Atmanandji Jainacharya Janmashatabdi Smarakgranth

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Atmanand Janma Shatabdi Smarak Trust

Page 64

Virachand R. Gandhi in America
to conquer the world ? Is there a Christ of oppression; is there a Christ of injustice; is there a Christ of misinterpretation; is there a Christ of denial of all rights; is there a Christ of destruction of all holy aims and humane immemorial institutions; is there a Christ of injustice and exorbitant taxation for the support of a government, foreign to our knowledge, our thought, our religion and our consent ? who of these Christs has inscribed his name on the banner of your conquests? If you seek to conquer us under such banners, and in the name of such Christs, we refuse to be conquered. But, if you come to us in the name and in the spirit of the Christ of education, of brotherhood, universal love or in the name of that Christ, who, in the valley of the Ganges, and on the shores of the sea of Tiberius, taught and said: "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another" then I say, we will welcome you, for him we know, and of him we are not afraid. But all this must be understood in the full freedom of it. We cannot recognize a creedal Christ, a limited Christ, an emasculated truth whether it is viewed from an educational or nioral and spiritual point of view, but the universal idea, without limit, without fetters, free. * * We come gladly, at your invitation, for another reason. You are the most tolerant and liberal nation in the western world, aud tolerance is the first article in the faith of every Hindu, Buddhist or Jainist. No man can point to any instance in the history of my people where any man was ever persecuted for religious opinion's sake. Our very language does not contain an equivalent word for the English word "persecution.” We have words in our language, in the ancient Sanskrit, that cover the whole ground of justice, of purity, of goodness, of love &nd of all the sweet beatitudes of the soul's attainment, but not one word that means malice, persecution or tyranøy for religious opinion's sake. FROM REV. R. A. WHITE, OF CHICAGO.
FROM HON, E. B. SHERMAN. 6550, LAFAYETTE AVE, CHICAGO, ILL. Master in Chancery of the I consider Mr. Gandhi one of the
United States Circuit Court. best equipped of the many scholarly muen
"The Congress of Religions drew who represented the various religions
to Chicago several of the brightest and of India in the recent l'arliament of most interesting Oriental thinkers and Religions. A public lecture given by scholars that it has ever been my pleasure him in my church was, in my opinion, to meet; among them is Mr. V. R. a most scholarly production, both in Gandhi, a lawyer of Bombay, India. " matter and form, and showed a thoro
"It has rarely, if ever, bien my ugh grasp of Oriental philosophy. Mr.
good fortune to meet a man whose Gandhi has a fine command of the
reading and culture have been so wide English tongue, and is altogether a most and varied, and who, withal, has so interesting man in every way.
sweet, sincere and teachable a spirit R. A WHITE. as Mr. Gandhi."
Shatabdi Granth ]
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