Sri Sai Baba`S:Charters And Sayings

l56 TALKS ON <f AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER "

He comes and will work under Him. Therefore do
you not see that you will have to develop the qual-
ities of leadership ? There are not very many of us ;

I do not remember exactly the numbers; but there
are over 4o,ooo in the world. However little we
may like it, we shall have, to some extent, to take
the position of leaders of others in the work of that
Root Race, in the work, perhaps, of the coming of
the Lord. Now the first necessity in a leader is this
tact of which I am speaking to you. You must not
antagonise the people whom you wish to help, whom
you desire to get to help you in the work that has to
be done, and therefore this sweet reasonableness
must be practised. The fanatic often fails; the
Occultist always succeeds in the end. He may
appear to meet with a check, he may be thrown
back for a time. You could not, perhaps, have a
better instance of that, on a large scale, than the
French Revolution. Those who stood at the back
of the movement towards liberty in France were unable
to control the mad passions of the people, and a time
of terrible carnage ensued. The star set in blood
for the time. But you will notice that, at the present
day, France and many other countries have all the
things for which those people were struggling, all the
things that matter, all the freedom that is necessary
and possible, at present, they have obtained. Those
who promised such freedom were unable then to check
the course of events. They may be said to have failed.