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SOCIETY
131
The Majority Opinion
Truth cannot be determined by the majority opinion. Do you not know that sometimes even large groups of pilgrims forget their way and stray in the wood ? Therefore, the opinion of the majority is not always correct. The large majority of the public is always ignorant. It is not essential that the majority must always go to the side of truth. In fact, more chances are that it goes to the side of falsehood.
Old and New
Are you attached to old things ? If so, put on worn out old clothes and rags, eat stale bread and rotten things and live in old ruins. On the contrary, if you are very much attached to the new, eat new unripe mango-buds, sleeep under the shade of the newly planted sapplings and entrust your shops and offices to the newly born infants. No thoughtful man would get himself entangled in the controversy of old and new, He will consider only one thing--the utility of a thing according to time, place and situation.
Religion does not demand that you should fanatically stick to your old customs and traditions which have lost their utility. Religion demands that these obsolete customs and traditions should be replaced by new ones. Sometimes it may be desirable to bring down old tottering buildings in the larger interest of the public. This equally applies to old worn out customs and traditions also. Spiritual Poverty
No nation ever falls on account of its economic poverty. The fall is always on account of spiritual poverty that creeps into it. I would, therefore, exhort my fellow Indians not to lose their old spiritual treasurs, even if they may have to lose everything else for preserving them.
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