This comprehensive and balanced selection of Gandhi's writings, taken from his letters, articles, and books, represents the complete cross-section of his thought, from his early years as a young barrister freshly called to the London bar, to his final days as sage and counsel to newly independent India. The selection not only reveals the growth of Gandhi's ideas but also their essential internal integrity and consistency. Similarly, it illustrates the full facets of his personality: both acerbic and melancholic, gentle and forcefully intellectual, humourous and intensely demanding of his followers. Most of all, it reveals the deep humanity of the man and his rich vein of genuine spirituality. The Essential Writings shows Gandhi to have been both a contemplative ascetic mystic, as well as a man of action, revealing aspects of his thought and character that have previously been obscured, even to those who think they already know the Mahatma.