Gandhi Denation Copyright, 1923 By HARIDAS T. MUZUMDAR Printed by THE ATLAS PRINTING COMPANY Manufactured in the United States of America DS481 "Love of my country does not demand that I shall hate and slay those noble and faithful souls who also love theirs, but rather that I should honor them and seek to unite with them for our common good."-Romain Rolland. "Let not a man glory in this: that he loves his country let him rather glory in this that he loves his kind."-Baha-O-llah. "Over the carnage rose prophetic a voice, "Be not dishearten'd, affection shall solve the problem of freedom yet.' "(Were you looking to be held together by lawyers? "Or by an agreement on a paper? or by arms?" "Nay, nor the word, nor any living thing, will so cohere.)"-Walt Whitman. GANDHI When shall there be again revealed a Saint, A holy man, a Savior of his race, When shall the Christ once more reveal His face? Till weary, hungered, desolate and faint Lives there a man as faithful to his vow? Hath Buddha found in peace Nirvana now; Dedicated to JOHN HAYNES HOLMES John Haynes Holmes, Community Church, New York City. My Dear Comrade Holmes: I do not look upon you merely as my comrade; you are my teacher, my spiritual mentor. The wild, exuberant dreams of my youthful fancy, charming visions of changing the world overnight, have become regulated and well-ordered since I received lessons in discipline from your teachings, from your lofty, soul-stirring sermons. It is but meet, therefore, that I should bring unto you this offering as an expression, however inadequate, of my gratitude and affection for you. A consistent pacifist, you have been ever preaching to America, through America to humanity at large, the message of Peace, Tolerance and Good Will; into the ears of a war-weary world you have been ringing the clarion note of eternal truth that nonviolence is the law of our species as violence is that of the brute. To your trumpet call have many listened: people from the North and the South, from the East and the West. In your spiritual realm are no antipodes: all live on the same plane, in harmony and in love, enjoying the effulgent radiance of the ideal of the one community of humanity. Seekers after Truth owe an eternal debt of gratitude to you for one of the greatest spiritual discoveries you made. Upon skeptical humanity you sprung one of the pleasantest surprises by announcing the result of your discovery: that Mahatma Gandhi is the greatest man in the world to-day. That was in April, 1921. You set the world thinking and rendered India a valuable service. In dedicating this book to you, I do not wish to throw upon you any responsibility for the views I have expressed therein; but I do wish to acknowledge my own and India's gratitude to you. There are many reverend gentlemen strutting about, and many doctors to boot, who inspire in rational minds anything but reverence for them. Personally, I cannot think of you as Reverend John Haynes Holmes nor as Dr. Holmes: it gives me great satisfaction to think of you as the plain Mr. Holmes, and it is as such that I approach you and admire you. In the seething cauldron of our times is a spiritual turmoil going on all over the world. Our time has been marked out as a period of transition, as the herald of a New Awakening-a Renaissance. The spirit is abroad and seeking to build a Better World. Sociologists and scientists, theologians and nontheologians are all busy setting up organizations and carrying on experiments. The greatest achievement of our times has been the consciousness of worldcitizenship that has dawned upon mankind. The old order must go and make room for the new. We want new methods for old, new worlds for old, new wars for old, new churches for old: in short, a transvaluation of values. Among others, the Brahmo Samaj in India, the Bahai Cause in Persia, America and elsewhere, Theosophists the world over, the |