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42
THE ART OF POSITIVE THINKING
it is. Similarly only the man who has experienced freedom, in all its purity, knows its true flavour.
Maharana Pratap wandered in deserts and mountains and repeatedly withstood all kinds of temptations. He suffered intolerable hardships. Sometimes no bread was available for the prince, his son; the poor child was denied bare means of subsistence. But Rana Pratap knew the tastc of frcedom, before which all other tastes paled into insignificance-neither rulership, nor magnificence, nor kingdom, nor power, nor any other temptation meant anything to him as compared to freedom.
Individual freedom is a priceless treasure. To deny the individuality of a person is to deny freedom itself. Look at our system of government and our modern city organisation, where the individuality and the freedom of a citizen are gradually being laid waste. The individual is fast becoming a mere cog in a gigantic machine. What slavery, what dependence! You want to instala window in your room, but you are not free to do so. You have to obtain sanction from the municipal corporation that you must not cause any inconvenience to your neighbour is intelligible but even when there is absolutely no harm in it, and even is your neighbour has no objcction to it, you are not free to execute your plan! One is hedged in by so many laws as to leave no room for freedom anywhere.
The second great blessing of individual life is self-reliance. But where is self-reliance to be found today? There is so much relying on others that men are gradually becoming more and more dependent. You must have heard of amar bel, the evergreen creeper. It has a beautiful name, but is a very dangerous creeper. The plant it settles upon is as good as finished. The creeper cannot stand on its own; must find something or the other to lean upon. And it begins to eat into the plant that supports it. Sometimes this crccpcr spreads up to an area of one kilometre. Whatever it leans upon, il devours. Amar bel aptly cxcmplisies thc pcrnicious effects of dependence. Man too is no less dependent on others, and is consequently no less dangerous than amar bel He too resorts to ruthless exploitation and destruction of others in order to maintain his own prosperity and luxurious living.
Amonicd man keeps servants upon whom depends all his glory and grandeur. Without his attendants, he would be no different from any other man. The so-called 'greatness of the master is manifest as long as there are 10-20 hands to work for him. He then thinks he is really somebody. If the 'great' man is obliged to work with his own hands like any labourer, all his 'glory' and 'greatncss' would instantly disappear. There would be no occasion then for false pride to subsist. Why does a man want to be a millionaire? In order to secure for himself all kinds of comfort. In the process he becomes
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