Next, you must understand
this, my friend, that we have many things to learn from other nations. The man
who says he has nothing more to learn is already at his last grasp. The nation
that says it knows everything is on the very brink of destruction! “As long as
I live, so long do I learn.” But one point to note here is that when we take
anything from others, we must mould it after our own way. We shall add to our
stock what others have to teach, but we must always be careful to keep intact
what is essentially our own.
None can teach another. You
have to realize truth and work it out for yourself according to your own
nature…. All must struggle to be individuals- strong, standing on your own
feet, thinking your own thoughts, realizing your own Self. No use swallowing doctrines
others pass on standing up together like soldiers in jail, sitting down
together, all eating the same food, all nodding their heads at the same time.
Variation is the sign of life. Sameness is the sign of death.
Another great lesson we
have to remember; imitation is not civilization… Imitation, cowardly imitation,
never makes for progress. It is verily the sign of awful degradation in a man…
We have indeed many things to learn from others, yea, that man who refuses to
learn is already dead… Learn everything that is good from others, but bring it
in, and in your own way absorb it; do not become others. Do not be dragged away
out of this Indian life; Do not for a moment think that it would be better for
India if all the Indians dressed, ate, and behaved like another race.
The seed is put in the
ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become
the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant, it develops after
the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water,
converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant…[Similarly] each
must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and
grow according to his own law of growth.
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