Ex-Butterfly
Mirabai, better known as Miss Madeleine Slade, St. Gandhi's caretaker and most devoted disciple, who came out of prison fortnight ago, gave her first Press interview last week. Everyone knows that she, a tall, grave woman with a gentle voice and a delicate, jet-black mustache, was the daughter of Admiral Sir Edmond John Warre Slade; that she gave up a position in British society for which she does not seem particularly suited to seek spiritual peace caring for the Mahatma. Until last week she never told her own story:
"I was reared in luxury and ease. I had a splendid education, travelled widely, danced, had pretty clothes, lovely jewels, many admirers. But I lacked spiritual satisfaction and real contentment, and I decided that life was an empty sham.
"... I began to seek light. I found it when I met Remain Holland, the great French philosopher. He advised me if I wanted to do the utmost good in the world to join Mr. Gandhi. ... I went to Switzerland and for a year lived in seclusion with the poorest Swiss peasants. I studied spinning and weaving, I familiarized myself with Hindustani. I read all Mahatma Gandhi's works. . . . Then I came to India, landing at Bombay where many years previously I had been a social butterfly.
". . . In Mahatma Gandhi I felt I ... had met my parent. ... It was like finding something that I had lost. . . . The political side of Gandhi is the least part of him. As a moral teacher and reformer the world has not known his equal since Buddha and Christ. He made no attempt to convert me from Christianity. I am not an orthodox Hindu. The Mahatma did not baptize me or immerse me in the holy Ganges, as has been reported. Gandhi hates conversion and believes that all religions are good."
Her Hindu name, she explained, comes from Mira, a Rajput Princess who gave up her position to become a worshipper of Krishna, and Bai a feminine suffix. She is also called Mirabehn, which means Sister Mira.
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