| The spiritual
value of things depends on the price paid for them in suffering and sacrifice. An easily
achieved revolution has not the same psychological virtue as one paid for in blood and
tears. Where there is no backing of revolutionary fanaticism or its after-effects there
must be found something else to operate as motive power. The only thing that can do this
effectively is a faith that operates as a law from within and cooperates with the State. In Vedanta, we have a teaching rooted in immemorial tradition and
associated with the sacred names and memories of a long line of seers, which can serve as
the spiritual and cultural basis for a new and more just economy of life, if not all over
the world, at least in India itself.
Whether the claim made by me that Vedanta can create a
conscience for social obligations is accepted or not, let us understand the philosophy of
the Hindus and the way of life flowing from it. All culture in India has been rooted
in Vedanta. What ever courage, heroism, self-sacrifice or greatness is to be found in our
history or seen in the lives of our people has sprung from Vedanta, which is in our blood
and tradition. |
