";s:4:"text";s:8755:" Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time. It is an extremely natural instinct and it is practically impossible to shake off that attachment. They are spending a fatal quantity of energy and substance compared to their gain and production. The West must not make herself a curse to the world by using her power for her own selfish needs, but by teaching the ignorant and helping the weak, by saving herself from the worst danger that the strong is liable to incur by making the feeble to acquire power enough to resist her intrusion. And also she must not make her materialism to be the final thing, but must realize that she is doing a service in freeing the spiritual being from the tyranny of matter. Japan, for example, thinks she is getting powerful through adopting Western methods, but, after she has exhausted her inheritance, only the borrowed weapons of civilization will remain to her. These are simple and can be acquired and used with advantage. From the above you will know that I am not an economist. Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. But in this present age of transition, when a new era of civilization is sending its trumpet call to all peoples of the world across an unlimited future, this very freedom of detachment will enable you to accept its invitation and to achieve the goal for which Europe began her journey but lost herself midway. For thereby man's power of sacrifice is diverted from his ultimate object, which is moral, to the maintenance of this organization, which is mechanical. Explore the best Rabindranath Tagore quotes on education on Rabindranath Tagore jayanti. Therefore for all our miseries and shortcomings we hold responsible the historical surprises that burst upon us from outside. The first impulse of this change of circumstance has been the churning up of man's baser passions of greed and cruel hatred. The flower which is single need not envy the thorns that are numerous.
In most of your colonies you only admit them on condition of their accepting the menial position of hewers of wood and drawers of water. If Providence wants England to be the channel of that communication, of that deeper association, I am willing to accept it with all humility. We should actively try to adapt the world powers to guide our history to its own perfect end. But America, as yet, has come to no conclusions. In America national habits and traditions have not had time to spread their clutching roots round your hearts. Yet, remember that in Switzerland the races can mingle, they can intermarry, because they are of the same blood. Must-read essay: What Rabindranath Tagore really thought of nationalism Getty Images. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation. India, therefore has very little outlet for her industrial originality. If this persists indefinitely and armaments go on exaggerating themselves to unimaginable absurdities, and machines and store-houses envelop this fair earth with their dirt and smoke and ugliness, then it will end in a conflagration of suicide. ). The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence. Gray hairs are signs of wisdom if you hold your tongue, speak and they are but hairs, as in the young. It is social. It has neither pity for beautiful nature, nor for living human beings. Share with your friends. This is a strictly moderated site. The answer lies in the nature of aggressive nationalism that had begun to engulf the world during the first half of the twentieth century. Japan, during that period, was drowned in the opium of excessive nationalism and the wisdom of his words was easily missed. Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree. The publishers permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. Not merely your freedom from habits of mind in the individuals but also the freedom of your history from all unclean entanglements fits you in your career of holding the banner of civilization of the future. The swimmer who is an expert does not exhibit his muscular force by violent movements, but exhibits some power which is invisible and which shows itself in perfect grace and reposefulness.
Be it said to the credit of India that this diversity was not her own creation; she has had to accept it as a fact from the beginning of her history. She treated life in all truth where it is manifold, but insulted it where it is ever moving. She not only cannot forget that she is Western, but she takes every opportunity to hurl this fact against others to humiliate them. We must never forget in the present day that those people who have got their political freedom are not necessarily free, they are merely powerful.
I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
Europe has gradually grown hardened in her pride of all her outer and inner habits. So we find that from the beginning of history men had to choose between fighting with one another and combining, between serving their own interest or the common interest of all. It would be mischievous if the gifts we wish for were granted to us right now, and I have told my countrymen, time and time again, to combine for the work of creating opportunities to give vent to our spirit of self-sacrifice, and not for the purpose of begging. It is many countries packed in one geographical receptacle. The people who are lacking in this higher moral power and who therefore cannot combine in fellowship with one another must perish or live in a state of degradation. The degradation which we cast upon others in our pride or self-interest degrades our own humanity - and this is the punishment which is most terrible because we do not detect it till it is too late. This organization incessantly keeps up the insistence of the population on becoming strong and efficient. Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. The USA after all was pursuing its own national interest, wasn't it?The book 'Nationalism' is available for free on Project Gutenberg. Europe has her past.
In this work we must take all risks and go on doing our duties which by right are ours, though in the teeth of persecution; winning moral victory at every step, by our failure, and suffering. Today, we find two contradictory trends at work. The temptation which is fatal for the strong is still more so for the weak. We must remember whatever weakness we cherish in our society will become the source of danger in politics. She has accepted it and her civilization of humanity has lost its path in the wilderness of machinery. One is to regulate our passions and appetites for harmonious development of man, and the other is to help him in cultivating disinterested love for his fellow-creatures. Europe has been cultivating these hedges of habits for long years till they have grown round her dense and strong and high.
The mistake that we make is in thinking that man's channel of greatness is only one - the one which has made itself painfully evident for the time being by its depth of insolence. And this is your solution of the problem of race-conflict.
And because its genesis is the greed of wealth and power it can never come to any other end but a violent death. This attitude of apathy and contempt is natural where the relationship is abnormal and founded upon national selfishness and pride. You have constantly felt and complained of its disadvantages when you compared your nomadic restlessness with the settled traditions of Europe - the Europe which can show her picture of greatness to the best advantage because she can fix it against the back- ground of the Past. In trying to avoid collisions she set up boundaries of immovable walls, thus giving to her numerous races the negative benefit of peace and order but not the positive opportunity of expansion and movement.