~ Mahadevbhai Desai ~
Bapu's Confidant

Mahadevbhai Desai was very close to Gandhiji as his Secretary. He had merged himself with Gandhiji and his activities. He lived with family near Bapu Kuti in a hut called 'Mahadev Kuti'. It is situated on the northern side of Bapu Kuti. Mahadevbhai had good command on English and Gujrati languages. He had a pious character. He died on 15th August,1942 while in prison with Gandhiji at the Agakhan Palace in Pune. His absence was deeply felt by Gandhiji.

An Autobiography:
The Story of My Experiments with Truth
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahadev H. Desai

The following pages by Mahadev Desai are an ambitious project. It represents his unremitting labours during his prison life in 1933-'34. Every page is evidence of his scholarship and exhaustive study of all he could lay hands upon regarding the Bhagawad Gita, poetically called the Song Celestial by the late Sir Edwin Arnold. The immediate cause of this labour of love was my translation in Gujarati of the divine book as I understood it. In trying to give a translation of my meaning of the Gita, he found himself writing an original commentary on the Gita. Frankly, I do not pretend to any scholarship. I have, therefore, contended myself with showing the genesis of Mahadev Desai's effort. In so far as the translation part of the volume is concerned, I can vouch for its accuracy. He has carried out the meaning of the original translation. I may add too that Pyarelal has interfered with the original. only and in rare cases where it was considered to be essential, an interference which Mahadev Desai would, in my opinion, have gladly accepted, had he been alive.

[On the train to Madras
M.K. GANDHI
20th January, 1946]