Chapter-12: Its For All!

Gandhiji used to get up early in the morning. He would then wash his face and brush his teeth with a datun. He would finish all jobs with only a small jug of water.
Once, observing this, his colleague Mohanlal Pandya asked, “Bapu, why are you so miserly with the use of water, when the whole of Sabarmati river is flowing just next to our Ashram?”
Gandhiji asked him a question, “Tell me first, do you find my face properly cleaned?”
Pandyaji answered, “Yes, it is.”
Gandhiji: “Then what does it matter? You use jugs and jugs of water. But, you just wet your hands and apply on your face, while I wash my face properly with water.  So, this amount of water is quite sufficient for me.”
Pandyaji: “But, any way the river is full of water.”
Gandhiji: “For whom the river water is flowing? Is it only for me?”
Pandyaji: “It is for all. It is also for us…..”
Gandhiji: “That is correct. The river water is for all; for the birds, animals, insects, and men and not only for me. I can use only that quantity, which is required by me. But, I have no right to use more than what is really my need. From a collective property, could we take more than what is needed?”