education and untouchability — this persistence of the latter in spite of the spread of knowledge and education. Education enables us to see the horrible crime, but we are seized with fear, and, therefore, we cannot take this doctrine to our homes.

The Vow of Khaddar

You may ask, ‘Why should we use our hand?’ You may say, ‘Manual work has got to be done by those who are illiterate. I can only occupy myself with reading literature and political essays.’ We have to realise the dignity of labour. If a barber or shoe-maker attends a college, he ought not to abandon his profession. I consider that such professions are just as good as the profession of medicine.
Last of all, when you have conformed to these rules, you may come to:

The Religious Use of Politics

Politics, divorced from religion, has absolutely no meaning. If the student world crowd the political platforms of this country, that is not necessarily a healthy sign of national growth; but this does not mean that you, in your student life, ought not to study politics. Politics

are a part of our being; we ought to understand our national institutions. We may do this from our infancy. So, in our Ashram every child is taught to understand the political institutions of our country and to know how the country is vibrating with new emotions, with new aspirations, with new life. But we want also the steady light, the infallible light of religious faith; not a faith which merely appeals to the intelligence, but a faith which is indelibly inscribed on the heart. First we want to realise our religious consciousness, and immediately we have done that, the whole department of life is open to us; and it should then be a sacred privilege of all, so that, when young men grow to manhood, they may do so properly equipped to battle with life. Today what happens is this; much of the political life is confined to the students, but immediately they cease to be students, they sink into oblivion, seeking miserable employments, knowing nothing about God, nothing of fresh air or bright light, or of real vigorous independence, such as comes out of obedience to those laws that I have placed before you...

(Address at YMCA Auditorium,
Madras, February 16, 1916)