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A Letter To A Hindu
By
Leo Tolstoy
Contents
A
LETTER TO A HINDU - THE SUBJECTION OF INDIA--ITS CAUSE AND CURE
I =
II =
III =
VI =
A LETTER TO A HINDU - THE
SUBJECTION OF INDIA--ITS CAUSE AND CURE
With an Introduction by M. K. GANDH=
I
By Leo Tolstoy
The letter printed below is a trans=
lation
of Tolstoy's letter written in Russian in reply to one from the Editor of F=
ree
Hindustan. After having passed from hand to hand, this letter at last came =
into
my possession through a friend who asked me, as one much interested in
Tolstoy's writings, whether I thought it worth publishing. I at once replie=
d in
the affirmative, and told him I should translate it myself into Gujarati and
induce others' to translate and publish it in various Indian vernaculars.
The
letter as received by me was a type-written copy. It was therefore referred=
to
the author, who confirmed it as his and kindly granted me permission to pri=
nt
it.
To
me, as a humble follower of that great teacher whom I have long looked upon=
as
one of my guides, it is a matter of honour to be connected with the publica=
tion
of his letter, such especially as the one which is now being given to the
world.
It
is a mere statement of fact to say that every Indian, whether he owns up to=
it
or not, has national aspirations. But there are as many opinions as there a=
re
Indian nationalists as to the exact meaning of that aspiration, and more
especially as to the methods to be used to attain the end.
One
of the accepted and 'time-honoured' methods to attain the end is that of vi=
olence.
The assassination of Sir Curzon Wylie was an illustration of that method in=
its
worst and most detestable form. Tolstoy's life has been devoted to replacing
the method of violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the metho=
d of
non-resistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence by love
expressed in self-suffering. He admits of no exception to whittle down this
great and divine law of love. He applies it to all the problems that troubl=
e mankind.
When
a man like Tolstoy, one of the clearest thinkers in the western world, one =
of
the greatest writers, one who as a soldier has known what violence is and w=
hat
it can do, condemns Japan for having blindly followed the law of modern
science, falsely so-called, and fears for that country 'the greatest
calamities', it is for us to pause and consider whether, in our impatience =
of
English rule, we do not want to replace one evil by another and a worse. In=
dia,
which is the nursery of the great faiths of the world, will cease to be
nationalist India, whatever else she may become, when she goes through the
process of civilization in the shape of reproduction on that sacred soil of=
gun
factories and the hateful industrialism which has reduced the people of Eur=
ope
to a state of slavery, and all but stifled among them the best instincts wh=
ich
are the heritage of the human family.
If
we do not want the English in India we must pay the price. Tolstoy indicates
it. 'Do not resist evil, but also do not yourselves participate in evil--in=
the
violent deeds of the administration of the law courts, the collection of ta=
xes
and, what is more important, of the soldiers, and no one in the world will
enslave you', passionately declares the sage of Yasnaya Polyana. Who can
question the truth of what he says in the following: 'A commercial company
enslaved a nation comprising two hundred millions. Tell this to a man free =
from
superstition and he will fail to grasp what these words mean. What does it =
mean
that thirty thousand people, not athletes, but rather weak and ordinary peo=
ple,
have enslaved two hundred millions of vigorous, clever, capable, freedom-lo=
ving
people? Do not the figures make it clear that not the English, but the Indi=
ans,
have enslaved themselves?'
One
need not accept all that Tolstoy says--some of his facts are not accurately
stated--to realize the central truth of his indictment of the present syste=
m,
which is to understand and act upon the irresistible power of the soul over=
the
body, of love, which is an attribute of the soul, over the brute or body fo=
rce
generated by the stirring in us of evil passions.
There is no doubt that there is nothing new in what Tolstoy preaches. But his presentation of the old truth is refreshingly forceful. His logic is unassailable. And above all he endeavours to practise what he preaches. He preaches to convince. He is sincere and in earnest. He commands attention.<= o:p>
[19th
November, 1909] M. K. GANDHI
By Leo Tolstoy
All
that exists is One. People only call this One by different names. THE VEDAS=
.
God
is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him=
. I
JOHN iv. 16.
God
is one whole; we are the parts. EXPOSITION OF THE TEACHING OF THE VEDAS BY
VIVEKANANDA.
I
Do not seek quiet and rest in those
earthly realms where delusions and desires are engendered, for if thou dost,
thou wilt be dragged through the rough wilderness of life, which is far from
Me.
Whenever
thou feelest that thy feet are becoming entangled in the interlaced roots of
life, know that thou has strayed from the path to which I beckon thee: for I
have placed thee in broad, smooth paths, which are strewn with flowers. I h=
ave
put a light before thee, which thou canst follow and thus run without
stumbling. KRISHNA.
I
have received your letter and two numbers of your periodical, both of which
interest me extremely. The oppression of a majority by a minority, and the
demoralization inevitably resulting from it, is a phenomenon that has always
occupied me and has done so most particularly of late. I will try to explai=
n to
you what I think about that subject in general, and particularly about the
cause from which the dreadful evils of which you write in your letter, and =
in
the Hindu periodical you have sent me, have arisen and continue to arise.
The
reason for the astonishing fact that a majority of working people submit to=
a
handful of idlers who control their labour and their very lives is always a=
nd
everywhere the same--whether the oppressors and oppressed are of one race or
whether, as in India and elsewhere, the oppressors are of a different natio=
n.
This
phenomenon seems particularly strange in India, for there more than two hun=
dred
million people, highly gifted both physically and mentally, find themselves=
in
the power of a small group of people quite alien to them in thought, and
immeasurably inferior to them in religious morality.
From
your letter and the articles in Free Hindustan as well as from the very
interesting writings of the Hindu Swami Vivekananda and others, it appears
that, as is the case in our time with the ills of all nations, the reason l=
ies
in the lack of a reasonable religious teaching which by explaining the mean=
ing
of life would supply a supreme law for the guidance of conduct and would
replace the more than dubious precepts of pseudo-religion and pseudo-science
with the immoral conclusions deduced from them and commonly called
'civilization'.
Your
letter, as well as the articles in Free Hindustan and Indian political
literature generally, shows that most of the leaders of public opinion among
your people no longer attach any significance to the religious teachings th=
at
were and are professed by the peoples of India, and recognize no possibilit=
y of
freeing the people from the oppression they endure except by adopting the i=
rreligious
and profoundly immoral social arrangements under which the English and other
pseudo-Christian nations live to-day.
And
yet the chief if not the sole cause of the enslavement of the Indian people=
s by
the English lies in this very absence of a religious consciousness and of t=
he
guidance for conduct which should flow from it--a lack common in our day to=
all
nations East and West, from Japan to England and America alike.
II
O ye, who see perplexities over your
heads, beneath your feet, and to the right and left of you; you will be an
eternal enigma unto yourselves until ye become humble and joyful as childre=
n.
Then will ye find Me, and having found Me in yourselves, you will rule over
worlds, and looking out from the great world within to the little world
without, you will bless everything that is, and find all is well with time =
and
with you. KRISHNA.
To make my thoughts clear to you I =
must
go farther back. We do not, cannot, and I venture to say need not, know how=
men
lived millions of years ago or even ten thousand years ago, but we do know
positively that, as far back as we have any knowledge of mankind, it has al=
ways
lived in special groups of families, tribes, and nations in which the major=
ity,
in the conviction that it must be so, submissively and willingly bowed to t=
he
rule of one or more persons--that is to a very small minority. Despite all
varieties of circumstances and personalities these relations manifested
themselves among the various peoples of whose origin we have any knowledge;=
and
the farther back we go the more absolutely necessary did this arrangement
appear, both to the rulers and the ruled, to make it possible for people to
live peacefully together.
So
it was everywhere. But though this external form of life existed for centur=
ies
and still exists, very early--thousands of years before our time--amid this
life based on coercion, one and the same thought constantly emerged among
different nations, namely, that in every individual a spiritual element is
manifested that gives life to all that exists, and that this spiritual elem=
ent
strives to unite with everything of a like nature to itself, and attains th=
is
aim through love. This thought appeared in most various forms at different
times and places, with varying completeness and clarity. It found expressio=
n in
Brahmanism, Judaism, Mazdaism (the teachings of Zoroaster), in Buddhism, Ta=
oism,
Confucianism, and in the writings of the Greek and Roman sages, as well as =
in
Christianity and Mohammedanism. The mere fact that this thought has sprung =
up
among different nations and at different times indicates that it is inheren=
t in
human nature and contains the truth. But this truth was made known to people
who considered that a community could only be kept together if some of them
restrained others, and so it appeared quite irreconcilable with the existing
order of society. Moreover it was at first expressed only fragmentarily, an=
d so
obscurely that though people admitted its theoretic truth they could not
entirely accept it as guidance for their conduct. Then, too, the disseminat=
ion
of the truth in a society based on coercion was always hindered in one and =
the
same manner, namely, those in power, feeling that the recognition of this t=
ruth
would undermine their position, consciously or sometimes unconsciously
perverted it by explanations and additions quite foreign to it, and also
opposed it by open violence. Thus the truth--that his life should be direct=
ed
by the spiritual element which is its basis, which manifests itself as love,
and which is so natural to man--this truth, in order to force a way to man's
consciousness, had to struggle not merely against the obscurity with which =
it
was expressed and the intentional and unintentional distortions surrounding=
it,
but also against deliberate violence, which by means of persecutions and pu=
nishments
sought to compel men to accept religious laws authorized by the rulers and
conflicting with the truth. Such a hindrance and misrepresentation of the
truth--which had not yet achieved complete clarity--occurred everywhere: in
Confucianism and Taoism, in Buddhism and in Christianity, in Mohammedanism =
and
in your Brahmanism.
III
My hand has sowed love everywhere, =
giving
unto all that will receive. Blessings are offered unto all My children, but
many times in their blindness they fail to see them. How few there are who
gather the gifts which lie in profusion at their feet: how many there are, =
who,
in wilful waywardness, turn their eyes away from them and complain with a w=
ail that
they have not that which I have given them; many of them defiantly repudiate
not only My gifts, but Me also, Me, the Source of all blessings and the Aut=
hor
of their being. KRISHNA.
I
tarry awhile from the turmoil and strife of the world. I will beautify and
quicken thy life with love and with joy, for the light of the soul is Love.
Where Love is, there is contentment and peace, and where there is contentme=
nt
and peace, there am I, also, in their midst. KRISHNA.
The
aim of the sinless One consists in acting without causing sorrow to others,
although he could attain to great power by ignoring their feelings.
The
aim of the sinless One lies in not doing evil unto those who have done evil
unto him.
If
a man causes suffering even to those who hate him without any reason, he wi=
ll
ultimately have grief not to be overcome.
The
punishment of evil doers consists in making them feel ashamed of themselves=
by
doing them a great kindness.
Of
what use is superior knowledge in the one, if he does not endeavour to reli=
eve
his neighbour's want as much as his own?
If,
in the morning, a man wishes to do evil unto another, in the evening the ev=
il
will return to him.
THE HINDU KURAL.
Thus it went on everywhere. The
recognition that love represents the highest morality was nowhere denied or
contradicted, but this truth was so interwoven everywhere with all kinds of
falsehoods which distorted it, that finally nothing of it remained but word=
s.
It was taught that this highest morality was only applicable to private
life--for home use, as it were--but that in public life all forms of
violence--such as imprisonment, executions, and wars--might be used for the
protection of the majority against a minority of evildoers, though such mea=
ns
were diametrically opposed to any vestige of love. And though common sense =
indicated
that if some men claim to decide who is to be subjected to violence of all
kinds for the benefit of others, these men to whom violence is applied may,=
in
turn, arrive at a similar conclusion with regard to those who have employed
violence to them, and though the great religious teachers of Brahmanism,
Buddhism, and above all of Christianity, foreseeing such a perversion of the
law of love, have constantly drawn attention to the one invariable conditio=
n of
love (namely, the enduring of injuries, insults, and violence of all kinds =
without
resisting evil by evil) people continued--regardless of all that leads man
forward--to try to unite the incompatibles: the virtue of love, and what is
opposed to love, namely, the restraining of evil by violence. And such a
teaching, despite its inner contradiction, was so firmly established that t=
he
very people who recognize love as a virtue accept as lawful at the same tim=
e an
order of life based on violence and allowing men not merely to torture but =
even
to kill one another.
For
a long time people lived in this obvious contradiction without noticing it.=
But
a time arrived when this contradiction became more and more evident to thin=
kers
of various nations. And the old and simple truth that it is natural for men=
to
help and to love one another, but not to torture and to kill one another,
became ever clearer, so that fewer and fewer people were able to believe the
sophistries by which the distortion of the truth had been made so plausible=
.
In
former times the chief method of justifying the use of violence and thereby
infringing the law of love was by claiming a divine right for the rulers: t=
he
Tsars, Sultans, Rajahs, Shahs, and other heads of states. But the longer
humanity lived the weaker grew the belief in this peculiar, God--given righ=
t of
the ruler. That belief withered in the same way and almost simultaneously in
the Christian and the Brahman world, as well as in Buddhist and Confucian
spheres, and in recent times it has so faded away as to prevail no longer a=
gainst
man's reasonable understanding and the true religious feeling. People saw m=
ore
and more clearly, and now the majority see quite clearly, the senselessness=
and
immorality of subordinating their wills to those of other people just like
themselves, when they are bidden to do what is contrary not only to their
interests but also to their moral sense. And so one might suppose that havi=
ng
lost confidence in any religious authority for a belief in the divinity of
potentates of various kinds, people would try to free themselves from
subjection to it. But unfortunately not only were the rulers, who were
considered supernatural beings, benefited by having the peoples in subjecti=
on,
but as a result of the belief in, and during the rule of, these pseudodivine
beings, ever larger and larger circles of people grouped and established
themselves around them, and under an appearance of governing took advantage=
of
the people. And when the old deception of a supernatural and God-appointed
authority had dwindled away these men were only concerned to devise a new o=
ne
which like its predecessor should make it possible to hold the people in
bondage to a limited number of rulers.
IV
Children, do you want to know by wh=
at
your hearts should be guided? Throw aside your longings and strivings after
that which is null and void; get rid of your erroneous thoughts about happi=
ness
and wisdom, and your empty and insincere desires. Dispense with these and y=
ou
will know Love. KRISHNA.
Be
not the destroyers of yourselves. Arise to your true Being, and then you wi=
ll
have nothing to fear. KRISHNA.
New justifications have now appeare=
d in
place of the antiquated, obsolete, religious ones. These new justifications=
are
just as inadequate as the old ones, but as they are new their futility cann=
ot immediately
be recognized by the majority of men. Besides this, those who enjoy power
propagate these new sophistries and support them so skilfully that they seem
irrefutable even to many of those who suffer from the oppression these theo=
ries
seek to justify. These new justifications are termed 'scientific'. But by t=
he
term 'scientific' is understood just what was formerly understood by the te=
rm
'religious': just as formerly everything called 'religious' was held to be =
unquestionable
simply because it was called religious, so now all that is called 'scientif=
ic'
is held to be unquestionable. In the present case the obsolete religious
justification of violence which consisted in the recognition of the
supernatural personality of the God-ordained ruler ('there is no power but =
of
God') has been superseded by the 'scientific' justification which puts forw=
ard,
first, the assertion that because the coercion of man by man has existed in=
all
ages, it follows that such coercion must continue to exist. This assertion =
that
people should continue to live as they have done throughout past ages rather
than as their reason and conscience indicate, is what 'science' calls 'the
historic law'. A further 'scientific' justification lies in the statement t=
hat
as among plants and wild beasts there is a constant struggle for existence
which always results in the survival of the fittest, a similar struggle sho=
uld
be carried on among human beings--beings, that is, who are gifted with
intelligence and love; faculties lacking in the creatures subject to the
struggle for existence and survival of the fittest. Such is the second
'scientific' justification.
The
third, most important, and unfortunately most widespread justification is, =
at
bottom, the age-old religious one just a little altered: that in public life
the suppression of some for the protection of the majority cannot be
avoided--so that coercion is unavoidable however desirable reliance on love
alone might be in human intercourse. The only difference in this justificat=
ion
by pseudo-science consists in the fact that, to the question why such and s=
uch
people and not others have the right to decide against whom violence may and
must be used, pseudo-science now gives a different reply to that given by r=
eligion--which
declared that the right to decide was valid because it was pronounced by
persons possessed of divine power. 'Science' says that these decisions
represent the will of the people, which under a constitutional form of
government is supposed to find expression in all the decisions and actions =
of
those who are at the helm at the moment.
Such
are the scientific justifications of the principle of coercion. They are not
merely weak but absolutely invalid, yet they are so much needed by those who
occupy privileged positions that they believe in them as blindly as they
formerly believed in the immaculate conception, and propagate them just as
confidently. And the unfortunate majority of men bound to toil is so dazzle=
d by
the pomp with which these 'scientific truths' are presented, that under this
new influence it accepts these scientific stupidities for holy truth, just =
as
it formerly accepted the pseudo-religious justifications; and it continues =
to
submit to the present holders of power who are just as hard-hearted but rat=
her
more numerous than before.
V
Who am I? I am that which thou hast
searched for since thy baby eyes gazed wonderingly upon the world, whose
horizon hides this real life from thee. I am that which in thy heart thou h=
ast
prayed for, demanded as thy birthright, although thou hast not known what it
was. I am that which has lain in thy soul for hundreds and thousands of yea=
rs. Sometimes
I lay in thee grieving because thou didst not recognize me; sometimes I rai=
sed
my head, opened my eyes, and extended my arms calling thee either tenderly =
and
quietly, or strenuously, demanding that thou shouldst rebel against the iron
chains which bound thee to the earth.
KRISHNA.
So matters went on, and still go on=
, in
the Christian world. But we might have hope that in the immense Brahman,
Buddhist, and Confucian worlds this new scientific superstition would not
establish itself, and that the Chinese, Japanese, and Hindus, once their ey=
es
were opened to the religious fraud justifying violence, would advance direc=
tly
to a recognition of the law of love inherent in humanity, and which had bee=
n so
forcibly enunciated by the great Eastern teachers. But what has happened is
that the scientific superstition replacing the religious one has been accep=
ted
and secured a stronger and stronger hold in the East.
In
your periodical you set out as the basic principle which should guide the
actions of your people the maxim that: 'Resistance to aggression is not sim=
ply
justifiable but imperative, nonresistance hurts both Altruism and Egotism.'=
Love
is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills, and in it you too have the
only method of saving your people from enslavement. In very ancient times l=
ove
was proclaimed with special strength and clearness among your people to be =
the
religious basis of human life. Love, and forcible resistance to evil-doers,
involve such a mutual contradiction as to destroy utterly the whole sense a=
nd
meaning of the conception of love. And what follows? With a light heart and=
in
the twentieth century you, an adherent of a religious people, deny their la=
w,
feeling convinced of your scientific enlightenment and your right to do so,=
and
you repeat (do not take this amiss) the amazing stupidity indoctrinated in =
you
by the advocates of the use of violence--the enemies of truth, the servants
first of theology and then of science--your European teachers.
You
say that the English have enslaved your people and hold them in subjection
because the latter have not resisted resolutely enough and have not met for=
ce
by force.
But
the case is just the opposite. If the English have enslaved the people of I=
ndia
it is just because the latter recognized, and still recognize, force as the
fundamental principle of the social order. In accord with that principle th=
ey
submitted to their little rajahs, and on their behalf struggled against one
another, fought the Europeans, the English, and are now trying to fight with
them again.
A
commercial company enslaved a nation comprising two hundred millions. Tell =
this
to a man free from superstition and he will fail to grasp what these words
mean. What does it mean that thirty thousand men, not athletes but rather w=
eak
and ordinary people, have subdued two hundred million vigorous, clever,
capable, and freedom-loving people? Do not the figures make it clear that i=
t is
not the English who have enslaved the Indians, but the Indians who have
enslaved themselves?
When
the Indians complain that the English have enslaved them it is as if drunka=
rds
complained that the spirit-dealers who have settled among them have enslaved
them. You tell them that they might give up drinking, but they reply that t=
hey
are so accustomed to it that they cannot abstain, and that they must have
alcohol to keep up their energy. Is it not the same thing with the millions=
of
people who submit to thousands' or even to hundreds, of others--of their ow=
n or
other nations?
If
the people of India are enslaved by violence it is only because they themse=
lves
live and have lived by violence, and do not recognize the eternal law of lo=
ve
inherent in humanity.
Pitiful
and foolish is the man who seeks what he already has, and does not know tha=
t he
has it. Yes, Pitiful and foolish is he who does not know the bliss of love
which surrounds him and which I have given him. KRISHNA.
As soon as men live entirely in acc=
ord
with the law of love natural to their hearts and now revealed to them, which
excludes all resistance by violence, and therefore hold aloof from all
participation in violence--as soon as this happens, not only will hundreds =
be
unable to enslave millions, but not even millions will be able to enslave a
single individual. Do not resist the evil-doer and take no part in doing so=
, either
in the violent deeds of the administration, in the law courts, the collecti=
on
of taxes, or above all in soldiering, and no one in the world will be able =
to
enslave you.
VI
O ye who sit in bondage and continu=
ally
seek and pant for freedom, seek only for love. Love is peace in itself and
peace which gives complete satisfaction. I am the key that opens the portal=
to
the rarely discovered land where contentment alone is found. KRISHNA.
What
is now happening to the people of the East as of the West is like what happ=
ens
to every individual when he passes from childhood to adolescence and from y=
outh
to manhood. He loses what had hitherto guided his life and lives without
direction, not having found a new standard suitable to his age, and so he
invents all sorts of occupations, cares, distractions, and stupefactions to
divert his attention from the misery and senselessness of his life. Such a
condition may last a long time.
When
an individual passes from one period of life to another a time comes when he
cannot go on in senseless activity and excitement as before, but has to
understand that although he has outgrown what before used to direct him, th=
is
does not mean that he must live without any reasonable guidance, but rather
that he must formulate for himself an understanding of life corresponding to
his age, and having elucidated it must be guided by it. And in the same way=
a
similar time must come in the growth and development of humanity. I believe
that such a time has now arrived--not in the sense that it has come in the =
year
1908, but that the inherent contradiction of human life has now reached an
extreme degree of tension: on the one side there is the consciousness of th=
e beneficence
of the law of love, and on the other the existing order of life which has f=
or
centuries occasioned an empty, anxious, restless, and troubled mode of life,
conflicting as it does with the law of love and built on the use of violenc=
e.
This contradiction must be faced, and the solution will evidently not be
favourable to the outlived law of violence, but to the truth which has dwel=
t in
the hearts of men from remote antiquity: the truth that the law of love is =
in
accord with the nature of man.
But
men can only recognize this truth to its full extent when they have complet=
ely
freed themselves from all religious and scientific superstitions and from a=
ll
the consequent misrepresentations and sophistical distortions by which its
recognition has been hindered for centuries.
To
save a sinking ship it is necessary to throw overboard the ballast, which
though it may once have been needed would now cause the ship to sink. And s=
o it
is with the scientific superstition which hides the truth of their welfare =
from
mankind. In order that men should embrace the truth--not in the vague way t=
hey
did in childhood, nor in the one-sided and perverted way presented to them =
by
their religious and scientific teachers, but embrace it as their highest
law--the complete liberation of this truth from all and every superstition
(both pseudo-religious and pseudo-scientific) by which it is still obscured=
is
essential: not a partial, timid attempt, reckoning with traditions sanctifi=
ed
by age and with the habits of the people--not such as was effected in the
religious sphere by Guru-Nanak, the founder of the sect of the Sikhs, and in
the Christian world by Luther, and by similar reformers in other religions-=
-but
a fundamental cleansing of religious consciousness from all ancient religio=
us
and modern scientific superstitions.
If
only people freed themselves from their beliefs in all kinds of Ormuzds,
Brahmas, Sabbaoths, and their incarnation as Krishnas and Christs, from bel=
iefs
in Paradises and Hells, in reincarnations and resurrections, from belief in=
the
interference of the Gods in the external affairs of the universe, and above
all, if they freed themselves from belief in the infallibility of all the
various Vedas, Bibles, Gospels, Tripitakas, Korans, and the like, and also
freed themselves from blind belief in a variety of scientific teachings abo=
ut infinitely
small atoms and molecules and in all the infinitely great and infinitely re=
mote
worlds, their movements and origin, as well as from faith in the infallibil=
ity
of the scientific law to which humanity is at present subjected: the histor=
ic
law, the economic laws, the law of struggle and survival, and so on--if peo=
ple
only freed themselves from this terrible accumulation of futile exercises of
our lower capacities of mind and memory called the 'Sciences', and from the
innumerable divisions of all sorts of histories, anthropologies, homiletics=
, bacteriologics,
jurisprudences, cosmographies, strategies--their name is legion--and freed
themselves from all this harmful, stupifying ballast--the simple law of lov=
e,
natural to man, accessible to all and solving all questions and perplexitie=
s,
would of itself become clear and obligatory.
VII
Children, look at the flowers at yo=
ur
feet; do not trample upon them. Look at the love in your midst and do not
repudiate it. KRISHNA.
There
is a higher reason which transcends all human minds. It is far and near. It
permeates all the worlds and at the same time is infinitely higher than the=
y.
A
man who sees that all things are contained in the higher spirit cannot treat
any being with contempt.
For
him to whom all spiritual beings are equal to the highest there can be no r=
oom
for deception or grief.
Those
who are ignorant and are devoted to the religious rites only, are in a deep
gloom, but those who are given up to fruitless meditations are in a still
greater darkness.
UPANISHADS, FROM VEDAS.
Yes, in our time all these things m=
ust be
cleared away in order that mankind may escape from self-inflicted calamities
that have reached an extreme intensity. Whether an Indian seeks liberation =
from
subjection to the English, or anyone else struggles with an oppressor eithe=
r of
his own nationality or of another--whether it be a Negro defending himself =
against
the North Americans; or Persians, Russians, or Turks against the Persian,
Russian, or Turkish governments, or any man seeking the greatest welfare for
himself and for everybody else--they do not need explanations and
justifications of old religious superstitions such as have been formulated =
by
your Vivekanandas, Baba Bharatis, and others, or in the Christian world by a
number of similar interpreters and exponents of things that nobody needs; n=
or
the innumerable scientific theories about matters not only unnecessary but =
for
the most part harmful. (In the spiritual realm nothing is indifferent: what=
is
not useful is harmful.) What are wanted for the Indian as for the Englishma=
n,
the Frenchman, the German, and the Russian, are not Constitutions and Revol=
utions,
nor all sorts of Conferences and Congresses, nor the many ingenious devices=
for
submarine navigation and aerial navigation, nor powerful explosives, nor all
sorts of conveniences to add to the enjoyment of the rich, ruling classes; =
nor
new schools and universities with innumerable faculties of science, nor an
augmentation of papers and books, nor gramophones and cinematographs, nor t=
hose
childish and for the most part corrupt stupidities termed art--but one thing
only is needful: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth which finds pl=
ace
in every soul that is not stupefied by religious and scientific superstitio=
ns--the
truth that for our life one law is valid--the law of love, which brings the
highest happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind. Free your
minds from those overgrown, mountainous imbecilities which hinder your
recognition of it, and at once the truth will emerge from amid the
pseudo-religious nonsense that has been smothering it: the indubitable, ete=
rnal
truth inherent in man, which is one and the same in all the great religions=
of
the world. It will in due time emerge and make its way to general recogniti=
on,
and the nonsense that has obscured it will disappear of itself, and with it
will go the evil from which humanity now suffers.
Children,
look upwards with your beclouded eyes, and a world full of joy and love will
disclose itself to you, a rational world made by My wisdom, the only real
world. Then you will know what love has done with you, what love has bestow=
ed
upon you, what love demands from you. KRISHNA.
YASNAYA POLYANA.
December
14th, 1908.