From ‘Timeless Inspirator - Relieving Gandhi’. Conceptualized and Edited by Raghunath Mashelkar

…Ram Manohar Lohia …..was curious to know how, despite a monotonous, low pitched and often inaudible voice, the Mahatma managed to breathe fire in his speeches. Bapu had replied, “I don’t exactly know. But the only reason I can think of is that I have never asked people to do anything which I first did not practice in my life. And the people of India seem to recognize the difference.”

…..Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “I gained my regulating Christian ideals from Gandhi”

….Sarojini Naidu once taking a pun at Gandhiji wrote about the cost of keeping Gandhi poor. She had tried to highlight that when Gandhiji lived in a harijan basti during various trips, the cost of keeping the environment worthy of his presence was very high. Perhaps, she had missed the point that Gandhiji was making. He didn’t want two standards of sanitization and social security, one for himself and one for others.

His life itself was a clear message to us. He had thought and practiced every small detail of building a nation and its people. He would think of individual cleanliness on the same level as political freedom. To him, cleanliness in lavatories and the village ponds was as vital as spiritual salvation.