Rajesh Kochhar

Mahatma Gandhi  ( 1869-1948) is far more relevant today than he was in his own time.Leading a simple  life, living within  your means,  buying out of your past savings rather than future earnings-these simple truths which the world has now  learnt the hard way bring to mind  what Gandhi used to argue all the time.

A very large number of Intenet  sites quote Mahatma Gandhi  to the effect that the eath has enough for everybody’s need but not greed. Various paraphrases of the quote are extant. Curiously each  version  is placed within inverted commas to imply that the words are actually Gandhi’s.  None of the versions is authentic, though the idea is his. Regrettably Gandhi was not a one-line person. The type of pithy aphorisms that we value these days was not his style.

Frank Nathaniel Daniel  Buchman ( 1878-1961), the founder of Moral Re-Armament did say :”There is enough for everyone’s need,  but not enough for everyone’s greed.”  But surely the quote needs a bettr author than him.As already noted, the idea is certainly Gandhi’s but these words are not his.

So , the question is : What exactly did Mahatma Gandhi say on the subject? I hope knowlegable people would come up with  the exact wording as well as the exact reference.Thanks