Autobiography is the story of a person’s life written by that person. We all want to read about successful people and know what they did different or how were they able to achieve so much in life and when it comes to autobiographies the best that I can recall so far is of Mahatma Gandhi ,the FATHER OF OUR NATION.So ,have you ever tried to know more about his life other than what you have studied in books? If no, then today I will be giving you 5 reasons why you should read MAHATMA GANDHI JI’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY titled The story of MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH. So, let’s begin.

1. He talks about truth in the most harsh manner possible. He says that ” The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should be so humble that even the dust could crush him . Only then, and not till then will he have a glimpse of truth. He further says ” In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be “.
2. He talks about one incident from his childhood where some guest had come on a visit of inspection to his school and the guest had asked students to write five words as spelling test. One of the word was ‘Kettle’ and Gandhiji miss spelt it and he says “the teacher tried to prompt me with the point of his boot , but I would not be prompted . It was beyond me to see that he wanted me to copy the spelling from my neighbour’s slate, for I had thought that the teacher was there to supervise us against copying. The result was that all the boys, except myself, were found to have spelt every word correctly. Only I had been stupid. The teacher tried later to bring this stupidity home to me. but without effect. I never could learn the art of ‘copying’.

Yet the incident did not in the least diminish my respect for my teacher. I was by nature blind to the faults of elders. Later I came to know of many other failings of this teacher, but my regard for him remained the same. For I had learnt to carry out the orders of elders, not to scan their actions.” Here , we learn how respectful Gandhi ji was towards his elders and teachers.

3. Gandhi ji also talks about how once he stole a bit of gold from his brother’s armlet when he was about 15 years old. Later on , he was very guilty and decided to write out the confession to his father . He says “

A clean confession, combined with a promise
never to commit the sin again, when offered before the one who has the right to receive it is the purest type of repentance. I know that my confession
made my father feel absolutely safe about me, and increased his affection for me beyond
measure.”

4. And the best thing that he tells is ” Let every youth take a leaf out of my book and make it a point to account for everything that comes into and goes out of his pocket, and like me he is sure to be a gainer in the end”.

5. Last but not the least he says ,” When every hope is gone, WHEN HELPERS FALL AND COMFORTS FLEE, I find that help arrives somehow from I know not where . Supplication, worship, prayer are no superstition ; they are acts more real than the acts of eating, drinking, sitting or walking. It is no exaggeration to say that they alone are real, all else is unreal.

At the end , I just want to say that these were just the 5 things that i felt important but once you read that book you will realize that it is full of many life lessons and is a must read book.