Found this passage deeply inspiring from Vinoba Bhave's Memoirs. A contemporary of Gandhi, Vinoba was a man who walked all across India over a span of 13 years, to help provide land for the poorest of the country:

"My travels have given me rich experiences, but they may be summed up very briefly. When I considered what words I might use to describe them, the only phrase which suggested itself was 'sakshatkar', direct vision -- they had given me a kind of direct experience of God. I had done my work in the faith that the human heart has goodness in it, goodness ready to be called out; God let me see that goodness in accordance with my faith.

If, on the other hand, I had expected to find human hearts full of back-biting, malice and greed, God would have given me that kind of experience. God, it would seem, is a Kalpataru (the tree that is said to give us what we desire); he appears to us in the form we expect."