Sri Sai Baba`S:Charters And Sayings

TWENTY-NINTH TALK 589

sometimes another. 3There is considerable ctoubt as
to whether some of the ideas which are enforced a^e
the best. There ia a danger in giving any one class
the power to enslave and dominate the rest of the
community. It is all done in the interests of science
and in the interests of the people; but so, according
to the thought of those days, was the action of the
Inquisition. It was all in the interest of the unfortu-
nate heretic that he was burned for a short time to
prevent his being burned for all eternity* These
interests of the community are dangerous when they
get the law to back them up. We must observe the
neutrality of our own Society* We can have our
own private opinions, but we must not credit them to
the Society. ^

The rest of the sentence goes on to another
subject:

Vivisectors do it; many schoolmasters do it habitually.
All these people try to excuse their brutality by saying that
it is the custom ; but a crime does not cease to be a crime
because many comnyt it. ^

The beating of children is a world-wide custom,
but that is no excuse for it. You see that He says
that all these people try to excuse their brutality by
saying it is the custom; but a crime does not cease to
be a crime because many commit it. That is said by
a Master, who, as such, knows particularly well what
He is talking about. It is not after all a world-\vidc
custom; I am happy to say that there are a few