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THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
333 always signify individual freedom, for, while it is true that national independence presupposes the freedom of individuals, it is no less true that national freedom is more illusory than real where the element of fear has not been eliminated altogether, so that where people live in a constant dread of their neighbours, where individual freedom is subordinated to the demands of national Militarism, and where life and libertý might be jeopardized any moment at the mere wish of one's neighbour, and have nothing more solid or substantial to depend upon than powder and shot, there the state of the people can hardly be said to be free. On the other hand, it is quite conceivable that full liberty might be enjoyed by the members of a subject race, if the relations between them and their rulers are based on the principle of neighbourly love. It follows from this that the political emancipation of our race depends not on our ability, as a nation, to beat off all enemies, but on our capacity to turn these very enemies into friends. The practising of universal Love, then, is the true guarantee of peace and freedom. We can now understand why every rational religion lays considerable stress on its observance, though each gives different reasons for it. For instance, Vedanta bases it on the unity of Self, which is fully emphasized by Prof. Deussen in the following from 'The Aspects of Vedanta' (p. 124) :
“The gospels fix quite correctly as the highest law of morality: Love your neighbour as yourself. But why should I do so, since by the order of nature I feel pain and pleasure only in myself, no my neighbour? The answer is not in the Bible (this venerable book being not yet quite free of the Semitic realism), but it is in the Veda, is in the great formula 'tat twam asi,' which gives in three words
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