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“ The Will to Peace”-Mrs. Rhys Davids.
BY
Prof. A. CHAKRAVARTI, M.A., I.E.S. IT has been the privilege of India to have, as its guiding principle, 1 the ideal of true Swarajya, from very ancient times. She realised very early that to possess one's soul is greater than to own the sovereignty of the whole world. It was this ideal that gave birth to the Jina and the Buddha who renounced their heirship to earthly power to seek consolation in a spiritual heritage. It was the same ideal that actuated Chandragupta the Great who relinquished his empire and followed his guru, Bhadrababu to end his days in the wilds of the Deccan. It was again the same truth that made Asoka penitent for all his conquesis in Kalinga and made him marshal all his resources for the purpose of a more glorious warfare against the insidious enemies of mankind-ignorance, misery and disease. In short, India never lost her spiritual perspective. Ethical value has always been assessed as the highest value. Did not Nachiketas beg of Yama to reveal the secret of the soul in preference to the boon of earthly glory?
Did not Maitreyi beg of Yagnavalkya to bequeath to her the Eternal truth of the soul in preference to the offered heritage of worldly riches and prosperity? Yes, Indian civilisation has been established on the bed rock of this eternal truth of Ethical value.
But turn to the West! What a Spectacle in Contrast ! Inspired by the Spartan ideal of military efficiency, actuated by a gross Nationalism resting on economic values to the utter exclusion of the Ethical, while paying a lip homage to the Prince of Peace, really worslapping at the altar of Mammon and Molock, Europe, to her own detriment and to the great horror of the rest of the world-succeeded in converting the paradise into a powder magazine. The great world tragedy of the last great War was the
inevitable and logical combination of a soulless civilization. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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