

THE DEDICATION 231 



existence ; and sufficient stimulus for these will be found in 

 success and satisfaction of personal ambition. 



But these alone do not ensure the life of a nation. Such 

 material activities have brought in the West their fruit, in 

 accession of power and wealth. There has been a feverish 

 rush even in the realm of science, for exploiting applications 

 of knowledge, not so often for saving as for destruction. 

 In the absence of some power of restraint, civilisation is 

 trembling in an unstable poise on the brink of ruin. Some 

 complementary ideal there must be to save man from that 

 mad rush which must end in disaster. He has followed 

 the lure and excitement of some insatiable ambition, not 

 pausing for a moment to think of the ultimate object for 

 which success was to serve as a temporary incentive. He has 

 forgotten that far more potent than competition are mutual 

 help and co-operation in the scheme of life. And in this 

 country through millenniums, there always have been some 

 who, beyond the immediate and absorbing prize of the hour, 

 sought for the realisation of the highest ideal of life not 

 through passive renunciation, but through active struggle. 

 The weakling who has refused the conflict, having acquired 

 nothing, has nothing to renounce. He alone who has striven 

 and conquered can enrich the world by the generous bestow- 

 ing of the fruits of his victorious experience. In India such 

 examples of constant realisation of ideals through work have 

 resulted in the formation of a continuous living tradition. 

 And by her latent power of rejuvenescence she has readjusted 

 herself through infinite transformations. Thus while the 

 soul of Babylon and the Nile Valley has transmigrated, ours 

 still remains vital and with capacity of absorbing what the 

 time has brought, and making it one with itself. 



The ideal of giving, of enriching, in fine, of self-renuncia- 

 tion in response to the highest call of humanity is the other 

 and complementary ideal. The motive power for this is not 

 to be found in personal ambition but in the effacement of all 

 littlenesses, and in the uprooting of that ignorance which 

 regards anything as gain which is to be purchased at others' 



