President Barack Obama near an image of Mahatma Gandhi at Mani Bhavan in Mumbai on Saturday. (Reuters)

Mumbai, Nov. 6: A Gandhian quietly told President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle what the world has been trying to tell America since 9/11: politics without principles and commerce without morality is a social sin.

“Michelle Obama nodded and smiled when I told her about the seven things that Gandhiji regarded as seven deadly social sins,” J.V. Pathak, a trustee of Mani Bhavan, told The Telegraph after the Obamas spent nearly 40 minutes at the Gandhi museum here this afternoon.

Pathak was only quoting from an article Gandhi wrote in October 1925 in the Young India magazine he edited.

“Wealth without work, education without character, science without humanity, pleasure without conscience, and worship without sacrifice are the others sins that the Mahatma underlined. I was very happy to meet President Obama and his wife. They are remarkably humble,” Pathak said.

At Mani Bhavan, the couple were welcomed by museum president Vasant Pradhan and Gandhi’s granddaughter Ushaben Gokani. They offered floral tributes to a statue of the Mahatma on the ground floor before walking up to the second floor to see a room that he had lived in during the freedom struggle.

Among the Mani Bhavan trustees present today was Usha Trivedi, who had welcomed Martin Luther King when he visited Mani Bhavan nearly 50 years ago. “I told him that I had the rare privilege of welcoming Martin Luther King in 1959, and now Obama,” Trivedi said.

The Gandhians presented the Obamas with two books, including Mahatma Gandhi — a Golden Treasure of Wisdom, a collection of his teachings.

“I am filled with hope and inspiration and I have the privilege to view this testament to Gandhi. He’s a hero not just to India but to the world,” Obama wrote in the visitor’s book.