{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_40766/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_40766","id":"gutenberg_40766","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40766","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Nationalism","Nobel Prizes in Literature"],"text":"WORKS BY\n\nSIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE\n\n\n+GITANJALI (Song Offerings).+ With Introduction by W. B. YEATS and\nPortrait. Cr. 8vo. 4s. 6d. net.\n\n+FRUIT-GATHERING. (A Sequel to \"Gitanjali.\")+ Cr. 8vo. 4s. 6d. net.\n\n+THE CRESCENT MOON. Child-Poems.+ With 8 Illustrations in Colour.\nPott 4to. 4s. 6d. net.\n\n+THE GARDENER. Poems.+ With Portrait. Cr. 8vo. 4s. 6d. net.\n\n+STRAY BIRDS. Poems.+ With Frontispiece by WILLY POG\u00c1NY. Cr. 8vo. 4s.\n6d. net.\n\n+LOVER'S GIFT AND CROSSING.+ Cr. 8vo. 5s. net.\n\n+CHITRA. A Play.+ Ex. cr. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net.\n\n+THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER. A Play.+ Cr. 8vo. 4s. 6d. net.\n\n+THE POST OFFICE. A Play.+ Cr. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net.\n\n+THE CYCLE OF SPRING. A Play.+ Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.\n\n+SACRIFICE AND OTHER PLAYS.+ Cr. 8vo. 5s. net.\n\n+HUNGRY STONES AND OTHER STORIES.+ Translated by various Writers. Cr.\n8vo. 5s. net.\n\n+MASHI AND OTHER STORIES.+ Cr. 8vo. 5s. net.\n\n+PERSONALITY: Lectures delivered in America.+ Illustrated. Ex. cr.\n8vo. 5s. net.\n\n+MY REMINISCENCES.+ Illustrated. Ex. cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.\n\n+SADHANA: The Realisation of Life. Lectures.+ Ex. cr. 8vo. 5s.\nnet.\n\n+NATIONALISM.+ Ex. cr. 8vo. 4s. 6d. net.\n\n\nLONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.\n\n\n\n\nNATIONALISM\n\n\n[Illustration: Logo]\n\nMACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED\n\nLONDON \u00b7 BOMBAY \u00b7 CALCUTTA \u00b7 MADRAS\nMELBOURNE\n\nTHE MACMILLAN COMPANY\n\nNEW YORK \u00b7 BOSTON \u00b7 CHICAGO\nDALLAS \u00b7 SAN FRANCISCO\n\nTHE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.\n\nTORONTO\n\n\n\n\nNATIONALISM\n\nBY\n\nSIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE\n\nMACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED\nST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON\n1918\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT\n\n_First Edition 1917_\n_Reprinted 1918 (twice)_\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n                              PAGE\nNATIONALISM IN THE WEST          1\n\nNATIONALISM IN JAPAN            47\n\nNATIONALISM IN INDIA            95\n\nTHE SUNSET OF THE CENTURY      131\n\n\n\n\nNATIONALISM IN THE WEST\n\n\nMan's history is being shaped according to the difficulties it\nencounters. These have offered us problems and claimed their solutions\nfrom us, the penalty of non-fulfilment being death or degradation.\n\nThese difficulties have been different in different peoples of the\nearth, and in the manner of our overcoming them lies our distinction.\n\nThe Scythians of the earlier period of Asiatic history had to struggle\nwith the scarcity of their natural resources. The easiest solution that\nthey could think of was to organize their whole population, men, women,\nand children, into bands of robbers. And they were irresistible to those\nwho were chiefly engaged in the constructive work of social\nco-operation.\n\nBut fortunately for man the easiest path is not his truest path. If his\nnature were not as complex as it is, if it were as simple as that of a\npack of hungry wolves, then, by this time, those hordes of marauders\nwould have overrun the whole earth. But man, when confronted with\ndifficulties, has to acknowledge that he is man, that he has his\nresponsibilities to the higher faculties of his nature, by ignoring\nwhich he may achieve success that is immediate, perhaps, but that will\nbecome a death-trap to him. For what are obstacles to the lower\ncreatures are opportunities to the higher life of man.\n\nTo India has been given her problem from the beginning of history--it is\nthe race problem. Races ethnologically different have in this country\ncome into close contact. This fact has been and still continues to be\nthe most important one in our history. It is our mission to face it and\nprove our humanity by dealing with it in the fullest truth. Until we\nfulfil our mission all other benefits will be denied us.\n\nThere are other peoples in the world who have to overcome obstacles in\ntheir physical surroundings, or the menace of their powerful neighbours.\nThey have organized their power till they are not only reasonably free\nfrom the tyranny of Nature and human neighbours, but have a surplus of\nit left in their hands to employ against others. But in India, our\ndifficulties being internal, our history has been the history of\ncontinual social adjustment and not that of organized power for defence\nand aggression.\n\nNeither the colourless vagueness of cosmopolitanism, nor the fierce\nself-idolatry of nation-worship, is the goal of human history. And India\nhas been trying to accomplish her task through social regulation of\ndifferences, on the one hand, and the spiritual recognition of unity on\nthe other. She has made grave errors in setting up the boundary walls\ntoo rigidly between races, in perpetuating in her classifications the\nresults of inferiority; often she has crippled her children's minds and\nnarrowed their lives in order to fit them into her social forms; but for\ncenturies new experiments have been made and adjustments carried out.\n\nHer mission has been like that of a hostess who has to provide proper\naccommodation for numerous guests, whose habits and requirements are\ndifferent from one another. This gives rise to infinite complexities\nwhose solution depends not merely upon tactfulness but upon sympathy and\ntrue realization of the unity of man. Towards this realization have\nworked, from the early time of the Upanishads up to the present moment,\na series of great spiritual teachers, whose one object has been to set\nat naught all differences of man by the overflow of our consciousness of\nGod. In fact, our history has not been of the rise and fall of kingdoms,\nof fights for political supremacy. In our country records of these days\nhave been despised and forgotten, for they in no way represent the true\nhistory of our people. Our history is that of our social life and\nattainment of spiritual ideals.\n\nBut we feel that our task is not yet done. The world-flood has swept\nover our country, new elements have been introduced, and wider\nadjustments are waiting to be made.\n\nWe feel this all the more, because the teaching and example of the West\nhave entirely run counter to what we think was given to India to\naccomplish. In the West the national machinery of commerce and politics\nturns out neatly compressed bales of humanity which have their use and\nhigh market value; but they are bound in iron hoops, labelled and\nseparated off with scientific care and precision. Obviously God made man\nto be human; but this modern product has such marvellous square-cut\nfinish, savouring of gigantic manufacture, that the Creator will find it\ndifficult to recognize it as a thing of spirit and a creature made in\nHis own divine image.\n\nBut I am anticipating. What I was about to say is this. Take it in\nwhatever spirit you like, here is India, of about fifty centuries at\nleast, who tried to live peacefully and think deeply, the India devoid\nof all politics, the India of no nations, whose one ambition has been to\nknow this world as of soul, to live here every moment of her life in the\nmeek spirit of adoration, in the glad consciousness of an eternal and\npersonal relationship with it. It was upon this remote portion of\nhumanity, childlike in its manner, with the wisdom of the old, that the\nNation of the West burst in.\n\nThrough all the fights and intrigues and deceptions of her earlier\nhistory India had remained aloof. Because her homes, her fields, her\ntemples of worship, her schools, where her teachers and students lived\ntogether in the atmosphere of simplicity and devotion and learning, her\nvillage self-government with its simple laws and peaceful\nadministration--all these truly belonged to her. But her thrones were\nnot her concern. They passed over her head like clouds, now tinged with\npurple gorgeousness, now black with the threat of thunder. Often they\nbrought devastations in their wake, but they were like catastrophes of\nnature whose traces are soon forgotten.\n\nBut this time it was different. It was not a mere drift over her\nsurface of life,--drift of cavalry and foot soldiers, richly caparisoned\nelephants, white tents and canopies, strings of patient camels bearing\nthe loads of royalty, bands of kettle-drums and flutes, marble domes of\nmosques, palaces and tombs, like the bubbles of the foaming wine of\nextravagance; stories of treachery and loyal devotion, of changes of\nfortune, of dramatic surprises of fate. This time it was the Nation of\nthe West driving its tentacles of machinery deep down into the soil.\n\nTherefore I say to you, it is we who are called as witnesses to give\nevidence as to what our Nation has been to humanity. We had known the\nhordes of Moghals and Pathans who invaded India, but we had known them\nas human races, with their own religions and customs, likes and\ndislikes,--we had never known them as a nation. We loved and hated them\nas occasions arose; we fought for them and against them, talked with\nthem in a language which was theirs as well as our own, and guided the\ndestiny of the Empire in which we had our active share. But this time we\nhad to deal, not with kings, not with human races, but with a\nnation--we, who are no nation ourselves.\n\nNow let us from our own experience answer the question, What is this\nNation?\n\nA nation, in the sense of the political and economic union of a people,\nis that aspect which a whole population assumes when organized for a\nmechanical purpose. Society as such has no ulterior purpose. It is an\nend in itself. It is a spontaneous self-expression of man as a social\nbeing. It is a natural regulation of human relationships, so that men\ncan develop ideals of life in co-operation with one another. It has also\na political side, but this is only for a special purpose. It is for\nself-preservation. It is merely the side of power, not of human ideals.\nAnd in the early days it had its separate place in society, restricted\nto the professionals. But when with the help of science and the\nperfecting of organization this power begins to grow and brings in\nharvests of wealth, then it crosses its boundaries with amazing\nrapidity. For then it goads all its neighbouring societies with greed of\nmaterial prosperity, and consequent mutual jealousy, and by the fear of\neach other's growth into powerfulness. The time comes when it can stop\nno longer, for the competition grows keener, organization grows vaster,\nand selfishness attains supremacy. Trading upon the greed and fear of\nman, it occupies more and more space in society, and at last becomes its\nruling force.\n\nIt is just possible that you have lost through habit consciousness that\nthe living bonds of society are breaking up, and giving place to merely\nmechanical organization. But you see signs of it everywhere. It is owing\nto this that war has been declared between man and woman, because the\nnatural thread is snapping which holds them together in harmony; because\nman is driven to professionalism, producing wealth for himself and\nothers, continually turning the wheel of power for his own sake or for\nthe sake of the universal officialdom, leaving woman alone to wither and\nto die or to fight her own battle unaided. And thus there where\nco-operation is natural has intruded competition. The very psychology of\nmen and women about their mutual relation is changing and becoming the\npsychology of the primitive fighting elements, rather than of humanity\nseeking its completeness through the union based upon mutual\nself-surrender. For the elements which have lost their living bond of\nreality have lost the meaning of their existence. Like gaseous particles\nforced into a too narrow space, they come in continual conflict with\neach other till they burst the very arrangement which holds them in\nbondage.\n\nThen look at those who call themselves anarchists, who resent the\nimposition of power, in any form whatever, upon the individual. The only\nreason for this is that power has become too abstract--it is a\nscientific product made in the political laboratory of the Nation,\nthrough the dissolution of personal humanity.\n\nAnd what is the meaning of these strikes in the economic world, which\nlike the prickly shrubs in a barren soil shoot up with renewed vigour\neach time they are cut down? What, but that the wealth-producing\nmechanism is incessantly growing into vast stature, out of proportion to\nall other needs of society,--and the full reality of man is more and\nmore crushed under its weight? This state of things inevitably gives\nrise to eternal feuds among the elements freed from the wholeness and\nwholesomeness of human ideals, and interminable economic war is waged\nbetween capital and labour. For greed of wealth and power can never have\na limit, and compromise of self-interest can never attain the final\nspirit of reconciliation. They must go on breeding jealousy and\nsuspicion to the end--the end which only comes through some sudden\ncatastrophe or a spiritual re-birth.\n\nWhen this organization of politics and commerce, whose other name is the\nNation, becomes all-powerful at the cost of the harmony of the higher\nsocial life, then it is an evil day for humanity. When a father becomes\na gambler and his obligations to his family take the secondary place in\nhis mind, then he is no longer a man, but an automaton led by the power\nof greed. Then he can do things which, in his normal state of mind, he\nwould be ashamed to do. It is the same thing with society. When it\nallows itself to be turned into a perfect organization of power, then\nthere are few crimes which it is unable to perpetrate. Because success\nis the object and justification of a machine, while goodness only is the\nend and purpose of man. When this engine of organization begins to\nattain a vast size, and those who are mechanics are made into parts of\nthe machine, then the personal man is eliminated to a phantom,\neverything becomes a revolution of policy carried out by the human parts\nof the machine, with no twinge of pity or moral responsibility. It may\nhappen that even through this apparatus the moral nature of man tries\nto assert itself, but the whole series of ropes and pullies creak and\ncry, the forces of the human heart become entangled among the forces of\nthe human automaton, and only with difficulty can the moral purpose\ntransmit itself into some tortured shape of result.\n\nThis abstract being, the Nation, is ruling India. We have seen in our\ncountry some brand of tinned food advertised as entirely made and packed\nwithout being touched by hand. This description applies to the governing\nof India, which is as little touched by the human hand as possible. The\ngovernors need not know our language, need not come into personal touch\nwith us except as officials; they can aid or hinder our aspirations from\na disdainful distance, they can lead us on a certain path of policy and\nthen pull us back again with the manipulation of office red tape; the\nnewspapers of England, in whose columns London street accidents are\nrecorded with some decency of pathos, need but take the scantiest notice\nof calamities which happen in India over areas of land sometimes larger\nthan the British Isles.\n\nBut we, who are governed, are not a mere abstraction. We, on our side,\nare individuals with living sensibilities. What comes to us in the\nshape of a mere bloodless policy may pierce into the very core of our\nlife, may threaten the whole future of our people with a perpetual\nhelplessness of emasculation, and yet may never touch the chord of\nhumanity on the other side, or touch it in the most inadequately feeble\nmanner. Such wholesale and universal acts of fearful responsibility man\ncan never perform, with such a degree of systematic unawareness, where\nhe is an individual human being. These only become possible, where the\nman is represented by an octopus of abstractions, sending out its\nwriggling arms in all directions of space, and fixing its innumerable\nsuckers even into the far-away future. In this reign of the nation, the\ngoverned are pursued by suspicions; and these are the suspicions of a\ntremendous mass of organized brain and muscle. Punishments are meted\nout, which leave a trail of miseries across a large bleeding tract of\nthe human heart; but these punishments are dealt by a mere abstract\nforce, in which a whole population of a distant country has lost its\nhuman personality.\n\nI have not come here, however, to discuss the question as it affects my\nown country, but as it affects the future of all humanity. It is not a\nquestion of the British Government, but of government by the Nation--the\nNation which is the organized self-interest of a whole people, where it\nis least human and least spiritual. Our only intimate experience of the\nNation is with the British Nation, and as far as the government by the\nNation goes there are reasons to believe that it is one of the best.\nThen, again, we have to consider that the West is necessary to the East.\nWe are complementary to each other because of our different outlooks\nupon life which have given us different aspects of truth. Therefore if\nit be true that the spirit of the West has come upon our fields in the\nguise of a storm it is nevertheless scattering living seeds that are\nimmortal. And when in India we become able to assimilate in our life\nwhat is permanent in Western civilization we shall be in the position to\nbring about a reconciliation of these two great worlds. Then will come\nto an end the one-sided dominance which is galling. What is more, we\nhave to recognize that the history of India does not belong to one\nparticular race but to a process of creation to which various races of\nthe world contributed--the Dravidians and the Aryans, the ancient Greeks\nand the Persians, the Mohammedans of the West and those of central\nAsia. Now at last has come the turn of the English to become true to\nthis history and bring to it the tribute of their life, and we neither\nhave the right nor the power to exclude this people from the building of\nthe destiny of India. Therefore what I say about the Nation has more to\ndo with the history of Man than specially with that of India.\n\nThis history has come to a stage when the moral man, the complete man,\nis more and more giving way, almost without knowing it, to make room for\nthe political and the commercial man, the man of the limited purpose.\nThis process, aided by the wonderful progress in science, is assuming\ngigantic proportion and power, causing the upset of man's moral balance,\nobscuring his human side under the shadow of soul-less organization. We\nhave felt its iron grip at the root of our life, and for the sake of\nhumanity we must stand up and give warning to all, that this nationalism\nis a cruel epidemic of evil that is sweeping over the human world of the\npresent age, and eating into its moral vitality.\n\nI have a deep love and a great respect for the British race as human\nbeings. It has produced great-hearted men, thinkers of great thoughts,\ndoers of great deeds. It has given rise to a great literature. I know\nthat these people love justice and freedom, and hate lies. They are\nclean in their minds, frank in their manners, true in their friendships;\nin their behaviour they are honest and reliable. The personal experience\nwhich I have had of their literary men has roused my admiration not\nmerely for their power of thought or expression but for their chivalrous\nhumanity. We have felt the greatness of this people as we feel the sun;\nbut as for the Nation, it is for us a thick mist of a stifling nature\ncovering the sun itself.\n\nThis government by the Nation is neither British nor anything else; it\nis an applied science and therefore more or less similar in its\nprinciples wherever it is used. It is like a hydraulic press, whose\npressure is impersonal, and on that account completely effective. The\namount of its power may vary in different engines. Some may even be\ndriven by hand, thus leaving a margin of comfortable looseness in their\ntension, but in spirit and in method their differences are small. Our\ngovernment might have been Dutch, or French, or Portuguese, and its\nessential features would have remained much the same as they are now.\nOnly perhaps, in some cases, the organization might not have been so\ndensely perfect, and, therefore, some shreds of the human might still\nhave been clinging to the wreck, allowing us to deal with something\nwhich resembles our own throbbing heart.\n\nBefore the Nation came to rule over us we had other governments which\nwere foreign, and these, like all governments, had some element of the\nmachine in them. But the difference between them and the government by\nthe Nation is like the difference between the hand-loom and the\npower-loom. In the products of the hand-loom the magic of man's living\nfingers finds its expression, and its hum harmonizes with the music of\nlife. But the power-loom is relentlessly lifeless and accurate and\nmonotonous in its production.\n\nWe must admit that during the personal government of the former days\nthere have been instances of tyranny, injustice and extortion. They\ncaused sufferings and unrest from which we are glad to be rescued. The\nprotection of law is not only a boon, but it is a valuable lesson to us.\nIt is teaching us the discipline which is necessary for the stability of\ncivilization and for continuity of progress. We are realizing through it\nthat there is a universal standard of justice to which all men,\nirrespective of their caste and colour, have their equal claim.\n\nThis reign of law in our present Government in India has established\norder in this vast land inhabited by peoples different in their races\nand customs. It has made it possible for these peoples to come in closer\ntouch with one another and cultivate a communion of aspiration.\n\nBut this desire for a common bond of comradeship among the different\nraces of India has been the work of the spirit of the West, not that of\nthe Nation of the West. Wherever in Asia the people have received the\ntrue lesson of the West it is in spite of the Western Nation. Only\nbecause Japan had been able to resist the dominance of this Western\nNation could she acquire the benefit of the Western Civilization in\nfullest measure. Though China has been poisoned at the very spring of\nher moral and physical life by this Nation, her struggle to receive the\nbest lessons of the West may yet be successful if not hindered by the\nNation. It was only the other day that Persia woke up from her age-long\nsleep at the call of the West to be instantly trampled into stillness by\nthe Nation. The same phenomenon prevails in this country also, where the\npeople are hospitable, but the Nation has proved itself to be\notherwise, making an Eastern guest feel humiliated to stand before you\nas a member of the humanity of his own motherland.\n\nIn India we are suffering from this conflict between the spirit of the\nWest and the Nation of the West. The benefit of the Western civilization\nis doled out to us in a miserly measure by the Nation, which tries to\nregulate the degree of nutrition as near the zero-point of vitality as\npossible. The portion of education allotted to us is so raggedly\ninsufficient that it ought to outrage the sense of decency of a Western\nhumanity. We have seen in these countries how the people are encouraged\nand trained and given every facility to fit themselves for the great\nmovements of commerce and industry spreading over the world, while in\nIndia the only assistance we get is merely to be jeered at by the Nation\nfor lagging behind. While depriving us of our opportunities and reducing\nour education to the minimum required for conducting a foreign\ngovernment, this Nation pacifies its conscience by calling us names, by\nsedulously giving currency to the arrogant cynicism that the East is\neast and the West is west and never the twain shall meet. If we must\nbelieve our schoolmaster in his taunt that, after nearly two centuries\nof his tutelage, India not only remains unfit for self-government but\nunable to display originality in her intellectual attainments, must we\nascribe it to something in the nature of Western culture and our\ninherent incapacity to receive it or to the judicious niggardliness of\nthe Nation that has taken upon itself the white man's burden of\ncivilizing the East? That Japanese people have some qualities which we\nlack we may admit, but that our intellect is naturally unproductive\ncompared to theirs we cannot accept even from them whom it is dangerous\nfor us to contradict.\n\nThe truth is that the spirit of conflict and conquest is at the origin\nand in the centre of Western nationalism; its basis is not social\nco-operation. It has evolved a perfect organization of power, but not\nspiritual idealism. It is like the pack of predatory creatures that must\nhave its victims. With all its heart it cannot bear to see its\nhunting-grounds converted into cultivated fields. In fact, these nations\nare fighting among themselves for the extension of their victims and\ntheir reserve forests. Therefore the Western Nation acts like a dam to\ncheck the free flow of Western civilization into the country of the\nNo-Nation. Because this civilization is the civilization of power,\ntherefore it is exclusive, it is naturally unwilling to open its\nsources of power to those whom it has selected for its purposes of\nexploitation.\n\nBut all the same moral law is the law of humanity, and the exclusive\ncivilization which thrives upon others who are barred from its benefit\ncarries its own death-sentence in its moral limitations. The slavery\nthat it gives rise to unconsciously drains its own love of freedom dry.\nThe helplessness with which it weighs down its world of victims exerts\nits force of gravitation every moment upon the power that creates it.\nAnd the greater part of the world which is being denuded of its\nself-sustaining life by the Nation will one day become the most terrible\nof all its burdens, ready to drag it down into the bottom of\ndestruction. Whenever Power removes all checks from its path to make its\ncareer easy, it triumphantly rides into its ultimate crash of death. Its\nmoral brake becomes slacker every day without its knowing it, and its\nslippery path of ease becomes its path of doom.\n\nOf all things in Western civilization, those which this Western Nation\nhas given us in a most generous measure are law and order. While the\nsmall feeding-bottle of our education is nearly dry, and sanitation\nsucks its own thumb in despair, the military organization, the\nmagisterial offices, the police, the Criminal Investigation Department,\nthe secret spy system, attain to an abnormal girth in their waists,\noccupying every inch of our country. This is to maintain order. But is\nnot this order merely a negative good? Is it not for giving people's\nlife greater opportunities for the freedom of development? Its\nperfection is the perfection of an egg-shell, whose true value lies in\nthe security it affords to the chick and its nourishment and not in the\nconvenience it offers to the person at the breakfast table. Mere\nadministration is unproductive, it is not creative, not being a living\nthing. It is a steam-roller, formidable in its weight and power, having\nits uses, but it does not help the soil to become fertile. When after\nits enormous toil it comes to offer us its boon of peace we can but\nmurmur under our breath that \"peace is good, but not more so than life,\nwhich is God's own great boon.\"\n\nOn the other hand, our former governments were woefully lacking in many\nof the advantages of the modern government. But because those were not\nthe governments by the Nation, their texture was loosely woven, leaving\nbig gaps through which our own life sent its threads and imposed its\ndesigns. I am quite sure in those days we had things that were extremely\ndistasteful to us. But we know that when we walk barefooted upon ground\nstrewn with gravel, our feet come gradually to adjust themselves to the\ncaprices of the inhospitable earth; while if the tiniest particle of\ngravel finds its lodgment inside our shoes we can never forget and\nforgive its intrusion. And these shoes are the government by the\nNation,--it is tight, it regulates our steps with a closed-up system,\nwithin which our feet have only the slightest liberty to make their own\nadjustments. Therefore, when you produce your statistics to compare the\nnumber of gravels which our feet had to encounter in former days with\nthe paucity in the present r\u00e9gime, they hardly touch the real points. It\nis not a question of the number of outside obstacles but the comparative\npowerlessness of the individual to cope with them. This narrowness of\nfreedom is an evil which is more radical, not because of its quantity\nbut because of its nature. And we cannot but acknowledge this paradox,\nthat while the spirit of the West marches under its banner of freedom,\nthe Nation of the West forges its iron chains of organization which are\nthe most relentless and unbreakable that have ever been manufactured in\nthe whole history of man.\n\nWhen the humanity of India was not under the government of the\nOrganization, the elasticity of change was great enough to encourage men\nof power and spirit to feel that they had their destinies in their own\nhands. The hope of the unexpected was never absent, and a freer play of\nimagination, on the part both of the governor and the governed, had its\neffect in the making of history. We were not confronted with a future,\nwhich was a dead white wall of granite blocks eternally guarding against\nthe expression and extension of our own powers, the hopelessness of\nwhich lies in the reason that these powers are becoming atrophied at\ntheir very roots by the scientific process of paralysis. For every\nsingle individual in the country of the No-Nation is completely in the\ngrip of a whole nation,--whose tireless vigilance, being the vigilance\nof a machine, has not the human power to overlook or to discriminate. At\nthe least pressing of its button the monster organization becomes all\neyes, whose ugly stare of inquisitiveness cannot be avoided by a single\nperson amongst the immense multitude of the ruled. At the least turn of\nits screw, by the fraction of an inch, the grip is tightened to the\npoint of suffocation around every man, woman and child of a vast\npopulation, for whom no escape is imaginable in their own country, or\neven in any country outside their own.\n\nIt is the continual and stupendous dead pressure of this inhuman upon\nthe living human under which the modern world is groaning. Not merely\nthe subject races, but you who live under the delusion that you are\nfree, are every day sacrificing your freedom and humanity to this fetich\nof nationalism, living in the dense poisonous atmosphere of world-wide\nsuspicion and greed and panic.\n\nI have seen in Japan the voluntary submission of the whole people to the\ntrimming of their minds and clipping of their freedom by their\ngovernment, which through various educational agencies regulates their\nthoughts, manufactures their feelings, becomes suspiciously watchful\nwhen they show signs of inclining toward the spiritual, leading them\nthrough a narrow path not toward what is true but what is necessary for\nthe complete welding of them into one uniform mass according to its own\nrecipe. The people accept this all-pervading mental slavery with\ncheerfulness and pride because of their nervous desire to turn\nthemselves into a machine of power, called the Nation, and emulate other\nmachines in their collective worldliness.\n\nWhen questioned as to the wisdom of its course the newly converted\nfanatic of nationalism answers that \"so long as nations are rampant in\nthis world we have not the option freely to develop our higher humanity.\nWe must utilize every faculty that we possess to resist the evil by\nassuming it ourselves in the fullest degree. For the only brotherhood\npossible in the modern world is the brotherhood of hooliganism.\" The\nrecognition of the fraternal bond of love between Japan and Russia,\nwhich has lately been celebrated with an immense display of rejoicing in\nJapan, was not owing to any sudden recrudescence of the spirit of\nChristianity or of Buddhism, but it was a bond established according to\nthe modern faith in a surer relationship of mutual menace of\nbloodshedding. Yes, one cannot but acknowledge that these facts are the\nfacts of the world of the Nation, and the only moral of it is that all\nthe peoples of the earth should strain their physical, moral and\nintellectual resources to the utmost to defeat one another in the\nwrestling match of powerfulness. In the ancient days Sparta paid all\nher attention to becoming powerful; she did become so by crippling her\nhumanity, and died of the amputation.\n\nBut it is no consolation to us to know that the weakening of humanity\nfrom which the present age is suffering is not limited to the subject\nraces, and that its ravages are even more radical because insidious and\nvoluntary in peoples who are hypnotized into believing that they are\nfree. This bartering of your higher aspirations of life for profit and\npower has been your own free choice, and I leave you there, at the\nwreckage of your soul, contemplating your protuberant prosperity. But\nwill you never be called to answer for organizing the instincts of\nself-aggrandizement of whole peoples into perfection and calling it\ngood? I ask you what disaster has there ever been in the history of man,\nin its darkest period, like this terrible disaster of the Nation fixing\nits fangs deep into the naked flesh of the world, taking permanent\nprecautions against its natural relaxation?\n\nYou, the people of the West, who have manufactured this abnormality, can\nyou imagine the desolating despair of this haunted world of suffering\nman possessed by the ghastly abstraction of the organizing man? Can you\nput yourself into the position of the peoples, who seem to have been\ndoomed to an eternal damnation of their own humanity, who not only must\nsuffer continual curtailment of their manhood, but even raise their\nvoices in p\u00e6ans of praise for the benignity of a mechanical apparatus in\nits interminable parody of providence?\n\nHave you not seen, since the commencement of the existence of the\nNation, that the dread of it has been the one goblin-dread with which\nthe whole world has been trembling? Wherever there is a dark corner,\nthere is the suspicion of its secret malevolence; and people live in a\nperpetual distrust of its back where it has no eyes. Every sound of a\nfootstep, every rustle of movement in the neighbourhood, sends a thrill\nof terror all around. And this terror is the parent of all that is base\nin man's nature. It makes one almost openly unashamed of inhumanity.\nClever lies become matters of self-congratulation. Solemn pledges become\na farce,--laughable for their very solemnity. The Nation, with all its\nparaphernalia of power and prosperity, its flags and pious hymns, its\nblasphemous prayers in the churches, and the literary mock thunders of\nits patriotic bragging, cannot hide the fact that the Nation is the\ngreatest evil for the Nation, that all its precautions are against it,\nand any new birth of its fellow in the world is always followed in its\nmind by the dread of a new peril. Its one wish is to trade on the\nfeebleness of the rest of the world, like some insects that are bred in\nthe paralysed flesh of victims kept just enough alive to make them\ntoothsome and nutritious. Therefore it is ready to send its poisonous\nfluid into the vitals of the other living peoples, who, not being\nnations, are harmless. For this the Nation has had and still has its\nrichest pasture in Asia. Great China, rich with her ancient wisdom and\nsocial ethics, her discipline of industry and self-control, is like a\nwhale awakening the lust of spoil in the heart of the Nation. She is\nalready carrying in her quivering flesh harpoons sent by the unerring\naim of the Nation, the creature of science and selfishness. Her pitiful\nattempt to shake off her traditions of humanity, her social ideals, and\nspend her last exhausted resources in drilling herself into modern\nefficiency, is thwarted at every step by the Nation. It is tightening\nits financial ropes round her, trying to drag her up on the shore and\ncut her into pieces, and then go and offer public thanksgiving to God\nfor supporting the one existing evil and shattering the possibility of a\nnew one. And for all this the Nation has been claiming the gratitude of\nhistory, and all eternity for its exploitation; ordering its band of\npraise to be struck up from end to end of the world, declaring itself to\nbe the salt of the earth, the flower of humanity, the blessing of God\nhurled with all His force upon the naked skulls of the world of\nNo-Nations.\n\nI know what your advice will be. You will say, form yourselves into a\nnation, and resist this encroachment of the Nation. But is this the true\nadvice? that of a man to a man? Why should this be a necessity? I could\nwell believe you if you had said, Be more good, more just, more true in\nyour relation to man, control your greed, make your life wholesome in\nits simplicity and let your consciousness of the divine in humanity be\nmore perfect in its expression. But must you say that it is not the\nsoul, but the machine, which is of the utmost value to ourselves, and\nthat man's salvation depends upon his disciplining himself into a\nperfection of the dead rhythm of wheels and counterwheels? that machine\nmust be pitted against machine, and nation against nation, in an endless\nbull-fight of politics?\n\nYou say, these machines will come into an agreement, for their mutual\nprotection, based upon a conspiracy of fear. But will this federation\nof steam-boilers supply you with a soul, a soul which has her conscience\nand her God? What is to happen to that larger part of the world where\nfear will have no hand in restraining you? Whatever safety they now\nenjoy, those countries of No-Nation, from the unbridled license of forge\nand hammer and turn-screw, results from the mutual jealousy of the\npowers. But when, instead of being numerous separate machines, they\nbecome riveted into one organized gregariousness of gluttony, commercial\nand political, what remotest chance of hope will remain for those\nothers, who have lived and suffered, have loved and worshipped, have\nthought deeply and worked with meekness, but whose only crime has been\nthat they have not organized?\n\nBut, you say, \"That does not matter, the unfit must go to the wall--they\nshall _die_, and this is science.\"\n\nNo, for the sake of your own salvation, I say, they shall _live_, and\nthis is truth. It is extremely bold of me to say so, but I assert that\nman's world is a moral world, not because we blindly agree to believe\nit, but because it is so in truth which would be dangerous for us to\nignore. And this moral nature of man cannot be divided into convenient\ncompartments for its preservation. You cannot secure it for your home\nconsumption with protective tariff walls, while in foreign parts making\nit enormously accommodating in its free trade of license.\n\nHas not this truth already come home to you now, when this cruel war has\ndriven its claws into the vitals of Europe? when her hoard of wealth is\nbursting into smoke and her humanity is shattered into bits on her\nbattlefields? You ask in amazement what has she done to deserve this?\nThe answer is, that the West has been systematically petrifying her\nmoral nature in order to lay a solid foundation for her gigantic\nabstractions of efficiency. She has all along been starving the life of\nthe personal man into that of the professional.\n\nIn your medi\u00e6val age in Europe, the simple and the natural man, with all\nhis violent passions and desires, was engaged in trying to find out a\nreconciliation in the conflict between the flesh and the spirit. All\nthrough the turbulent career of her vigorous youth the temporal and the\nspiritual forces both acted strongly upon her nature, and were moulding\nit into completeness of moral personality. Europe owes all her greatness\nin humanity to that period of discipline,--the discipline of the man in\nhis human integrity.\n\nThen came the age of intellect, of science. We all know that intellect\nis impersonal. Our life, and our heart, are one with us, but our mind\ncan be detached from the personal man and then only can it freely move\nin its world of thoughts. Our intellect is an ascetic who wears no\nclothes, takes no food, knows no sleep, has no wishes, feels no love or\nhatred or pity for human limitations, who only reasons, unmoved, through\nthe vicissitudes of life. It burrows to the roots of things, because it\nhas no personal concern with the thing itself. The grammarian walks\nstraight through all poetry and goes to the root of words without\nobstruction, because he is not seeking reality, but law. When he finds\nthe law, he is able to teach people how to master words. This is a\npower,--the power which fulfils some special usefulness, some particular\nneed of man.\n\nReality is the harmony which gives to the component parts of a thing the\nequilibrium of the whole. You break it, and have in your hands the\nnomadic atoms fighting against one another, therefore unmeaning. Those\nwho covet power try to get mastery of these aboriginal fighting\nelements, and through some narrow channels force them into some violent\nservice for some particular needs of man.\n\nThis satisfaction of man's needs is a great thing. It gives him freedom\nin the material world. It confers on him the benefit of a greater range\nof time and space. He can do things in a shorter time and occupies a\nlarger space with more thoroughness of advantage. Therefore he can\neasily outstrip those who live in a world of a slower time and of space\nless fully occupied.\n\nThis progress of power attains more and more rapidity of pace. And, for\nthe reason that it is a detached part of man, it soon outruns the\ncomplete humanity. The moral man remains behind, because it has to deal\nwith the whole reality, not merely with the law of things, which is\nimpersonal and therefore abstract.\n\nThus, man with his mental and material power far outgrowing his moral\nstrength, is like an exaggerated giraffe whose head has suddenly shot up\nmiles away from the rest of him, making normal communication difficult\nto establish. This greedy head, with its huge dental organization, has\nbeen munching all the topmost foliage of the world, but the nourishment\nis too late in reaching his digestive organs, and his heart is\nsuffering from want of blood. Of this present disharmony in man's nature\nthe West seems to have been blissfully unconscious. The enormity of its\nmaterial success has diverted all its attention toward\nself-congratulation on its bulk. The optimism of its logic goes on\nbasing the calculations of its good fortune upon the indefinite\nprolongation of its railway lines toward eternity. It is superficial\nenough to think that all to-morrows are merely to-days, with the\nrepeated additions of twenty-four hours. It has no fear of the chasm,\nwhich is opening wider every day, between man's ever-growing storehouses\nand the emptiness of his hungry humanity. Logic does not know that,\nunder the lowest bed of endless strata of wealth and comforts,\nearthquakes are being hatched to restore the balance of the moral world,\nand one day the gaping gulf of spiritual vacuity will draw into its\nbottom the store of things that have their eternal love for the dust.\n\nMan in his fulness is not powerful, but perfect. Therefore, to turn him\ninto mere power, you have to curtail his soul as much as possible. When\nwe are fully human, we cannot fly at one another's throats; our\ninstincts of social life, our traditions of moral ideals stand in the\nway. If you want me to take to butchering human beings, you must break\nup that wholeness of my humanity through some discipline which makes my\nwill dead, my thoughts numb, my movements automatic, and then from the\ndissolution of the complex personal man will come out that abstraction,\nthat destructive force, which has no relation to human truth, and\ntherefore can be easily brutal or mechanical. Take away man from his\nnatural surroundings, from the fulness of his communal life, with all\nits living associations of beauty and love and social obligations, and\nyou will be able to turn him into so many fragments of a machine for the\nproduction of wealth on a gigantic scale. Turn a tree into a log and it\nwill burn for you, but it will never bear living flowers and fruit.\n\nThis process of dehumanizing has been going on in commerce and politics.\nAnd out of the long birth-throes of mechanical energy has been born this\nfully developed apparatus of magnificent power and surprising appetite\nwhich has been christened in the West as the Nation. As I have hinted\nbefore, because of its quality of abstraction it has, with the greatest\nease, gone far ahead of the complete moral man. And having the\nconscience of a ghost and the callous perfection of an automaton, it is\ncausing disasters of which the volcanic dissipations of the youthful\nmoon would be ashamed to be brought into comparison. As a result, the\nsuspicion of man for man stings all the limbs of this civilization like\nthe hairs of the nettle. Each country is casting its net of espionage\ninto the slimy bottom of the others, fishing for their secrets, the\ntreacherous secrets which brew in the oozy depths of diplomacy. And what\nis their secret service but the nation's underground trade in\nkidnapping, murder and treachery and all the ugly crimes bred in the\ndepth of rottenness? Because each nation has its own history of thieving\nand lies and broken faith, therefore there can only flourish\ninternational suspicion and jealousy, and international moral shame\nbecomes an\u00e6mic to a degree of ludicrousness. The nation's bagpipe of\nrighteous indignation has so often changed its tune according to the\nvariation of time and to the altered groupings of the alliances of\ndiplomacy, that it can be enjoyed with amusement as the variety\nperformance of the political music hall.\n\nI am just coming from my visit to Japan, where I exhorted this young\nnation to take its stand upon the higher ideals of humanity and never\nto follow the West in its acceptance of the organized selfishness of\nNationalism as its religion, never to gloat upon the feebleness of its\nneighbours, never to be unscrupulous in its behaviour to the weak, where\nit can be gloriously mean with impunity, while turning its right cheek\nof brighter humanity for the kiss of admiration to those who have the\npower to deal it a blow. Some of the newspapers praised my utterances\nfor their poetical qualities, while adding with a leer that it was the\npoetry of a defeated people. I felt they were right. Japan had been\ntaught in a modern school the lesson how to become powerful. The\nschooling is done and she must enjoy the fruits of her lessons. The West\nin the voice of her thundering cannon had said at the door of Japan, Let\nthere be a nation--and there was a Nation. And now that it _has_ come\ninto existence, why do you not feel in your heart of hearts a pure\nfeeling of gladness and say that it is good? Why is it that I saw in an\nEnglish paper an expression of bitterness at Japan's boasting of her\nsuperiority of civilization--the thing that the British, along with\nother nations, has been carrying on for ages without blushing? Because\nthe idealism of selfishness must keep itself drunk with a continual dose\nof self-laudation. But the same vices which seem so natural and\ninnocuous in its own life make it surprised and angry at their\nunpleasantness when seen in other nations. Therefore, when you see the\nJapanese nation, created in your own image, launched in its career of\nnational boastfulness you shake your head and say, it is not good. Has\nit not been one of the causes that raise the cry on these shores for\npreparedness to meet one more power of evil with a greater power of\ninjury? Japan protests that she has her _bushido_, that she can never be\ntreacherous to America, to whom she owes her gratitude. But you find it\ndifficult to believe her,--for the wisdom of the Nation is not in its\nfaith in humanity but in its complete distrust. You say to yourself that\nit is not with Japan of the _bushido_, the Japan of the moral ideals,\nthat you have to deal--it is with the abstraction of the popular\nselfishness, it is with the Nation; and Nation can only trust Nation\nwhere their interests coalesce, or at least do not conflict. In fact\nyour instinct tells you that the advent of another people into the arena\nof nationality makes another addition to the evil which contradicts all\nthat is highest in Man and proves by its success that unscrupulousness\nis the way to prosperity,--and goodness is good for the weak and God is\nthe only remaining consolation of the defeated.\n\nYes, this is the logic of the Nation. And it will never heed the voice\nof truth and goodness. It will go on in its ring-dance of moral\ncorruption, linking steel unto steel, and machine unto machine;\ntrampling under its tread all the sweet flowers of simple faith and the\nliving ideals of man.\n\nBut we delude ourselves into thinking that humanity in the modern days\nis more to the front than ever before. The reason of this self-delusion\nis because man is served with the necessaries of life in greater\nprofusion, and his physical ills are being alleviated with more\nefficacy. But the chief part of this is done, not by moral sacrifice,\nbut by intellectual power. In quantity it is great, but it springs from\nthe surface and spreads over the surface. Knowledge and efficiency are\npowerful in their outward effect, but they are the servants of man, not\nthe man himself. Their service is like the service in a hotel, where it\nis elaborate, but the host is absent; it is more convenient than\nhospitable.\n\nTherefore we must not forget that the scientific organizations vastly\nspreading in all directions are strengthening our power, but not our\nhumanity. With the growth of power the cult of the self-worship of the\nNation grows in ascendancy; and the individual willingly allows the\nNation to take donkey-rides upon his back; and there happens the anomaly\nwhich must have such disastrous effects, that the individual worships\nwith all sacrifices a god which is morally much inferior to himself.\nThis could never have been possible if the god had been as real as the\nindividual.\n\nLet me give an illustration of this in point. In some parts of India it\nhas been enjoined as an act of great piety for a widow to go without\nfood and water on a particular day every fortnight. This often leads to\ncruelty, unmeaning and inhuman. And yet men are not by nature cruel to\nsuch a degree. But this piety being a mere unreal abstraction completely\ndeadens the moral sense of the individual, just as the man, who would\nnot hurt an animal unnecessarily, would cause horrible suffering to a\nlarge number of innocent creatures when he drugs his feelings with the\nabstract idea of \"sport.\" Because these ideas are the creations of our\nintellect, because they are logical classifications, therefore they can\nso easily hide in their mist the personal man.\n\nAnd the idea of the Nation is one of the most powerful an\u00e6sthetics that\nman has invented. Under the influence of its fumes the whole people can\ncarry out its systematic programme of the most virulent self-seeking\nwithout being in the least aware of its moral perversion,--in fact\nfeeling dangerously resentful if it is pointed out.\n\nBut can this go on indefinitely? continually producing barrenness of\nmoral insensibility upon a large tract of our living nature? Can it\nescape its nemesis for ever? Has this giant power of mechanical\norganization no limit in this world against which it may shatter itself\nall the more completely because of its terrible strength and velocity?\nDo you believe that evil can be permanently kept in check by competition\nwith evil, and that conference of prudence can keep the devil chained in\nits makeshift cage of mutual agreement?\n\nThis European war of Nations is the war of retribution. Man, the person,\nmust protest for his very life against the heaping up of things where\nthere should be the heart, and systems and policies where there should\nflow living human relationship. The time has come when, for the sake of\nthe whole outraged world, Europe should fully know in her own person the\nterrible absurdity of the thing called the Nation.\n\nThe Nation has thriven long upon mutilated humanity. Men, the fairest\ncreations of God, came out of the National manufactory in huge numbers\nas war-making and money-making puppets, ludicrously vain of their\npitiful perfection of mechanism. Human society grew more and more into a\nmarionette show of politicians, soldiers, manufacturers and bureaucrats,\npulled by wire arrangements of wonderful efficiency.\n\nBut the apotheosis of selfishness can never make its interminable breed\nof hatred and greed, fear and hypocrisy, suspicion and tyranny, an end\nin themselves. These monsters grow into huge shapes but never into\nharmony. And this Nation may grow on to an unimaginable corpulence, not\nof a living body, but of steel and steam and office buildings, till its\ndeformity can contain no longer its ugly voluminousness,--till it begins\nto crack and gape, breathe gas and fire in gasps, and its death-rattles\nsound in cannon roars. In this war the death-throes of the Nation have\ncommenced. Suddenly, all its mechanism going mad, it has begun the dance\nof the Furies, shattering its own limbs, scattering them into the dust.\nIt is the fifth act of the tragedy of the unreal.\n\nThose who have any faith in Man cannot but fervently hope that the\ntyranny of the Nation will not be restored to all its former teeth and\nclaws, to its far-reaching iron arms and its immense inner cavity, all\nstomach and no heart; that man will have his new birth, in the freedom\nof his individuality, from the enveloping vagueness of abstraction.\n\nThe veil has been raised, and in this frightful war the West has stood\nface to face with her own creation, to which she had offered her soul.\nShe must know what it truly is.\n\nShe had never let herself suspect what slow decay and decomposition were\nsecretly going on in her moral nature, which often broke out in\ndoctrines of scepticism, but still oftener and in still more dangerously\nsubtle manner showed itself in her unconsciousness of the mutilation and\ninsult that she had been inflicting upon a vast part of the world. Now\nshe must know the truth nearer home.\n\nAnd then there will come from her own children those who will break\nthemselves free from the slavery of this illusion, this perversion of\nbrotherhood founded upon self-seeking, those who will own themselves as\nGod's children and as no bond-slaves of machinery, which turns souls\ninto commodities and life into compartments, which, with its iron\nclaws, scratches out the heart of the world and knows not what it has\ndone.\n\nAnd we of no nations of the world, whose heads have been bowed to the\ndust, will know that this dust is more sacred than the bricks which\nbuild the pride of power. For this dust is fertile of life, and of\nbeauty and worship. We shall thank God that we were made to wait in\nsilence through the night of despair, had to bear the insult of the\nproud and the strong man's burden, yet all through it, though our hearts\nquaked with doubt and fear, never could we blindly believe in the\nsalvation which machinery offered to man, but we held fast to our trust\nin God and the truth of the human soul. And we can still cherish the\nhope that, when power becomes ashamed to occupy its throne and is ready\nto make way for love, when the morning comes for cleansing the\nblood-stained steps of the Nation along the highroad of humanity, we\nshall be called upon to bring our own vessel of sacred water--the water\nof worship--to sweeten the history of man into purity, and with its\nsprinkling make the trampled dust of the centuries blessed with\nfruitfulness.\n\n\n\n\nNATIONALISM IN JAPAN\n\n\nI\n\nThe worst form of bondage is the bondage of dejection, which keeps men\nhopelessly chained in loss of faith in themselves. We have been\nrepeatedly told, with some justification, that Asia lives in the\npast,--it is like a rich mausoleum which displays all its magnificence\nin trying to immortalize the dead. It was said of Asia that it could\nnever move in the path of progress, its face was so inevitably turned\nbackwards. We accepted this accusation, and came to believe it. In\nIndia, I know, a large section of our educated community, grown tired of\nfeeling the humiliation of this charge against us, is trying all its\nresources of self-deception to turn it into a matter of boasting. But\nboasting is only a masked shame, it does not truly believe in itself.\n\nWhen things stood still like this, and we in Asia hypnotized ourselves\ninto the belief that it could never by any possibility be otherwise,\nJapan rose from her dreams, and in giant strides left centuries of\ninaction behind, overtaking the present time in its foremost\nachievement. This has broken the spell under which we lay in torpor for\nages, taking it to be the normal condition of certain races living in\ncertain geographical limits. We forgot that in Asia great kingdoms were\nfounded, philosophy, science, arts and literatures flourished, and all\nthe great religions of the world had their cradles. Therefore it cannot\nbe said that there is anything inherent in the soil and climate of Asia\nto produce mental inactivity and to atrophy the faculties which impel\nmen to go forward. For centuries we did hold torches of civilization in\nthe East when the West slumbered in darkness, and that could never be\nthe sign of sluggish mind or narrowness of vision.\n\nThen fell the darkness of night upon all the lands of the East. The\ncurrent of time seemed to stop at once, and Asia ceased to take any new\nfood, feeding upon its own past, which is really feeding upon itself.\nThe stillness seemed like death, and the great voice was silenced which\nsent forth messages of eternal truth that have saved man's life from\npollution for generations, like the ocean of air that keeps the earth\nsweet, ever cleansing its impurities.\n\nBut life has its sleep, its periods of inactivity, when it loses its\nmovements, takes no new food, living upon its past storage. Then it\ngrows helpless, its muscles relaxed, and it easily lends itself to be\njeered at for its stupor. In the rhythm of life, pauses there must be\nfor the renewal of life. Life in its activity is ever spending itself,\nburning all its fuel. This extravagance cannot go on indefinitely, but\nis always followed by a passive stage, when all expenditure is stopped\nand all adventures abandoned in favour of rest and slow recuperation.\n\nThe tendency of mind is economical, it loves to form habits and move in\ngrooves which save it the trouble of thinking anew at each of its steps.\nIdeals once formed make the mind lazy. It becomes afraid to risk its\nacquisitions in fresh endeavours. It tries to enjoy complete security by\nshutting up its belongings behind fortifications of habits. But this is\nreally shutting oneself up from the fullest enjoyment of one's own\npossessions. It is miserliness. The living ideals must not lose their\ntouch with the growing and changing life. Their real freedom is not\nwithin the boundaries of security, but in the highroad of adventures,\nfull of the risk of new experiences.\n\nOne morning the whole world looked up in surprise when Japan broke\nthrough her walls of old habits in a night and came out triumphant. It\nwas done in such an incredibly short time that it seemed like a change\nof dress and not like the building up of a new structure. She showed the\nconfident strength of maturity, and the freshness and infinite\npotentiality of new life at the same moment. The fear was entertained\nthat it was a mere freak of history, a child's game of Time, the blowing\nup of a soap-bubble, perfect in its rondure and colouring, hollow in its\nheart and without substance. But Japan has proved conclusively that this\nsudden revealment of her power is not a short-lived wonder, a chance\nproduct of time and tide, thrown up from the depth of obscurity to be\nswept away the next moment into the sea of oblivion.\n\nThe truth is that Japan is old and new at the same time. She has her\nlegacy of ancient culture from the East,--the culture that enjoins man\nto look for his true wealth and power in his inner soul, the culture\nthat gives self-possession in the face of loss and danger,\nself-sacrifice without counting the cost or hoping for gain, defiance\nof death, acceptance of countless social obligations that we owe to men\nas social beings. In a word, modern Japan has come out of the immemorial\nEast like a lotus blossoming in easy grace, all the while keeping its\nfirm hold upon the profound depth from which it has sprung.\n\nAnd Japan, the child of the Ancient East, has also fearlessly claimed\nall the gifts of the modern age for herself. She has shown her bold\nspirit in breaking through the confinements of habits, useless\naccumulations of the lazy mind, which seeks safety in its thrift and its\nlocks and keys. Thus she has come in contact with the living time and\nhas accepted with eagerness and aptitude the responsibilities of modern\ncivilization.\n\nThis it is which has given heart to the rest of Asia. We have seen that\nthe life and the strength are there in us, only the dead crust has to be\nremoved. We have seen that taking shelter in the dead is death itself,\nand only taking all the risk of life to the fullest extent is living.\n\nI, for myself, cannot believe that Japan has become what she is by\nimitating the West. We cannot imitate life, we cannot simulate strength\nfor long, nay, what is more, a mere imitation is a source of weakness.\nFor it hampers our true nature, it is always in our way. It is like\ndressing our skeleton with another man's skin, giving rise to eternal\nfeuds between the skin and the bones at every movement.\n\nThe real truth is that science is not man's nature, it is mere knowledge\nand training. By knowing the laws of the material universe you do not\nchange your deeper humanity. You can borrow knowledge from others, but\nyou cannot borrow temperament.\n\nBut at the imitative stage of our schooling we cannot distinguish\nbetween the essential and the non-essential, between what is\ntransferable and what is not. It is something like the faith of the\nprimitive mind in the magical properties of the accidents of outward\nforms which accompany some real truth. We are afraid of leaving out\nsomething valuable and efficacious by not swallowing the husk with the\nkernel. But while our greed delights in wholesale appropriation, it is\nthe function of our vital nature to assimilate, which is the only true\nappropriation for a living organism. Where there is life it is sure to\nassert itself by its choice of acceptance and refusal according to its\nconstitutional necessity. The living organism does not allow itself to\ngrow into its food, it changes its food into its own body. And only thus\ncan it grow strong and not by mere accumulation, or by giving up its\npersonal identity.\n\nJapan has imported her food from the West, but not her vital nature.\nJapan cannot altogether lose and merge herself in the scientific\nparaphernalia she has acquired from the West and be turned into a mere\nborrowed machine. She has her own soul, which must assert itself over\nall her requirements. That she is capable of doing so, and that the\nprocess of assimilation is going on, have been amply proved by the signs\nof vigorous health that she exhibits. And I earnestly hope that Japan\nmay never lose her faith in her own soul, in the mere pride of her\nforeign acquisition. For that pride itself is a humiliation, ultimately\nleading to poverty and weakness. It is the pride of the fop who sets\nmore store on his new headdress than on his head itself.\n\nThe whole world waits to see what this great Eastern nation is going to\ndo with the opportunities and responsibilities she has accepted from the\nhands of the modern time. If it be a mere reproduction of the West, then\nthe great expectation she has raised will remain unfulfilled. For there\nare grave questions that the Western civilization has presented before\nthe world but not completely answered. The conflict between the\nindividual and the state, labour and capital, the man and the woman; the\nconflict between the greed of material gain and the spiritual life of\nman, the organized selfishness of nations and the higher ideals of\nhumanity; the conflict between all the ugly complexities inseparable\nfrom giant organizations of commerce and state and the natural instincts\nof man crying for simplicity and beauty and fulness of leisure,--all\nthese have to be brought to a harmony in a manner not yet dreamt of.\n\nWe have seen this great stream of civilization choking itself from\nd\u00e9bris carried by its innumerable channels. We have seen that with all\nits vaunted love of humanity it has proved itself the greatest menace to\nMan, far worse than the sudden outbursts of nomadic barbarism from which\nmen suffered in the early ages of history. We have seen that, in spite\nof its boasted love of freedom, it has produced worse forms of slavery\nthan ever were current in earlier societies,--slavery whose chains are\nunbreakable, either because they are unseen, or because they assume the\nnames and appearance of freedom. We have seen, under the spell of its\ngigantic sordidness, man losing faith in all the heroic ideals of life\nwhich have made him great.\n\nTherefore you cannot with a light heart accept the modern civilization\nwith all its tendencies, methods and structures, and dream that they are\ninevitable. You must apply your Eastern mind, your spiritual strength,\nyour love of simplicity, your recognition of social obligation, in order\nto cut out a new path for this great unwieldy car of progress, shrieking\nout its loud discords as it runs. You must minimize the immense\nsacrifice of man's life and freedom that it claims in its every\nmovement. For generations you have felt and thought and worked, have\nenjoyed and worshipped in your own special manner; and this cannot be\ncast off like old clothes. It is in your blood, in the marrow of your\nbones, in the texture of your flesh, in the tissue of your brains; and\nit must modify everything you lay your hands upon, without your knowing,\neven against your wishes. Once you did solve the problems of man to your\nown satisfaction, you had your philosophy of life and evolved your own\nart of living. All this you must apply to the present situation, and out\nof it will arise a new creation and not a mere repetition, a creation\nwhich the soul of your people will own for itself and proudly offer to\nthe world as its tribute to the welfare of man. Of all countries in\nAsia, here in Japan you have the freedom to use the materials you have\ngathered from the West according to your genius and your need. Therefore\nyour responsibility is all the greater, for in your voice Asia shall\nanswer the questions that Europe has submitted to the conference of Man.\nIn your land the experiments will be carried on by which the East will\nchange the aspects of modern civilization, infusing life in it where it\nis a machine, substituting the human heart for cold expediency, not\ncaring so much for power and success as for harmonious and living\ngrowth, for truth and beauty.\n\nI cannot but bring to your mind those days when the whole of Eastern\nAsia from Burma to Japan was united with India in the closest tie of\nfriendship, the only natural tie which can exist between nations. There\nwas a living communication of hearts, a nervous system evolved through\nwhich messages ran between us about the deepest needs of humanity. We\ndid not stand in fear of each other, we had not to arm ourselves to keep\neach other in check; our relation was not that of self-interest, of\nexploration and spoliation of each other's pockets; ideas and ideals\nwere exchanged, gifts of the highest love were offered and taken; no\ndifference of languages and customs hindered us in approaching each\nother heart to heart; no pride of race or insolent consciousness of\nsuperiority, physical or mental, marred our relation; our arts and\nliteratures put forth new leaves and flowers under the influence of this\nsunlight of united hearts; and races belonging to different lands and\nlanguages and histories acknowledged the highest unity of man and the\ndeepest bond of love. May we not also remember that in those days of\npeace and goodwill, of men uniting for those supreme ends of life, your\nnature laid by for itself the balm of immortality which has helped your\npeople to be born again in a new age, to be able to survive its old\noutworn structures and take on a new young body, to come out unscathed\nfrom the shock of the most wonderful revolution that the world has ever\nseen?\n\nThe political civilization which has sprung up from the soil of Europe\nand is overrunning the whole world, like some prolific weed, is based\nupon exclusiveness. It is always watchful to keep the aliens at bay or\nto exterminate them. It is carnivorous and cannibalistic in its\ntendencies, it feeds upon the resources of other peoples and tries to\nswallow their whole future. It is always afraid of other races achieving\neminence, naming it as a peril, and tries to thwart all symptoms of\ngreatness outside its own boundaries, forcing down races of men who are\nweaker, to be eternally fixed in their weakness. Before this political\ncivilization came to its power and opened its hungry jaws wide enough to\ngulp down great continents of the earth, we had wars, pillages, changes\nof monarchy and consequent miseries, but never such a sight of fearful\nand hopeless voracity, such wholesale feeding of nation upon nation,\nsuch huge machines for turning great portions of the earth into\nmince-meat, never such terrible jealousies with all their ugly teeth and\nclaws ready for tearing open each other's vitals. This political\ncivilization is scientific, not human. It is powerful because it\nconcentrates all its forces upon one purpose, like a millionaire\nacquiring money at the cost of his soul. It betrays its trust, it weaves\nits meshes of lies without shame, it enshrines gigantic idols of greed\nin its temples, taking great pride in the costly ceremonials of its\nworship, calling this patriotism. And it can be safely prophesied that\nthis cannot go on, for there is a moral law in this world which has its\napplication both to individuals and to organized bodies of men. You\ncannot go on violating these laws in the name of your nation, yet enjoy\ntheir advantage as individuals. This public sapping of ethical ideals\nslowly reacts upon each member of society, gradually breeding weakness,\nwhere it is not seen, and causing that cynical distrust of all things\nsacred in human nature, which is the true symptom of senility. You must\nkeep in mind that this political civilization, this creed of national\npatriotism, has not been given a long trial. The lamp of ancient Greece\nis extinct in the land where it was first lighted, the power of Rome\nlies dead and buried under the ruins of its vast empire. But the\ncivilization, whose basis is society and the spiritual ideal of man, is\nstill a living thing in China and in India. Though it may look feeble\nand small, judged by the standard of the mechanical power of modern\ndays, yet like small seeds it still contains life and will sprout and\ngrow, and spread its beneficent branches, producing flowers and fruits\nwhen its time comes and showers of grace descend upon it from heaven.\nBut ruins of sky-scrapers of power and broken machinery of greed, even\nGod's rain is powerless to raise up again; for they were not of life,\nbut went against life as a whole,--they are relics of the rebellion that\nshattered itself to pieces against the eternal.\n\nBut the charge is brought against us that the ideals we cherish in the\nEast are static, that they have not the impetus in them to move, to open\nout new vistas of knowledge and power, that the systems of philosophy\nwhich are the mainstays of the time-worn civilizations of the East\ndespise all outward proofs, remaining stolidly satisfied in their\nsubjective certainty. This proves that when our knowledge is vague we\nare apt to accuse of vagueness our object of knowledge itself. To a\nWestern observer our civilization appears as all metaphysics, as to a\ndeaf man piano-playing appears to be mere movements of fingers and no\nmusic. He cannot think that we have found some deep basis of reality\nupon which we have built our institutions.\n\nUnfortunately all proofs of reality are in realization. The reality of\nthe scene before you depends only upon the fact that you can see, and it\nis difficult for us to prove to an unbeliever that our civilization is\nnot a nebulous system of abstract speculations, that it has achieved\nsomething which is a positive truth,--a truth that can give man's heart\nits shelter and sustenance. It has evolved an inner sense,--a sense of\nvision, the vision of the infinite reality in all finite things.\n\nBut he says, \"You do not make any progress, there is no movement in\nyou.\" I ask him, \"How do you know it? You have to judge progress\naccording to its aim. A railway train makes its progress towards the\nterminus station,--it is movement. But a full-grown tree has no definite\nmovement of that kind, its progress is the inward progress of life. It\nlives, with its aspiration towards light tingling in its leaves and\ncreeping in its silent sap.\"\n\nWe also have lived for centuries, we still live, and we have our\naspiration for a reality that has no end to its realization,--a reality\nthat goes beyond death, giving it a meaning, that rises above all evils\nof life, bringing its peace and purity, its cheerful renunciation of\nself. The product of this inner life is a living product. It will be\nneeded when the youth returns home weary and dust-laden, when the\nsoldier is wounded, when the wealth is squandered away and pride is\nhumbled, when man's heart cries for truth in the immensity of facts and\nharmony in the contradiction of tendencies. Its value is not in its\nmultiplication of materials, but in its spiritual fulfilment.\n\nThere are things that cannot wait. You have to rush and run and march if\nyou must fight or take the best place in the market. You strain your\nnerves and are on the alert when you chase opportunities that are always\non the wing. But there are ideals which do not play hide-and-seek with\nour life; they slowly grow from seed to flower, from flower to fruit;\nthey require infinite space and heaven's light to mature, and the fruits\nthat they produce can survive years of insult and neglect. The East with\nher ideals, in whose bosom are stored the ages of sunlight and silence\nof stars, can patiently wait till the West, hurrying after the\nexpedient, loses breath and stops. Europe, while busily speeding to her\nengagements, disdainfully casts her glance from her carriage window at\nthe reaper reaping his harvest in the field, and in her intoxication of\nspeed cannot but think him as slow and ever receding backwards. But the\nspeed comes to its end, the engagement loses its meaning and the hungry\nheart clamours for food, till at last she comes to the lowly reaper\nreaping his harvest in the sun. For if the office cannot wait, or the\nbuying and selling, or the craving for excitement, love waits and\nbeauty and the wisdom of suffering and the fruits of patient devotion\nand reverent meekness of simple faith. And thus shall wait the East till\nher time comes.\n\nI must not hesitate to acknowledge where Europe is great, for great she\nis without doubt. We cannot help loving her with all our heart, and\npaying her the best homage of our admiration,--the Europe who, in her\nliterature and art, pours out an inexhaustible cascade of beauty and\ntruth fertilizing all countries and all time; the Europe who, with a\nmind which is titanic in its untiring power, is sweeping the height and\nthe depth of the universe, winning her homage of knowledge from the\ninfinitely great and the infinitely small, applying all the resources of\nher great intellect and heart in healing the sick and alleviating those\nmiseries of man which up till now we were contented to accept in a\nspirit of hopeless resignation; the Europe who is making the earth yield\nmore fruit than seemed possible, coaxing and compelling the great forces\nof nature into man's service. Such true greatness must have its motive\npower in spiritual strength. For only the spirit of man can defy all\nlimitations, have faith in its ultimate success, throw its search-light\nbeyond the immediate and the apparent, gladly suffer martyrdom for ends\nwhich cannot be achieved in its lifetime and accept failure without\nacknowledging defeat. In the heart of Europe runs the purest stream of\nhuman love, of love of justice, of spirit of self-sacrifice for higher\nideals. The Christian culture of centuries has sunk deep in her life's\ncore. In Europe we have seen noble minds who have ever stood up for the\nrights of man irrespective of colour and creed; who have braved calumny\nand insult from their own people in fighting for humanity's cause and\nraising their voices against the mad orgies of militarism, against the\nrage for brutal retaliation or rapacity that sometimes takes possession\nof a whole people; who are always ready to make reparation for wrongs\ndone in the past by their own nations and vainly attempt to stem the\ntide of cowardly injustice that flows unchecked because the resistance\nis weak and innocuous on the part of the injured. There are these\nknight-errants of modern Europe who have not lost their faith in the\ndisinterested love of freedom, in the ideals which own no geographical\nboundaries or national self-seeking. These are there to prove that the\nfountainhead of the water of everlasting life has not run dry in Europe,\nand from thence she will have her rebirth time after time. Only there,\nwhere Europe is too consciously busy in building up her power, defying\nher deeper nature and mocking it, she is heaping up her iniquities to\nthe sky, crying for God's vengeance and spreading the infection of\nugliness, physical and moral, over the face of the earth with her\nheartless commerce heedlessly outraging man's sense of the beautiful and\nthe good. Europe is supremely good in her beneficence where her face is\nturned to all humanity; and Europe is supremely evil in her maleficent\naspect where her face is turned only upon her own interest, using all\nher power of greatness for ends which are against the infinite and the\neternal in Man.\n\nEastern Asia has been pursuing its own path, evolving its own\ncivilization, which was not political but social, not predatory and\nmechanically efficient but spiritual and based upon all the varied and\ndeeper relations of humanity. The solutions of the life problems of\npeoples were thought out in seclusion and carried out behind the\nsecurity of aloofness, where all the dynastic changes and foreign\ninvasions hardly touched them. But now we are overtaken by the outside\nworld, our seclusion is lost for ever. Yet this we must not regret, as a\nplant should never regret when the obscurity of its seed-time is\nbroken. Now the time has come when we must make the world problem our\nown problem; we must bring the spirit of our civilization into harmony\nwith the history of all nations of the earth; we must not, in foolish\npride, still keep ourselves fast within the shell of the seed and the\ncrust of the earth which protected and nourished our ideals; for these,\nthe shell and the crust, were meant to be broken, so that life may\nspring up in all its vigour and beauty, bringing its offerings to the\nworld in open light.\n\nIn this task of breaking the barrier and facing the world Japan has come\nout the first in the East. She has infused hope in the heart of all\nAsia. This hope provides the hidden fire which is needed for all works\nof creation. Asia now feels that she must prove her life by producing\nliving work, she must not lie passively dormant, or feebly imitate the\nWest, in the infatuation of fear or flattery. For this we offer our\nthanks to this Land of the Rising Sun and solemnly ask her to remember\nthat she has the mission of the East to fulfil. She must infuse the sap\nof a fuller humanity into the heart of modern civilization. She must\nnever allow it to get choked with the noxious undergrowth, but lead it\nup towards light and freedom, towards the pure air and broad space,\nwhere it can receive, in the dawn of its day and the darkness of its\nnight, heaven's inspiration. Let the greatness of her ideals become\nvisible to all men like her snow-crowned Fuji rising from the heart of\nthe country into the region of the infinite, supremely distinct from its\nsurroundings, beautiful like a maiden in its magnificent sweep of curve,\nyet firm and strong and serenely majestic.\n\n\nII\n\nI have travelled in many countries and have met with men of all classes,\nbut never in my travels did I feel the presence of the human so\ndistinctly as in this land. In other great countries signs of man's\npower loomed large, and I saw vast organizations which showed efficiency\nin all their features. There, display and extravagance, in dress, in\nfurniture, in costly entertainments, are startling. They seem to push\nyou back into a corner, like a poor intruder at a feast; they are apt to\nmake you envious, or take your breath away with amazement. There, you do\nnot feel man as supreme; you are hurled against a stupendousness of\nthings that alienates. But in Japan it is not the display of power, or\nwealth, that is the predominating element. You see everywhere emblems of\nlove and admiration, and not mostly of ambition and greed. You see a\npeople whose heart has come out and scattered itself in profusion in its\ncommonest utensils of everyday life, in its social institutions, in its\nmanners, which are carefully perfect, and in its dealings with things\nwhich are not only deft but graceful in every movement.\n\nWhat has impressed me most in this country is the conviction that you\nhave realized nature's secrets, not by methods of analytical knowledge,\nbut by sympathy. You have known her language of lines, and music of\ncolours, the symmetry in her irregularities, and the cadence in her\nfreedom of movements; you have seen how she leads her immense crowds of\nthings yet avoids all frictions; how the very conflicts in her creations\nbreak out in dance and music; how her exuberance has the aspect of the\nfulness of self-abandonment, and not a mere dissipation of display. You\nhave discovered that nature reserves her power in forms of beauty; and\nit is this beauty which, like a mother, nourishes all the giant forces\nat her breast, keeping them in active vigour, yet in repose. You have\nknown that energies of nature save themselves from wearing out by the\nrhythm of a perfect grace, and that she with the tenderness of her\ncurved lines takes away fatigue from the world's muscles. I have felt\nthat you have been able to assimilate these secrets into your life, and\nthe truth which lies in the beauty of all things has passed into your\nsouls. A mere knowledge of things can be had in a short enough time, but\ntheir spirit can only be acquired by centuries of training and\nself-control. Dominating nature from outside is a much simpler thing\nthan making her your own in love's delight, which is a work of true\ngenius. Your race has shown that genius, not by acquirement, but by\ncreation; not by display of things, but by manifestation of its own\ninner being. This creative power there is in all nations, and it is ever\nactive in getting hold of men's natures and giving them a form according\nto its ideals. But here, in Japan, it seems to have achieved its\nsuccess, and deeply sunk into the minds of all men, and permeated their\nmuscles and nerves. Your instincts have become true, your senses keen,\nand your hands have acquired natural skill. The genius of Europe has\ngiven her people the power of organization, which has specially made\nitself manifest in politics and commerce and in co-ordinating scientific\nknowledge. The genius of Japan has given you the vision of beauty in\nnature and the power of realizing it in your life.\n\nAll particular civilization is the interpretation of particular human\nexperience. Europe seems to have felt emphatically the conflict of\nthings in the universe, which can only be brought under control by\nconquest. Therefore she is ever ready for fight, and the best portion of\nher attention is occupied in organizing forces. But Japan has felt, in\nher world, the touch of some presence, which has evoked in her soul a\nfeeling of reverent adoration. She does not boast of her mastery of\nnature, but to her she brings, with infinite care and joy, her offerings\nof love. Her relationship with the world is the deeper relationship of\nheart. This spiritual bond of love she has established with the hills of\nher country, with the sea and the streams, with the forests in all their\nflowery moods and varied physiognomy of branches; she has taken into her\nheart all the rustling whispers and sighing of the woodlands and sobbing\nof the waves; the sun and the moon she has studied in all the\nmodulations of their lights and shades, and she is glad to close her\nshops to greet the seasons in her orchards and gardens and cornfields.\nThis opening of the heart to the soul of the world is not confined to a\nsection of your privileged classes, it is not the forced product of\nexotic culture, but it belongs to all your men and women of all\nconditions. This experience of your soul, in meeting a personality in\nthe heart of the world, has been embodied in your civilization. It is a\ncivilization of human relationship. Your duty towards your state has\nnaturally assumed the character of filial duty, your nation becoming one\nfamily with your Emperor as its head. Your national unity has not been\nevolved from the comradeship of arms for defensive and offensive\npurpose, or from partnership in raiding adventures, dividing among each\nmember the danger and spoils of robbery. It is not an outcome of the\nnecessity of organization for some ulterior purpose, but it is an\nextension of the family and the obligations of the heart in a wide field\nof space and time. The ideal of \"maitri\" is at the bottom of your\nculture,--\"maitri\" with men and \"maitri\" with Nature. And the true\nexpression of this love is in the language of beauty, which is so\nabundantly universal in this land. This is the reason why a stranger,\nlike myself, instead of feeling envy or humiliation before these\nmanifestations of beauty, these creations of love, feels a readiness to\nparticipate in the joy and glory of such revealment of the human heart.\n\nAnd this has made me all the more apprehensive of the change which\nthreatens Japanese civilization, as something like a menace to one's own\nperson. For the huge heterogeneity of the modern age, whose only common\nbond is usefulness, is nowhere so pitifully exposed against the dignity\nand hidden power of reticent beauty as in Japan.\n\nBut the danger lies in this, that organized ugliness storms the mind and\ncarries the day by its mass, by its aggressive persistence, by its power\nof mockery directed against the deeper sentiments of heart. Its harsh\nobtrusiveness makes it forcibly visible to us, overcoming our\nsenses,--and we bring sacrifices to its altar, as does a savage to the\nfetich which appears powerful because of its hideousness. Therefore its\nrivalry with things that are modest and profound and have the subtle\ndelicacy of life is to be dreaded.\n\nI am quite sure that there are men in your country who are not in\nsympathy with your inherited ideals; whose object is to gain, and not\nto grow. They are loud in their boast that they have modernized Japan.\nWhile I agree with them so far as to say that the spirit of the race\nshould harmonize with the spirit of the time, I must warn them that\nmodernizing is a mere affectation of modernism, just as affectation of\npoesy is poetizing. It is nothing but mimicry, only affectation is\nlouder than the original, and it is too literal. One must bear in mind\nthat those who have the true modern spirit need not modernize, just as\nthose who are truly brave are not braggarts. Modernism is not in the\ndress of the Europeans; or in the hideous structures, where their\nchildren are interned when they take their lessons; or in the square\nhouses with flat, straight wall-surfaces, pierced with parallel lines of\nwindows, where these people are caged in their lifetime; certainly\nmodernism is not in their ladies' bonnets, carrying on them loads of\nincongruities. These are not modern, but merely European. True modernism\nis freedom of mind, not slavery of taste. It is independence of thought\nand action, not tutelage under European schoolmasters. It is science,\nbut not its wrong application in life,--a mere imitation of our science\nteachers who reduce it into a superstition, absurdly invoking its aid\nfor all impossible purposes.\n\nLife based upon mere science is attractive to some men, because it has\nall the characteristics of sport; it feigns seriousness, but is not\nprofound. When you go a-hunting, the less pity you have the better; for\nyour one object is to chase the game and kill it, to feel that you are\nthe greater animal, that your method of destruction is thorough and\nscientific. And the life of science is that superficial life. It pursues\nsuccess with skill and thoroughness, and takes no account of the higher\nnature of man. But those whose minds are crude enough to plan their\nlives upon the supposition that man is merely a hunter and his paradise\nthe paradise of sportsmen will be rudely awakened in the midst of their\ntrophies of skeletons and skulls.\n\nI do not for a moment suggest that Japan should be unmindful of\nacquiring modern weapons of self-protection. But this should never be\nallowed to go beyond her instinct of self-preservation. She must know\nthat the real power is not in the weapons themselves, but in the man who\nwields those weapons; and when he, in his eagerness for power,\nmultiplies his weapons at the cost of his own soul, then it is he who\nis in even greater danger than his enemies.\n\nThings that are living are so easily hurt; therefore they require\nprotection. In nature, life protects itself within its coverings, which\nare built with life's own material. Therefore they are in harmony with\nlife's growth, or else when the time comes they easily give way and are\nforgotten. The living man has his true protection in his spiritual\nideals, which have their vital connection with his life and grow with\nhis growth. But, unfortunately, all his armour is not living,--some of\nit is made of steel, inert and mechanical. Therefore, while making use\nof it, man has to be careful to protect himself from its tyranny. If he\nis weak enough to grow smaller to fit himself to his covering, then it\nbecomes a process of gradual suicide by shrinkage of the soul. And Japan\nmust have a firm faith in the moral law of existence to be able to\nassert to herself that the Western nations are following that path of\nsuicide, where they are smothering their humanity under the immense\nweight of organizations in order to keep themselves in power and hold\nothers in subjection.\n\nWhat is dangerous for Japan is, not the imitation of the outer features\nof the West, but the acceptance of the motive force of the Western\nnationalism as her own. Her social ideals are already showing signs of\ndefeat at the hands of politics. I can see her motto, taken from\nscience, \"Survival of the Fittest,\" writ large at the entrance of her\npresent-day history--the motto whose meaning is, \"Help yourself, and\nnever heed what it costs to others\"; the motto of the blind man who only\nbelieves in what he can touch, because he cannot see. But those who can\nsee know that men are so closely knit that when you strike others the\nblow comes back to yourself. The moral law, which is the greatest\ndiscovery of man, is the discovery of this wonderful truth, that man\nbecomes all the truer the more he realizes himself in others. This truth\nhas not only a subjective value, but is manifested in every department\nof our life. And nations who sedulously cultivate moral blindness as the\ncult of patriotism will end their existence in a sudden and violent\ndeath. In past ages we had foreign invasions, but they never touched the\nsoul of the people deeply. They were merely the outcome of individual\nambitions. The people themselves, being free from the responsibilities\nof the baser and more heinous side of those adventures, had all the\nadvantage of the heroic and the human disciplines derived from them.\nThis developed their unflinching loyalty, their single-minded devotion\nto the obligations of honour, their power of complete self-surrender and\nfearless acceptance of death and danger. Therefore the ideals, whose\nseats were in the hearts of the people, would not undergo any serious\nchange owing to the policies adopted by the kings or generals. But now,\nwhere the spirit of the Western nationalism prevails, the whole people\nis being taught from boyhood to foster hatreds and ambitions by all\nkinds of means--by the manufacture of half-truths and untruths in\nhistory, by persistent misrepresentation of other races and the culture\nof unfavourable sentiments towards them, by setting up memorials of\nevents, very often false, which for the sake of humanity should be\nspeedily forgotten, thus continually brewing evil menace towards\nneighbours and nations other than their own. This is poisoning the very\nfountainhead of humanity. It is discrediting the ideals, which were born\nof the lives of men who were our greatest and best. It is holding up\ngigantic selfishness as the one universal religion for all nations of\nthe world. We can take anything else from the hands of science, but not\nthis elixir of moral death. Never think for a moment that the hurts you\ninflict upon other races will not infect you, or that the enmities you\nsow around your homes will be a wall of protection to you for all time\nto come. To imbue the minds of a whole people with an abnormal vanity of\nits own superiority, to teach it to take pride in its moral callousness\nand ill-begotten wealth, to perpetuate humiliation of defeated nations\nby exhibiting trophies won from war, and using these in schools in order\nto breed in children's minds contempt for others, is imitating the West\nwhere she has a festering sore, whose swelling is a swelling of disease\neating into its vitality.\n\nOur food crops, which are necessary for our sustenance, are products of\ncenturies of selection and care. But the vegetation, which we have not\nto transform into our lives, does not require the patient thoughts of\ngenerations. It is not easy to get rid of weeds; but it is easy, by\nprocess of neglect, to ruin your food crops and let them revert to their\nprimitive state of wildness. Likewise the culture, which has so kindly\nadapted itself to your soil--so intimate with life, so human--not only\nneeded tilling and weeding in past ages, but still needs anxious work\nand watching. What is merely modern--as science and methods of\norganization--can be transplanted; but what is vitally human has fibres\nso delicate, and roots so numerous and far-reaching, that it dies when\nmoved from its soil. Therefore I am afraid of the rude pressure of the\npolitical ideals of the West upon your own. In political civilization,\nthe state is an abstraction and relationship of men utilitarian. Because\nit has no root in sentiments, it is so dangerously easy to handle. Half\na century has been enough for you to master this machine; and there are\nmen among you whose fondness for it exceeds their love for the living\nideals, which were born with the birth of your nation and nursed in your\ncenturies. It is like a child who, in the excitement of his play,\nimagines he likes his playthings better than his mother.\n\nWhere man is at his greatest, he is unconscious. Your civilization,\nwhose mainspring is the bond of human relationship, has been nourished\nin the depth of a healthy life beyond reach of prying self-analysis. But\na mere political relationship is all-conscious; it is an eruptive\ninflammation of aggressiveness. It has forcibly burst upon your notice.\nAnd the time has come when you have to be roused into full\nconsciousness of the truth by which you live, so that you may not be\ntaken unawares. The past has been God's gift to you; about the present,\nyou must make your own choice.\n\nSo the questions you have to put to yourselves are these--\"Have we read\nthe world wrong, and based our relation to it upon an ignorance of human\nnature? Is the instinct of the West right, where she builds her national\nwelfare behind the barricade of a universal distrust of humanity?\"\n\nYou must have detected a strong accent of fear whenever the West has\ndiscussed the possibility of the rise of an Eastern race. The reason of\nit is this, that the power by whose help she thrives is an evil power;\nso long as it is held on her own side she can be safe, while the rest of\nthe world trembles. The vital ambition of the present civilization of\nEurope is to have the exclusive possession of the devil. All her\narmaments and diplomacy are directed upon this one object. But these\ncostly rituals for invocation of the evil spirit lead through a path of\nprosperity to the brink of cataclysm. The furies of terror, which the\nWest has let loose upon God's world, come back to threaten herself and\ngoad her into preparations of more and more frightfulness; this gives\nher no rest, and makes her forget all else but the perils that she\ncauses to others and incurs herself. To the worship of this devil of\npolitics she sacrifices other countries as victims. She feeds upon their\ndead flesh and grows fat upon it, so long as the carcasses remain\nfresh,--but they are sure to rot at last, and the dead will take their\nrevenge, by spreading pollution far and wide and poisoning the vitality\nof the feeder. Japan had all her wealth of humanity, her harmony of\nheroism and beauty, her depth of self-control and richness of\nself-expression; yet the Western nations felt no respect for her till\nshe proved that the bloodhounds of Satan are not only bred in the\nkennels of Europe but can also be domesticated in Japan and fed with\nman's miseries. They admit Japan's equality with themselves, only when\nthey know that Japan also possesses the key to open the floodgate of\nhell-fire upon the fair earth whenever she chooses, and can dance, in\ntheir own measure, the devil dance of pillage, murder and ravishment of\ninnocent women, while the world goes to ruin. We know that, in the early\nstage of man's moral immaturity, he only feels reverence for the god\nwhose malevolence he dreads. But is this the ideal of man which we can\nlook up to with pride? After centuries of civilization nations fearing\neach other like the prowling wild beasts of the night-time; shutting\ntheir doors of hospitality; combining only for purpose of aggression or\ndefence; hiding in their holes their trade secrets, state secrets,\nsecrets of their armaments; making peace-offerings to each other's\nbarking dogs with the meat which does not belong to them; holding down\nfallen races which struggle to stand upon their feet; with their right\nhands dispensing religion to weaker peoples, while robbing them with\ntheir left,--is there anything in this to make us envious? Are we to\nbend our knees to the spirit of this nationalism, which is sowing\nbroadcast over all the world seeds of fear, greed, suspicion, unashamed\nlies of its diplomacy, and unctuous lies of its profession of peace and\ngood-will and universal brotherhood of Man? Can our minds be free from\ndoubt when we rush to the Western market to buy this foreign product in\nexchange for our own inheritance? I am aware how difficult it is to know\none's self; and the man who is intoxicated furiously denies his\ndrunkenness; yet the West herself is anxiously thinking of her problems\nand trying experiments. But she is like a glutton, who has not the\nheart to give up his intemperance in eating, and fondly clings to the\nhope that he can cure his nightmares of indigestion by medicine. Europe\nis not ready to give up her political inhumanity, with all the baser\npassions of man attendant upon it; she believes only in modification of\nsystems, and not in change of heart.\n\nWe are willing to buy their machine-made systems, not with our hearts,\nbut with our brains. We shall try them and build sheds for them, but not\nenshrine them in our homes or temples. There are races who worship the\nanimals they kill; we can buy meat from them when we are hungry, but not\nthe worship which goes with the killing. We must not vitiate our\nchildren's minds with the superstition that business is business, war is\nwar, politics is politics. We must know that man's business has to be\nmore than mere business, and so should be his war and politics. You had\nyour own industry in Japan; how scrupulously honest and true it was, you\ncan see by its products,--by their grace and strength, their\nconscientiousness in details, where they can hardly be observed. But the\ntidal wave of falsehood has swept over your land from that part of the\nworld where business is business, and honesty is followed merely as the\nbest policy. Have you never felt shame when you see the trade\nadvertisements, not only plastering the whole town with lies and\nexaggerations, but invading the green fields, where the peasants do\ntheir honest labour, and the hill-tops, which greet the first pure light\nof the morning? It is so easy to dull our sense of honour and delicacy\nof mind with constant abrasion, while falsehoods stalk abroad with proud\nsteps in the name of trade, politics and patriotism, that any protest\nagainst their perpetual intrusion into our lives is considered to be\nsentimentalism, unworthy of true manliness.\n\nAnd it has come to pass that the children of those heroes who would keep\ntheir word at the point of death, who would disdain to cheat men for\nvulgar profit, who even in their fight would much rather court defeat\nthan be dishonourable, have become energetic in dealing with falsehoods\nand do not feel humiliated by gaining advantage from them. And this has\nbeen effected by the charm of the word \"modern.\" But if undiluted\nutility be modern, beauty is of all ages; if mean selfishness be modern,\nthe human ideals are no new inventions. And we must know for certain\nthat however modern may be the proficiency which cripples man for the\nsake of methods and machines, it will never live to be old.\n\nBut while trying to free our minds from the arrogant claims of Europe\nand to help ourselves out of the quicksands of our infatuation, we may\ngo to the other extreme and blind ourselves with a wholesale suspicion\nof the West. The reaction of disillusionment is just as unreal as the\nfirst shock of illusion. We must try to come to that normal state of\nmind by which we can clearly discern our own danger and avoid it without\nbeing unjust towards the source of that danger. There is always the\nnatural temptation in us of wishing to pay back Europe in her own coin,\nand return contempt for contempt and evil for evil. But that again would\nbe to imitate Europe in one of her worst features, which comes out in\nher behaviour to people whom she describes as yellow or red, brown or\nblack. And this is a point on which we in the East have to acknowledge\nour guilt and own that our sin has been as great, if not greater, when\nwe insulted humanity by treating with utter disdain and cruelty men who\nbelonged to a particular creed, colour or caste. It is really because we\nare afraid of our own weakness, which allows itself to be overcome by\nthe sight of power, that we try to substitute for it another weakness\nwhich makes itself blind to the glories of the West. When we truly know\nthe Europe which is great and good, we can effectively save ourselves\nfrom the Europe which is mean and grasping. It is easy to be unfair in\none's judgment when one is faced with human miseries,--and pessimism is\nthe result of building theories while the mind is suffering. To despair\nof humanity is only possible if we lose faith in truth which brings to\nit strength, when its defeat is greatest, and calls out new life from\nthe depth of its destruction. We must admit that there is a living soul\nin the West which is struggling unobserved against the hugeness of the\norganizations under which men, women and children are being crushed, and\nwhose mechanical necessities are ignoring laws that are spiritual and\nhuman,--the soul whose sensibilities refuse to be dulled completely by\ndangerous habits of heedlessness in dealings with races for whom it\nlacks natural sympathy. The West could never have risen to the eminence\nshe has reached if her strength were merely the strength of the brute or\nof the machine. The divine in her heart is suffering from the injuries\ninflicted by her hands upon the world,--and from this pain of her higher\nnature flows the secret balm which will bring healing to those injuries.\nTime after time she has fought against herself and has undone the chains\nwhich with her own hands she had fastened round helpless limbs; and\nthough she forced poison down the throat of a great nation at the point\nof the sword for gain of money, she herself woke up to withdraw from it,\nto wash her hands clean again. This shows hidden springs of humanity in\nspots which look dead and barren. It proves that the deeper truth in her\nnature, which can survive such a career of cruel cowardliness, is not\ngreed, but reverence for unselfish ideals. It would be altogether\nunjust, both to us and to Europe, to say that she has fascinated the\nmodern Eastern mind by the mere exhibition of her power. Through the\nsmoke of cannons and dust of markets the light of her moral nature has\nshone bright, and she has brought to us the ideal of ethical freedom,\nwhose foundation lies deeper than social conventions and whose province\nof activity is world-wide.\n\nThe East has instinctively felt, even through her aversion, that she has\na great deal to learn from Europe, not merely about the materials of\npower, but about its inner source, which is of mind and of the moral\nnature of man. Europe has been teaching us the higher obligations of\npublic good above those of the family and the clan, and the sacredness\nof law, which makes society independent of individual caprice, secures\nfor it continuity of progress, and guarantees justice to all men of all\npositions in life. Above all things Europe has held high before our\nminds the banner of liberty, through centuries of martyrdom and\nachievement,--liberty of conscience, liberty of thought and action,\nliberty in the ideals of art and literature. And because Europe has won\nour deep respect, she has become so dangerous for us where she is\nturbulently weak and false,--dangerous like poison when it is served\nalong with our best food. There is one safety for us upon which we hope\nwe may count, and that is, that we can claim Europe herself as our ally\nin our resistance to her temptations and to her violent encroachments;\nfor she has ever carried her own standard of perfection, by which we can\nmeasure her falls and gauge her degrees of failure, by which we can call\nher before her own tribunal and put her to shame,--the shame which is\nthe sign of the true pride of nobleness.\n\nBut our fear is, that the poison may be more powerful than the food,\nand what is strength in her to-day may not be the sign of health, but\nthe contrary; for it may be temporarily caused by the upsetting of the\nbalance of life. Our fear is that evil has a fateful fascination when it\nassumes dimensions which are colossal,--and though at last it is sure to\nlose its centre of gravity by its abnormal disproportion, the mischief\nwhich it creates before its fall may be beyond reparation.\n\nTherefore I ask you to have the strength of faith and clarity of mind to\nknow for certain that the lumbering structure of modern progress,\nriveted by the iron bolts of efficiency, which runs upon the wheels of\nambition, cannot hold together for long. Collisions are certain to\noccur; for it has to travel upon organized lines, it is too heavy to\nchoose its own course freely; and once it is off the rails, its endless\ntrain of vehicles is dislocated. A day will come when it will fall in a\nheap of ruin and cause serious obstruction to the traffic of the world.\nDo we not see signs of this even now? Does not the voice come to us,\nthrough the din of war, the shrieks of hatred, the wailings of despair,\nthrough the churning up of the unspeakable filth which has been\naccumulating for ages in the bottom of this nationalism,--the voice\nwhich cries to our soul that the tower of national selfishness, which\ngoes by the name of patriotism, which has raised its banner of treason\nagainst heaven, must totter and fall with a crash, weighed down by its\nown bulk, its flag kissing the dust, its light extinguished? My\nbrothers, when the red light of conflagration sends up its crackle of\nlaughter to the stars, keep your faith upon those stars and not upon the\nfire of destruction. For when this conflagration consumes itself and\ndies down, leaving its memorial in ashes, the eternal light will again\nshine in the East,--the East which has been the birthplace of the\nmorning sun of man's history. And who knows if that day has not already\ndawned, and the sun not risen, in the Easternmost horizon of Asia? And I\noffer, as did my ancestor rishis, my salutation to that sunrise of the\nEast, which is destined once again to illumine the whole world.\n\nI know my voice is too feeble to raise itself above the uproar of this\nbustling time, and it is easy for any street urchin to fling against me\nthe epithet of \"unpractical.\" It will stick to my coat-tail, never to be\nwashed away, effectively excluding me from the consideration of all\nrespectable persons. I know what a risk one runs from the vigorously\nathletic crowds in being styled an idealist in these days, when thrones\nhave lost their dignity and prophets have become an anachronism, when\nthe sound that drowns all voices is the noise of the market-place. Yet\nwhen, one day, standing on the outskirts of Yokohama town, bristling\nwith its display of modern miscellanies, I watched the sunset in your\nsouthern sea, and saw its peace and majesty among your pine-clad\nhills,--with the great Fujiyama growing faint against the golden\nhorizon, like a god overcome with his own radiance,--the music of\neternity welled up through the evening silence, and I felt that the sky\nand the earth and the lyrics of the dawn and the dayfall are with the\npoets and idealists, and not with the marketmen robustly contemptuous of\nall sentiment,--that, after the forgetfulness of his own divinity, man\nwill remember again that heaven is always in touch with his world, which\ncan never be abandoned for good to the hounding wolves of the modern\nera, scenting human blood and howling to the skies.\n\n\n\n\nNATIONALISM IN INDIA\n\n\nOur real problem in India is not political. It is social. This is a\ncondition not only prevailing in India, but among all nations. I do not\nbelieve in an exclusive political interest. Politics in the West have\ndominated Western ideals, and we in India are trying to imitate you. We\nhave to remember that in Europe, where peoples had their racial unity\nfrom the beginning, and where natural resources were insufficient for\nthe inhabitants, the civilization has naturally taken the character of\npolitical and commercial aggressiveness. For on the one hand they had no\ninternal complications, and on the other they had to deal with\nneighbours who were strong and rapacious. To have perfect combination\namong themselves and a watchful attitude of animosity against others was\ntaken as the solution of their problems. In former days they organized\nand plundered, in the present age the same spirit continues--and they\norganize and exploit the whole world.\n\nBut from the earliest beginnings of history India has had her own\nproblem constantly before her--it is the race problem. Each nation must\nbe conscious of its mission, and we, in India, must realize that we cut\na poor figure when we are trying to be political, simply because we have\nnot yet been finally able to accomplish what was set before us by our\nprovidence.\n\nThis problem of race unity which we have been trying to solve for so\nmany years has likewise to be faced by you here in America. Many people\nin this country ask me what is happening as to the caste distinctions in\nIndia. But when this question is asked me, it is usually done with a\nsuperior air. And I feel tempted to put the same question to our\nAmerican critics with a slight modification, \"What have you done with\nthe Red Indian and the Negro?\" For you have not got over your attitude\nof caste toward them. You have used violent methods to keep aloof from\nother races, but until you have solved the question here in America, you\nhave no right to question India.\n\nIn spite of our great difficulty, however, India has done something. She\nhas tried to make an adjustment of races, to acknowledge the real\ndifferences between them where these exist, and yet seek for some basis\nof unity. This basis has come through our saints, like Nanak, Kabir,\nChaitnaya and others, preaching one God to all races of India.\n\nIn finding the solution of our problem we shall have helped to solve the\nworld problem as well. What India has been, the whole world is now. The\nwhole world is becoming one country through scientific facility. And the\nmoment is arriving when you also must find a basis of unity which is not\npolitical. If India can offer to the world her solution, it will be a\ncontribution to humanity. There is only one history--the history of man.\nAll national histories are merely chapters in the larger one. And we are\ncontent in India to suffer for such a great cause.\n\nEach individual has his self-love. Therefore his brute instinct leads\nhim to fight with others in the sole pursuit of his self-interest. But\nman has also his higher instincts of sympathy and mutual help. The\npeople who are lacking in this higher moral power and who therefore\ncannot combine in fellowship with one another must perish or live in a\nstate of degradation. Only those peoples have survived and achieved\ncivilization who have this spirit of co-operation strong in them. So we\nfind that from the beginning of history men had to choose between\nfighting with one another and combining, between serving their own\ninterest or the common interest of all.\n\nIn our early history, when the geographical limits of each country and\nalso the facilities of communication were small, this problem was\ncomparatively small in dimension. It was sufficient for men to develop\ntheir sense of unity within their area of segregation. In those days\nthey combined among themselves and fought against others. But it was\nthis moral spirit of combination which was the true basis of their\ngreatness, and this fostered their art, science and religion. At that\nearly time the most important fact that man had to take count of was the\nfact of the members of one particular race of men coming in close\ncontact with one another. Those who truly grasped this fact through\ntheir higher nature made their mark in history.\n\nThe most important fact of the present age is that all the different\nraces of men have come close together. And again we are confronted with\ntwo alternatives. The problem is whether the different groups of peoples\nshall go on fighting with one another or find out some true basis of\nreconciliation and mutual help; whether it will be interminable\ncompetition or co-operation.\n\nI have no hesitation in saying that those who are gifted with the moral\npower of love and vision of spiritual unity, who have the least feeling\nof enmity against aliens, and the sympathetic insight to place\nthemselves in the position of others, will be the fittest to take their\npermanent place in the age that is lying before us, and those who are\nconstantly developing their instinct of fight and intolerance of aliens\nwill be eliminated. For this is the problem before us, and we have to\nprove our humanity by solving it through the help of our higher nature.\nThe gigantic organizations for hurting others and warding off their\nblows, for making money by dragging others back, will not help us. On\nthe contrary, by their crushing weight, their enormous cost and their\ndeadening effect upon living humanity, they will seriously impede our\nfreedom in the larger life of a higher civilization.\n\nDuring the evolution of the Nation the moral culture of brotherhood was\nlimited by geographical boundaries, because at that time those\nboundaries were true. Now they have become imaginary lines of tradition\ndivested of the qualities of real obstacles. So the time has come when\nman's moral nature must deal with this great fact with all seriousness\nor perish. The first impulse of this change of circumstance has been the\nchurning up of man's baser passions of greed and cruel hatred. If this\npersists indefinitely, and armaments go on exaggerating themselves to\nunimaginable absurdities, and machines and storehouses envelop this fair\nearth with their dirt and smoke and ugliness, then it will end in a\nconflagration of suicide. Therefore man will have to exert all his power\nof love and clarity of vision to make another great moral adjustment\nwhich will comprehend the whole world of men and not merely the\nfractional groups of nationality. The call has come to every individual\nin the present age to prepare himself and his surroundings for this dawn\nof a new era, when man shall discover his soul in the spiritual unity of\nall human beings.\n\nIf it is given at all to the West to struggle out of these tangles of\nthe lower slopes to the spiritual summit of humanity then I cannot but\nthink that it is the special mission of America to fulfil this hope of\nGod and man. You are the country of expectation, desiring something else\nthan what is. Europe has her subtle habits of mind and her conventions.\nBut America, as yet, has come to no conclusions. I realize how much\nAmerica is untrammelled by the traditions of the past, and I can\nappreciate that experimentalism is a sign of America's youth. The\nfoundation of her glory is in the future, rather than in the past; and\nif one is gifted with the power of clairvoyance, one will be able to\nlove the America that is to be.\n\nAmerica is destined to justify Western civilization to the East. Europe\nhas lost faith in humanity, and has become distrustful and sickly.\nAmerica, on the other hand, is not pessimistic or blas\u00e9. You know, as a\npeople, that there is such a thing as a better and a best; and that\nknowledge drives you on. There are habits that are not merely passive\nbut aggressively arrogant. They are not like mere walls, but are like\nhedges of stinging nettles. Europe has been cultivating these hedges of\nhabits for long years, till they have grown round her dense and strong\nand high. The pride of her traditions has sent its roots deep into her\nheart. I do not wish to contend that it is unreasonable. But pride in\nevery form breeds blindness at the end. Like all artificial stimulants\nits first effect is a heightening of consciousness, and then with the\nincreasing dose it muddles it and brings an exultation that is\nmisleading. Europe has gradually grown hardened in her pride in all her\nouter and inner habits. She not only cannot forget that she is Western,\nbut she takes every opportunity to hurl this fact against others to\nhumiliate them. This is why she is growing incapable of imparting to the\nEast what is best in herself, and of accepting in a right spirit the\nwisdom that the East has stored for centuries.\n\nIn America national habits and traditions have not had time to spread\ntheir clutching roots round your hearts. You have constantly felt and\ncomplained of your disadvantages when you compared your nomadic\nrestlessness with the settled traditions of Europe--the Europe which can\nshow her picture of greatness to the best advantage because she can fix\nit against the background of the Past. But in this present age of\ntransition, when a new era of civilization is sending its trumpet-call\nto all peoples of the world across an unlimited future, this very\nfreedom of detachment will enable you to accept its invitation and to\nachieve the goal for which Europe began her journey but lost herself\nmidway. For she was tempted out of her path by her pride of power and\ngreed of possession.\n\nNot merely your freedom from habits of mind in individuals, but also\nthe freedom of your history from all unclean entanglements, fits you in\nyour career of holding the banner of civilization of the future. All the\ngreat nations of Europe have their victims in other parts of the world.\nThis not only deadens their moral sympathy but also their intellectual\nsympathy, which is so necessary for the understanding of races which are\ndifferent from one's own. Englishmen can never truly understand India,\nbecause their minds are not disinterested with regard to that country.\nIf you compare England with Germany or France you will find she has\nproduced the smallest number of scholars who have studied Indian\nliterature and philosophy with any amount of sympathetic insight or\nthoroughness. This attitude of apathy and contempt is natural where the\nrelationship is abnormal and founded upon national selfishness and\npride. But your history has been disinterested, and that is why you have\nbeen able to help Japan in her lessons in Western civilization, and that\nis why China can look upon you with her best confidence in this her\ndarkest period of danger. In fact you are carrying all the\nresponsibility of a great future because you are untrammelled by the\ngrasping miserliness of a past. Therefore of all countries of the earth\nAmerica has to be fully conscious of this future, her vision must not be\nobscured and her faith in humanity must be strong with the strength of\nyouth.\n\nA parallelism exists between America and India--the parallelism of\nwelding together into one body various races.\n\nIn my country we have been seeking to find out something common to all\nraces, which will prove their real unity. No nation looking for a mere\npolitical or commercial basis of unity will find such a solution\nsufficient. Men of thought and power will discover the spiritual unity,\nwill realize it, and preach it.\n\nIndia has never had a real sense of nationalism. Even though from\nchildhood I had been taught that idolatry of the Nation is almost better\nthan reverence for God and humanity, I believe I have outgrown that\nteaching, and it is my conviction that my countrymen will truly gain\ntheir India by fighting against the education which teaches them that a\ncountry is greater than the ideals of humanity.\n\nThe educated Indian at present is trying to absorb some lessons from\nhistory contrary to the lessons of our ancestors. The East, in fact, is\nattempting to take unto itself a history which is not the outcome of its\nown living. Japan, for example, thinks she is getting powerful through\nadopting Western methods, but, after she has exhausted her inheritance,\nonly the borrowed weapons of civilization will remain to her. She will\nnot have developed herself from within.\n\nEurope has her past. Europe's strength therefore lies in her history.\nWe, in India, must make up our minds that we cannot borrow other\npeople's history, and that if we stifle our own we are committing\nsuicide. When you borrow things that do not belong to your life, they\nonly serve to crush your life.\n\nAnd therefore I believe that it does India no good to compete with\nWestern civilization in its own field. But we shall be more than\ncompensated if, in spite of the insults heaped upon us, we follow our\nown destiny.\n\nThere are lessons which impart information or train our minds for\nintellectual pursuits. These are simple and can be acquired and used\nwith advantage. But there are others which affect our deeper nature and\nchange our direction of life. Before we accept them and pay their value\nby selling our own inheritance, we must pause and think deeply. In man's\nhistory there come ages of fireworks which dazzle us by their force and\nmovement. They laugh not only at our modest household lamps but also at\nthe eternal stars. But let us not for that provocation be precipitate in\nour desire to dismiss our lamps. Let us patiently bear our present\ninsult and realize that these fireworks have splendour but not\npermanence, because of the extreme explosiveness which is the cause of\ntheir power, and also of their exhaustion. They are spending a fatal\nquantity of energy and substance compared to their gain and production.\n\nAnyhow, our ideals have been evolved through our own history, and even\nif we wished we could only make poor fireworks of them, because their\nmaterials are different from yours, as is also their moral purpose. If\nwe cherish the desire of paying our all to buy a political nationality\nit will be as absurd as if Switzerland had staked her existence on her\nambition to build up a navy powerful enough to compete with that of\nEngland. The mistake that we make is in thinking that man's channel of\ngreatness is only one--the one which has made itself painfully evident\nfor the time being by its depth of insolence.\n\nWe must know for certain that there is a future before us and that\nfuture is waiting for those who are rich in moral ideals and not in mere\nthings. And it is the privilege of man to work for fruits that are\nbeyond his immediate reach, and to adjust his life not in slavish\nconformity to the examples of some present success or even to his own\nprudent past, limited in its aspiration, but to an infinite future\nbearing in its heart the ideals of our highest expectations.\n\nWe must recognize that it is providential that the West has come to\nIndia. And yet some one must show the East to the West, and convince the\nWest that the East has her contribution to make to the history of\ncivilization. India is no beggar of the West. And yet even though the\nWest may think she is, I am not for thrusting off Western civilization\nand becoming segregated in our independence. Let us have a deep\nassociation. If Providence wants England to be the channel of that\ncommunication, of that deeper association, I am willing to accept it\nwith all humility. I have great faith in human nature, and I think the\nWest will find its true mission. I speak bitterly of Western\ncivilization when I am conscious that it is betraying its trust and\nthwarting its own purpose. The West must not make herself a curse to the\nworld by using her power for her own selfish needs, but, by teaching the\nignorant and helping the weak, she should save herself from the worst\ndanger that the strong is liable to incur by making the feeble acquire\npower enough to resist her intrusion. And also she must not make her\nmaterialism to be the final thing, but must realize that she is doing a\nservice in freeing the spiritual being from the tyranny of matter.\n\nI am not against one nation in particular, but against the general idea\nof all nations. What is the Nation?\n\nIt is the aspect of a whole people as an organized power. This\norganization incessantly keeps up the insistence of the population on\nbecoming strong and efficient. But this strenuous effort after strength\nand efficiency drains man's energy from his higher nature where he is\nself-sacrificing and creative. For thereby man's power of sacrifice is\ndiverted from his ultimate object, which is moral, to the maintenance of\nthis organization, which is mechanical. Yet in this he feels all the\nsatisfaction of moral exaltation and therefore becomes supremely\ndangerous to humanity. He feels relieved of the urging of his conscience\nwhen he can transfer his responsibility to this machine which is the\ncreation of his intellect and not of his complete moral personality. By\nthis device the people which loves freedom perpetuates slavery in a\nlarge portion of the world with the comfortable feeling of pride of\nhaving done its duty; men who are naturally just can be cruelly unjust\nboth in their act and their thought, accompanied by a feeling that they\nare helping the world to receive its deserts; men who are honest can\nblindly go on robbing others of their human rights for\nself-aggrandizement, all the while abusing the deprived for not\ndeserving better treatment. We have seen in our everyday life even small\norganizations of business and profession produce callousness of feeling\nin men who are not naturally bad, and we can well imagine what a moral\nhavoc it is causing in a world where whole peoples are furiously\norganizing themselves for gaining wealth and power.\n\nNationalism is a great menace. It is the particular thing which for\nyears has been at the bottom of India's troubles. And inasmuch as we\nhave been ruled and dominated by a nation that is strictly political in\nits attitude, we have tried to develop within ourselves, despite our\ninheritance from the past, a belief in our eventual political destiny.\n\nThere are different parties in India, with different ideals. Some are\nstruggling for political independence. Others think that the time has\nnot arrived for that, and yet believe that India should have the rights\nthat the English colonies have. They wish to gain autonomy as far as\npossible.\n\nIn the beginning of the history of political agitation in India there\nwas not the conflict between parties which there is to-day. At that time\nthere was a party known as the Indian Congress; it had no real\nprogramme. They had a few grievances for redress by the authorities.\nThey wanted larger representation in the Council House, and more freedom\nin Municipal government. They wanted scraps of things, but they had no\nconstructive ideal. Therefore I was lacking in enthusiasm for their\nmethods. It was my conviction that what India most needed was\nconstructive work coming from within herself. In this work we must take\nall risks and go on doing the duties which by right are ours, though in\nthe teeth of persecution; winning moral victory at every step, by our\nfailure and suffering. We must show those who are over us that we have\nin ourselves the strength of moral power, the power to suffer for truth.\nWhere we have nothing to show, we have only to beg. It would be\nmischievous if the gifts we wish for were granted to us at once, and I\nhave told my countrymen, time and again, to combine for the work of\ncreating opportunities to give vent to our spirit of self-sacrifice, and\nnot for the purpose of begging.\n\nThe party, however, lost power because the people soon came to realize\nhow futile was the half policy adopted by them. The party split, and\nthere arrived the Extremists, who advocated independence of action, and\ndiscarded the begging method,--the easiest method of relieving one's\nmind from his responsibility towards his country. Their ideals were\nbased on Western history. They had no sympathy with the special problems\nof India. They did not recognize the patent fact that there were causes\nin our social organization which made the Indian incapable of coping\nwith the alien. What should we do if, for any reason, England was driven\naway? We should simply be victims for other nations. The same social\nweaknesses would prevail. The thing we in India have to think of is\nthis--to remove those social customs and ideals which have generated a\nwant of self-respect and a complete dependence on those above us,--a\nstate of affairs which has been brought about entirely by the domination\nin India of the caste system, and the blind and lazy habit of relying\nupon the authority of traditions that are incongruous anachronisms in\nthe present age.\n\nOnce again I draw your attention to the difficulties India has had to\nencounter and her struggle to overcome them. Her problem was the problem\nof the world in miniature. India is too vast in its area and too diverse\nin its races. It is many countries packed in one geographical\nreceptacle. It is just the opposite of what Europe truly is, namely, one\ncountry made into many. Thus Europe in its culture and growth has had\nthe advantage of the strength of the many as well as the strength of the\none. India, on the contrary, being naturally many, yet adventitiously\none, has all along suffered from the looseness of its diversity and the\nfeebleness of its unity. A true unity is like a round globe, it rolls\non, carrying its burden easily; but diversity is a many-cornered thing\nwhich has to be dragged and pushed with all force. Be it said to the\ncredit of India that this diversity was not her own creation; she has\nhad to accept it as a fact from the beginning of her history. In America\nand Australia, Europe has simplified her problem by almost exterminating\nthe original population. Even in the present age this spirit of\nextermination is making itself manifest, in the inhospitable shutting\nout of aliens, by those who themselves were aliens in the lands they now\noccupy. But India tolerated difference of races from the first, and that\nspirit of toleration has acted all through her history.\n\nHer caste system is the outcome of this spirit of toleration. For India\nhas all along been trying experiments in evolving a social unity within\nwhich all the different peoples could be held together, while fully\nenjoying the freedom of maintaining their own differences. The tie has\nbeen as loose as possible, yet as close as the circumstances permitted.\nThis has produced something like a United States of a social federation,\nwhose common name is Hinduism.\n\nIndia had felt that diversity of races there must be and should be,\nwhatever may be its drawback, and you can never coerce nature into your\nnarrow limits of convenience without paying one day very dearly for it.\nIn this India was right; but what she failed to realize was that in\nhuman beings differences are not like the physical barriers of\nmountains, fixed for ever--they are fluid with life's flow, they are\nchanging their courses and their shapes and volume.\n\nTherefore in her caste regulations India recognized differences, but not\nthe mutability which is the law of life. In trying to avoid collisions\nshe set up boundaries of immovable walls, thus giving to her numerous\nraces the negative benefit of peace and order but not the positive\nopportunity of expansion and movement. She accepted nature where it\nproduces diversity, but ignored it where it uses that diversity for its\nworld-game of infinite permutations and combinations. She treated life\nin all truth where it is manifold, but insulted it where it is ever\nmoving. Therefore Life departed from her social system and in its place\nshe is worshipping with all ceremony the magnificent cage of countless\ncompartments that she has manufactured.\n\nThe same thing happened where she tried to ward off the collisions of\ntrade interests. She associated different trades and professions with\ndifferent castes. This had the effect of allaying for good the\ninterminable jealousy and hatred of competition--the competition which\nbreeds cruelty and makes the atmosphere thick with lies and deception.\nIn this also India laid all her emphasis upon the law of heredity,\nignoring the law of mutation, and thus gradually reduced arts into\ncrafts and genius into skill.\n\nHowever, what Western observers fail to discern is that in her caste\nsystem India in all seriousness accepted her responsibility to solve the\nrace problem in such a manner as to avoid all friction, and yet to\nafford each race freedom within its boundaries. Let us admit India has\nnot in this achieved a full measure of success. But this you must also\nconcede, that the West, being more favourably situated as to homogeneity\nof races, has never given her attention to this problem, and whenever\nconfronted with it she has tried to make it easy by ignoring it\naltogether. And this is the source of her anti-Asiatic agitations for\ndepriving aliens of their right to earn their honest living on these\nshores. In most of your colonies you only admit them on condition of\ntheir accepting the menial position of hewers of wood and drawers of\nwater. Either you shut your doors against the aliens or reduce them into\nslavery. And this is your solution of the problem of race-conflict.\nWhatever may be its merits you will have to admit that it does not\nspring from the higher impulses of civilization, but from the lower\npassions of greed and hatred. You say this is human nature--and India\nalso thought she knew human nature when she strongly barricaded her race\ndistinctions by the fixed barriers of social gradations. But we have\nfound out to our cost that human nature is not what it seems, but what\nit is in truth; which is in its infinite possibilities. And when we in\nour blindness insult humanity for its ragged appearance it sheds its\ndisguise to disclose to us that we have insulted our God. The\ndegradation which we cast upon others in our pride or self-interest\ndegrades our own humanity--and this is the punishment which is most\nterrible, because we do not detect it till it is too late.\n\nNot only in your relation with aliens but with the different sections of\nyour own society you have not achieved harmony of reconciliation. The\nspirit of conflict and competition is allowed the full freedom of its\nreckless career. And because its genesis is the greed of wealth and\npower it can never come to any other end but to a violent death. In\nIndia the production of commodities was brought under the law of social\nadjustments. Its basis was co-operation, having for its object the\nperfect satisfaction of social needs. But in the West it is guided by\nthe impulse of competition, whose end is the gain of wealth for\nindividuals. But the individual is like the geometrical line; it is\nlength without breadth. It has not got the depth to be able to hold\nanything permanently. Therefore its greed or gain can never come to\nfinality. In its lengthening process of growth it can cross other lines\nand cause entanglements, but will ever go on missing the ideal of\ncompleteness in its thinness of isolation.\n\nIn all our physical appetites we recognize a limit. We know that to\nexceed that limit is to exceed the limit of health. But has this lust\nfor wealth and power no bounds beyond which is death's dominion? In\nthese national carnivals of materialism are not the Western peoples\nspending most of their vital energy in merely producing things and\nneglecting the creation of ideals? And can a civilization ignore the law\nof moral health and go on in its endless process of inflation by gorging\nupon material things? Man in his social ideals naturally tries to\nregulate his appetites, subordinating them to the higher purpose of his\nnature. But in the economic world our appetites follow no other\nrestrictions but those of supply and demand which can be artificially\nfostered, affording individuals opportunities for indulgence in an\nendless feast of grossness. In India our social instincts imposed\nrestrictions upon our appetites,--maybe it went to the extreme of\nrepression,--but in the West the spirit of economic organization with no\nmoral purpose goads the people into the perpetual pursuit of wealth; but\nhas this no wholesome limit?\n\nThe ideals that strive to take form in social institutions have two\nobjects. One is to regulate our passions and appetites for the\nharmonious development of man, and the other is to help him to cultivate\ndisinterested love for his fellow-creatures. Therefore society is the\nexpression of those moral and spiritual aspirations of man which belong\nto his higher nature.\n\nOur food is creative, it builds our body; but not so wine, which\nstimulates. Our social ideals create the human world, but when our mind\nis diverted from them to greed of power then in that state of\nintoxication we live in a world of abnormality where our strength is not\nhealth and our liberty is not freedom. Therefore political freedom does\nnot give us freedom when our mind is not free. An automobile does not\ncreate freedom of movement, because it is a mere machine. When I myself\nam free I can use the automobile for the purpose of my freedom.\n\nWe must never forget in the present day that those people who have got\ntheir political freedom are not necessarily free, they are merely\npowerful. The passions which are unbridled in them are creating huge\norganizations of slavery in the disguise of freedom. Those who have made\nthe gain of money their highest end are unconsciously selling their life\nand soul to rich persons or to the combinations that represent money.\nThose who are enamoured of their political power and gloat over their\nextension of dominion over foreign races gradually surrender their own\nfreedom and humanity to the organizations necessary for holding other\npeoples in slavery. In the so-called free countries the majority of the\npeople are not free, they are driven by the minority to a goal which is\nnot even known to them. This becomes possible only because people do not\nacknowledge moral and spiritual freedom as their object. They create\nhuge eddies with their passions, and they feel dizzily inebriated with\nthe mere velocity of their whirling movement, taking that to be freedom.\nBut the doom which is waiting to overtake them is as certain as\ndeath--for man's truth is moral truth and his emancipation is in the\nspiritual life.\n\nThe general opinion of the majority of the present-day nationalists in\nIndia is that we have come to a final completeness in our social and\nspiritual ideals, the task of the constructive work of society having\nbeen done several thousand years before we were born, and that now we\nare free to employ all our activities in the political direction. We\nnever dream of blaming our social inadequacy as the origin of our\npresent helplessness, for we have accepted as the creed of our\nnationalism that this social system has been perfected for all time to\ncome by our ancestors, who had the superhuman vision of all eternity and\nsupernatural power for making infinite provision for future ages.\nTherefore, for all our miseries and shortcomings, we hold responsible\nthe historical surprises that burst upon us from outside. This is the\nreason why we think that our one task is to build a political miracle of\nfreedom upon the quicksand of social slavery. In fact we want to dam up\nthe true course of our own historical stream, and only borrow power from\nthe sources of other peoples' history.\n\nThose of us in India who have come under the delusion that mere\npolitical freedom will make us free have accepted their lessons from the\nWest as the gospel truth and lost their faith in humanity. We must\nremember whatever weakness we cherish in our society will become the\nsource of danger in politics. The same inertia which leads us to our\nidolatry of dead forms in social institutions will create in our\npolitics prison-houses with immovable walls. The narrowness of sympathy\nwhich makes it possible for us to impose upon a considerable portion of\nhumanity the galling yoke of inferiority will assert itself in our\npolitics in creating the tyranny of injustice.\n\nWhen our nationalists talk about ideals they forget that the basis of\nnationalism is wanting. The very people who are upholding these ideals\nare themselves the most conservative in their social practice.\nNationalists say, for example, look at Switzerland where, in spite of\nrace differences, the peoples have solidified into a nation. Yet,\nremember that in Switzerland the races can mingle, they can intermarry,\nbecause they are of the same blood. In India there is no common\nbirthright. And when we talk of Western Nationality we forget that the\nnations there do not have that physical repulsion, one for the other,\nthat we have between different castes. Have we an instance in the whole\nworld where a people who are not allowed to mingle their blood shed\ntheir blood for one another except by coercion or for mercenary\npurposes? And can we ever hope that these moral barriers against our\nrace amalgamation will not stand in the way of our political unity?\n\nThen again we must give full recognition to this fact that our social\nrestrictions are still tyrannical, so much so as to make men cowards. If\na man tells me he has heterodox ideas, but that he cannot follow them\nbecause he would be socially ostracized, I excuse him for having to live\na life of untruth, in order to live at all. The social habit of mind\nwhich impels us to make the life of our fellow-beings a burden to them\nwhere they differ from us even in such a thing as their choice of food,\nis sure to persist in our political organization and result in creating\nengines of coercion to crush every rational difference which is the sign\nof life. And tyranny will only add to the inevitable lies and hypocrisy\nin our political life. Is the mere name of freedom so valuable that we\nshould be willing to sacrifice for its sake our moral freedom?\n\nThe intemperance of our habits does not immediately show its effects\nwhen we are in the vigour of our youth. But it gradually consumes that\nvigour, and when the period of decline sets in then we have to settle\naccounts and pay off our debts, which leads us to insolvency. In the\nWest you are still able to carry your head high, though your humanity is\nsuffering every moment from its dipsomania of organizing power. India\nalso in the heyday of her youth could carry in her vital organs the dead\nweight of her social organizations stiffened to rigid perfection, but it\nhas been fatal to her, and has produced a gradual paralysis of her\nliving nature. And this is the reason why the educated community of\nIndia has become insensible of her social needs. They are taking the\nvery immobility of our social structures as the sign of their\nperfection,--and because the healthy feeling of pain is dead in the\nlimbs of our social organism they delude themselves into thinking that\nit needs no ministration. Therefore they think that all their energies\nneed their only scope in the political field. It is like a man whose\nlegs have become shrivelled and useless, trying to delude himself that\nthese limbs have grown still because they have attained their ultimate\nsalvation, and all that is wrong about him is the shortness of his\nsticks.\n\nSo much for the social and the political regeneration of India. Now we\ncome to her industries, and I am very often asked whether there is in\nIndia any industrial regeneration since the advent of the British\nGovernment. It must be remembered that at the beginning of the British\nrule in India our industries were suppressed, and since then we have not\nmet with any real help or encouragement to enable us to make a stand\nagainst the monster commercial organizations of the world. The nations\nhave decreed that we must remain purely an agricultural people, even\nforgetting the use of arms for all time to come. Thus India is being\nturned into so many predigested morsels of food ready to be swallowed at\nany moment by any nation which has even the most rudimentary set of\nteeth in its head.\n\nIndia therefore has very little outlet for her industrial originality. I\npersonally do not believe in the unwieldy organizations of the present\nday. The very fact that they are ugly shows that they are in discordance\nwith the whole creation. The vast powers of nature do not reveal their\ntruth in hideousness, but in beauty. Beauty is the signature which the\nCreator stamps upon His works when He is satisfied with them. All our\nproducts that insolently ignore the laws of perfection and are unashamed\nin their display of ungainliness bear the perpetual weight of God's\ndispleasure. So far as your commerce lacks the dignity of grace it is\nuntrue. Beauty and her twin brother Truth require leisure and\nself-control for their growth. But the greed of gain has no time or\nlimit to its capaciousness. Its one object is to produce and consume. It\nhas pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings. It is\nruthlessly ready without a moment's hesitation to crush beauty and life\nout of them, moulding them into money. It is this ugly vulgarity of\ncommerce which brought upon it the censure of contempt in our earlier\ndays, when men had leisure to have an unclouded vision of perfection in\nhumanity. Men in those times were rightly ashamed of the instinct of\nmere money-making. But in this scientific age money, by its very\nabnormal bulk, has won its throne. And when from its eminence of\npiled-up things it insults the higher instincts of man, banishing beauty\nand noble sentiments from its surroundings, we submit. For we in our\nmeanness have accepted bribes from its hands and our imagination has\ngrovelled in the dust before its immensity of flesh.\n\nBut its very unwieldiness and its endless complexities are its true\nsigns of failure. The swimmer who is an expert does not exhibit his\nmuscular force by violent movements, but exhibits some power which is\ninvisible and which shows itself in perfect grace and reposefulness. The\ntrue distinction of man from animals is in his power and worth which are\ninner and invisible. But the present-day commercial civilization of man\nis not only taking too much time and space but killing time and space.\nIts movements are violent, its noise is discordantly loud. It is\ncarrying its own damnation because it is trampling into distortion the\nhumanity upon which it stands. It is strenuously turning out money at\nthe cost of happiness. Man is reducing himself to his minimum in order\nto be able to make amplest room for his organizations. He is deriding\nhis human sentiments into shame because they are apt to stand in the way\nof his machines.\n\nIn our mythology we have the legend that the man who performs penances\nfor attaining immortality has to meet with temptations sent by Indra,\nthe Lord of the immortals. If he is lured by them he is lost. The West\nhas been striving for centuries after its goal of immortality. Indra has\nsent her the temptation to try her. It is the gorgeous temptation of\nwealth. She has accepted it, and her civilization of humanity has lost\nits path in the wilderness of machinery.\n\nThis commercialism with its barbarity of ugly decorations is a terrible\nmenace to all humanity, because it is setting up the ideal of power over\nthat of perfection. It is making the cult of self-seeking exult in its\nnaked shamelessness. Our nerves are more delicate than our muscles.\nThings that are the most precious in us are helpless as babes when we\ntake away from them the careful protection which they claim from us for\ntheir very preciousness. Therefore, when the callous rudeness of power\nruns amuck in the broad-way of humanity it scares away by its grossness\nthe ideals which we have cherished with the martyrdom of centuries.\n\nThe temptation which is fatal for the strong is still more so for the\nweak. And I do not welcome it in our Indian life, even though it be sent\nby the lord of the Immortals. Let our life be simple in its outer aspect\nand rich in its inner gain. Let our civilization take its firm stand\nupon its basis of social co-operation and not upon that of economic\nexploitation and conflict. How to do it in the teeth of the drainage of\nour life-blood by the economic dragons is the task set before the\nthinkers of all oriental nations who have faith in the human soul. It is\na sign of laziness and impotency to accept conditions imposed upon us by\nothers who have other ideals than ours. We should actively try to adapt\nthe world powers to guide our history to its own perfect end.\n\nFrom the above you will know that I am not an economist. I am willing to\nacknowledge that there is a law of demand and supply and an infatuation\nof man for more things than are good for him. And yet I will persist in\nbelieving that there is such a thing as the harmony of completeness in\nhumanity, where poverty does not take away his riches, where defeat may\nlead him to victory, death to immortality, and where in the compensation\nof Eternal Justice those who are the last may yet have their insult\ntransmuted into a golden triumph.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SUNSET OF THE CENTURY\n\n(_Written in the Bengali on the last day of last century_)\n\n\n1\n\n     The last sun of the century sets amidst the blood-red clouds of the\n       West and the whirlwind of hatred.\n     The naked passion of self-love of Nations, in its drunken delirium\n       of greed, is dancing to the clash of steel and the howling verses\n       of vengeance.\n\n\n2\n\n     The hungry self of the Nation shall burst in a violence of fury from\n       its own shameless feeding.\n     For it has made the world its food,\n     And licking it, crunching it and swallowing it in big morsels,\n             It swells and swells\n     Till in the midst of its unholy feast descends the sudden shaft of\n       heaven piercing its heart of grossness.\n\n\n3\n\n     The crimson glow of light on the horizon is not the light of thy\n       dawn of peace, my Motherland.\n     It is the glimmer of the funeral pyre burning to ashes the vast\n       flesh,--the self-love of the Nation--dead under its own excess.\n     Thy morning waits behind the patient dark of the East,\n             Meek and silent.\n\n\n4\n\n     Keep watch, India.\n     Bring your offerings of worship for that sacred sunrise.\n     Let the first hymn of its welcome sound in your voice and sing\n     \"Come, Peace, thou daughter of God's own great suffering.\n     Come with thy treasure of contentment, the sword of fortitude,\n             And meekness crowning thy forehead.\"\n\n\n5\n\n     Be not ashamed, my brothers, to stand before the proud and the\n       powerful\n             With your white robe of simpleness.\n     Let your crown be of humility, your freedom the freedom of the\n       soul.\n     Build God's throne daily upon the ample bareness of your poverty\n     And know that what is huge is not great and pride is not\n       everlasting.\n\n\nTHE END\n\n\n_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.","title":"Nationalism","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":26701}