Mahatma's "Green brain" !!!

When Mahatma Gandhi received a letter from a friend asking about his pain in the elbow, and "Blue brain, Gandhi was sitting under a tree, so he famously wrote, that he cannot feel any "blue brain" but yes, the tree might cause "Green Brain" instead! President K R Narayanan, in his address to UN assembly, pointed out Mahatma's love for the nature.

This was the letter:

LETTER TO BEHRAMJI KHAMBHATTA

October 24, 1932
BHAISHRI KHAMBHATTA,

I got your letter.Since the pain in the elbow has returned,I have again started dictating as many of the letters as I can to give rest to my arm.None of us was scared by your letter in which you spoke of “blue brain”.I had not the least idea what “blue brain” was and as I had been lying under a tree when your letter came,I said: “Who knows what ‘blue brain’ is! But living under a tree might cause ‘green brain’, and it would certainly be good to have it.”Thus we had some fun about it, as I showed no symptom at all of what you feared.And we have more cause for fun now that we can understand how you came to have the fear.There is absolutely no reason why I should not let myself be examined by Bhai Mehta.I would like him to examine me and make some suggestions.Why should not I learn from Mehta,when I am always ready to learn from anybody who has something to give?But the truth is that I would have to obtain special permission to get myself examined by him,and I am really afraid I would not get such permission if I asked for it.I do not ask the permission to spare myself the shock of the refusal. However, I would certainly think about whatever suggestions he sends in writting on the basis of any likely causes that occur to him.Like him, I also believe that disease is lurking somewhere in me, despite all the self-control I exercise, and that the disease expresses itself through the pain in the elbow or otherwise. The bowels certainly are weak.After all I have not been a man of self-control all my life.I lived a life of self-indulgence for a number of years, and who can measure the self-indulgence that must have mixed with self-control after I consiously started to lead such a life?

It would be very good indeed if both of you could go to a quiet place.Do not fight nature.

Blessings from
BAPU

From a photostat of the Gujarati: G.N. 7554, Also C.W. 5029. Courtesy: Tehmina Khambhatta