V R Gandhi in America

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Z_Selected_Speeches_of_V_R_Gandhi_002018.pdf

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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 moral 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, and 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 and of all the sweet beatitudes of the soul's attainment, but not one word that means malice, persecution or tyranny for religious opinion's sake. 96