“I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test.” The test is to “recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen” and to ask whether the next step will be of use to him. “Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.”
The note is one of the last that Gandhi left, in 1948. Its wording varies slightly between editions. It appears on the opening pages of most NCERT school textbooks, Oneindia notes.