THE SPIRIT'S PILGRIMAGE

A strange pilgrimage this from the sheltered life as a daughter of a high-ranking British naval officer, privileged socially and economically -- to the deliberate poverty, austerity and self abnegation as a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi. For twenty-five years she served him, now acting as his secretary, his aide; now serving sentence in jail; traveling with him -- to England, to America, seeking India's freedom and the right to carry on his work among the millions unhampered. Hardest of all for her were the years when she was separated from him- by illness sometimes, by his direction, lest she grow to need his bodily presence too much. And in those years and the ten since his death, she has carried on in practical measure, with her work for the villages, with her cattle experimentation in the Himalayas, and with periods of silence and contemplation, seeking the spirit's goal. In some of the book one feels a faint suggestion of the dedication, the occasional rebellion, the discipline, of The Nun's Story. But without the warmth and humor and sense of people. Here she travels a lonely road; people rarely emerge as individuals, including herself. But the spark is there when she writes of Gandhi, and she throws a different light on his personality, while contributing almost nothing of illumination on his teachings. But it is among the Gandhi admirers that the chief market for this book will be found.