one of the greatest leaders of the world. In this world things work very strangely. Because Gandhi could not go to the court, he accepted an offer from a friendly Mohammedan family; they had business in South Africa and they needed a legal adviser. He was not to go to the court, he had just to advise the advocate there, to assist him to understand the whole situation of the business in India and in Africa.
So he was just an assistant to the advocate; he was not going to court directly. For this purpose he went to Africa, but on the way two accidents happened which changed not only his life but the whole Indian history, and perhaps made an impact on the whole world.
One was that a friend who had come to see him off at the ship presented him a book, UNTO THIS LAST, by John Ruskin -- a book which transformed his whole life. It is a simple book and
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