I'lnivt/rj^^^jO^ ^a/tfot
THAKUR DAYANANDA
• * - .•
THE MASTER'S - - -
WORLD-UNION SCHEME
BEING A SCHEME OF WORLD-
FEDERATION ON THE BASIS
OF FATHERHOOD OF GOD
AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN,
PRESENTED TO THE WORLD
BY THE MASTER, THAKUR
DAYANANDA, A SANNYASIN
AND THE FRIEND OF THE
WORLD — with an exposi-
tion,
BY A SERVANT OF HIS,
ALOKANANDA MAHABHARATI.
ARUNACHAL MISSION,
Amrit Mandir,
Bamai P.O., Dt. Sylhet. India.
Cable : Amrit, Fandauk, India.
1921.
Published by Biswakabi Rajkumar,
Amrit Mandir.
HENRY MORSE STp:»WEW»
Rs. 3/.
Printer : S. C. MajuMDAR
SRI GOURANGA PRESS
7///, Mirzapur Street, Calcutta.
OM,
OH THOU LORD,
On the Eve of that Glorious Day when we,
sisters and brothers all over the world, shall
surrender ourselves at Thy Blessed Feet and
meet in a Joyous Festival of Love and Adoration,
we lay this humble offering before Thee, O Love.
Alokananda,
Kalyanananda,
Amiya,
BiSWARAMA,
Katyaani.
512328
Om.
PREFACE.
A world steeped in the deepest depth of
misery is to-day crying for Peace. It knows not
how to get it. This scheme of world federation
on the ONLY ONE solid basis on which it is
possible, viz., the Fatherhood of God and
Brotherhood of man, was presented to the Peace
Conference at Paris in December, 1918 by
Thakur Dayananda, a Sannyasin and the Friend
•of the world.
What the Peace Conference has given to
the world, we all know. In the meantime,
driven by world forces, human society is steadily
drifting to the condition of things desired by the
Master. Directly or indirectly, consciously or
unconsciously, the world has responded to His
idea. The world has now arrived at that stage
of its development when this scheme cannot be
delayed any longer, when the world must accept
this scheme to avoid the annihilation which now
threatens to engulf it.
With a view to assist sisters and brothers of
the Mankind in arriving at the right point of
view, I have endeavoured to interpret the
Master's scheme of world-union, in the light of
His life and teachings as 1 have been permitted
to understand them. It is however impossible to
separate the ideal from the idealist. 1 have
therefore sought to give an outline of His great
life and Mission.
The book really is in two parts. The first
part (Chapters I to V) deals with the ideas of
the Master and how He reduced them into actual
practice. TTie second (Chapters VI to IX) deals
with the definite scheme of world-union He pre-
sented to the world. In this connection 1 have
also discussed the scheme of the League of
Nations and that of the Bolsheviks.
In the Appendix 1 have given a few extracts
out of hundreds that I have collected to shew
how the world has responded to the thought of
the Master.
The constitution and objects of the League
of Nations and the figures relating to casualties
in the war have been taken from the Daily Mail
Year Book, 1920.
Amrit Mandir, a. M.
1st December, 1920.
CONTENTS.
Page.
I. Foreword - - - - - - I
II. How the beginning was laid — Daya-
nandas thoughts and ideas - - 8
III. How Dayananda set to work. — The
Power of Thought. Arunachal
Asram, the embodiment of His
thought and an epitome of the
World-Union -- --37
IV. Sensation in Society. — Persecution by
Government and by the Public - - 61
V. Subsequent history of the Arunachal
Mission. Further progress towards
the goal - - - - - - 108
VI. The World at the end of the War. The
scheme presented to the World - - 119
VII. The present world situation. The world
situation is one and must be dealt
with as one - - - - - - 133
VIII. What is Thakur Dayananda's Scheme?
The Essential Feature of the Scheme 1 72
IX. Two other Schemes : — The League of
Nations - - - - - - 191
Bolshevism - - - - - - 202
Appendix
A. Letters
B. Extracts
The Master's World-Union
Scheme.
I
FOREWORD.
TTiakur Dayananda, the Friend of the
world, the founder of the Arunachal Mission,
who desires to knit Mankind in one bond of
loving union, who wants to enable humanity to
drink from one unending stream of heavenly
bliss, has been before the public for sometime
past. 1 have known Him and 1 could not but
love Him, for, to know Him is to love Him.
The more have I known Him, the more have I
felt that 1 have known but very little of Him.
Words cannot convey any idea of the personal
magnetism of one who is drawing thousands of
men, women and children unto Him and who
seeks to draw the whole world to Him. What
shall 1 say of His all-pervading love which
transcends all limits of race, country and colour
— love that makes no distinction between high
and low, the sinner and the righteous, — love that
knows no friend or enemy ? To attempt to speak
2 IHE MASTER S WORLD-UNION SCHEME
of the many-sided genius of one who has viewed
life in all its aspects, who has surveyed the whole
field of human activities — to speak of the
supreme courage and conviction of one who
wants to turn the whole tide of human evolution,
who wants to send humanity to a new path on a
new quest ! It is for no man to comprehend the
spiritual force of one who lives, moves and has
his being in God — one who is perfectly one with
God. I shall not therefore attempt the im-
possible task of representing Him before the
world by analysing His character. To do so
would be to underrate Him. I will only tell the
world what He saw, felt and uttered 1 2 years ago
and how He wants to create a new heaven and a
new earth. Let the world ponder over it.
1 will begin by presenting before the world
a disciple of His. This niiraculous saint was an
ardent follower of the Master, Thakur Daya-
nanda, who, some ten years back declared to
the Government of India, the public in general
and also to His Majesty the King Emperor that :
* **Nam-Sankirtan would engulf the
* Nam-Sankirtan or Sankirtan is a kind of devo-
tional music and chanting the name of the Lord, in
which people move in a circle, singing and dancing to
FOREWORD i
whole of India. The World-
Teacher has come in human form
and He is resolved to carry His
Message of Love to the remotest
the accompaniment of drums, cymbals, gongs and
other instruments, h is a form of collective worship
having a very powerful influence on the mind. In it
the noblest traits of a man's character are released
from grossness and these come more and more into
display in his dealings with his fellow-beings. There
are numerous instances of men living lives of drunken-
ness and lewdness being completely changed into the
devoutest and saintliest characters as the result of
Sankirtan. In it the mind is easily fixed on God ; the
man enjoys supreme happiness and for the time being
he becomes more or less unconscious of his surround-
ings. His face brightens up, his body bends, curves
and describes beautiful figures, as he dances in joy.
All the actions whidh take place on the physical body
as the result of the long practice of Yoga, are quickly
and automatically performed in course of Sankirtan.
The special point to note about Sankirtan is its
great power of enkindling the instinct of love in man.
The deadliest enemies have embraced each other in
Sankirtan and have ever afterwards lived on terms of
the closest friendsihip. The common saying is under
the influence of Sankirtan the lamb and the lion will
drink from the same pool.
4 THE MASTER S WORLD-UNION SCHEME
corners of the globe. Indians im-
mediate future is very bright and the
present period will give place to a
period of calm and prosperous agri-
cultural and industrial expansion
combined with social, moral, and
religious teachings, thus removing
all racial feelings of hatred.'*
In a communication to the Chief Commis-
sioner of Assam dated the 6th May, 1913, our
brother, Amritananda added that the above
message proclaimed by him was **the result of
direct realization in a state of inspiration in May,
1910, which, by subsequent revelations became
more vivid and it was thus communicated" by
him **to the world after repeated communion
with the Supreme Director of Evolution."
In a subsequent communication dated the
4th of December, 1914, to the Personal Assistant
to the Chief Commissioner of Assam, this seer
further declared that he :
**felt it a paramount duty before God and
man to announce to the world that
the predictions made by him shall
have to be fulfilled at no distant
date.*'
FOREWORD J
And he added :
**I would also confirm my statement
made in 1910 to Mr. Boxwell,
Superintendent of Police, Cachar,
and would now amplify the same
and place on record the fact that
Nam-Sankirtan (preferably Pran-
Gaur Nityananda*) shall carry the
Message of Peace and Love to the
nations of the earth.*'
* Gaur or Gauranga was born in Nadja, Bengal,
456 years ago, who , by his own life, taught people
what love of God means. He was the very incarna-
tion of Love and piety and by his Sankirtan he brought
about a religious revolution in Bengal and other parts
of India also. The whole of Bengal was convulsed
arid roused from the stupor that had come over it.
People in hundreds of thousands ran after him —
Kings and potentates, robbers and murderers, prosti-
tutes and saints and seers, — men, women and children
threw themselves at his feet and were changed by his
very touch and sight. He brought new life into the
dead society and gave a new direction to its progress.
He is regarded as an incarnation of God and
worshipped all over the land. He declared himself
to be the One Supreme Being, who descends in every
age to regenerate human society, and when parting
from his mother he told her that he would come twice
6 THE MASTER S WORLD-UNION SCHEME
The above message was delivered to the
world when it was steeped in gross materialism
and few, if any, could think that the world
would change so soon, as it has, that the
New Era was at hand when discord, strife and
ill-vyrill will cease and peace, happiness and
good- will will come to reign on earth. At that
time material civilization was in its noon-day
splendour. Even the few who could detect
some of its faults and defects could not muster
courage to think that the final crash would come
so soon or that the world would be united in one
bond of Lx)ve in the near future. At that time
again and in his second coming he would perform
glorious things and his name shall spread to the re-
motest comers of the globe. His right-hand man and
chief follower was Nityananda, who spread the name
of his Master and raised the submerged classes from
their highly degraded position in society.
A study of the signification of the words Pran
Gaur Nityananda would be interesting: (I) Where
Pran or soul is Gaur i.e. pure, Nityananda or perpe-
tual bliss reigns, (ii) Pran or the Inner Conscious
Being in man is Gaur i.e. God and Nityananda or
perpetual bliss is His real characteristic, (iii) Gaur
(God) and Nityananda (the embodiment of perpetual
bliss) are deal to me as life itself.
FOREWORD 7
the very idea would have been pooh-poohed.
But the vision of this seer penetrated into the
future and he clearly saw what was coming euid
he emphatically declared it to an unbelieving
world. * And to-day, we see his predictions are
being fulfilled to the letter. How, we shall see
in the following pages.
II
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID.
Thakur Dayananda came into the arena
12 years ago. It would be well for us if we
survey in brief the conditions that prevailed in
the world at that time. The whole world had
lost all spiritual insight — it had strayed away
from God and was running mad hither and
thither in a vain quest of happiness — it was like
a ship tossing on the high seas without a rudder
and without the captain to steer the vessel to
port. What was the goal of human life none
did know. In the bustle and turmoil of every
day life none had even the opportunity of
thinking of it. Those who had, did not care
to do so. It was considered profitless. Let the
world go on, as it is, it will come to somewhere
— no need of bothering about it — that was the
general idea. Our view of life completely
lacked spiritual vision.
At this time Thakur Dayananda started by
declaring the mission of life. He said :
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 9
** *The goal of human existence is not the
enjoyment of short-Hved pleasure
which brings dullness the very next
moment. A never-ending current
of heavenly bliss must run down the
heart. Man's whole life shall be
one continuous song of perpetual
bliss."
This is the goal that he set forth before a
world which did not know what it was striving
for, where it was drifting to. The world wanted
happiness but did not know how to get it.
Dayananda declared :
** Peace can come only when God is en-
throned in the heart of man, who,
forgetful of his true aim, is leading
a life of gross materialism."
He said humanity must be rescued from this
position before the world has peace. It is for
this that He has come on earth. He says :
**It will have to be seen that the human
soul keeps this end constantly in
* These sayings of Thakur Dayananda have been
taken, except where otherwise noted, from Rishi
Yugananda's vernacular book "Thakur Dayananda"
(first published in 1911).
10 THE master's world-union SCHEME
view in its progress through life.
Even if one single individual attains
this highest happiness or bliss, his
happiness is sure to radiate all
around and fill others with happi-
ness.'*
Dayananda says the Western world has not
had peace because it has pursued materialism
alone, while the Eastern world has come to grief
owing to its despise of things of the world. He
says :
* ** India is the home of Eastern culture
and England is the type of Western
culture. Eastern culture is essen-
tially spiritualistic, while Western
culture is essentially materialistic.
Both are incomplete, one without
the other. Perfection lies in the
harmonious combination of both.
It is through divine dispensation
that India and England have been
united. Both Cultures have met in
India so that each may profit by the
* Acharya Pronobananda's "Thakur Dayananda
and Arunachal Mission," 1916.
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 11
experience of the other, so that the
imperfections of both may be
healed."
**Conflict is sure to crop up where there
is imperfection. Peace and good-
will reigns only when there is per-
fection. It is then that one is
cinxious to promote the well-being of
another and even to sacrifice one's
own to that of another."
To a world distracted by strife and hatred,
by prejudice and passion, Dayananda proclaim-
ed the advent of the Dawn of the Human Race,
of the coming of that Era when strife shall cease
and hatred disappear :
**Through the will of God that blessed
Era of Union is at hand when both
the East and the West must accept
this ideal of perfection."
***At the close of the present war, that
Kingdom of Love which the sages
and seers of the East and the West
have long yearned for will be estab-
lished."
* "Thakur Dayananda and Arunachal Mission."
12 '^^ THE master's world-union SCHEME
From the very beginning Dayananda has
refused to be satisfied by promoting the welfare
and happiness of a limited few or even of India
or of the East alone. He stands for the good of
the world at large, of every man and every
woman. He has often told his disciples :
**We have come to work for the good of
the world, we must not look to our
own happiness.'*
All through he has impressed upon their
minds the idea of losing their personal interest
in the good of the world. He has exhorted them
to consecrate their lives for the good of the whole
world. He has often said :
**The good of the world must be placed
above the good of one's own or
even that of one's friends and
relations."
He has from the very beginning tried to
dispel from the minds of his disciples by his own
life and by instructions, all ideas of provincial-
ism. He wants to unite the East and the West,
the North and the South, all the peoples on the
face of the earth in one bond of Love.
Time and again has he proclaimed :
**The wall of isolation and prejudice set
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 13
up by the nations of the earth will
soon crumble down to the dust
before the onrush of a tidal wave of
a great Idea and all the nations of
the earth will take part in a joyous
festivity of Love . ' '
Dayananda recognized the fact that the one
permanent basis of union of all the peoples of
the world could be and must be Religion. He
has declared :
**1 see before my very eyes — one
Universal Religion has been the
meeting ground of the East and the
West — the world has been converted
into one Universal Brotherhood."
He has laid deep the foundation of this
Universal Brotherhood in his Asrams: and he
has evolved out a philosophy which is the syn-
thesis of all the philosophies of the world. It
may here be mentioned that he has had very little
academic education. But, as he himself says,
when the light of God floods the human heart,
knowledge comes of itself. He holds :
* *The cardinal truths arrived at by know-
ledge must no longer be the basis of
2
14 THE master's world-union SCHEME
intellectual exercise but must find
expression in life.
Dayananda wants not the betterment of
mankind in this or that department of life. He
wants a root and branch change in all the spheres
of life. He wants to build the world anew.
Dayananda holds that happiness is a spiritucJ
condition and that the true path of happiness lies
in returning to the Spirit — in establishing close
relation with the Great Spirit. From this it is
not to be inferred that he wants this material
world to be despised. On the contrary, he
holds, as will be seen from above, that material
well-being, though not an essential condition of
happiness, certainly indirectly contributes to
happiness. Though a Hindu Sannyasin, he has
completely discarded the idea that this world is
Maya (illusion) and to promote material well-
being is to run after a phantom. Dayeinanda
says :
* **The world is not a thing outside the
Supreme Being — this creation is a
manifestation of the Deity. If God
is true, then the creation also is true.
* Thakur Dayananda and Arunachal Mission.
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 13
To attempt to know God without
knowing the world as an expression
of God, is to know Him but im-
perfectly. Realization of God will
be imperfect if this creation is not
realized to be His manifestation — ^to
attempt to realize this creation with-
out at the same time realizing the
Creator is also futile. God has re-
vealed Himself in His Creation — so
it is not the part of wisdom to despise
or neglect it.'*
**True welfare lies in harmony between
the two, spiritual and the material.
Spirituality without material well-
being tends to decay and emascula-
tion. Materialism, if it is not allied
with spiritual realization, if it is not
guided and controlled by spiritual
force will bring its own destruc-
tion.
Dayananda desires to end this state of things
by bringing about a complete harmony between
the spirit and the matter. This, in his opinion,
is the essential condition of the regeneration of
the world. He has boldly declared to the
16 THE master's world-union SCHEME
world that he means to turn the whole tide of
human evolution and even this to him is but
child's play. He has declared that he wants to
bring about a complete reconstruction of the
human society from the spiritual, political,
economic and social standpoint. He wants
a root and branch change of the existing order
of human society.
Dayananda says mankind must be knit in
one bond of religion before there could be union
in the world. God is one and religion must be
one. What is that religion? Is it Hinduism?
No. Is it Christianity? No. Is it Mahommedan-
ism or Buddhism ? It is neither. It is a religion of
living faith in God. Religion must cease to be
confined within the scriptures and holy books.
Religion must cease to be a set of dogmas,
repetition of cant and practice of rituals.
Religion must not be a thing of the skin but of
the soul. It must be living faith and realization
of the Highest Truth, a perpetual consciousness
of the existence of God, a perpetual and
conscious striving towards Him.
The essential truth of all religions must be
brought out and made familiar to the whole
human race. It will then be possible for us —
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 17
whatever may be the particular faith we profess,
whatever may be the practice that we follow —
to admire the fundamental teachings of the
others and to be profited by them. The lessons
that Christ taught by his life are the common
heritage of all humanity. So also with other
religions. It does not matter which temple we
worship in, so long as we worship the Father
and so long as we do not allow the forms and
rituals to take the place of the Father, so long as
the means do not become the end. TTiere is
nothing in Christianity which a true Hindu
cannot follow. The basic truths of Hinduism
are for all mankind. Hindus regard Buddha as
an incarnation of God. There is nothing in the
fundamental teachings of Mahommed which all
mankind cannot accept cind revere.*
Truth is one and eternal and Truth has been
* Various movements have been set on foot by
leaders of religious thought in all countries to sink
religious differences, bury religious antagonism and
promote Universal Righteousness, Brotherhood and
Peace. Two notable movements of the day are one,
the Society for a League of Religions in England and
the other, the International Congress of Religious
Liberals in America.
18 THE master's world-union SCHEME
revealed to all true seekers in all ages and in all
countries. Truth is limitless, unfathomable.
To say that Truth is confined only in Hinduism
or Buddhism or Christianity or Mahommedanism
is to limit Truth. That is the height of folly and
that has been greatly responsible for the estrange-
ment between man and man. The different
religions that we find in the world, represent but
different aspects of the same eternal Truth. —
Truth descended on different receptacles in
different ages and countries and as culture,
country and receptacles differ, the Truth that
passed through these receptacles took different
shape and form. But in essence, Truth is one
and it is that one Truth that humanity must seek
and realize and it is on the ever-growing cons-
cious realization of Truth that the union of the
world must be based.
The Truth that Christ, Mahommed,
Buddha, Confucius and other founders of great
religious faiths have passed on to the world are
the Truths that God revealed to the world
through them. Each of them is a representation
of Truth but each of them may not be the whole
Truth nor all of them together. For, who can
measure Truth? Who can say Truth has ex-
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 19
hausted Himself? Who can say Truth will not
reveal Himself in a greater and fuller degree and
in a different form in this age? To say this is
Truth and that is not, is laughable. It is
Avidya (Ignorance).
In different periods of human evolution God
has revealed Himself through particular instru-
ments of His, who reflected His Light to
men. We call them seers and saints and in-
carnations or Avatars, according to the light they
give. These are the great founders of religious
faiths. It is the work of these Avatars to enable
us to know Him — by their immensely superior
spiritual force, specially conferred on them by
God, they draw us nearer to Him. We cannot
but love them and worship them. But on top
of them all is God our common Father. We may
continue to follow one A vatar and the particular
path shown by Him, — profess the particular
faith propounded by Him, according to our tem-
perament and inclination but at the same time we
must love those who choose to follow any other
Avatar and any other faith, for, we are all
children of God, our Father. We must realize
that we are all complementary to one another —
we are part of one another — my true self is your
20 THE master's world-union scheme
true self — ^we are really one and the same for we
are but particles of His Self. We emanated
from the same Being and all our striving is more
and more to live in the same Being. In this New
Era this truth must be realized to the fullest
extent and once we realize this we shall see how
absurd it is for man to fight with man. This
realization of the essential one-ness of humanity
will help us to love one another and to live for
one another and the world-commonwealth of this
New Era shall be the symbol and expression of
this realization.
In speaking at a meeting to commemorate
the late Lord Gray, in the early part of January,
1920, Lord Robert Cecil reviewed the world
situation and observed: ** There cannot be real
co-operation without altruism. . . We must
sorrowfully admit that after twenty centuries of
Christianity, selfishness is still one of the
dominant forces of mankind."
What is true of Christians is more or less
true of the followers of other religions also. The
Hindus attained the highest Truth. Why did
they then fall from that height of glory? — that
is a question which does arise in our mind. The
answer that in the West they were essentially
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 21
materialistic and in the East, they were essential-
ly spiritualistic and that both were incomplete,
is quite true. But the Great True Being who
illumined the hearts of the Hindus with know-
ledge of His Spirit and the hearts of the people
of the West with knowledge of matter, could
have, if He willed, given the Hindus fuller
knowledge of matter also and the West deeper
knowledge of His Spirit also — for He is the giver
of all things, He is the giver of all knowledge,
spiritual and material. Why did He not do
that ? Why did He not make us perfect ? What
was the purpose behind this? It is for no man
to know except in so far as He reveals in man's
heart that purpose of His. The Hindu concep-
tion of the world is well expressed in the word
Jagat, which means *ever-moving\ This world
is ever-changing — man himself is ever changing,
his environments are changing, his material body
is changing, while his spirit also is not always the
same, for, it is sometimes shrouded in ignorance
and sometimes illumined. This perpetual
movement they divided into four cycles : the
Satya Yuga or the age of full truth, the Treta
Yuga or the age of three-quarters of truth, the
Dwapar Yuga or the age of half truth, and the
22 THE master's world-union scheme
Kali Yuga or the age of a quarter. When this
quarter ends, comes again the age of full truth.
Why this perpetual moving in a cycle God alone
knows. All that mein can say is : it is His Lila,
By passing through all these conditions, man is
all the better — he is equipped with fuller know-
ledge— he knows Truth as well as its opposite,
untruth, and knowing both he prefers Truth to
untruth. In their highest spiritucJ development
Hindu sages knew when each period of the cycle
would end and another begin. There are
various Hindu scriptures where the time is given
when the age of untruth through which we have
just passed, would end. One remarkable
passage in the Srimat Bhagabat, written 5,000
years ago, says :
**At the time when the Moon, the Sun and
the Jupiter are in conjunction in Pushy a
in the Zodiacal sign of Cancer, the Satya Yuga
begins.***
^j^TT^ ^*)«<Pri *rf^TBaff^ ?t^ iscr^ I
(12th Canto, 2ncl Chap. 24th verse.)
* Indian astrologers also draw attention to the
presence of a bright star in the prolongation of a line
parallel to the Junction Star Atair (Srabana) a bit far
off from it, in the Zodiacal sign Capricorn which was
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 23
This combination took place on 27th July,
1919 and Indian astrologers tell us the last
occasion it took place, previous to this, was on
the eve of the Battle of Kurukshetra, 5000 years
ago.
In this connection, many will also remember
the striking message which Count Tolstoi deli-
vered in which he predicted the passing of the
present Commercial Order of society and the
triumph of Religion and Truth.
Dayananda*s conception of progress of
human society is the progress of each and every
individual member of the human family and not
the well-being of only a few. He holds decided
views as regards the present capitalistic system
of society. He says :
visible in 1919 and 1920. This star was also visible
when Peace was completely established at the end
of the Kurukshetra War. Astrologers tell us again,
India being under the direct influence of the Sign
Capricorn which indicates peace and religion, it is
presumed India shall have a leading part in the
establishment of the coming world peace. This,
however, will be not without difficulty and obstruction
— as the star is endowed with influence similar to that
of Mars and Venus. * -
24 THE master's world-union scheme
**Trade, industry and commerce may
prosper, there may be a continuous
flow of wealth, education may
spread to the remotest corners, great
scientific discoveries may be made —
and yet, not one of them nor all of
them may be a true index of the real
progress of a country. True pro-
gress of a country must be judged by
the fact whether these things are
tending to promote the well-being of
each and every member of society.
Everything must be judged by this
standard and this standard alone.
The whole conception of humanity
in regard to matters political,
economic and social must be
altered."
He has evolved a new doctrine of political
philosophy, of economics and sociology based
on the Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of
man, a new ethical code based on the eternal
truths of religion.
Dayananda stands for equality between man
and man and between man and woman. He
says :
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 25
**We are the children of the same Father,
there can be no discrimination
between man and man — no secta-
rianism— none of those differences
which separate man from man,
nation from nation."
He values patriotism in so far as it is love
of one's own country but he wants to demolish
that patriotism which is another name for
national arrogance, vanity and selfishness.
Patriotism which hurts other peoples is a sin
against God. Patriotism which wants to benefit
one people at the expense of another is an evil
which must be rooted out. Even that love which
is confined within the bounds of one's country is
a small thing. Human heart must expand, his
love shall transcend the bounds of country and
race and extend to the whole world.
This union of mankind which Dayananda
wants to bring about is not by obliterating God's
infinite variety, not by discarding different
languages in favour of one, not by fusing
different cultures and moulding different
habits, customs and ways of life into one
homogeneous whole. But this union v^U be
effected in spite of these differences. This union
26 THE master's world-union scheme
will be effected on the basis of the greatest
common factor of humanity, viz,, God, our
common Father, our true common Self. When
love fills every heart, these differences the eye
shall fail to detect.
There shall be different nationalities as
there are different types and cultures. Each will
grow and develop all the better by coming in
contact with the rest and when they have
developed, they will approximate each other,
without ceasing to be themselves.
Dayananda is uncompromisingly in favour
of giving equal rights to women. Of all things
that have received his greatest attention and
consideration, there is none more than the
position and status of women. He has shed
many a tear whenever he has spoken of their
degraded and inferior position in society,
especially in the East. Dayananda is for giving
women equal opportunities with men. He says
the position and status of women must be
absolutely equal with that of men — not a whit
inferior. He says :
** Without an awakening amongst women,
without simultaneous and true pro-
gress amongst them^ no society, no
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 27
race can ever live or progress. It is
good mothers that C£in properly rear
up children — it is capable house-
wives that can make society healthy
and well-regulated. To keep
women confined within the four
walls is to put a bar on their physical
growth and retard their healthy
development. Not only this. It
limits their mental vision, curbs
their faculties and cripples their
powers. It chokes up the fountain
of their thought, hope and action and
ultimately reduces them to the posi-
tion of mere automatons. And
consequently, they are often a drag,
and an obstacle in the path of true
social progress. Women must be
rescued from this degraded and
degrading position and lifted to a
plane as high as that of men.**
TTiis reformation is one of the main things
that he has come for.
Dayananda says :
**The veil of women must be lifted, they
must be allowed their proper place
28 THE master's world-union scheme
in the free, open and unrestricted
field of action, just by the side of
men and by proper education and
training, both rehgious and secular,
their hidden powers awakened and
set free. To rear up children and
regulate the household must not be
the only goal of woman's existence.
They must rise to the same spiritual
height as men, they must lead lives
of devotion and piety — they must be
taught to think not in terms of the
little household alone but of the
whole world of which they are
citizens, they must be taught to
think not of friends and relations
alone but of the whole of Humanity
who are as much their friends and
relations. They also must conse-
crate their lives to the service of the
Lord and Humanity."
Dayananda holds :
** Women must know the Truth — they
must know the Supreme Being, they
must have direct and close com-
munion with the Fountain of Eternal
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 29
Bliss and themselves be blessed.
They must be powerful physically,
mentally and morally. They must
be able to save themselves from all
that is unholy, impious and eviL
Men must cease to look upon them
as objects of pleasure and enjoy-
ment or as objects to be shunned in
the path of spiritual progress — Man
must look upon woman fully as his
peer and fellow-worker in the cause
of humanity. Their position, training
and attainments must be such as will
enable them to extort respect and
homage as they did in ancient India.
Women must not be a source of
weakness but a source of strength.
They must be a force in society, a
bulwark against wrong, unholiness
and immorality. ' '
Dayananda wants to remodel the whole
institution of Marriage on the basis of the eternal
relation between man and woman. Married life
in most countries is another name for slavery and
even in those countries where woman stands
more or less on the same footing as mem, man is
. 3
30 THE master's worud-union scheme
the predominant partner, and that predominance
arises out of the fact that it is he who is the
stronger of the two, it is he who feeds
and clothes the family. This dependence of
one on the other stands in the way of true love.
Love is true only when it is unconditional, when
it is not vitiated by the slightest expectation of
advantage or gain or anything. In the ideal
state of society that Dayananda wants to bring
into existence, woman shall no longer be
dependent on man, she will be a full and free
citizen receiving in her own right all that she
wants for herself and for the children.
Marriage has been and will continue to be
a necessary institution. The union of a man and
a woman is necessary for their mutual unfold-
ment, for enabling them to taste of the infinite
Rasa of God, one through the other.
Next to the position of women, the thing
that has received Dayananda's attention is the
domination of class over class. He has felt
keenly for the sub-merged classes, the great bulk
of the people called the * lower' strata. He has
often said :
**In this New Era, God will manifest
Himself amongst the submerged
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 31
classes. Great religious teachers
will rise from their ranks.**
He has bestowed great care and attention
on the training of people coming from this class
of society.
In many of these matters he is in complete
agreement with the Socialistic school of
Thought. But his aim is higher by far inasmuch
as it is more cpmprehensive — it is all-embracing,
it has extended beyond the limits of country,
race and nationality — it has concerned itself with
the whole human race and with every sphere of
life, each and every activity of the human mind.
But the chief difference between the ideal of
Dayananda and Socialism lies in this : Socialists
look upon a change based on Socialistic prin-
ciples as an end in itself. Dayananda wants this
change as a means to an end, that end being the
attainment of Godhood. The difference extends
to method also. Socialists Wcint a change from
without. Dayananda wants a change from within
as well as from without. Socialists want to bring
into existence liberty, equality and fraternity
through Parliamentary institutions, if possible
and by recourse to violence, if need be.*
* It may be noted here that the British Socialist
32 THE master's world-union scheme
Dayananda says :
**They are pursuing the wrong track.
Liberty, equality, and fraternity
sheJI never be established on earth
by bloodshed. The only means to
that end is spiritual force and love.*'
He says :
**The fruit of bliss does not grow on the
tree of poison. They have begun
at the wrong end. They are trying
to wipe off mud with muddy water."
Dayananda says the goal of human exist-
ence is the enjoyment of perpetual bliss. In
view of that the whole structure of society,
political, economic cind social must be changed
so as to improve the conditions of life in society
in such a way that man may be free from cares
and anxieties. The physical condition under
which man lives must not distract his attention
Party stands for peaceful revolution. TKey have
definitely disavowed violence. Those Socialist
parties who have joined the Moscow International
are openly for violence. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald
says the B. S. P. and Moscow like water and oil»
won't mix.
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 33
from the path of spiritual pursuit, — ^it must not
bring him down from the height of spiritual bliss
to the grosser plane of physical wants and
physical comforts. It must in every way be an
aid and not an obstacle in the path of man's
spiritual progress.
But there is one other cause which disturbs
man's happiness and that is separation from neai
and dear ones at death, or in other words fear of
death.
Dayananda says :
**To complete human happiness, meui's
fear of death must be removed.'*
He wants to place spiritualism on a scientific
basis — to link the Sthula (gross) with the
Sukhma (subtle). He wants to make the great
unknown region where man passes after death
perfectly known so that he will know that on
death he only passes from one stage of his
existence to another. It is when man fully
realizes that the annihilation of the physical body
is not really his annihilation — that his soul does
not die — it is immortal — it is then that death loses
all terror for him. The same process of unfold-
ment of the soul that goes on on this ecurth
continues after death also. In the case of beings
34 THE master's world- union scheme
of the higher order, death only liberates them
from a narrow and restricted sphere to a wider,
unfettered and brighter state. Released from
the limitations of the flesh, they are enabled to do
greater good to humanity. Man must be made
to realize that separation on death is more
apparent than real and that when man rises to
a spiritual height communication between him
and the departed soul is possible as it is possible
between two men on this earth.
Since the conclusion of the war, there has
been a great resurgence of faith in the survival of
the human personality after death. The yearn-
ing of the human soul for communicating with
the loved one, who has left this mortal frame
could not be suppressed by its condemnation on
the ground of its being opposed to established
religious faiths. In spite of deceptions practised
by unscrupulous people, faith in spiritualism is
intensifying. This is only an indication of the
fact that the time is coming when the link
between Sthula and Sukhma will be found and
these will be proved to be but two stages of the
same existence. In our Asram we have got
voluminous records of messages received from
the other world, concerning the speedy coming
HOW THE BEGINNING WAS LAID 35
of the New Era. This subject alone requires
special treatment which, if Go3 wills, will form
the subject-matter of a separate book.
I have endeavoured to set out the ideal that
Dayananda has held forth before the world by
quoting some of his utterances and in the light of
his life, as he has revealed himself to me. To
properly understand the ideal of a man, it is
necessary to know the man himself. It is im-
possible to separate the idealist from the ideal.
1 have written something of the ideal but to write
of the idealist is beyond my powers. 1 will only
content myself with a short account of the events
that led up to the presentation of the scheme
of world-union.
Such is the ideal that Dayananda set forth
twelve years ago before the world, an unbeliev-
ing world, a world lost in materialism. And
how did the world receive him and his ideal?
TTie world was taken aback at the strangeness
of the note that he struck. Some said he was
mad, some said he was a wild idealist, some
said he was a dangerous enemy of society and
morality — a seditionist, an anarchist and so
forth. But more of this hereafter.
As to his ideas, they were declared to be
36 THE master's world-union scheme
wild, phantastic, absurd and impractical —
things that will never come into being. But
to-day? To-day, the world has changed in-
credibly and is still more changing marvellously
rapidly and steadily tending towards that state
of things desired by Thakur Dayananda. How
and in what respects, we shall see.
In the following chapter we shall see how
Dayananda set to work out his ideal.
in
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK.
The Power of Thought.
Arunachal Asram — the embodiment of
His Thought.
Never before had all these great ideas been
conceived in one comprehensive view, as parts
of the same central idea viz., the bestowal of full,
complete and unending bliss on mankind by a
harmonious blending of the spiritual with the
material. Never before, also, had the idea
been conceived of making God the spring of all
our actions, the one source and one goal of all
our energies and activities, of placing God in
the front of all our actions. Never before also
had the idea come of uniting mankind in one
Universal Religion, in one common political and
economic administration on the basis of perfect
equality between man and man, and, man and
woman, — or in other words, of uniting mankind
on the basis of the Fatherhood of God and
Brotherhood of man. The inception of this
ideal was not the result of a fanciful imagination
38 THE master's world- union scheme
or of the wild eccentricities of a quixotic mind.
It was the result of closest communion and
perfect one-ness with God — it was the result of
profound faith in the destiny of mankind — ^it was
the result of unbounded sympathy and im-
measurable love of a Sannyasin for humanity.
It was not the result of a close study of history,
past or modern, it was the idea of a man who
had no knowledge of history, as people under-
stand it. It was not the intelligent anticipation of
a clever mind — it was the reading of the future by
one before whom the whole future was an open
book, from whose vision nothing was shut off.
It was the assertion of a man who knew what he
could do and what he would do. It was the
setting out of a programme by one who meant
action. It was the solemn resolve of a man wha
would turn the whole tide of human evolution,
who would send humanity to a new path of
glorious quest and glorious heritage.
But how did Dayananda mean to carry his
ideal into practice? He is a Sannyasin with no
earthly power, no earthly means, no world-wide
name and fame, no worldly position. No, he
had none of these. But he had one thing which
more than compensated for all these put
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 39
together. He has given himself wholly to God,
he lives, moves and has his being in God — ^he
has merged himself, so to say, in God. He has
no will separate from the will of God. He does
nothing except at the command of God, says
nothing which he is not bidden to say. He has
lost his self and is one with God. All his ideas
and thoughts emanate from God. Consequently
his ideas are not the impotent theories of a
visionary, no pious hope of an altruist, no tall
talk of a statesman.
Behind the history of human evolution,
there is a divine purp>ose wRich is being worked
out. The history of human evolution is a
history of the evolution of ideas and thoughts.
Ideas and Thoughts have changed as ages have
changed. Sages and seers have come in suc-
ceeding ages, who have been the Adhars
(receptacles) of great ideas and thoughts, on
whom descended Great Thoughts. In different
ages God has revealed Himself in the ideas,
thoughts and actions of these sages and seers,
these Avatars or the chosen of the Lord. They
have been the exponents of these noble ideas and
thoughts. They have been the instruments of
God through whom great ideas and thoughts
40 THE master's worlx>-union SCHE\a
have been passed on to lesser ones and from
them again to the world at large and in this way
these ideas and thoughts have filtered down to
the common people, have permeated them and
changed their lives and the course of their
actions. The events in human history record
how human ideas have changed from age to
age — the supreme passion for freedom, love of
one*s own country, protection of the weak and
helpless, resisting wrong and oppression, up-
holding honour and dispensing justice, devotion
to religion, adherence to truth and faith and so
forth — one of these or a combination of some
of these has been the dominant ideal of parti-
cular ages. And the dominant ideal of the New
Era is Universal Love.
In ancient India, they attained to the con-
ception of the highest spiritual truth. They
worshipped, and held communion with Bhuma
(the Universal Being) which gave a universaJ
aspect to their lives and actions. They had
knowledge of Brahma (the Supreme Being).
But the attainment of the highest spiritual truth
was not sufficient. Consequently, they had to
wait for the fullest development of materialism,
— and for the rest of the world to get ready to
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 41
receive their spiritual truths. All the \^ile
India was conserving her spiritual force in anti-
cipation of the coming of the day. The day has
come at last.
Thought is the most real of all realities, and
is a more potent factor in human evolution than
any material agency. There is not a noble
thought that dies, not a noble thought but will
some day make converts. Great ideas and
thoughts are active spiritual forces. They move
from point to point, pass on from soul to soul
and transmigrate from country to country, from
one continent to another. The distance to which
radio messages can be transmitted varies with
the amount of electric current available. Such
may be said to be the case also with the trans-
mission of Thought. Thoughts in themselves are
dynamic forces and they acquire additional im-
petus from the spiritual force of the thinker, from
the love that he bears to humanity. The greater
the thought, the greater is its force, the nobler
the thought, the greater is the inspiration and
more the power of making converts of others.
The thought of conferring the greatest good on
the whole human race, that comes out of a truly
selfless soul, a soul that has transformed itself
42 THE master's world-union scheme
into burning love for mankind — that thought has
infinite power and force, h is unconquerable,
it is invincible, it is irresistible.
Great thoughts have the power of displacing
and extinguishing small thoughts. People
intuitively prefer the greater to the smaller —
they cannot but do that — that is in their very
nature. Consciously or unconsciously, some-
times even against their very inclination, people
accept Great Thoughts, follow the course that
this Great Thought points to them and work in
that direction.
As soon as a great Thought is transmitted
to the world, it creates disturbance in the
Thought world. It stirs the thought world to
its deepest depth and lets loose the lesser
thoughts. These come to the surface, struggle
and resist and ultimately transform themselves
and become part of the Greatest. This is what
has happened.
Twelve years ago Dayananda sent out his
Thought, this grandest of all grand thoughts to
the world. This Thought has wrought its way
into millions of hearts to-day, being aided in its
work of conversion by world circumstances
which have forced men to look inward, beyond
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 43
matter to the spirit and which have thus made
them fit to receive this grand message. Great
souls have already caught this message and as for
lesser ones, it is striking hard against the doors of
their mind, v^hich are sure to open before long.
And to-day what tangible results do we see
around us? That a New Era is coming into
existence none can deny. That the forces of
evil are on their last legs is apparent even to the
most casual observer. That a newer, nobler
and brighter future is opening up before us —
even the unintelligent masses are vaguely
conscious. In all quarters of the globe, kings
and kingdoms are fading out of existence.
Tyrants and oppressors are falling every day like
the dry leaves of a tree in the autumn ; the people
are loudly clamouring for their rights. They are
coming unto their own.
Leaders of thought are now talking not in
terms of patriotism or nationalism but in terms
of internationalism, International Peace and
International Brotherhood. The abolition of
Militarism is now on everybody's lips. While
some blessed ones have clearly recognised the
fact that the forces of disintegration will yield
only to spiritual force, that materialism cannot
44 THE master's world-union scheme
satisfy the human soul, it has had its chance and
it has failed — the time has now come when we
must return to the Spirit and strengthen ourselves
with spiritual power. That religion and religion
alone can bind and keep the peoples of the world
together is beginning dimly to dawn upon the
vision of leaders of thought. They are now
talking of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven on
earth, — of a clear recognition and full realiza-
tion of the Fatherhood of God as the only basis
on which to build the new world society of
peoples as the only guarantee against human
society lapsing again into its old evil ways.
These are some of the manifestations of the New
Era that is now coming into existence. This
is the result of Thought, of Great Thought, of
the Greatest Thought that has ever crossed
human mind.
The fulfilment of Thought is in action.
Thought is bound to result in action. Thought
is greater than action. Thought travels swiftly
even to the remotest corners of the globe. It
works subtly, unseen and unconsciously. There
is no limit to the scope of thought. Action is
Thought in physical body, as it were. Action
is more crude, limited in its scope and power of
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 45
affecting other people. Thought easily affects
the more sensitive instruments — the more spiri-
tual, the believing and thinking mind. While
there are others whose minds are less sensitive
and respond less to subtle thought and more to
crude action.
First comes thought. It then finds expression
in speech and then in action. But more often
than not we find people uttering excellent ideas
but owing to want of spiritual force, not daring
to reduce them into action. In his case,
Dayananda, having given this thought to the
world, proceeded at once to translate it into
action. He founded the order of Brotherhood
known as the Arunachal Mission, as the embodi-
ment of his ideals, as an epitome of the world
society that he intended to establish. It was
then that he declared his object to a bewildered
world.
By the end of the year 1906 (Pons, 131 3) a
band of followers, earnest seekers after spiritual
knowledge had collected round Dayananda at
Silchar, Assam. At this time the proposal was
to establish an Asranr* on a hillock, 3 miles from
* An Asram is a religious household, where the
4
46 THE master's world-union scheme
the town of Silchar, on the bank of the River
Barak and overlooking the Assam Bengal
Railway. It is a beautiful spot, calm and quiet
and free from the turmoil of the town. The idea
however took some time to materialise and it was
on the last day of Pous 1315 (Jan. 13th, 1909)
that the Arunachal Asram was founded.
The Mission started originally with 6 or 7
inmates living in the Asram and a number of
others who lived in their own homes in Silchar
town and elsewhere. The object of the Mission
was to bring about a religious revival, to afford
training and discipline to all seekers after Truth
with a view to make direct realization possible.
The object of the Mission was further to inculcate
the idea of the essential unity of the human race,
to promote brotherly feeling amongst all the
races and peoples, holding diverse faiths.
Being attracted by his love, his force of
character, his piety, his high religious attain-
primary duty is to realize God by proper training and
discipline and earnest efforts. The ordinary duties of
a household are not neglected but these are made
subservient to the primary object. Everything that is
done is done with a view to facilitate the pursuit of
Truth.
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 47
ments, his great spiritual force and above all, by
the maddening charm of his personality, people
began to swarm round him, young and old, —
men, women and children. Some of them
became his disciples and joined the Mission.
Some came to live in the Asram. In this way
three* more Asrams grew up in course of time
in different parts of the country and more people
became his disciples. His disciples may be
classed as coming under two heads : one class
took their permanent abode in the Asrams,
among whom were men with their wives,
mothers, daughters and other relations. To the
other class belonged men and women who
lived in society, pursued their ordinary avoca-
tions of life and followed the teachings of the
Mission in their every day life, keeping them-
selves in close touch with the Master and the
Mission.
The A srams have been the meeting ground
of people of different castes, sects and even of
men holding different religious faiths. They
live together, mix with one another and move as
t Another, a fifth one, the Lila Mandir has since
been founded at Deoghar.
48 THE master's world-union scheme
members of one common family. Some of his
disciples are Mahommedans, who have joined
the Asram without ceasing to be Mahommedans.
The one thing that has kept together so many
different people with all the differences between
man and man is a living faith in the Fatherhood
of God and Brotherhood of man. The lesson that
Dayananda has taught them is : God is my
Father, every man my brother, every woman my
sister and the highest form of religion is to love
God in man.
Every member of the Asram has his or her
own peculiar method of spiritual development
prescribed by the Master. But the one common
mode of worship is Sankirtan, In this way
selfishness and sectarianism have been driven
away from the minds of all and they have learnt
to know each other, respect the feelings and
sentiments of each other and to love each other.
Thus the Asrams have become places of
training for the realization of the highest religious
truths and of practising them in life by the in-
dividual, according to fitness. There is no
teaching of abstract principles but what is
practised by the Master cind the members of the
Asrams, Nothing is dictated or imposed from
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 49
outside but the mind of the seeker is enlarged
more and more to grasp what truth he ceui. The
seeker is only put on the road to know the highest
truth for himself and to practise this in his life.
The very atmosphere of the A sram is such as to
exert an elevating influence on the mind of every
body. God is the goal of every member of the
A sram and all his struggle and all his efforts are
to know Him and to live in Him. Dayananda
says when the human soul is truly anxious to
know God, God does reveal Himself to that
ardent soul.
The A sram is a big household where Love
reigns supreme. In ordinary households now-
a-days there is no unity amongst the different
members — brother separates from brother, father
from son, husband from wife. And the reason
is the absence of true and selfless love. Love
is not the predominant factor in their relations.
But here, in the A sram they live in perfect peace
and amity. For, they have learnt to love each
other. They have learnt to love God and
having learnt to love God, love for brothers and
sisters has come naturally and easily to them.
Dayananda has infused this love into their
hearts. Under his guidance and by contact with
50 THE master's world-union scheme
his holy personality, love for the self is dis-
appearing from their minds and making room for
love for others. They have been rescued from
all that is mean, petty and evil — their hearts are
enlarging, their ideas broadening and their
vision expanding. Through his grace, they have
tasted of bliss and their appetite for this bliss is
grov/ing all the more. A new and wonderful
world has opened up before their vision.
In his relation with his followers, Daya-
nanda is the very embodiment of Love. But at
the same time he keeps an ever-vigilant eye on
the spiritual development of each and every one
of them. He is always kind, as Kindness could
be, (his very name is kindness — one whose
supreme happiness lies in being kind) and he
would be stern when occasion requires it. He
mixes with them freely, talks with them un-
reservedly, plays with them in a most light-
hearted fashion and dances with them in
Sankirtan. He is their all — ^the centre of all
their hopes, the spring of all their activities. To
love him is their proud privilege, to be with him
is the joy of their lives, to serve him is their sole
ambition. They love him, they worship him,
they adore him. What wonder that men.
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 51
women and children have stuck to him through
good report and bad, through suffering, want
and persecution?
The Asram is the common property of all.
Dayananda's teachings have borne fruit on them.
It is a religious republic. The idea of personal
property has vanished from their minds. What-
ever God sends, is shared by all alike, and each
according to needs. There is a President for
each Asram who looks to the wants of each in-
dividual member and manages the affairs of the
Asram. All work of the Asram is done by the
members themselves — even the * mean '-est
thing. Each is allotted the work that he is best
fitted for by physique and temperament. There
are no servants. That institution has found no
place in the Asram. The doors of the Asram
are open to anybody £uid everybody. The
system of giving alms has been done away with.
If there is food, the members of the Asram invite
anyone begging alms, to share it with them, for
he has as much right to it as anybody in the
Asram. There is charity of feeling but no
patronage — there is kindness but no favour.
There is no sense of pity — for God alone can
pity and no mortal being — ^but love for brothers
52 THE master's world-union scheme
and sisters. Love has changed their character,
their ways of life, their movements and even
their very look. Love has transformed them.
Love has made them one in mind and one in
soul.
Calmly and patiently each member performs
his allotted task. They have had to pass through
difficulties, danger, struggle in and struggle out
— ^penury, starvation for days and days. They
have been harassed, oppressed and persecuted
both by the community and by the Government
of the land but they have not lost heart, they
have not lost faith in God and in the supreme
ideal that the Master has held forth before them.
They have been mercilessly beaten, imprisoned
and persecuted for nothing in hundred other
ways but undismayed and with undiminished
faith, following the footsteps of the Master, they
are marching on to the goal. Eternal progress
is their motto, full and complete surrender to
Truth is their religion, to lose their finite *self*
in the greater *self' of humanity is their ambi-
tion. True, no member has attained perfection
as soon as he set his foot on the soil of the
Asram but all their strivings are towards perfec-
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 53
tion and under the sure guidance of their Master,
they are confident of attaining it.
Dayananda has impressed on the minds
of his followers that God is the Supreme Director
of this Universe. He is One, Indivisible and
Universal. That Indivisible and Universal
Being has for the sake of His own Lila become
many. He is One in many and Many in One.
Elach individual is a particle of His Being and
this world is a field of Lila of that One in many.
Through all our actions, all our strivings, we are
tending towards our Original Being and this
progress has been going on for all time — we
have been on our eternal march from the begin-
ning of our existence and it will go on till
eternity.
In different ages, in all the changes that
have come and that are coming upon the world,
we see the variation of the Lila of God. And
just as in a theatre actors and actresses play the
parts allotted to them, so we are all playing
the parts that He has allotted to us. To one
He has allotted the part of a thief, to another
that of a saint, to another again that of a king,
to another again that of a beggar and so forth.
It is for us to play the role assigned to us. We
54 THE master's world-union scheme
must do that. It is not possible for us to run
counter to His wishes even by the breadth of a
hair. We work because He makes us work,
we think in a particular way because He makes
us think in that particular way — we love, we
hate, we desire, we hope, we fear because He
makes us do all these. We pursue one course
because He sends us that way — we think it
wrong, we give it up and take another — that
also is for the fulfilment of His Lila — ^because
He wants us to play different parts in another
drama. He is the play-wright. He is the stage-
manager. He alone knows what the stage-effect
will be.
Whatever happens is willed by God. But
in our grossness we forget this truth. We are
not conscious that whatever we are doing, we
are doing at His bidding. We act through our
blind impulses and say it is *we' — apart from
God — who are doing but nevertheless we are
acting according to the will of God. The more
we emerge from this grossness, the more we
become conscious that we are merely carryings
out His will. But why this grossness? Why
this passing from grossness to spiritual
consciousness and all that? He takes us
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 55'
through all sorts of conditions of life so that He
might build us all the better — with a view to our
perfection. All our religious training and
discipline is for making us realize more and more
that it is really God who is working through us
— our training and discipline is complete when
we completely realize that we are but instruments
in His hands, and, realizing that, we leave our-
selves entirely in His hands. Our happiness
increases the more vividly we realize at each and
every turn that it is really He and not **!" —
apart from Him — who is doing this, that and
everything. The greatest happiness comes only
when we are able to completely surrender our
'selves', completely merge our *ego' in God an J
realize Him in everything, in all that is going
on around us. The striving of the members of
the Arunachal Mission is to emerge more and
more from this grossness. This is possible only
through the mercy of God and they of the
Arunachal Mission have thrown themselves
entirely at the mercy of God for the fulfilment
of their lives and their Mission.
The mission has no fixed source of income
— ^we never beg, we do not ask for any help, nor
do we even expect any. For the maintenance
56 THE master's world-union scheme
of the Mission, Arunachal depends entirely on
God and God alone. And it has been our ex-
perience that on great occasions thousands of
rupees have come in strange manner. God
alone knows best what we really need. What
comes in our way, we take that to be the gift
of God. Very often we have nothing to eat and
very little to wear, that also we take to be the
will of God and His blessings. God must have
meant it for our benefit. In this way, sometimes
ten days out of thirty we go without food — but
we starve all together. We suffer but we suffer
together and we are conscious that God meant
it for our good. The members of the A runachal
Mission have learnt to submit to sickness,
starvation and hardships in the same spirit as
they would accept good health, comforts and
prosperity. There is nothing to grumble about,
nothing to be sorry for.
Dayananda prizes freedom of the soul.
This freedom of the soul is release from gross-
ness, the unfoldment of the true self of man —
the triumph of the spirit over matter. He says :
**1 have given myself to Truth. I cannot
sell myself to popular approbation.
The whole country may go agednst
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 57
me yet I cannot compromise Truth.
In the end Truth is bound to be
victorious. The latent spiritual
instincts of the individual, race, and
Humanity must be revived — other-
wise, all efforts to lift mankind are
doomed to failure. The man who
is spiritually strong is free for ever.
If the human soul is not free,
nothing can avail him — ^he will be
the sport of every breath of wind,
he will break down at the approach
of the first untoward circumstance.
The human soul must be set free.*'
Each member of the Asram is allowed to
enjoy liberty and freedom to the fullest extent
so long as his liberty and freedom does not
infringe on the liberty of others and is not sub-
versive of the proper regulation of the Asram,
All caste differences have been done away
with. What caste could there be between the
children of the same Father } The only caste is
in the degree of spiritual attainment — the nearer
we approach Godhead, the higher we rise in
caste. That is the only caste. But there can
be no rigid watertight compartments. This
58 THE master's world-union scheme
difference is only relative for we are all tending
towards Him and the difference in the distance
of our goal is not fixed. It is diminishing every
moment. There is difference in occupation
according to fitness and natural aptitude but no
work is dishonourable. AH work becomes
honourable when it is performed in the con-
sciousness that we are serving the Father — when
all our actions tend towards Him, when in all
our actions we try to realize Him. Harmonious
working of social order depends on the per-
formance by each member of his particular duty
— all are necessary, none superfluous. How
could one be high or low? Why should differ-
ence in occupation be the boundary line between
man and man? Outside this difference in
occupation which is accidental and in the degree
of spiritual attainment which is only relative,
really there is no distinction between man and
man. Outside these differences, there is a broad
equality. Humanity is essentially equal. This
New Era must be built on love. But the basic
condition of love is equality. Not only hcis
Arunachal held this as an ideal but has been
permitted to reduce it into practice.
In their relation there is perfect equality
HOW DAYANANDA SET TO WORK 59
between man and man and between man and
woman. Women enjoy the same amount of
liberty as men. From the very beginning
Dayananda inculcated this idea of equal
rights for women and by and by, as the members
became acquainted and accustomed to this, he
has, with the full support of the members them-
selves, given complete freedom to women. They
move as freely as men, make Sanl^irtan
separately from the men or join the men in their
Kirtan, as they like. They are free to wear the
Wl or not, just as they like. They perform
the duties of the Asram, as suits them, in the
same way as, and, by the side of men. One
sister of ours, Nivedita, who has now left this
world, was found competent cind she was
appointed the President of the main Asram, the
Arunachal. On the occasion of installing Sister
Nivedita as President of the Asram, Dayananda
^aid :
**What 1 have done to-day is but a re-
hearsal of what the world must do
one day. That day is at hand when
the world must give women equal
rights."
In short, in the Asram women enjoy a posi-
60 THE master's world-union scheme
tion of respect, trust and responsibility and work
by the side of men. We feel happy to note that
this bold assertion of Dayananda is being ful-
filled. Women all over the world are coming
unto their own. One lady has forced her way
into the Parliament of Great Britain, another was
voted President of the Indian National Congress,
an assembly that stands as the mouthpiece of
300 millions of people, while in other countries
also women are being appointed Councillors,
Judges and so forth. Much of the misery of
the world would have been saved if women had
been allowed to take their proper share in all
departments of life.
IV.
SENSATION IN SOCIETY.
God sends His blessings in the guise of
terrible persecution.
In this way from a very modest beginning
Arunachal grew up to be a strong religious
centre enlivening people all around with a new
idea of religion and infusing a new spirit into
them. The Sankirtan by the members of the
Arunachal Mission in the Asram and outside
began to attract people in large numbers. The
novel ideas about religion, the novel mode of
life in the Asram, specially the non-observance
of caste distinctions in a caste-ridden country and
the complete freedom to women, in a country
where it was considered a virtue for women not
to let people outside the inner family circle see
their face, created a great sensation in society,
especially in orthodox circle. Thakur Daya-
nanda and the Arunachal Mission became the
topic of discussion in all quarters. Some began
to like Dayananda and his Mission while at the
same time a party distinctly hostile grew up.
5
62 THE master's WORLD-U^aON SCHEME
Many were the charges levelled against Daya-
nanda and the Arunachal Mission, How could
that man who was my school-fellow become a
saint? — How could he? — I met him only the
other day ! How could that youngster whom
I have seen from his boyhood, — how could he
become the head of a religious movement?
These were some of the many cogent reasons
that people began to put forward. Dayananda
means to do away with caste and thus to deal
a blow at Hindu Society — otherwise why do
Mahommedans come to the Asram7 It is not
reconciliation of religious truths but an insidious
attack on Hinduism, they began to say. Some
even went one better. The Asram is a centre
for political conspiracy, with the object of over-
throwing Government, they said. Those whose
relatives had joined the Mission naturally be-
came angry and went against us. Some com-
plained of disturbance of sleep on account of
Sankirtariy others applied to Government for sup-
pressing Dayananda as a danger to society.
The popular idea in India was that a man
who wanted to lead a religious life, the man
who would lead others into the path of religion
must eschew all pleasures of the earth and lead
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 63
a life of penance and austerity, as if the earth
and things of the earth were outside the limits
of God and there was something inherently
antagonistic between Him and articles of luxury.
Their point of view is that God has surrounded
man with so many temptations that at every
point he must be on his guard against falling
into the trap. The fact that Dayananda used
dhoti and chadar instead of the usual mendi-
cant's rag, he used to put on shoes — these were
too much for them — they could not reconcile the
idea that a man could dress well and enjoy the
things of the earth and yet be intensely religious
or that he could be a saint and a religious leader.
But the chief objection was to the presence
of women in the Asram. To lead a religious
life and in company with women? How could
that be? In recent and medieval times, when
India had fallen from her ancient glory, sages
and saints had avoided all contact with women.
Woman stood in the path of man's highest reli-
gious perfection — woman was the temptress —
that was the common belief. To utter the word
** woman" was considered to be a sin for a
Sannyasin, One learned gentleman belonging to
the legal profession asked Dayananda to leave
64 THE master's world-union scheme
women alone as their presence was the reason
why large numbers of people who would other-
wise have joined the Mission could not do so.
Dayananda's emphatic reply was: ** Should I
attain religious perfection and leave my mother
and sister to grope in the dark? Half the
population of the world are women. Neither
half could attain perfection to the exclusion of
the other. 1 can't confine my thoughts only ta
men." TTie gentleman was put out. The sight
of women mixing freely with men, taking part
in Sankirtan in public and doing other work with
men was so strange and so much against the
rooted prejudice of the race, that they could not
reconcile themselves to it. They thought Day a*
nanda wanted to introduce immorality into
society and that religion was a mere mask. The
tongue of calumny was very active and spread
all sorts of half-truths and lies. We wanted ta
live immoral lives with our mothers and sisters,
in the name of religion ! That was the charge.
The charge also was that Dayananda was-
a great hypnotist and that he had kept so many
men, women and children together by the exer-
cise of hypnotic influence. People forgot that
great religious teachers have in all ages exercised
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 65
tremendous influence over the mind of people
not only in their own times but also in subse-
quent periods when they had ceased to exist in
mortal frame. The power to influence the mind
of others is a test of the truth they preach — the
measure of influencing the minds of others is
the true measure of their greatness. They for-
got that Christianity, Buddhism and Mahom-
medanism are still living forces because of the
momentum they received from Christ, Buddha
and Mahommed. They forgot that the power
which a great religious teacher wields over
others differs from the p)ower of a hypnotist as
heaven from hell. A hypnotist robs his victim
of the power of independent thought and action
but a religious teacher does the very opposite.
He stimulates right thinking and helps a man to
direct his actions towards the attainment of his
objective. A hypnotist that could lift one from
degradation and elevate him to the highest spiri-
tual height is welcome. However, this idea
took such a firm hold on the mind of people
that even the highest Government officials were
not free from it. In a kidnapping case which
was brought in 1916, the Deputy Commissioner
found Dayananda guilty of exercising undue
66 THE master's world-union scheme
influence over the mind of a female disciple who
wanted to give her daughter in marriage to
another disciple of his in contravention of the
ordinary social custom.
However, some people set to work against
Dayananda and his Mission in right earnest.
These were the upholders of truth and religion
who have appeared in all ages. They have been
indirectly instrumental in preaching the object
of their calumny more than would otherwise
have happened. These were the people who
crucified Christ and poisoned Sankaracharya, —
these were the men who pelted stones at
Mahommed and broke his teeth.
The advent of Mahendra Nath De, M.A.,
B.Sc, a man of great learning and piety, a man
who had put his life and soul into the move-
ment for fostering Indian industries, an ardent
advocate of national education under national
control, — to the Arunachal Mission, in February,
191 0 (Magh, 1316) was the signal for a renewed
and vigorous attack on Dayananda and his
Mission. They seized this fact and put it for-
ward as proof of their allegation that the A sram
was a secret political organization. The sub-
ordinate officers of the Police Service joined
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 67
hands with the opponents of the Mission. As
a matter of fact, Mahendra, now known as Rishi
Yugananda, was attracted to the Mission from
the pure motive of leading a religious life, as
he was fully convinced by Dayananda in course
of the very first conversation that he had with
him, that nothing but spiritual force can lift a
fallen nation and that the regeneration of the
country and of the world is to be achieved by
Love and not by hatred.
However, some people were determined to
suppress this great religious movement. They
were on the look-out for an opportunity and
that opportunity was not long to come. The
Silchar Police, without making the slightest
enquiry, arrested Dayananda and two of his
disciples, handcuffed them and sent them in that
condition by rail to Habigunge, a distance of
nearly 200 miles on the charge of having
kidnapped 4 minor boys. The Magistrate found
the charge untrue and set them free. This was
the beginning.
Baffled in their first attempt, the Police
began to look for other opportunities. They
began to harass the members in every possible
way. Attempts at intimidating people from
68 THE master's world- union scheme
paying even occasional visits to the Asram were
made. One Police Officer was deputed to
attend the Asram every day and to take a note
of all those who came there. Soon after, the
Asram and the houses of some of the disciples
at Silch*r and elsewhere were searched but
"nothing incriminating was found against the
Mission.
At this time pressure was brought to bear
on some of his disciples who were in Govern-
ment service, to cut off all connection with the
Mission. Their emphatic reply was they would
rather give up service and be reduced to poverty
than give up religion. They were true to their
religion. When Government pressed them
again, they gave up service. Blinded by their
prejudice against the Mission even educated men
failed to see that people in their circumstances
could not sacrifice their all for nothing. What
was it that they got from Dayananda that they
could give up service and reduce themselves and
their families to poverty ? What was it that they
prized more than their worldly gain? None
cared to know.
Nothing dismayed, Thakur Dayananda
and his disciples began to work vigorously.
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 69
Parties of men were sent out from the Asram to
tour in the surrounding districts, holding
Sankirtan wherever they went. Their object was
to turn people's thoughts to religion. They
went from village to village, singing and
dancing, sometimes without food but never
asking for anything from anybody, suffering
from cold but never asking for shelter. If any-
body gave them food, they took it as coming
from God. If anybody gave them shelter they
took it as gladly as they would have taken shelter
under a tree. People began to like the
Arunachal Sankirtan and as they progressed
through the country men in increasing numbers
began to join them in each village and town.
Invitations also came from many respectable
quarters to come and hold Sankirtan. Huge
Sankirtan parties and processions began to be
held. In this way a tremendous religious feeling
was created and the Arunachal Mission was the
talk of the whole surrounding country.
At this time, on his return from a tour in the
interior, Dayananda was served with ein order by
which he was asked to attend the Police Station
at a distance of three miles, every alternate day,
to stop Sankirtan on the ground that *people
70 THE master's world-union scheme
were being carried away by their emotions ancJ
the bond of society was loosening'. Needless
to say, Dayananda refused to abide by such an
illegal and unjust order. Police began syste-
matic persecution on the members of the
Mission. Finding no remedy from the Local
Government in spite of repeated representations,
on the 29th October, 191 0, the disciples sent the
following telegram to the Local Government and
the Government of India :
* 'Police harassment of the Asram people
is seriously interfering with their
religious work. The Sevaks collect-
ing *Musti Bhiksha' are threatened
with prosecution under section 109.
Thakur Dayananda, the Head of the
Asram, regarded by thousands as
the very impersonation of holiness,
has been ordered by Police Inspec-
tor to attend Thana in person every
other day. To crown all, it was
verbally ordered that "Nam-Sankir*
tan' the most popular of Hindu
religious practices, must forthwith
be stopped. We earnestly pray for
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 71"
immediate intercession of His Ex-
cellency the Viceroy."
In pursuance of the above telegram, Mr.
Rivet-Carnac, the Deputy Inspector-General of
Police visited the Asram, had a talk with the
Master and found nothing wrong against the
Mission. He regretted the handcuffing episode
and said it was owing to inexperience and want
of tact that individual Police Officers had molest-
ed A sram people in the pursuit of their religious
duties. He gave a solemn assurance on behalf
of Government that such things would not occur
again in future and that Police espionage would
cease. However, this gentleman retired soon
after and the Police went on the same as before.
Swami Hansananda who, sometime later,
was out with a party of 1 7 members of the
Mission holding Sankirtan from place to place
was arrested with his party at Mymensingh and
was kept in lock-up for some days and then
set free. At Dacca they were again subjected
to Police search and Police espionage. Accord-
ingly, he and his brother disciples sent the
following telegram to the Viceroy on the 29th
August, 191 1 :
**Repeated Police attempts encouraged
72 THE master's world-union scheme
by distinctly hostile attitude of Local
Government to kill a great move-
ment of Love striving to unite the
East and the West by ties of Love,
driving thousands of peaceful law-
abiding people to desperation.
Prompt enquiry into Arunachal
grievances desirable to avert com-
plicated religious situation on eve of
King Emperor*s visit.*'
But no redress came. This v^ent on. At
this time and from long before, there was a
revolutionary movement in the country with the
object of overthrowing the British Government.
Dayananda made it abundantly clear to the
authorities that his goal was poles asunder from
the goal of the revolutionaries, that his was a
religious movement having nothing to do with
ordinary politics. But all this to no purpose.
The harassment of the Asram people and
interference in religious performances went on.
Finding no redress of their wrongs, a memorial
was sent to the King Emperor on 26th Dec,
191 1 while His Majesty was on a visit to India.
The Private Secretary in reply intimated that the
^ame had been forwarded to the Home Depart-
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 73-
ment of the Government of India. The Home
Department wrote back to say that it must be
sent through the Local Government. This was
done. The Local Government sent it on to the
Government of India who instead of forwarding
it, held it back. A memorial was then sent
direct to the Private Secretary of His Majesty
requesting him to place it before the King-
Emperor. This went as far as the Buckingham
Palace but no farther. It was sent back to the
Government of India by the Private Secretary,
who sent it to the Assam Government, wha
again returned it to the Asram people.
In the meantime a branch Asram called the
Dole Gobindo Asram was founded in the first
part of March, 1912 at the house of Rishi
Yugananda, at Jagatshi, in the adjoining district
of Sylhet. On the occasion of the opening
ceremony, grand Sankirtan was held for days
together, many thousands of people having
joined from far and near. At this time the idea
was conceived of performing a N am-Mahajagna
and Dayananda and his disciples took the vow^
of continuing this ceremony, as appeared from
printed handbills distributed at that time :
**so long as the flag of Love inscribed
74 THE master's world- union scheme
with the name of Sri Gauranga (God)
did not flutter in the World — so
long as the whole world was not
filled with the song of **Pran-Gaur
Nityananda*' — so long as the Era of
of Love, bathed in the tears of saints
and lovers of humanity, was not
enthroned in human heart."
They prayed to God that
* *they might be given strength to continue
this grand ceremony till the fulfil-
ment of their vow.*'
;and that
*'if that was not the will of the Supreme
Being, may they perish and may
their bodies be reduced to very dust
and be mixed with the holy dust of
the Asram/*
That was the vow Dayananda and his
<lisciples took. In inviting people to come and
join them in this sacred work, they declared :
'*That supreme moment has come when
we must sacrifice ourselves un-
reservedly for the good of
Humanity."
Never, never in the history of the human
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 75
Tace was such a grand ceremony undertaken with
such a supreme end in view. They wanted to
establish the Kingdom of Love on earth. They
wanted to usher in that New Era of Love by the
power of prayer, by invoking the mercy of God
•every minute of the hour, every hour of the day
and every day of the month — and, if months
rolled into years, they would not stop — they
would not stop till their goal was reached, till
their vow was fulfilled. Dayananda lit this
sacrificial fire and invited one and all to come and
join him and sacrifice themselves for the good of
humanity. His disciples unreservedly threw
themselves into the fire. Could this go in vain?
No. The God of Humanity granted their prayer
and great was the reward that they received.
He marked them out for ever as His own, as His
chosen, who would suffer and by their suffering
bring the Kingdom of Love on earth. That re-
ward came soon in the shape of persecution —
terrible persecution. Blessed are they who
suffer ! The supreme moment of their lives had
come indeed.
The grand Sankirtan that began early in
March continued day and night without any
break. There were about 100 members, men.
76 THE master's world-union scheme
women and children in the Asram, They
divided themselves into groups and used to carry
on the Sankirtan in shifts. They resolved to
give up their lives but not this noble vow. They
had taken the vow in the name of God and they
could not give it up.
At this time printed reports used to appear
at the end of each month. The first report says •
**The members of the Mission have
resolved, under command of God, to
carry the name of Gauranga (God) to
the farthest limit of the world. . . '*
and that they would go on repeating by day and
by night the Mantra of Pran Gaur Nityananda
**for the good of the world — until Peace
was established on earth**
leaving aside all their personal comforts and
personal happiness. Those whose thoughts did
not before this, extend beyond the limits of their
own family, now began to think of the world,
to weep for the sufferings of the world. One
Asram lady fasted for six days and wept for the
suffering world and did not touch food till the
revelation came to her that the bliss which
they of the Arunachal were tasting, would
descend in torrent and flood the whole world
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 77
at no distant date. This unlettered woman had
no geographical idea of what the world was.
But her heart had been filled with divine love and
it was love that conjured up the vision of the
world before her eyes. Breathes there a man
who could muster courage to say that this love
and this fasting of love shall go in vain ?
That all the thoughts of the followers of
Dayananda were spun round the world would
be seen from the following translation of
a verse which our brother Bipulananda wrote
under inspiration sometime before this : —
From the feet of my Lord Srikrishna,
Rushing gleefully comes there
A tidal wave of Heavenly Bliss,
In the land of King Bharat.
Look, there rise from their slumber
The many million sons of Saugor.
To-day has vanished their poverty and
misery —
They have drunk deep of this Bliss.
Hark, O ! Humanity, we have come.
Away with all thy fears.
6
78 THE master's world-union scheme
The Supreme Truth we shall preach
All through the wide world.
In the blissful torrent of Peace,
We shall wash clean the bloodstained
field of battle.
A stream of divine Love we shall send
Into the world gliding merrily on.
Oh ! the joy ! The Lord that slept
In human heart is awake.
Soon shall vanish feud and hatred,
The ruling passions of Humanity.
In course of this grand Sankirtan many
became inspired and saw the vision of the
glorious Dawn of the Human Race. They saw
it coming. They heard the footfalls of this
Dawn of the Human Race.
However, this Sankirtan created a great
sensation all over the country. People in their
thousands — Hindus and Mahommedans, came
and joined the Kirtan. People even of other
nationalities and of different religious faiths also
joined. Mr. Ezra, a Jewish gentleman of large
sympathies and great piety and Editor of Divine
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 79
Truth came to visit the Asram and was greatly
charmed by the Sankirtan and the life of bliss
and divine happiness that the members were
living in the Asram,
In this world, for the fulfilment of the Lila
of God, two opposite forces are always at play.
One is necessary to bring the other into more
prominence. Darkness heightens the value of
light, evil tries to subdue good but it is good
that survives in the end. Truth has always to
struggle against untruth — untruth sometimes
overshadows truth but it is truth that comes
victorious at last. So did it happen with the
Arunachal Mission, This Nam-Mahajagna for
the good of Humanity attracted many thousands
of people while it repelled some others. The
opponents of Dayananda became furious at his
phenomenal success. They bit their lips and
swore once more that they would suppress
Dayananda and his Mission. In this their pious
design they found ready help from the subordi-
nate rank of the Indian Police. They began to
work through them and with their help they
influenced Government officials. A small Police
force was deputed to Jagatshi to prevent the
occurrence of any disturbance. This was in
80 THE master's world-union scheme
addition to the Police already deputed by the
Magistrate from the adjoining district of Cachar
where the Arunachal Asram was situated, to
watch over the movements of the members of
the Asram. Towards the last week of March,
Dayananda and two of his disciples were charged
before the Subdivisional Officer of Maulavi
Bazar for causing disturbance by Sankirtan and
were fined Rs. 10 each. A theft case was also
got up against one member but the trying Magis-
trate found the charge to be false and malicious
and dismissed it. **In the early part of June,
1912," says* the Chief Commissioner of Assam,
* *a largely signed petition against the A sram. was
submitted to the Chief Commissioner This
petition was duly verified. (Italics mine.) It
concluded by saying that the petitioners
**supposed*' the Asram to be '*an impure,
obscene, immoral and indecent institution,
opposed to public policy and good morals,'* Eind
begged the Chief Commissioner to disperse this
* This and other observations of the Chief Com-
missioner as alfeo the observations of the Enquiry
Commissioner are taken from Gazette Elxtraordinary
of the Assam Government, dated April 5th, 1913.
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 8f
unlawful gathering, etc.*' It must be noted
here, if this petition was at all verified, it was
verified from those who had sent the petition.
We knew nothing about the charges nor about
the verification.
Following on the heel of this, a petition was
filed on 20th June by a man of Jagatshi before
the Subdivisional Officer of Maulavi Bazar com-
plaining against Dayananda for having kid-
napped his minor brother, who, as a matter of
fact, was subsequently found to be a youth
of 1 7 years and the complainant and a legal
practitioner were charged with giving false in-
formation and sent to jciil. But the Subdivisional
Officer, Mr. Gordon, without holding any preli-
minary enquiry at once issued a warrant for the
production of the *minor' for execution within
the 1st of July.
In this way, the Police, with the connivance
and active support of some local men was ham-
pering the Asram people at every step in the
performance of their religious duties. Repre-
sentation after representation, petitions and
memorials to Government officials, petition to
the King proved of no avail. In spite of the
most solemn assurance that they had absolutely
82 THE master's world-union scheme
no ulterior object in view such as the overthrow
of the British Government and in spite of the
fact that absolutely nothing incriminating was
found in the Asram at Arunachal and at the
houses of the disciples as the result of repeated
Police searches the authorities did not change
their views about the Mission. Although the
Asram and even the private apartments of the
Asram were open to the access of the public,
although everything that was done in the A sram
was done in the full light of day, for they had
nothing to conceal — nothing of which they could
be afraid or ashamed, the authorities still clung
to the view that some mystery surrounded the
Mission. The Police went on with their work of
oppression, harassment and interference with the
religious practices of the Asram and the move-
ments of the disciples. Under the circumstances,
Dayananda took the only step that was left open
to him, the one step that leaders of religious
movements have in all ages taken, the one step
that every man and every woman ought to take
under similar circumstances. That step was to
stand firm in the name of God, to hold fast to
religion without any fear of consequence.
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 83
Accordingly, on June 30th, 1912, he made a
declaration to the following effect :
**Arunachal has been before the public
for the last four years. All this
time it has patiently borne with the
utmost persecution by Government.
At every step the pledges of the
Emperor are being violated by the
Executive Authorities. Instances of
improper interference with Religion
(pursuit of religion) have been wired
repeatedly to the Supreme head of
the Executive Government, the
Viceroy, by the Seva^s (men) and
Sevikas (ladies) of the Asram, In
the result matters have gradually
assumed such a magnitude that in
the present circumstances, we are
forced with deep regret, to disregard
illegal orders (executive actions).
To assist the subject in the matter
of Religion is the paramount duty
of the Sovereign. The Sovereign
Power having refused to acknow-
ledge that duty and having paid no
heed to (our) repeated requests to
84 THE master's world-union scheme
mend matters, from the considera-
tion of Religion alone, we disown
the allegiance, which, we, as sub-
jects owe to the Sovereign (we dis-
solve the relation of Sovereign and
Subject). India has ever been the
home of Religion. Rather than being
hampered in the pursuit of Religion,
A runachal would feel happy to sub-
mit to any consequence.
— Dayananda.
(Translation by the writer from Ext.
No. 4 in case No. 917 of 1912.)
On July 1st, one Head Constable came to
the Asram and saw the *minor* boy but, as he
himself said, he **did not apprehend". He
saw Dayananda who told him that the boy
* *should not be seized while the Kirtan was pro-
ceeding '*but that he should wait till the boy
came out of the Kirtan*. As the boy did not
leave the Kirtan , the Head Constable waited for
sometime and then went away. He reported to
the Authorities that he was of opinion that the
A sram was a political and not a religious organi-
sation and that he apprehended bloodshed if the
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 85
warrant was sought to be executed. What led
him to come to this opinion, Heaven alone
knows.
The members of the Asram went on with
their Nam-Mahajagna the same as before. In
the evening of the 6th of July, Mr. Beaumont,
Assistant District Superintendent of Police and
other Polite Officers with about a score or two
of Policemen armed with rifles and bayonets
came to the Asram, apparently to execute the
order. Mr. Beaumont and an Indian Deputy
Superintendent of Police rode in front of the
party and on entering the Asram, made direct
for the place where Sankirtan was going on.
One of the inmates of the Asram, Abhedananda
came up and tried to dissuade Mr. Beaumont
from entering the place of Kirtan in this aggres-
sive fashion and thereby violating its sanctity.
As Mr. Beaumont would not stop, Abhedananda
struck his horse with a trident, which he used
to carry about and which he had in his hand at
the time. Mr. Beaumont's party behind at once
opened fire. Some of the inmates came out
with the report of firing and Abhedananda
and another followed by some 6 or 7, wholly
unarmed, went forward. The Police party
86 THE master's world-union scheme
moved backwards, at the same time keep-
ing up the firing and thereby wounding
several persons. In course of the retreat two
members struck Mr. Beaumont, one with an
umbrella and another with the stick of kettle-
drum. He was not wounded and as he deposed
afterwards, *it was pointed out to him on the
way' that there was a scratch on his head.
Mr. Beaumont stated in his deposition that
he **thought" he heard **a shot*' coming from
the direction of the Asram **but saw no smoke".
In his judgment the Magistrate said: **As no
other witness deposes as to this shot being fired
from the direction of the Asram, I think that in
the middle of the confusion when he was being
attacked, Mr. Beaumont must have mistaken
some other noise coming from the Asram/' Of
course the suggestion of hearing a gun shot from
the direction of the Asram was an invention
pure and simple. Six months later, when the
Commissioner of the Division held enquiry into
the charges of outrages on the inmates of the
Asram, this story of hearing a gun shot from
the direction of the Asram (without smoke) was
sought to be further developed and supported
by an additional witness. And, notwithstand-
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 87
ing the finding of the Magistrate to the contrary,
the Commissioner was disinclined to dismiss the
probability of firing from the A sram and in sup-
port of his view adduced a chain of arguments,
the logic of which no mortal being can follow.
It may be mentioned here that as a result of the
search on the 8th of July, immediately after the
arrests (as also searches made on previous occa-
sions) not a bit of firearm was found nor any-
thing from which the remotest suggestion could
be made that the members of the A sram intended
to offer resistance or use force far less to use
violence.
As a result of the firing, seven persons were
wounded. Rishi Yugananda and Swami Ajapa-
nanda were hit with bullets, Amarananda*s
breast was honeycombed with shots, Swami
Abhoyananda received no less than 17 shots,
Pijushananda received a shot through the eye
which has affected his brain and impaired his
mental powers. Acharya Pronabananda and
Kalicharan received several shots each.
In considering whether the Police were
justified in firing, the Magistrate observes in his
judgment :
**Was the Police justified in firing their
88 THE master's world-union scheme
rifles? Considering the manner
in which Mr. Beaumont was hard-
pressed by the SadhuSy* some of
whom were armed with tridents and
that he was driven back a consider-
able distance when he had only a
polostick in his hands, 1 am not
prepared to say the Police were
not justified in firing to protect Mr.
Beaumont even if they had received
no orders to fire.** (Italics mine).
The Magistrate further finds :
**The Police could probably have sup-
ported Mr. Beaumont more eflfi-
ciently if they had clubbed their
rifles and used them as lathies
there can be little doubt that the
majority of the Police present ran
away."
As a matter of fact, if the Police wanted to
prevent the attack on Mr. Beaumont they could
have easily done that. Firing was absolutely
* Sadhus sometimes do carry tridents in their
hands. As a result of the search only 5 tridents
were found in the Asram. Only Abhedananda used
his trident.
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 89
unnecessary and without any warning. The
Deputy Superintendent of PoHce and Mr.
Beaumont deposed that they gave orders to fire.
TTiese officers were not put on their trial for this
illegal firing, they were not even censured. The
Chief Commissioner in reviewing the whole
incident says :
**The Chief Commissioner laid the facts
before the Law Officers of the
Crown, who advised that the Police
were justified in firing,** (Italics
mine).
In concluding the point, the Chief Com-
missioner regrets the injuries and the conduct of
the * rioters* !
Elaborate preparations were made on the
7th. The Asram was surrounded on all sides
and nobody could come in or go out. The
Deputy Commissioner, the Chief Administrative
Authority of the District, came to Jagatshi with
a large number of men, armed with rifles and
ammunition. A doctor with surgical require-
ments also accompanied the party. The Deputy
Commissioner put himself in charge of the
operation and fixed his head quarters at a distance
of a mile from the Asram. In the evening he
90 THE master's world-union scheme
wrote to Thakur Dayananda asking him to see
him next morning outside or at the gate of the
Asram and demanding from him a guarantee
against injury. Thakur Dayananda wrote back
that he was free to come with or without escort
and that it was against his reHgion to molest or
injure anyone coming to his house. Next
morning the Deputy Commissioner, with some
of his armed men, met Thcikur Dayananda at
the gate of the Asram. Thakur Dayananda had
brought out his papers to show him how the
Mission was being systematically persecuted by
the Police. The Deputy Commissioner abso-
lutely refused to go into these and demanded
surrender of all the inmates of the Asram in
batches of five at a distance of 200 yds. outside
the Asram. Dayananda refused to leave the
Sankirtan and the Deputy Commissioner went
away remarking that he had many sepoys with
him. About an hour after the Deputy Commis-
sioner returned with about 100 armed men,
consisting of Civil Police and Military Police and
a large number of men armed with long clubs
requisitioned from the local landlords. They
entered the Asram and proceeded at once to
arrest.
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 91
At that time tumultuous Sankirtan was
going on. People were absolutely unmindful of
what was happening outside. One or two who
were outside the Kirtan were promptly secured.
The D. C. then led his men towards the Kirtan-
ghar, the place where Sankirtan was being held.
Then what followed is a tale of inhuman atro-
cities. The men had their bayonets fixed. They
entered the room, freely used their bayonets
and the butt-ends of their rifles. They kicked
and threw people on the ground and dragged
them out of the room, one after another, by the
long hair worn by men also. Every one of
them was bound by rope, the men with their
hands on the back or with their long hair over
the head and the women in front. In their
wanton assault they made no distinction between
men and women. Even those who had been
wounded seriously by gun fire on the 6th were
not spared. Swami Ajapananda who had
received a bullet wound on the thigh and
Amarananda who had been mortally wounded
on the breast were dragged out by the hair of
their heads and thrown violently on the ground
outside. Thakur Dayananda who was singing
in the midst of the Sankirtan was seized by the
92 THE master's world-union scheme
hand by the D. C. himself and Captain
Broughton. Two or three men struck him on
the chest with the butt end of their rifles, one
gave him a bayonet thrust on the head and
another in the abdomen. He fell down, was
tied with rope and taken outside. There he
was kicked several times by some of the men
and not satisfied with this the D. C. himself
came and kicked him, although he afterwards
denied this charge. Swami Hansananda, who,
in a state of inspiration, went out dancing
with his arms outstretched, was caught hold of
by Captain Broughton, beaten and ducked in
mud and water. In his evidence the Captain
said he pressed his head into a ditch **two or
three times.*' He did not let him go till he was
half done to death. Asked in Court why he did
it, his answer was, **Because he deserved it.'* If
there is anybody on earth who did not deserve
it, it was the Swami. At that time he was a
slim young man of 23 or 24. He had absolutely
nothing in his hands. He is a most loving
and lovable person and the divine expression of
his face would convince any one at a glance that
it was not in his nature to injure any body. It
may be recalled here that four years later when
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 95
he was in a similar state of ecstasy and was
dancing about, a European lady, charmed with
his divine expression, came up to him and em-
braced him.
Those women who were in the temple or
nursing the wounded, were also beaten and
dragged out, including a lady 80 years old. The
image of Gauranga was robbed of gold orna-
ments and broken. Of the women several
received severe injuries, one had her collar-bone
broken and another had her artery cut and she
bled profusely. The rest were more or less
severely injured.
The inmates of the Asram offered not the
least resistance. In view of what had happened
on the 6th, Thakur Dayananda had strictly
enjoined upon his followers not to resist — not
even to raise their hands to ward off attacks.
And they obeyed his orders most faithfully —
each and everyone. Captain Broughton in his
evidence only complained that **when the butts
were being used the men did not come forward
to be arrested.*' They did not readily yield —
that was the complaint. They had taken the
vow of continuing the Kirtan and they could not
give it up. They would continue taking the
7
94 THE master's world-union scheme
name of the Lord to the last — that was their
resolve. Such was the intoxication of the name
of the Lord, that one old Sadhu, Kalicharan who
liad been kicked, beaten and tied continued still
to repeat the ncime. Each time he shouted the
name of the Lord, blows fell on his face. As
the result of beating he could not stand. He
was bound hand to hand and foot to foot and
a bamboo passed through his hands and feet cind
he was carried like a caurcass. The pointed end
of an umbrella was also thrust into his mouth
to make him stop. But still he continued to
shout **Pran-Gaur Nityananda*'. Some liquor
was then poured into his mouth. With refer-
ence to this outrage the Commissioner in his
report, said : — **lf anyone poured liquor into his
mouth, it was probably done in good faith and
was not intended as an outrage but as a stimulant
for a person who appeared too weak to walk.
I acquit the Police of all blame in regard to this
man.**
However, the whole pairty consisting of 57
men, 28 women and 20 children were all
marched off to Maulavi Bazar, a distance of
4 miles. They were made to walk through
paddy fields full of mud and at places knee-
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 95
deep water, there being no proper roads. Three
ladies who had been more seriously wounded
were carried in doolies (a conveyance of square
shape made of bamboo), while all the rest had
to walk. The hands of the women were untied
so that they could carry their children on their
arms, or give breast. The men reached Maulavi
Bazar at 1 2 noon and the women at 3 P.M. They
were shut up in two separate rooms in the Police
Station, each room measuring 15ft. by 20ft,
All the doors and windows were closed and for
ventilation there were only sky -lights. It was
the hot season and their suffering was terrible.
In the evening a doctor came and dressed their
wounds and they were given food at night. The
three ladies mentioned before were sent to
hospital and the remaining were set free between
7 and 8 P.M. They had no place to go to, no
friends to help them at Maulavi Bazcir. Some
kind-hearted gentlemen of the place took com-
passion on them and gave them shelter till they
could be removed by their friends. All the
male members of the Asram were sent next
morning to Sylhet, the head-quarters of the
district.
After the inmates of the 'Asram had been
% THE master's world- union SCHEME
arrested, began a loot of their properties. The
musical instruments were all broken, — lamps,
pictures, boxes, nothing was spared. The Police
took possession of the Asram and continued in
possession from 8th to 12th, made a thorough
search, had the floors dug up and the pond
dragged. But no weapon, nothing of the kind
was found. Of the 7 persons wounded by gun-
fire, three had been taken along with the party
and the remaining four were sent next day to
Maulavi Bazar and they were attended to on
the 10th. From there they were sent to Sylhet
hospital, where Rishi Yugananda, after suffering
excruciating pain for 10 days died.
57 members of the Asram were sent up.
All were released except 1 3 who were tried on
a charge of rioting on the 6th of July and con-
victed. Except one all refused to make ciny
defence, as they considered it of no use. The
following is the statement that Thakur
Dayananda made :
**In my humble way 1 have been leading
a religious life and I am conscious
I have not committed any offence.
In view of the wanton and un-
warrantable harassments and perse-
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 97
, cutions to which I have been sub-
jected for the last two or three years
in carrying on my Mission of Love
and the inhuman outrages lately
committed upon my fellow- workers,
on men, women and myself at
Jagatshi, I find this case is but
another phase and a continuation of
that outrage. Hitherto I have got
no redress and expect none in future.
No statement would be of any avail.
Hence 1 make no defence.*'
TTiakur Dayananda and another were
sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a year
and a half, Swami Abhayananda and Acharya
Pronabananda for one year each and the rest
Tanging from three to six months. The trial
was held in Sylhet jail and newspaper reporters
were shut out. But the news of these outrages
leaked out and strong comments were made
in the Press. Even European-owned news-
papers pressed for a commission of enquiry.
In response to this the Chief Commissioner of
Assam met public opinion half way and instead
of appointing a mixed commission of officials
and non-officials, deputed the Officiating Com-
98 THE master's world- union scheme
missioner of the Division to enquire and report
only on the incidents of the 8th of July. No
enquiry was made as to the firing on the inmates
of the Asram on the 6th.
The Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Barnes
and Captain Broughton in their evidence before
the Commissioner denied the charge of having
bayonetted the inmates, but Mr. Barnes admit-
ted that bayonets were not unfixed till after the
whole thing was over. He says he ** noticed
all the bayonets to see if any one of them was
blooded. None was blooded." What prompted
him to examine the bayonets God alone knows.
The Commissioner in his report says bayonets
were not used and that * *medical evidence alone
placed that beyond doubt.** The medical
evidence is very amusing. The Doctor who
examined the wounded at Maulavi Bazar said,
he had not entered the cases in his regular
register but on a separate piece of paper and in
pencil and that even at the time of the enquiry
these had not been entered although cases of
much later times had been entered. He said
** copies of these notes were taken by the D. C.
either on that day or the day after I was
asked by the D. C. about bayonet wounds and
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 99
I told him that I did not find any bayonet
wounds . ' ' He however admitted the wounds of
Nagendra, Gopal Sarma and Digendra **were
caused by pointed instrument," that from his
notes it was not possible to say the nature of the
wound of the lady who had her artery cut. In
some cEises also he did not put down the
dimensions of the wounds. He said he had
questioned the wounded at the time of dressing
and some said they had come by their wounds
by bayonet thrusts and others said by butts.
The Doctor who examined the male members
at Sylhet also made rough notes but did not
enter them in the register, though registers were
regularly maintained. He admitted the wound
of Haralal was probably caused by a **sharp
pointed weapon.'* Captain Scott the Civil
Surgeon of the District who examined the
wounded persons afterwards repudiated the
theory of bayonet wound but could not give the
exact date when he visited the wounded persons
nor did he keep any note.
The Commissioner explains away the
assault on women on the ground **that they
were not readily distinguishable from men."
Perhaps he forgot that at the time it was broad
100 THE master's world-union SCHEME
daylight. With regard to the charge of men
and women being dragged by the hair of their
head, the Commissioner says, ** without doing
this, investigation of the offence emd arrest of
offenders were impossible" and with regard to
assault on women he says, **A few women were
tied they were not very gently treated but
under all the circumstances, 1 do not think the
Police can be blamed." With regard to the
arrest and marching off of women the
Commissioner says, ** Actually, they chose
(except one or two) to go to Maulavi Bazar with
their male relatives and children. At Maulavi
Bazar they were not imprisoned but merely
given shelter, etc., etc.*'
With regard to the desecration of the image
of Gauranga which was worshipped by the
Asram people, the Commissioner notes the fact
that a meeting of orthodox Hindus had ex-
communicated Dayananda on the grounds that
his manners and customs were opposed to Hindu
religion inasmuch as he worshipped* ''Sudra
* In India God is often worshipped as the
Universal Mother, who dwelleth in a special manner
in small virgin girls. Hence the practice of Kumari-
puja (worship of virgins) has generally come into
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 101
girls,'* that he was removing caste distinctions
and allowing women to join Sanl^irtan. He
concludes :
**These and other facts cast a slur on the
form of Hinduism professed by the
Asram. It appears therefore (Italics
mine)) that the sanctity of the Asram
idol was very dubious and if it was
not sacred, then it could not be
desecrated."
The Commissioner also observes, **Mussal-
mans, one Jew, and low caste Hindus shared in
the religious exercises of the members of the
Asram/' Mussalmans, one Jewish gentleman
and *low' caste Hindus did take part in
Sankirtan but not in the worship of the image,
which was exclusively for those who believed in
that form of worship. It seems it is on this
ground that the Commissioner justifies the
vogue. The Hindus who excommunicated Daya-
nanda ostensibly on the ground that his conduct was
against the Hindu Shastras however knew nothing
of the Shastras, which clearly sanction the worship
even of a virgin girl born of a woman of ill fame
and enjoins that no distinction is to be made on the
ground of caste or origin.
102 THE master's world-union scheme
removal and desecration of the image. The
Commissioner entirely missed the point, viz.,
that the only thing to be taken into considera-
tion v^as whether the people of the Asram held
the image sacred or not and not the fact whether
other people did so or not. Why should the
Commissioner take it upon himself to judge as
to who was right and who was wrong? Was
the Commissioner in a position to judge whether
Dayananda and his mode of religion was wrong
and those who ex-communicated him were in the
right ? Amongst the Hindus there are hundreds
of sects each professing a different mode of wor-
ship and each claiming to be right. Who is to
judge which is right? Neither the Commis-
sioner nor the Chief Commissioner who is in
agreement with him. How could they forget
the solemn pledges of Queen Victoria where
she says: **None (be) molested or disquieted
by reason of their religious faith or observances"
and where it is enjoined upon all Government
servants **that they abstain from all interference
with the religious belief or worship of any of
our subjects'*?
The Commissioner dismisses the allegation
of the theft of ornaments on the image, orna-
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 103
ments of the ladies kept in a trunk and other
property of the total value of Rs. 8,000/- and
holds even if there was any loss, the Police
**could not be held responsible'*. Although he
himself notes that one Police constable was
found in possession of a coat, a jacket and an
ornamental brass box and was sent up for trial
and convicted. In conclusion, he goes out of
his way and makes unworthy insinuations
against Dayananda and the members of the
Asram of drunkenness.
The Chief Commissioner in reviewing the
whole incident and in considering the report of
the Commissioner makes a series of statements
almost every one of which calls for strong
comments. But that is useless and beside the
purpose. 1 will content myself with quoting
one passage from the Chief Commissioner's
note, which is very interesting and at the same
time very amusing. The Chief Commissioner
says :
**It has been suggested that the Jagatshi
Asram like the parent institution,
attracted the unfavourable notice of
Government owing to its supposed
political tendencies. Enough has
104 THE master's worlp-union scheme
been said to show that action on the
grounds of public moraHty was more
than once strongly urged on Govern-
ment by private individuals whose
representations could not be ig-
nored," (Italics mine).
I think it would not be unfair to infer from
this that the action which the Government took
was the result of representations which they
could not ignore ; and the ground of such action
was public morality. The action which Govem-
ment took was practically the suppression of the
Asram. Whatever the motive be, moral or poli-
tical, it comes to this : Government wanted to
suppress this institution. And they only availed
themselves of this opportunity. As regards the
charge of immorality, 1 would only ask : Could
the Chief Commissioner or any of the detractors
of the Mission point to a single instance of an
institution, like ours, which has thrived on im-
morality and yet has achieved great things in
the world? And what was the goal of the
Arunachal Mission ? To bring about the
material and spiritual regeneration of the world.
Could immorality and such a lofty ideal — ^the
SENSATION IN SOCIETY 105
loftiest that man can conceive — grow side by
side?
To show that Dayananda could not claim
sanctity as a Sannyasin, the Chief Commissioner
quotes a passage from a vernacular paper of
Silchar, which, in addition to the charge of
immorality, makes the following observations :
** Dayananda is the Panda (the apostle) of
religious revolution. What is he to
the Hindus who is going to weld
into one Hindus, and Mussal-
mans, Brahmos and Christians and
Buddhists and Atheists? We have
said that the Hindus have no sym-
pathy with his jumble of religions
Which of the Hindu Shastras
(scriptures) gives authority for this
combination of all races and all
sects?"
Yes, this is what Dayananda wants to
accomplish. He wants to throw down the
barriers that separate race from race, sect from
sect and people from people and to bind them
in one bond of Love. He does want to weld all
faiths into one common faith, viz,, a living faith
in God. The writer of this article though
106 THE master's world-union scheme
intending to discredit Dayananda, has only given
a forecast of what Dayananda actually means to
bring about in the world. Sir Arch dale ELarle
in quoting these observations in support of his
view has only placed it on record. All honour
to thee Sir Archdale !
It has been seen considerable damage was
done to the property of the Asram, In fact,
after the raid, the Asram presented a spectacle
of devastation. We did not seek compensation
for the losses. Nor could we think of bringing
any case in respect of the injuries inflicted on us.
Thus ended the glorious episode of
Jagatshi. We have none to complain against,
we have nothing to grumble about. We hate
none, we despise none. Rishi Yugananda, who
died in Sylhet hospital was visited by the Chief
Commissioner a few days before his death. The
Chief Commissioner asked him if he had any
one to complain against as being responsible for
his injuries. His reply was: **I complain
against none — those who have injured me were
but instruments in the hand of God.'* God
willed it and so it happened. Each of us played
the part that He wanted us to play and great
SENSATION IN SOQETY 107
good will come — ^has come out of our suffering.
There is really none to whom to apportion blame,
there is none to whom to apportion praise. It
was no suffering. It wcis His reward. It was
His blessings and it was our privilege to know
His blessings even when they came in the guise
of pain and suffering. Blessed be the name of
the Lord ! Glory unto Him ! May He soon
unite the world in Him ! May the hand of
brother never be raised against brother or sister !
V
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE
ARUNACHAL MISSION.
Further progress towards the GoaL
With the fountain-head of Arunachal
Mission in jail, people thought Arunachal would
die a natural death. But that was not to be.
His disciples did not give up the work. They
went on as before. The fire that Dayananda
had lit in their hearts could not be extinguished
by persecution. They collected at the main
Asram, the Arunachal and, as before, Sankirtan
parties went on tour in various parts of the
country. Slowly, people began to appreciate
the ideals of the Mission — more people were
attracted to it. Even from jail Dayananda kept
on his work. A portion of a letter that he once
wrote to a disciple of his and his wife reads thus :
**A man may be a saint or a seer, he may
be the very chosen of the Lord, yet
he cannot be immune to the inexor-
able laws of God. Those who have
worked for the good of mankind in
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE MISSION 109
past ages have suffered terribly and
their suffering served a great purpose
of God. That purpose is seldon*
revealed to the worker Youi
must not be impatient at the goal
not being reached so soon. Brace
yourselves up. Be prepared to
suffer more — if need be, life-long
suffering. 1 know you are destined
to do great things for the world.
Not one single act of yours is without
a purpose. Be the path strewn with
flowers or full of thorn, be the
journey long or short, be the journey
through darkness or light — 1 am
marching on towards the great goal.
Every one of you must come rapidly
forward and keep pace with me —
no vacillation, no doubt, no pessi-
mism— none whatsoever — we have
nothing but the great Goal before
us."
So, Dayananda's work did not stop. It
went on nonetheless for his absence. He came
out of jail in February, 1914 and renewed his
work with the same vigour as before. Soon after,
8
/lO THE master's world-union SCHEME
.a great ceremony was held at Dinajpur Asram,
which had been founded by Rishi Yugananda
<only a short time before his death. Below is
the copy of a printed invitation letter that was
issued : —
**The founder of this Asram was Rishi
Yugananda, the Great Apostle of
the Arunachal Mission, who, with
the object of carrying Sri Gauranga's
name and His gospel of Love to the
Nations of the Earth, inaugurated
the Sankirtan movement and sacri-
ficed his own mortal frame at the
**Nam-Kirtan-Jagna'* at Jagatshi
Dole-Govinda Asram, in the district
of Sylhet. To celebrate the
memory of that great Rishi, an
A nandotsab (joyous festival) with
Nam-Sankirtan as its sole pro-
gramme will take place at the Gauri-'
Gauranga Asram at Dinajpur for a
period of four days commencing
from the 12th April, 1914. In
following the unfulfilled mission of
Rishi Yugananda the Asram
Bhaktas (disciples) believe that the
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE MISSION I 1 1
salvation of Modern Humsinity lies
in this : the Centre of a Great
Catholic Movement of Love and
World cultures, that seeks to draw
the East and the West closer together,
than has hitherto been the case in
historic memories.
It is earnestly hoped that saints and seers
of all denominations shall grace the
occasion by their presence euid
participation in the joyous festival.
Sri Sri Thakur Dayananda Deb, the
fountain-head of that spring of Love
and Joy, has kindly consented to be
present. All are cordially invited to
attend."
This ceremony was celebrated with great
Sankirtan, which attracted several thousands of
people of the town and of the interior. On the
last day of the ceremony a grand Sankirtan party
went in procession through the city. So far as
the eye could go, it was an ocean of human
heads, one solid mass of humanity moving on,
singing the name of the Lord and dancing in joy
with Dayananda also singing and dancing in
the centre. There were people on all sides, on
112 THE master's world-union SCHEME
the balconies, on the roofs and even on the top
of trees — all eager to have a look at this wonder-
ful Being. Mr. Ezra who had been to Jagatshi,
came from Calcutta on this occasion also.
Not wishing to let this grand sight go by — ^he
took a bioscope film of the procession. There
was intense joy and enthusiasm all around,
Mrs. Staunard, a European lady connected with
the Bahai movement, who had come to India to
acquaint herself with the religious movements
of the country, also graced the occasion by her
presence. She was greatly impressed by what
she saw and when Swami Hansananda, dressed
in the scantiest clothes was dancing in supreme
happiness in the midst of the Sankirtan with
hands outstretched and with a divine glow on his
face, this European lady was so charmed that
she forgot all difference of race, colour and
country and clasped Hansananda in her breast.
Who embraced whom? Sister embraced
brother. West embraced East. It was only a
precursor of the day that was coming when the
East and the West shall clasp one another in
loving embrace, when Love shall overthrow all
barriers that now separate them. Sing now.
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE MISSION 113
Mr. Rudyard Kipling, sing *the East and the
West have met.'
At this joyous festival people had flocked
from all parts of the country. There was a huge
gathering. It created a great stir and left a great
impression on the mind of people. People
began seriously to think. They must.
Then came the great purger of God, the
Great Europeem v^ar, with its awful carnage,
with its welter of blood, with untold sorrow and
suffering, with famine and pestilence, with the
break-up of old kingdoms and old institutions
following in its train. In 1915, when this war
was raging the fiercest, when the story of human
sacrifice and human suffering was known all the
world over, when nations were arming to the
teeth and devising newer and newer and each
deadlier than the other, engines of destruc-
tion with the avowed object of ending the war,
when nations were requisitioning even the aid
of God on their side to enable them to win victory
over the *enemy' — ^when the bells of Christ's
Church were celebrating each fresh wound on
His holy breast, the members of the Arunachal
Mission were praying to God to shorten this
awful destruction and to grant peace to mankind.
114 THE master's world-union SCHEME
That was the one fervent prayer that rose from
their soul. So filled were their hearts with
sorrow for suffering brothers and sisters that on
January 14th, 1915, Swami Abhoyananda, an
ardent disciple of TTiakur Dayananda, sent the
following message to the Viceroy : —
**May it please Your Excellency,
Your humble petitioner Swami
Abhoyananda, a servant of Thakur
Dayanandadeb, the fountain-head
of the y4 runac/ia/ Mission, Silchar,
considers it a paramount duty before
God and man to announce that he
is deeply moved at the terrible loss
of human lives, the destruction and
annihilation of various religious
institutions, churches and hearths
and homes of the people of the West
and the consequent sufferings, in
some shape or other, entailed
throughout the Universe on account
of the Great European War in which
practically all the nations of the
World have now taken part.
To-day is the sixth anniversary of
the A sram, to which your petitioner
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE MISSION 115
belongs, but alas ! he finds himself
helpless to enjoy the festive occasion
as his whole heart and soul have
been fully occupied in devising
means for a peaceful solution of the
present feverish unrest pervading
the creation. He is, however, con-
vinced that no human effort except
Providential favour can bring about
a restoration of peace. He is there-
fore, actuated by a strong impulse of
desire to invoke the blessings of the
Almighty for the establishment of a
world-wide peace for many centu-
ries to come by taking his stand
simply barehanded at the front of the
battlefield before the horrible des-
tructive and powerful machines and
guns of modern warfare which
have already wrought havoc among
human lives and property and are
daily increasing the lamentable and
innumerable miseries. Your peti-
tioner therefore humbly craves your
Excellency's indulgent consideration
I
116 THE master's world-union SCHEME
in the matter and needful per-
mission.**
Sir Archdale Earle, the Chief Commissioner
of Assam, in acknowledging, wrote a letter to
the Swami in appreciative terms.
Of course, the Viceroy did not grant hi
permission. But did this sentiment go in vai
Did this noble thought go in vain? No, nevef
This grand thought of bringing peace on earii
by invoking the mercy of God must have reach^
the throne of the Supreme and it must haie
scattered all over the world. It has borne fruic,
the full measure and significance of which we
are not at present permitted to know.
In this way the work of the Arunachal
Mission was going on. The goal of their
Mission was at heind. They were biding their
time.
At this time in May, 1916, it pleased Provi-
dence to still further force the A runachal Mission
on the attention of the people. It came in the
shape of a false case brought against Thakur
Dayancinda, Swami Hansananda and another
disciple of the Thakur, Pragnananda, by one
Sudhir Goswami of Balurghat, in the district of
Dinajpur. The charge was one of kidnapping
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE MISSION 117
his minor sister. Previous to this the whole of
Sudhir's family, his mother, sisters, uncles, their
wives, sons and daughters had all come to
Dinajpur Asram to pay their homage to the
Thakur. Sudhir's mother wanted to give her
youngest daughter in marriage to Swami Hansa-
nanda even against the established practice in
Hindu society. The TThakur having consented,
the marriage was fixed to be celebrated at the
A runachal A sram at Silchar . The party returned
home and sometime after, Sudhir's mother with
her two daughters accompanied by Pragnananda
came to Silchar. In the meantime the report
of the proposed marriage got abroad and there
was a great sensation in orthodox circle there.
Sudhir's uncle who was practically the guardian
of the family gave in to social opposition — his
heart quailed before social excommunication.
Then, at the instigation of several persons, a
kidnapping case was got up. The case was
tried by the Deputy Commissioner of Silchar and
Dayananda and his two disciples were convicted,
Dayananda and Hansananda being sentenced to
six months' rigorous imprisonment and Pragna-
nanda to one month's. The District Judge
before whom an appeal was preferred set aside
118 THE master's world-union SCHEME
the conviction and the sentence. He made some
strong comments on the procedure adopted by
the Deputy Commissioner and observed :
**TTie evidence, oral and documentary,
shows beyond the possibility of
doubt that the case has been built
up and developed as it went on with
the clear intention of getting the
accused convicted some way or
other.**
Tlie case proved a failure. But the Asram
still continued to receive attention of the Police.
Police espionage continued more vigorously than
ever.
Writing at this distance of time, 1 must
however note that a change for the better has^^
come over the officicJ mind. Although the
Police still pays occasional visits to the Asram
to make 'enquiry,* Police espionage has ceased.
A still greater change has come over the public
mind. An actively hostile public is slowly
coming more and more to appreciate and admire
the great work of the Master.
THAKUR DAYANANDA
VI
THE WORLD AT THE END OF THE
WAR.
The Scheme Presented,
The great world-war came to an end on
1 1th November, 1918. During these four and
a half years Europe had been drenched in blood,
millions of men had died and many times as
many had been wounded and incapacitated for
life. Half Europe had been devastated.
Russia, after ages of suffering, passed from a
despotic form of Government to a Republican
and from a Republican to a Bolshevik. Germany
sent her tyrant into exile and declared for a
Republican form of Government. The Austria-
Hungarian Empire broke up and out of her ashea
grew up many small kingdoms. Poland which
had been bartered amongst themselves by
Germany, Austria and Russia sprang into
existence. Smaller nationalities within the
Russian Empire declared themselves free and
formed their own governments. All the
countries that had engaged in war were suffering
120 THE master's world-union scheme
from exhaustion except perhaps America. There
were distinct signs of war-weariness in every
country and as soon as fighting ceased, unrest
which had kept its head down under outside
pressure, became manifest in almost all coun-
tries. People began to take stock of their profits
and losses. The total losses in the war on all
sides were nearly — killed 7,000,000 men,
wounded 18,800,000 men, missing (of whom it
may be presumed half had been killed)
6,500,000 and the total casualties amounted to
31,000,000 men, excluding the losses of Japan,
Bulgaria and Montenegro. In addition to this
there was great loss of life and property on sea.
Thousands of millions of pounds were spent in
waging the war and national debt in every
country soared to the highest point. The back
of the people just began to bend under its heavy
weight.
In these circumstances the first thought that
came to people was : why had they engaged in
war? What was the gain? They could find
none. Was not the world big enough for all of
them? The earth lacked nothing which would
make them happy. Then why this cutting of
each other's throat? There was not a home
THE WORLX) AT THE END OF THE WAR 12t
which had not lost some near and dear ones.
What was the good of it all? People were sel
furiously to think.
For the Arunachal Mission the day had
come. The path to the ideal which they had
been cherishing and which they had held forth
to the world had almost been cleared. A world
mourning over the loss of near and dear ones,
a world impoverished, stricken with famine and
pestilence had now taken the road to that ideal.
It had been made to turn its face towards that.
The mantra of uniting the world in God which
Dayananda had been repeating in the silence of
Arunachal for ten long years had borne fruit at
last. The thought that he had been radiating
to the world had now taken shape. At this
time, with a view to further stimulate this idea
of the union of mankind in one bond of Love,
he sent a direct message to the people of the
world assembled at the Peace Conference at
Paris. On December 18th, 1918, he sent an
* Appeal* to the members of the Peace Confer-
ence, giving a very brief outline of his scheme
of world reconstruction.
The scheme reads as follows : —
122 THE master's world-union scheme
AN APPEAL TO THE MEMBERS OF
THE PEACE CONFERENCE
From a Sannyasin, a Friend of the World.
With the end of the great war, a new era
of peace and progress has dawned upon the
world. Statesmen and philosophers of all
countries are striving to find out how best to
bring about peace and harmony, and some of
them have come forward with definite sugges-
tions of their own; but none, to my mind, are
<:alculated to bring about the desired end. I also
have worked out a scheme and 1 venture to place
it before the Conference, but before doing so
I wish to make a few observations :
One side has achieved victory in the war
and is jubilant, the other is defeated and thinks
itself helpless — one side is supremely happy,
the other is sullen and dejected. The Central
Powers have accepted the terms of armistice
because they could not do otherwise. If at the
conclusion of peace severe terms, even if they
be just and equitable, are imposed upon the
Central nations, they will have to accept them
THE WORLD AT THE END OF THE WAR 123
^nly as a way out of the difficult position in
which they find themselves, while at the same
time they will be smarting under a sense of
grievous wrong, and will always be on the look-
out for an opportunity to break away from the
compact. Thus there will be peace in appear-
ance but not a real and lasting peace, which the
world is longing for. A serious attempt should
therefore be made to establish peace on the basis
of universal brotherhood of man, and to knit
mankind in one bond of love and union.
With all respect and humility, I, therefore,
make an earnest appeal to every member of the
Peace Conference to make such an attempt.
Let all who take part in the deliberations of this
momentous conference be filled with a deep
sense of responsibility, the like of which never
rested on any man before. A most sacred task
has been entrusted to them and in order to fulfil
it, they must rise above the petty prejudices of
one country against another and be even
prepared to sacrifice, if need be, the interests of
one nation before the greater interests of all
humanity.
The proper question before the members of
the Peace Conference should be, not to gain the
124 THE master's world-union scheme
best advantage over the enemy, but to adopt
measures which will make all future wars not
merely impossible but unnecessary. Now let
me present my scheme which, 1 hope and trust,
will bring about the desired end :
* *Let the people of each country elect for
a definite number of years one
amongst themselves as President,
who, with the help of a Council,
will guide their destinies. And let
the Presidents of the different coun-
tries, in turn, elect one among them-
selves as the Chief President who,
with a Council of Ministers sent by
the different countries (each forming
a component part of the common-
wealth of the world) will form a
Government separate from the Gov-
ernment of each country and at the
same time be watching over and
looking into the workings of each,
as well as co-ordinating the actions
and activities of the different coun-
tries in matters of international affairs
so that all will grow and develop
THE WORLD AT THE END OF THE WAR 125
alike and none will take adfantage
over the other.
All the Presidents and the Chief F^resident
are to think themselves to be the viceg^^rents and
servants of God, the common Father of all, and
at the same time to look upon all the people bf
all the countries as their brothers, and they must
hold themselves responsible before God and man
for the peace, happiness and progress, both
spiritual and material, of the world.
If this scheme of mine is accepted and given
shape to, it will remove the feeling of rivalry and
ill-will, — it will do away with all differences
between Labour and Capital and all other internal
differences of each particular country as also the
differences between one country and another.
Tlie people of one particular country will have
nothing to lose, but everything to gain — ^they will
enjoy the fruits of the labour and culture of every
other nation without ceasing to enjoy the peculiar
blessings of their own. Under the scheme,
there will be no room for superiority £ind
inferiority — no sense of shame which attaches to
a subject nation and consequently no ground for
jealousy and least of all, will there be the need
for Militarism. I have felt it within myself that
9
126 \ THE master's world- union scheme
this is \the only way to bring aBout a solution of
all the troubles of the world and that there is no
other. \
Trueu the difficulties in the path of this ideal
are great a nd numerous ; nevertheless, this idea
will have ixo be worked out before there can be
peace and Hiarmony on ecirth. 1 have put my
scheme in a crude form but 1 am prepared to
work it out in detail and to meet all arguments
against it. Thie nations of the world may come
to an arrangement amongst some of themselves
and may call it peace, but true peace cannot
come unless and until this ideal is accepted and
given effect to. In fact, the federation of all
nations will be the logical sequence of the great
world- war.
Let the members of the Peace Conference
cast aside all sense of national pride and preju-
dice, and they will at once see that this is the
highest consummation that they can look for.
The world has arrived at a stage when this cannot
be delayed any more — ^the time is most pro-
pitious and serious attempts should be made in
this direction. 1 only hope that the members
of the Peace Conference will not fail to do so.
May the God of all nations give them courage
THE WORLD AT THE END OF THE WAR 127
and strength to bring down the Kingdom of
Heaven on earth.
Thakur Dayananda.
This scheme was sent to all the members
of the Peace Conference, to His Majesty the
King Emperor, to the British Premier, French
Premier, Italian Premier, President Wilson,
and to other leading statesmen and politicians,
as also to the principal newspapers of England
and France and to some in America. Copies
were sent to the editors of all principal news-
papers in India, both English and vernacular, to
the Viceroy of India and to all the provincial
heads of administration.
On the same day the following substance of
the scheme was also cabled to the President of
the Peace Conference, Mr. Lloyd George, Mons.
Clemenceau and President Wilson: —
**Om. Thakur Dayananda of Arunachal
Mission, a Sannyasin and a Friend of the World
appeals to the Peace Conference to bring about
a real, lasting aind world-wide peace based on
Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of man and
to knit Mankind in one bond of Love and Union.
128 THE master's world-union scheme
With this end in view he presents before Con-
ference the following scheme :
Let the people of each country elect for
a definite number of years one
amongst themselves as President
who with the help of a Council, will
guide their destinies. Let the Presi-
dents of the different countries, in
turn, elect one amongst themselves
as the Chief President who, with a
Council of Ministers sent by the
different countries (each country
forming a component part of the
commonwealth of the world) will
form a Government separate from
the Government of each country and
at the same time be watching over
and looking into the workings of
each as well as co-ordinating the
actions and activities of the different
countries in matters of international
affairs, so that all will grow and
develop alike and none will take
advantage over the others. All the
Presidents and the Chief President
are to think themselves to be vice-
THE WORLD AT THE END OF THE WAR 129
gerents and servants of God, the
Common Father of all and at the
same time to look upon all the
people of all the countries as their
brothers and they must hold them-
selves responsible before God and
man for the peace, happiness and
progress, both spiritual and material,
of the people of the world.
Thakur Dayananda has put his scheme in
a crude form but he is prepared to work it out
in details. May the God of all nations give the
members of the Peace Conference strength and
courage to bring down the Kingdom of Heaven
on earth."
Needless to say, the Peace Conference did
not take any note of it. The newspapers except
two vernacular papers in India did not think it
worth publishing. The Viceroy and some of
the heads of Provincial Administration acknow-
ledged it. Dayananda who had taken upon
himself the task of establishing the Kingdom of
Heaven on earth was not to be dismayed by this.
He knew the day was at hand when the world
must come round to his view and accept the
130 THE master's worlx>-union scheme
scheme as the only way to ensure Universal
Peace and he was calmly waiting for that day.
At this time President Wilson came into
the arena with his gospel of Peace eind good-will
amongst nations, of safeguarding the rights of
smaller nations, of making the world safe for
democracy. He keenly felt the suffering and
misery of the world and clearly saw that
nothing but a reconstruction of the world would
make it safe from such a catastrophe. He
sincerely believed that he would be able to do
that. He raised high hopes for the future in
the people of the world. His noble utterances
fired the war-weary world with new hopes aind
naturally they looked up to him as the Saviour.
But the time was not yet — nor was he the
Saviour.
However, the plenipotentiaries of the Allied
powers met at Versailles on January 18th, 1919.
The proceedings of the opening session were
secret. On February 14th and April 10th,
plenary sittings took place but practically all the
clauses of the Peace Treaty were settled by the
*Big Five* in secret conclave and no minutes
were kept of their deliberations. The Japanese
delegates wanted to insert in the Covenant of the
THE WORLD AT THE END OF THE WAR 131
League of Nations a declaration affirming the
equality of all races. The motion was carried
by a majority but President Wilson who was
presiding on the occasion, ruled it out on the
ground that unanimity was necessary for the
adoption of amendments of that kind. The
treaty was presented to the German Delegation
on May 7th and it was signed by them on June
29th. Instead of the federation of mankind
which the people of the world would have hailed
with joy, the Peace Conference gave to the world
a League of Nations from which the 'enemies*
of the Allies were excluded. President Wilson
who had declared before that everything must
be done in the broad light of day now readily
acceeded to holding the Conference in secret.
The world wanted bread and got a stone.
President Wilson began with raising high hopes
and ended in abject failure. He sacrificed his
high ideals and abdicated the immensely
superior position which he had gained by reason
of his high ideals and by reason of the moral
support of the people of the world. He allowed
himself to be out-manoeuvred. He allowed his
powers for doing immense good to be filched
away from him. He had not that spiritual force
132 THE master's world-union scheme
behind him without which none can effect the
regeneration of the world. He had not that
undying faith in the ideal which can defy and
break all opposition. He thought, under the
circumstances, compromise was the best course.
He was afraid lest the whole of his ideal should
be rejected. He effected a compromise so that
some of his plans might be accepted. Truth
knows no compromise. It must be accepted as
a whole or rejected as a whole. President
Wilson sacrificed truth before falsehood, prin-
ciple before expediency. He lost his ideals, the
inspiration that comes from the pursuit of noble
ideals and the hold that he had over the mind
of the people of the world. He returned home
baffled. The high privilege of doing good to
Humanity was taken away from him.
VII
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION.
The world situation is one and must be dealt
with as one.
In the year 1920, two years after the con-
clusion of Peace, we find the world stands where
it was or, rather, it has progressed towards a
world cataclysm. Peace on the basis of Father-
hood of God and Brotherhood of man which
Thakur Dayananda invited the members of the
Peace Conference to attempt to establish has not
yet come. Subsequent events have proved to the
letter his prophecy that if hard terms were
imposed on the Central powers, they would
accept them as the way out of the difficult posi-
tion in which they found themselves but would
be on the look out for the earliest opportunity
to break the treaty. Crushing and impossible
terms were imposed on the Central powers and
the result has been, as Thakur Dayananda
warned the members of the Peace Conference it
would be, peace in name but not a real and
lasting peace. Again and again has Germany
tried to evade the obligations forced on her.
134 THE master's world-union scheme
Such was the impossible nature of some of
the provisions of the Treaty that the AlHes them-
selves have had to revise them. They have had
to give up the plan of trying the ex-German
Emperor before an International Court of Justice
and we have almost ceased to hear of the trial
of the minor offenders not before an International
Court but even before a German Court.
Germany has again and again refused to hand
over war materials and the coal which she agreed
to supply France has not been supplied. The
Allies wanted a huge indemnity which she
could not pay. TTie Allies have now come to
realize that they can not get what they wanted
gund they now ask Germany to name a sum
which she can pay. Even this sum Germany,
in the present state of her finances, owing to
dislocation of trade and stoppage of commerce,
is unable to pay. The Allies now prop>ose to
lend Germany this sum to enable her to pay.
How nice !
Thakur Dayananda reminded the members
of the Peace Conference of the heavy responsi-
bility that rested on them. He reminded them
that the well-being of the whole world was in
their keeping. He warned them that if they
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 135
wanted to establish peace on earth on a true and
permanent basis they must rise above passions
and prejudices and look not to their own tem-
porary gains but to the permanent interests of
all Humanity. These warnings have gone
unheeded. And with what result ? They have
inflicted on the world greater suffering than
perhaps the war alone did. How does the
world stand to-day? The whole world to-day
is in an abyss of sorrow and suffering. The
unrest which was brewing Eunongst the masses
even from before the war for a better and newer
life has increased a hundredfold. A growing
sense of dissatisfaction with the existing order
of human society which was discernible then
has now become more pronounced than ever.
It has overtaken the whole of Humanity. The
forces of evil which the war set free were not
eradicated by the Peace Treaty. Everybody for
himself and devil take the hindermost is still the
outstanding feature of European politics. Poli-
tically, Europe is in a muddle. Economically,
and spiritually she is dying.
Take the case of England. Ireland has
been a perpetual thorn on the side of England.
England's internal condition also is not very
136 THE master's world-union scheme
hopeful. Class war is raging as furiously as
ever. She is hated in America for her Irish
policy and envied even by her late Allies for
having got the better of them in respect of the
gains out of the v/ar. Mesopotamia has proved
a losing concern and by her attempt at forcing
a more * civilized' form of government on the
Arabs, she is probably forcing them into the
arms of the Bolsheviks. India is dissatisfied.
Egypt's question has not yet been satisfactorily
settled. Her treatment towards Turkey has
enraged the vast Mahommedan populations from
Egypt to India. High prices, scarcity of food
and coal and almost all things, and growing
unemployment, — ^these have made the life of
the people unbearable. The attempt to save the
people from the contagion of Bolshevism by an
effective blockade of Russia and keeping out her
abundant production has had just the effect
which Government did not want. Spiritually,
England is in a moribund condition. The nation
that set slaves all over the world free has passed
away. Lust for power, long domination over
subject races have sapped her moral vitality.
Mr. Asquith says, **Our conscience is blunted,
our soul half dead". Quite true. **England
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 137
never succumbs'*, vaunted Lord Fisher. The fact
that England did not succumb in the past was
due not to her army or navy or her world-wide
commerce, but to the moral force which she
still possessed. But that force has been spent
up. She has fallen from her spiritual height.
If England does not take heed even now, she is
bound to succumb.
In a magnificent article in the Daily
Chronicle, Sir Philip Gibbs, in reviewing the
present European situation, says : —
**But let us come nearer home to the
countries of our Allies — the nations of Victory.
What of France? France was joyous for a little
while with the intoxication of that victory after
years of sacrifice, and after the last turn of the
tide, when there had been frisson of horror
because the enemy was over the Marne and
Paris threatened.
**But other men in France whom I have
met say : *Our million dead will never come
to life again. Our debts will never be paid.
Our industries are decaying for lack of coal —
which England sells us at outrageous cost — and
Germany does not deliver as she was pledged.
Our best brains were plugged by German bullets
138 THE master's world- union scheme
and England won the Peace which we lost,
though we fought most for victory. Our popula-
tion is dwindling away, and last year our deaths
were higher than our births by 220,000. France
victorious is dying.*'
France, the home of Liberty, Fraternity and
Equality, is to-day one of the most reactionary
countries. Her soul has been buried under her
75 M. M. guns. Unable to get back her loans
from Russia, she is waging a war against her :
She is backing Wrangel in the Crimea and
egging on typhus-stricken Poland to fight
Russia. France to-day is dying because she has
given a go-by to her lofty idealism.
Says Sir Philip Gibbs :
**In Italy there is no great comfort for the
soul of Europe. They are staggering under a
vast load of debt. Their paper money is worth-
less in the chase of high prices. Unemployment
grows like a creeping paralysis, and strikes for
higher wages, ceaseless, futile strikes lessen the
production of all necessities of life, put the prices
higher, and intensify the sickness of the nation.
Now the workmen are seizing the factories, but
the raw material is not in the factory sheds, and
there is no money to buy it.
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 139
**In some countries, of course, the ruin is
not impending but present and engulfing.
Austria is one of them, so stricken, so starving,
so helpless that she exists on charity alone and
is sapped of all vital energy.
**Germany, as far as 1 can learn, is in a bet-
ter state, and has within herself the means of
recovery but people over here who imagine that
her factories are at full blast and that she will
^oon be rich and strong and truculent again, are
in my opinion, deluded by false evidence.**
The Military party in Germany is still
strong. The demobilised men have not yet
given up their spirit of adventure and their love
of blood. TTie ominous disclosure has been
made that overtures were made to the Military
party to join hcinds with the Allies in crushing
Bolshevism out of existence in return for a
favourable revision of the Treaty, while the
Bolsheviks made overtures to them to help them
to overrun the whole of Europe.
**Russia is one vast great empire of misery,
and no mortal soul knows yet what agony she
still has to suffer before her social revolution has
worked itself out*', says Sir Philip Gibbs.
While in Poland, Lithunia and other ofiF-
140 THE master's world-union scheme
spring of the dismembered Austrian Empire,,
they are fighting ceaselessly for boundaries.
Typhus-stricken Poland is fighting Russia and
her neighbours for extended territory, while her-
self begging help from outside world for
combating her diseases.
While again in other countries of Europe
they have not been able to recover from the
economic losses they suffered during anrf
after the war. Europe is starving, Europe is
dying of sickness. But **Europe can expect no
help from America", said the American re-
presentative at the Brussels Conference on the
International Financial situation.
This is how Europe stands. What of Asia?
Turkey, Northern Persia, Central Asia have
come under the influence of the Bolsheviks.
Even Afghanistan has not been immune from
the tidal wave of Bolshevism which has practical-
ly engulfed the whole of Eastern Asia.
India, the land of the Rishis, the land where
so many different religions and different cultures
met and all found their place was, till sometime
ago, dead to all purposes. But she is being
bom again through pain and suffering. There
is grave political unrest all over the country..
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 14 J
Graver still is the unrest amongst Mahommedans
on account of the dismemberment and humilia-
tion of Turkey ; and the movement of Non-
Co-operation which has in its womb the seed of
great troubles has been started out of despera-
tion.
China has been, since the revolution, the
scene of perpetual strife amongst contending
factions. At the present moment she is suffer-
ing from an acute famine extending over a tract
of 700 miles. There is great bitterness against
the Japanese for their seizure of Shantung and
owing to their rough and ready manner of
dealing with her.
Japan turned the pre-occupation of Europe
in war to good account and by ceaseless effort
has grown immensely rich. But, notwithstand-
ing this, she stands to-day on the throes of a
serious industrial crisis. We hear also of grave
political discontent amongst the people. She is
fighting Bolshevism in Manchuria to keep it at
arm's length.
That unfortunate country, Korea is com-
pletely under the heels of the Japcinese. Dele-
gates from that country went all the way to Paris
to lay their grievances before the Peace Confer-
10
142 THE master's world-union scheme
«ence but that august Assembly shut its doors
against their face.
In America the rich are growing richer
while the poor are suffering more and more,
9 per cent, of the population possess 70 per cent,
of the wealth of the country. This great dis-
parity cannot but cause great heartburning.
The strife between Labour and Capital is
assuming a more and more acute form. The
*Reds* wherever found are being suppressed
with a strong hand but their ideas are permeating
the poorer community. Mr. Justice Wesley
Howard of New York says: **It (restlessness)
leaps across the sea to this *land of liberty' and
foments beneath the surface in every city of the
United States There is apparently no
immediate danger that the Government of the
United States will collapse. But it is not wise to
be deaf while the mutterings of discontent sound
a warning in our ear.
* 'Europe is dying," says Anatole France.
* 'Europe is perishing,** says Mr. A. G.
Gardiner. * 'Europe is sick,** says Sir Philip
Gibbs. Asia, for long, the prey of European
nations, is in a worse condition. America *s
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 143
insular position and enormous wealth may not
ensure her safety.
This is how the world stands. What is the
remedy? That is the question. Before we can
think of remedy, we must know the cause of this
disease. If we penetrate a little below the
surface we would see that it is the same cause
which is responsible for the unrest and suffering
in every country. The same cause operates
everywhere and the results more or less are the
same everywhere. That is a fact which we are
to clearly bear in mind. What is that cause?
The immediate cause is the existing order of
human society. The present order of society is
a vast conglomeration of individuals each stand-
ing by himself, without any basic cohesion
amongst them, and each being *free' to thrive
as best as he could. It is a system of society in
which each individual necessarily stands in a
relation of antagonism to his fellows. Antagon-
ism is inherent in the very system. Such an
order of society could not but end in conflict,
injustice and oppression. It is the order of
human society, which has made it possible for
a strong man to tyrannise over a weak, for a
clever and resourceful man to exploit a less
144 THE master's world-union scheme
intelligent and less resourceful man. It is the
system which has permitted one man to rule over
another, one nation to rule over another nation.
It is the system which by its unequal distribution
of wealth has made the rich richer and has left
the poor to starve, to suffer from disease, cold
and hunger. Under the Capitalistic system man
has been left *free* to earn his bread if he could
or to starve if he could not. The capitalist
would employ him or not as he liked or as suited
his interests and he would employ him on his
own term. The state is not responsible for it.
It is not accountable if he does not get work, if
he starves, if he dies. It hcis left him *free.*
Tlie most cruel form of this exploitation of meoi
by man is war. When it is necessary for the
capitalist to further or safeguard his interests he
appeals to one's love of country, he excites
hatred of another country and sets him to cut the
* enemy's* throat. That is the system. It is the
system that is at fault. All the evils from which
Humanity suffers are attributable to the vicious
system of human society.
So, the remedy lies in changing the order of
human society. Humanity has suffered long
and terribly. The malady is great and the
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 145
remedy also must be great. The change must
be a thorough change, a root and branch change.
The whole human society must be reconstructed
anew from top to bottom. The world has long
passed the stage when tinkering reforms would
do. Reform here and reform there will be of no
avail. They will only aggravate the situation.
No half-way house will meet the requirements of
the day. Reforms can but touch a fringe of the
huge mass of accumulated wrongs from which
Humanity suffers. They are so numerous and
so varied that you cannot reform them one by
one and bring about an ideal state of society.
The poisonous tree cannot be killed by taking out
leaf by leaf, branch by branch. It must be cut
at the root. It means catastrophic changes.
Some people fight shy of it. They want
*ordered progress.' But the history of human
evolution shows that its progress has been by
fits and starts, sometimes slow, sometimes rapid.
There are periods in the life of the human race
when there have been catastrophic changes to
cure deep-rooted evils and to give a turn to the
whole course of human evolution. The present
is by common consent a period which has sur-
passed all such periods in the immensity of its
146 THE master's world-union scheme
wrongs and the magnitude of human suffering.
No reforms will do now. There must be a
complete break with the past. The present
system has not satisfied the human soul, it has
not promoted human happiness, it has been res-
ponsible for innumerable wrongs and untold
suffering for ages. The people of the world are
disgusted with the system. They have had
enough of it. They are now looking forward to
a new life in a new world. They now want to
live an altogether new existence free from
perpetual cares and anxieties, free from the
necessity of flying at each other's neck. The
system of human society must be rebuilt in such
a way as to give full expression and full play
to this desire. Those who try to meet the
demands of the people half way by giving them
reforms, by curing an evil here and an evil there
only put off the evil day. How long will this
tactics do? By passing anti-profiteering bills
and other bills of that kind you accept the
premises of the people that they are being ruth-
lessly exploited. How long could you resist
their conclusion that the only cure for these evils
lies in a change of the system ? Those who seek
to improve man's conditions of life by reforms
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 147
and legislations merely gamble with human
sorrow and suffering. This will not do. The
sooner they face the situation the better for them,
the better for Humanity. The longer it is put off,
— put off for ever, it will never be — the greater
the misery and suffering in the end. True, it
will require tremendous sacrifice, the uprooting
of all cherished ideas and conceptions but there
is no help for it. That has got to be done. If
they fail to make the sacrifice now, the sacrifice
that they will have to make in the end will be
much greater. The surging discontent of the
masses is rising. Sooner or later, it will wash
away politicians and Cabinet Ministers who only
want to gamble with their sorrows and suffering.
Humanity has suffered terribly and whatever is
to be done now must be final and conclusive — -
so far as human sense of finality can go.
Nothing should be left to chance. The present
system must be changed and changed root and
branch.
The Whole World Situation is one
AND MUST BE DEALT WITH AS ONE. The present
order of human society, like human nature, is
practically the same in all the countries of
the world. So the disease from which Humanity
148 THE master's world-union scheme
suffers is one common disease — it is one
and the same everywhere. And it will
yield but to one common remedy. Humanity
is one and indivisible — it is an organic whole,
the different peoples constituting it are its
different limbs. And just as in the physical
body pain caused to one part causes pain to the
other parts, so also in the body of Humanity the
pain and misery of one part is bound to affect
the others also. In the plenitude of power and
prosperity most of the nations of the world were
not inclined to accept the truth of this but one
common affliction is bringing it more and more
home to them. Whatever the remedy is, that
remedy must be applied to all the peoples of the
world — not to one at a time but to all at one
and the same time.
The broad fact must be realised that in the
present situation of the world, no country stands
alone. For good or evil, the peoples of the
world have been so inextricably bound up
together that one cannot do without the other.
For one thing or another, each country of the
world has to depend on the rest of the countries.
This interdependence is so complete that the
effect of the slightest event in one country could
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 149
be traced in the other countries — a strike, a
drought, a shortage of crops in one country will
have far-reaching results in the remotest parts
of the world.
The mistaken notion that the peace and
happiness of one country is independent of the
peace and happiness of the people of other
countries must be banished for ever. No nation
can enjoy peace and happiness at the expense of
another. — No nation can enjoy the full measure
of happiness while there is even one nation that
is unhappy. The unhappiness of one single
individual is bound to affect the happiness of
all others — the unhappiness of the * meanest*
nation is bound to affect the happiness of the rest
of the family of nations. The process is very
^subtle but nonetheless it is true.
The factors that contribute to the peace and
liappiness of the people of England are not
confined v^thin the boundaries of England, nor
of Europe but are spread all over the world. To
bring the full measure of peace and happiness
even to one single individual in England, they
must begin with the world, the whole world and
nothing short of that. A miner working in the
deepest coalmine in Wales is bound by the
150 THE master's world-union scheme
closest tie with the labourer toiling in the fields
in the remotest part of India by the identity of
his being, by the identity of his spiritual and
material interests. To make one happy you
must make both happy or none will be happy.
Therefore, to promote the highest spiritual and
material happiness even of one single individual,
a new order of society must be evolved which
will embrace the whole world society of
Humanity, which will look to the needs, both
spiritual and material of every member of the
Human Family.
From this it will be evident that the real
question to-day before the world which cries for
solution is not the question of this country or
that. — The question is not whether Ireland is^
to have complete Home Rule or a Republic —
the question is not of freedom of Egypt or India.
Even if the questions of Ireland, or Egypt or
India were satisfactorily solved, human society
would not advance very much towards the goal.
It would no doubt relieve the present world
situation to a certain extent but it would not
bring us very much near the goal. That goal
is Universal Peace and Universal happiness.
If the question of Ireland's freedom is solved^
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION ISF
the question of Egypt will remain, if the
question of Egypt is solved, the question of India
remains, if the question of India is solved, the
question of Korea, the question of Turkestan or
of Manchuria or of other parts of the world will
remain. Then again, mere freedom from
foreign yoke is not enough. That alone will not
bring peace and happiness to the people even of
these countries.
It is no use devoting our attention to one
at a time and wait till the other difficulty comes
to a head and cries for solution. Shall we still
leave the wrongs of each country to itself and
leave it free to fall a victim to oppression and
tyranny or to resist violence with violence and
bring incalculable suffering to themselves and
to others? Why should Ireland be left at the
mercy of England to be dealt with as the latter
chooses and thus allow the world peace to be
broken? What man is there on earth who has
not felt pain and anguish at the sacrifice of the
Lx)rd Mayor of Cork ? Why should I be pained
by the murder of my brother in this way ? The
death of Mr. MacSwiney is not a matter that
concerns Ireland only — it concerns every body
in the world. Why should not the matter of
152 THE master's world-union scheme
the ruthless massacre at Jallianwallabagh be
taken up by the world at large? Why should
England be left to settle her account with
Ireland or India or Egypt as best as she could
and thus break world peace? If it is universal
peace that we seek, we must look at these
incidents from a universal point of view and deal
with them in a universal way, not each at a time
by itself but all together and at one and the same
time.
The following advertisement appeared in
the Daily Herald of May 27th, 1 920 :
* * Report of Famine Commissioners :
5,000,000 children are starving : There is not
-enough food to go round. It has been necessary
to deliberately select which children shall be
saved and which must be left to die. In all the
long history of the human race, there has never
been so truly awful a situation. One report
from the Famine Area states : thousands of
adults and children have not tasted any normal
food for weeks but have existed on roots and
leaves and dandelions. The olive green colour
of their skin and deep sunken eyes testify to
their ghastly sufferings.
These poor people, mad with hunger, have
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 153
in many cases eaten the flesh from the bodies of
their dead comrades. Shall we remain inactive
while these people die? The war has left
Serbia with 5,00,000 fatherless children and of
these 1,50,000 are quite destitute That
civilization should ever permit helpless little
children to be deliberately abandoned to starv-
ation, we never dreamt, etc., etc."
The Daily Herald of the 19th October
publishes the following advertisement :
**And now the approaching footfall of
winter is shaking the ground In the
mountains and valleys of the famine areas, the
pitiless shrieking blizzard will sweep down upon
the helpless little sufferers — so many hundreds
of thousands of whom are totally without warm
clothes or adequate shelter. The few hovels or
half dismantled buildings harbour many families
wherever there is the smallest floor space.
Hundreds of thousands of families are sleeping
out of doors and it is awful to contemplate what
will happen when winter is fully upon them.
Already the delicate forms doubly endangered
by physical weakness and exhaustion are
exposed to the full fury of disease. Tuberculosis
haunts their wretched homes. Typhus and
154 THE master's world-union scheme
pneumonia are rife everywhere and the coming
Winter will multiply these terrors a hundredfold.
Add to the ghastly compound visitation of
suffering and death the hideous distortion and
softening of the bones produced by starvation
and unsuitable food and you will be able to
faintly realise the appalling condition of the
untold millions of children who are solely
dependent upon outside help for their bare
existence.**
This, in all conscience, is a ghastly tcJe of
human suffering which would fill every heart
with pain and anguish. Where will the outside
help come from? Is it possible to remove the
suffering of starvation and disease of these
hundreds of millions of people by charity?
Is that the way ? It will not be enough to relieve
their distress. They must be set on their feet
again and provided with means of earning their
livelihood. This is only possible if the whole
world comes to the rescue, and not otherwise.
It has passed beyond the stage when voluntary
charity could be of any use. It is not within the
power of the governments of those areas or of
England, where also millions are suffering, nor
even of America, rich as she is, to remedy this
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 155
5tate of things. To try to remove this state of
suffering with the help of a few milHons out of
the superfluous weahh of Mr. Rockfeller or of
Mr. Carnegi or the Rothschilds is madness. It
is impossible. It will only be a drop in the
desert.
Then, where is the food to come from?
There is an alarming shortage of food all over
the world. Unless there is a regulation of the
production and distribution of food by one
Central Organisation you cannot save the world
from famine. To-day there is famine in Central
Europe. To-morrow in India, the next day in
China. Is it possible to relieve distress in every
part of the world with the help of charity ? — and
to-day which part of the world is free from it?
Whose distress will you remove and whom
would you leave to his fate ? The best and the
only method of removing famine is by making
the conditions of the world such that famine may
not occur at all — and even if it does occur, there
should be such a Central Organisation for the
whole world, which, with the entire resources of
the world at its disposal, would be able, by
proper regulation and adjustment of the needs
of all the countries, to avert a similar calamity.
156 THE master's world- union scheme
To attempt to relieve such widespread distress
by the uncertain cind wholly inadequate method
of charity is a great folly. It is an insult
to God, it is an insult to Humanity and is
nothing but practising self-deception. If any
intelligent man studies the question of food
problem alone which threatens before long to be
a serious one, he will at once be convinced that
it is a problem which must be dealt with as a
Universal problem; and for a problem to be
dealt with from a universal point of view, the
whole world must be taken as one country and
the whole of humanity as different peoples of
the same country. Not otherv^se.
Then, there is the question of disease and
sickness. Influenza is a disease which is deci-
mating the whole world. India alone has paid
a toll of 1 0 millions to this disease. Is it possible
for such a disease which has spread all over the
world, to be dealt v^th separately by each
country? No, that is not possible. The whole
sanitary and hygienic condition of the world must
be dealt with as one problem. If there is an
epidemic in another's house the part of a wise
man would be not merely to isolate or disinfect
his own house but to eradicate the disease itself.
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 157
If there is infection in another's house that
infection is sure to catch you. Influenza came
originally from Spain, but to-day, it has spread
the world over. If one part of the world is
suffering from influenza and that country is left
to deal with it as best as it could, the safety of
the whole world would be endangered. The
best way of saving yourself from the infection is
to run to the other's house and kill infection
there. What is true of influenza is true of
plague. Quarantine regulations are not the safest
remedy. That remedy has been tried for long
and it has failed. The safest remedy is to stamp
it out altogether from the whole world. The
safest remedy is to improve the vitality of people
all the world over so that they will be able to
resist any disease. That is the way. That is
what must be done.
Thus, it will be seen, the whole problem
is international and it must be dealt with by
an international organization of all the peoples
of all the countries. The war has been a potent
instrument of God to further demonstrate to us
the truth of this proposition. The war originally
concerned only a few nations but other nations
were soon drawn in — ^they were forced to do sa
II
158 THE master's world-union scheme
«is It affected them all. This truth has been still
more strikingly proved by the events which have
followed since the conclusion of *peace\ They
thought of an economic boycott of Germany
and Austria. They thought their own require-
ments could be easily met by themselves, so they
could do without German goods and if Germany
could not find a market for her goods it would
be a severe punishment for her. They forgot the
plain fact that boycott of Germany would amount
also to a boycott of British goods and would in
the end prejudicially affect themselves. If
Germany could not sell, she could not buy and
it would mean not only the ruin of German trade
and industry but also the ruin of British trade
also. The Russian blockade furnishes another
example. Russia could send an enormous
qucintity of grains to England and other countries
of Europe which are starving. But this is pro-
hibited and the consequence is an enormous
rise in the price of food stuff which has been
a source of great suffering to the populations
of England. Russia is in sore need of agricul-
tural implements and other machinery which
England coul3 easily supply. But this being
stopped the English steel works cire unable to
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 159
sell them and consequently England suffers from
unemployment. In the same way, England
suffers from shortage of houses and house
material while Russia suffers from not being able
to dispose of her vast timber supplies. England
suffers from dear linen goods while Russia
suffers from not being able to sell her abundant
flax. So the suffering of one country is bound to
cause suffering in another country. What is true
between England and Russia is true of all other
countries. There is no such thing as insular
prosperity.
Even if the blockade was lifted and normal
trade relations established, that would bring only
partial relief. That would cure the symptom
and not the disease itself. The chances of future
conflict and future suffering would still be there.
The chief cause of mischief, the system would
be there all the same. That would not do. Mere
'opening up of the roads and bridges* of trade
and commerce would not do. That would
open up the roads and bridges to profiteering
and exploitation perhaps in a more intensified
form than ever. That would merely perpetuate
the system, the system that has been responsible
for innumerable wrongs in the past and no less
160 THE master's world- union scheme
in the present. It is well for us not to miss the
moral of the present situation, viz, the fact that
evolution by competition has miserably failed
and to seek to revive it — if that were at all
possible — would be to set the hand of the
clock back.
There are some countries which possess
raw materials which others do not possess at all
or even if they do, it is in such a small quantity
that it is not enough for their requirements. Oil
is one such thing. A nation which could get
hold of the principal supplies of oil in the world
would score a great point over others. We are
already too familiar vsdth the history of the
scramble for oil in Mosul. England has got hold
of it. America has monopolised the oil-produce
of Rumania. This means England and America
will gain advantage over other nations. Will
that make for permanent peace? Will that not
cause inconvenience to other nations ? Will that
not cause heart-burning ? Already England con-
trols the principal sources of the world's produce
of raw materials and she is the object of much
hatred and envy on that account. Why should
the oil from Mosul be monopolised by England
alone? Why should America alone get the oil
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 161
from Rumania? Why should not these be
considered as international assets ? Why should
not that oil be distributed fairly among all the
peoples of the world, according to their needs }
That would not cause any jealousy. That would
not tempt England to dominate over the Arabs
under the guise of that specious word
**mandate/* It would relieve them of the
necessity of holding the Arab country under
subjection by bombing Arab villages. They
would get their oil and be saved from the
degradation of committing this heinous crime.
What has been said of oil applies equally
to the case of coal, wheat, sugar and other
materials. Unless there is a pooling of the
resources of the whole world in respect of these
articles and others and these distributed fairly
and according to the need of each country, all
the countries are bound to suffer. Take the
instance of coal. It is an article which is of
absolute necessity to all the people of the world.
France's coal-fields were destroyed by Germany.
France is in need of coal to keep her industries
going, to save her millions from starvation.
England supplied her with coal and made a good
profit out of it. It was a source of great irritation
162 THE master's world- union scheme
in France. Germany did not deliver the coal
that she promised by the treaty to supply. To
ensure her supply of coal France has had to keep
the Saare coal basins in occupation. This might
have been a good punishment for Germany but
chastisement is not the means of restoring peace.
All these evils could easily have been avoided if
there was a pooling of all the coal-supplies of
the world and France's needs met.
Present Austria has no coal at all. All her
coal-mines have now passed into the territory of
other states owing to the break-up of the Austrian
Empire. TThese states, instead of supplying
coal to Austria and getting her produce in return
have engaged in the pastime of quarrelling
amongst themselves. Her factories are now idle,
her industries perishing and consequently the
privations of her people have increased a
hundredfold. In a world-union this could not
have happened. England could have supplied
the needs of France and Austria in respect of
coal while America or Russia could have sup-
plied the food that she required, and America's
or Russia's needs in respect of other matters
could have been met by France or Austria.
Many of the American states are now dry
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 163
and in the absence of liquor they are using
beverages. Consequently, she requires much
more sugar than ordinarily. She does not want
to be inconvenienced even if other parts of the
world go without sugar. With her enormous
wealth, she went into the open market and
bought all that she wanted to buy. Sometime
ago American merchants were buying sugar in
the Bombay market — sugar which had been
imported into India for the use of the people
here. So, America would have sugar in abund-
ance while other parts of the world would not
have even their barest requirements or any at
all. Under the present system this is inevitable.
This is sure to happen and the only method of
avoiding it is fair distribution according to needs.
If there is a shortage of sugar let all the coun-
tries cut down their requirements to a certain
point. This would cause much less hardship
thcin it would have caused to the country which
had none at all.
One of the causes of shortage of food stuffs
and eJso of other materials is the practice of
hoarding by merchants and traders till they have
a better opportunity for exploiting the people.
People held at bay would pay any price. That
164 THE master's world-union scheme
is the common practice all the world over. No
amount of legislation could prevent it. So
subtle and so ingenious are their ways that the
object of legislation could be easily frustrated
— unless we had legislation every day to meet
every phase of the situation and used force. In
England, in their simplicity, they thought they
could cure the evil of profiteering by an anti-
profiteering Act and setting up an anti-profiteer-
ing tribunal which holds a regular trial and if the
firm in question is found to have charged more
thcin they should have, they are fined. If, on
9n examination of their books — ^which could
easily be cooked up — ^it is found that the charge
was proper, the case is dismissed and possibly
the man who brought the suit has to pay the
cost. The man has to leave his work to itself
and go to a court for every article in respect of
which he thinks he has been over-charged and
he spends at least a day over it. The firm also
has to spend time and money. What a simple
cure ! What a nice system !
Before the war nations were piling up
armament upon armament. That it was a curse
to human society everybody admitted. But no
nation could reduce or abolish it without
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 165
exposing itself to the attack of a neighbour. The
system of society forced it upon them. Even
a man of such world-wide sympathies like Mr.
W. T. Stead could not think of any other remedy
but of dreadnoughts. The thought did not
occur to anybody that national safety really lay
the other way viz., in the abolition of armaments
altogether from the world. In the present
economic condition of the world people can no
longer bear the burden of expenditure on arma-
ments. They must be relieved of this burden.
Armaments must not only be reduced but the
world's affairs must be so arranged that these
could be done away with altogether. This
could be possible when all the nations of the
world give up the insensate race for armaments
all together, at one and the same time. Not
before. TTiis is possible only when they are
united in one world-common-wealth and the
system of human society is such as to produce
no cause of conflict and to make armaments
absolutely unnecessary.
In this connection one curious fact is also
lo be remembered. Engines of destruction have
been so multiplied and so vasdy improved that
war has become almost impossible to wage with-
166 THE master's world- union scheme
out bringing total annihilation to both or all the
warring parties. Now and then scientists startle
the war-weary world by announcements of the
invention of a poisonous gas which, when let
loose, will leave no trace of life in a country, —
of a long-range gun that will cause destruction
from a distance of 1 00 or more miles. Towards
the close of the war scientists in the warring
countries were hard at work to manufacture
atom-bombs which would, we are told, enable
one to totally destroy the enemy country — ^not
only this, if one was so inclined, one could
destroy the whole world and could even
bombard the planets. We are also authorita"
tively told they attained partial success and that
this so alarmed well-informed circles that they
requested Government to stop all further
investigation into this by legislation. In face
of this what nation is there that will wage
war? None we hope. But to stop war because
of its sheer impossibility is not satisfactory..
TTie necessity for war and armaments must be-
taken away altogether.
Ten years ago a brother of ours in depicting;
a picture of the World-Brotherhood, wrote :
**ln this Kingdom of Love, the sword of
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 167
the Samurai (of Japan) shall be
moulded into ploughshare, Krupp's
gun factory shall be converted into
a Temple of Union,* the French
shall cease to sing the **Les
Marseillaise*' — their heart shall be
filled with the song of Love for
Universal Mankind . * ' (Nava Juga
& ArunachaJ).
That is what must be done and that is the
programme in Thakur Dayananda's scheme of
world reconstruction.
At the present moment a battle for boundary
is going on all over the world. It was such a
* The following headed "Krupp's Peace Acti-
vities", which appeared in a London paper, would
interest the reader : —
"Berlin, Dec. 19 (1920). The Report of the
Krupp Works published to-day shows with what
extraordinary rapidity and success this firm has trans-
formed itself from a war to a peace footing The
report points out that in consequence of the treaty
of Versailles this is the first occasion for tiie last two
generations on which no war material has been
manufactured in the Krupp Works "
166 THE master's world-union scheme
knotty problem that the Peace Conference could
not solve it. Poland claims a strip of Russisin
land as belonging to her. The line between
Germany and Poland hcis been left to be drawn
by a plebiscite. It could not be decided within
which boundary Danzig would fall. So it has
been made a free port under the League of
Nations. The same uncertednty remains as to
the frontiers of Finland, Esthonia, Courland,
Lithunia, Ukraine, Malmedy and the Sarre
Basin in Germany. The question of Fiume has
become pretty notorious. The boundary be-
tween Serbia, now Jugo-Slavia and Bulgciria is
still a matter of bitter dispute. Any of these
disputes may any day lead to great trouble for
the whole world.
The Allies attempted to settle this dispute
of boundaries on ethnological and linguistic
basis, i.e. tracts of which the population have
greater affinity in these respects to a particular
state should form part of that state. But lust for
territory was too great to overcome. One party
or the other could not agree to it. An intermin-
able battle is going on in consequence. What
is the remedy for this? The only remedy is
Thakur Dayananda's scheme. If the people are
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 169
all members of a World-Commonwealth, each
individual, whether living on this side of the
boundary line or that, would enjoy the same
rights and privileges and receive the same
amount of individual attention and there would
be perfect good-will and amity between people
on either side of the boundary line as also be-
tween all the peoples of the world. Conse-
quently it won't very much matter where you
draw the line. The objections on ethnological
and linguistic grounds would lose much of their
force and cases where the affinity is real and
where the interests of the people themselves
demand their inclusion within a particular unit,
could be very easily settled to the satisfaction of
all parties.
Then take another peculiar case, viz. that of
Ireland. England fears if Ireland becomes
independent, she will have her own army and
navy and be a source of trouble, specially if she
allies herself with an *enemy' of England. Mr.
Lloyd George is determined, if need be, to
sacrifice half a million men to keep Ireland with-
in the Empire. On the other hand, Ireland is
determined to cut herself adrift from the British
Empire. Here also, the only remedy is the
170 THE master's world-union scheme
World-Union on the line of Thakur Daya-
nanda's scheme. To England 1 would say,
you want Ireland to be within the Empire,
— ^very well, you extend the boundary of the
empire and have the world for your empire. You
have nobody to fear now. You will have no
*enemy* now. Ireland will not now be able to
go out of the empire. You are relieved of the
perpetual vexation and to your bargain you have
the whole world to call your own. Ireland also
will have complete independence and she will
have no cause for quarrel. If this is done — and
this is what must be done — the world will be
spared the agony of reading every day in the
papers of murders and counter-murders.
What has been said with regard to Ireland
applies equally and with the same force to the
case of the dismembered states of Turkey. The
only means of putting an end to the serious un-
rest which now sweeps over the whole of Eastern
Asia and India is this World-Union. TTiere is
none other.
The present battle of the boundary is
symbolic of the battle of the boundary that is
going on in man's soul. To throw down the
boundary walls of selfishness, narrowness and
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 171
arrogance within the man is the chief thing that
is contemplated in Thakur Dayananda*s scheme.
VIII
WHAT IS THAKUR DAYANANDA'S
SCHEME?
The Essential Feature of the Scheme,
Thakur Dayananda's scheme of world
reconstruction has two aspects : one physical
and the other spiritual — one negative and
the other positive. The physical or nega-
tive side consists in changing human society
root and branch and building it anew on the
basis of perfect equality of rights, liberties and
opportunities, and thus bringing peace in the
world. But peace really is a negative state.
By peace generally we understand that state of
society when there is no quarrel, no strife and no
cause of worry and anxiety. But this is not
enough. The spiritual or positive side consists
in giving man the highest happiness. That
means a change of human nature, a spiritual
regeneration of the world and establishing close
communion with God. Both must go together.
I will first take the physical side. The
main features of the scheme under this head may
WHAT IS THAKUR DAYANANDA'S SCHEME \73
be thus indicated. All the different countries,
of the world will be united in one — a common-
wealth of all the peoples of the world. Eacb
country will be a free and equal unit of the?
commonwealth. Each unit will be primarily
responsible for the material, moral and spiritual
well-being of everyone of the inhabitants within
it. Every unit will be a union of free individuals,
each enjoying equal rights, liberties and privi-
leges without any distinction whatsoever.
The Unit-Union will own it as its chief
obligation to supply the needs of every single
individual — every individual will obtain from the
Unit-Union, in his or her own right, all the
necessaries of life. In return the Unit- Union
will obtain from every individual the highest
service that he or she is best fitted to render. All
wealth shall belong to the whole people and all
shall share alike and according to needs.
Under this arrangement none will gain ad-
vantage over his fellow-beings. Increased pro-
duction will not benefit particular individuals
but the people as a whole. The wealth
produced shall go to the Unit-Union which
will distribute to each individual equally and
according to needs. Trade and commerce sheill
12
174 THE master's world-union scheme
cease to exist, giving place to a system of effi-
cient distribution through different centres from
which individuals inhabiting that particular
locality shall obtain their supplies. Each centre
shall keep a certain portion of its production for
the requirements of the individuals living within
its jurisdiction and pass on the surplus to the
other centres as required by the Unit-Union
which will co-ordinate the actions of the various
centres. It will be a mutual exchange of goods
between the different centres — an exchange of
requirements. Consequently, THERE WILL BE No
Necessity for Money. It will be absolutely
superfluous. There will be nothing to buy and
nothing to sell. There will be no necessity for
borrowing or lending as between individual and
individual, for each will get everything that he
requires — nor between individuals and the
Unit-Unions for the Unit-Union will have at its
disposal the entire resources and services of the
community, and none between the different
Unit-Unions. There will be no mountain-high
national debt to make the lives of the people
miserable. That day is at hand when, as the
result of huge national debts and inflated
currency, all the nations will become bankrupt
WHAT IS THAKUR DAYANANDA's SCHEME 175
and will be forced to resort to this scheme of
mutual exchange of requirements.
Under the scheme motive of *gain* shall
give place to motive of 'service' to the whole
community — each living for all and all for each.
It is true, human nature being what it is at pre-
sent, love of *gain' is a much stronger incentive
to work and production than love of 'service' to
fellow-beings ; and that if motive of *gain' is
taken away without a change of human nature,
love of 'service' will be a weak incentive
and consequently production will fall off.
Such has been found to be the case in
Bolshevik Russia where men have been made
to work at times at the point of the revolver.
TTie chief defect of the present system of
society is this love of 'gain' and all the evils
to which Humanity is subject have arisen
from this. In Bolshevik Russia they have
changed the system but not human nature.
Under the scheme of Thakur Dayananda the first
reformation that is sought is in human nature.
Then again, love of 'gain', though a strong
motive for work, is certainly not the strongest.
People work hardest, brave danger and diffi-
culty, make the impossible possible and face
176 THE master's world-union scheme
even death, not from a motive of *gain' but from
the impulse of their inner joy — the joy of
achieving something noble, grand and beautiful.
Under this system the Hfe of the people will
be much simplified. There will be no private
interests to serve, no necessity for one man to
contend against another. Everybody's wants
being met by the Unit-Unions in the same pro-
portion as those of his fellow-beings — none being
better off or worse off than another — ^there will
be no motive for crime, no ground for jealousy.
The people of the Unit-Union will elect one
amongst themselves for a definite number of
years as President, who will really not * govern*
but will be the central authority for supervising
production and distribution, co-ordinating the
actions of the different centres and looking after
the spread of education, the improvement of
communications, sanitation and improvement in
other things which would make for man*s wel-
fare. He will look after the entire well-being
of the community. No complicated legislation
will distract his attention, no looking after the
administration of executive and judicial services.
There will be no elaborate system of Police
service to eat up the substance of the people.
WHAT IS THAKUR DAYANANDA's SCHEME 177
The President will be assisted in the discharge
of his work by a Council of Ministers, who will
be elected by the people. The interests of the
whole community being one, there being no
private interests to defend, there will be no
necessity for complicated laws, no elaborate
system of dispensing legal justice. There being
no difference of interests between the *rulers*
and the *ruled' — their interests being absolutely
identical — there will be no necessity for the
people to control the administration by means
of money-bills and so forth except through the
elections of the President and the Ministers.
Consequently there will be no need for a Legis-
lative Council. Each of these Ministers will be
in charge of a department of public welfare and
he will be responsible before God and man
for the proper discharge of his duties. There
will be no diplomacy but the diplomacy of
straight honest dealing. There will be no
secrecy for there will be nothing to conceal.
Secrecy and sin go together. People resort to
secrecy when they commit wrong and are un-
willing to let go the advantage gained thereby.
Everything must be done in the full light of
day, in the full gaze of the public, so that none
178 THE master's world-union scheme
could commit wrong and if any one does it, he
may at once be found out.
There will be a World-Union of all these
Units with a Chief-President who will be elected
by the Presidents of all the countries from
amongst themselves for a definite number of
years. He also will be assisted by a Council
of Ministers, each Unit electing one. TTie func-
tion of this World-Union will be exactly similar
to that of the Unit-Unions. It will serve
principally the object of a clearing house of all
the surplus productions of the units, giving to
each unit what it cannot conveniently or profit-
ably produce but what it does require and taking
from that unit what it does produce and what
it can spare for other units. In this way a
perfectly efficient system of mutual exchange
of goods can easily be evolved to take the place
of the present system of international trade and
commerce. The whole system being based on
mutual exchange of goods, according to needs,
no particular country will gain advantage over,
or benefit itself at the expense of, others. It
will get only what it requires and give to others
what it can spare. Not gain but mutual benefit
v^ll be the motive. MONEY PLAYS NO PART
WHAT IS THAKUR DAYANANDA's SCHEME 179
HERE ALSO. There is no need for it at all. It
is to be abolished. There will be no exchange
of values but exchange of requirements. Conse-
quently there will be no high or low rate of
exchange, no balance of trade in any unit's
favour and none of those complications arising
out of high and low rate of exchange from which
the world at present so acutely suffers.
In addition, this World-Union organization
will be the common meeting-ground for all the
peoples of the world, affording facilities for ex-
change of thoughts, ideas, experiences and
knowledge. God has distributed His know-
ledge in such a way that no people can boast
of perfection. Their knowledge, their ideas
and thoughts will be incomplete without addi-
tional knowledge, ideas and thoughts from the
rest of the world. The East has much to give
in the matter of spiritual knowledge while the
West has much to teach in regard to material
knowledge. Each people has got something to
contribute to the common stock of knowledge
for the benefit of all the rest. This World-
Union will help to do that and without this
Humainity as a whole cannot attain perfection.
Means of communication have in recent
180 THE master's world-union scheme
times been so much developed and improved
that the scheme of a Central Organisation v/ork-
ing in the closest touch with the different units
has become perfectly feasible. Rail and steamer
have already shortened the distance between the
remotest parts of the world. The invention of
aeroplane, which has not yet reached its highest
perfection but which promises of vast improve-
ments, v^U soon make the question of time and
distance a matter of very minor consideration.
Eminent scientists tell us that with the invention
of atom-engines, aeroplanes could easily attain a
speed of 500 miles an hour, which would make it
possible for the people of London to get their
supply of fresh eggs daily from Australia.* The
perfection of wireless telegraphy and the inven-
tion of wireless telephone would make it possible
for people living thousands of miles away to
converse with each other as many times as they
want in course of a day. Thus the Chief
* Twelve years ago our brother Bipulananda
wrote : "The time is fast coming when the invention
of aeroplane will make it possible for fashionable
ladies in Paris to get their supply of roses daily from
Busrah" (Persia).
WHAT IS THAKUR DAYANANDA'S SCHEME 181
President and his Ministers could be in daily
and hourly communication with the remotest
parts of the world.
For the interchange of thoughts and ideas
and for proper inter-communication, there must
be one common language. That language shall
be English. Half the world today speaks
the English tongue. Besides, it has many
advantages in its favour.
One possible objection against the scheme
may be this : True, the primary necessaries of
life could be distributed amongst the people of
the world more or less equally, if production was
kept on at full rate. But if all are to share alike,
what of the articles of luxury, the production
of which is limited? To this the answer v^ll
'be these will, in the first instance, be supplied
according to present needs and as needs
grow, production could also be accelerated
to keep pace with growing needs. Moreover,
this is a matter of detail which could be
settled much more easily when all are united
and inspired by mutual love and good- will.
If we are agreed on broad issues, the smaller
ones won't be difficult to settle. The exact
structure of human society complete in all
182 THE master's worlj>-unk)N scheme
its details could be settled when all have
met, when love has opened up the sealed depart-
ments of the human intellect, when new
thoughts, new ideas and new energies are
brought to bear on human actions. The present
production of things of necessity and luxury
could be multiplied many times more once the
human mind is set free from the bond of thinking
of his own wants — ^specially, when men, now
employed on works which would then be abso-
lutely unnecessary, such as the army and the
navy and the production of munitions, are v^th-
drawn and employed on productive works.
When Love sways human breast new methods
will be found for increasing production a
hundredfold. Science has not yet given Human-
ity its fullest benefits and Science has not yet
been fully developed. When the unexplored
regions of Science are discovered, things that
improve man's state of physical existence, things
that add to his comforts could be multiplied ad
infinitum.
A possible question may also be : Who
will use the Telegraph, the Railway, the aero-
plane and the motor car ? These will be worked
primarily for the welfare of the community in
WHAT IS THAKUR DAYANANDA'S SCHEME 183
general and secondarily for the needs of those
who are in need to use them and also for the
enjoyment of people in general.
From what has been stated before the reader
must have gathered an idea of what the essential
feature of Thakur Dayananda*s scheme is. I
will here deal with it in brief.
The present order of human society must
be changed root and branch and built anew on
the basis of the Fatherhood of God and Brother-
hood of mcin with a view to promote man*s
highest material well-being. But the root of the
evils lies deeper than that. It lies in human
nature. The present system of society is the
product of human mind. It is what the human
mind has made it — it is a reflex of the human
mind. To bring about a radical change in the
human society, you must first completely change
human nature, bring about a complete trans-
formation of the human mind. To bring about
a sudden change in the social order by means
of a violent revolution without a corresponding
change in human nature is futile. It is wholly
unsatisfactory. Such a change from without
will never work well — it won't fit in with existing
184 THE master's world-union scheme
human nature and it is bound to end in chaos
and confusion ; and to evolve cosmos out of this
chaos Humanity v^ll have to wade through
blood. That change must come from v^thin.
TTiere must in the first instance be a revolution
in man*s thoughts and ideas so as to bring a
complete change in his mental outlook. To
bring about a world-wide change and establish
world-wide peace, the general level of thought
must in the first instance be raised to this height.
In other words, the real remedy for the
disease from which Humanity suffers is a spiri-
tuai remedy — the real need of the world today
is spiritual regeneration. Man must be made
fully conscious that he is a spiritual being and it
is the conscious realization of his spiritual nature
that must form the corner-stone of this New Era
or Satya Yuga. Man has outlived his material
existence. He must now enter his career of
spiritual existence. He has travelled the long
and tedious by-paths of materialism — he must
now enter the region of the spirit. He must now
return to his own true Self — the spirit must
return to the Great Spirit, He must trace his
steps back to God — ^he must find out his lost
link with God.
WHAT IS THAKUR DAYANANDA's SCHEME 185
In the old order of society the individual
was neglected — ^he stood alone. He was one
in a vast conglomeration of individuals without
any link or harmony between them. Every-
body for himself was the key-note of this incon-
gruous order of society. In this New Era this
isolation must be broken. Man must find out his
lost link with God and when he has done that
he will find out his lost link with his comple-
mentary beings. And it is on the basis of the
realization that men are complementary to one
another that the new order of society must be
built up.
Hie social unit is the individual. There
is unrest in the world because the individual
has not had peace. His soul has gone unfed.
In civilized society people often complain, *lt*s
awfully dull*. This sense of dullness is really
the hunger of the soul. Men did not know how
to satisfy this hunger of the soul. To kill this
dullness, the civilized man constantly seeks
excitement and sensation. He wants something
by which he could drown this cry of the soul
for food in oblivion. Theatre, cinema, race,
football, boxing — these are the ruling passions
of the day. Love of quiet now stands for un--
t&k THE master's world-union SCHEME
sociability, communion with God is of course
discounted. Actual life has been divorced from
Religion — man has ceased to draw inspiration
from high and noble ideals. The result has
been disastrous. Man has been entirely cut off
from spirituality. He hcis ceased to exist as a
spiritual being and has been steeped more and
more in grossness. His soul has been half dead,
his conscience lulled to rest. His nature has
hardened, his love of self has grown so in-
ordinately that he can easily injure others.
The Essential Feature, therefore, of
Thakur Dayananda*s scheme is to confer on the
individual the highest happiness, a state of per-
petual bliss. Man by his very nature seeks
happiness. But happiness is a state of the mind,
a condition of the spirit. It cannot be derived
from matter, although material things do in-
directly contribute to this happiness. Material
things do satisfy our senses but satisfaction ceases
with the disappearance of the object and is
followed by dullness. Happiness or bliss is
derived from God. God is the fountain from
^where springs real happiness — He is the one
-eternEj source of bliss. This happiness or bliss
in the highest stage never departs the soul.
WHAT IS THAKUR DAYANANDA'^ SCHEME 187
Man indeed seeks peace. There is a cry
for it all the world over. But to seek peace
Avithout seeking God ! How could that be ?
Peace is He. He must be found. He must
be enthroned in human heart. Then and then
only can Peace come. Peace would reign on
earth only when the individual realizes his per-
fect one-ness with God and his fellow-beings and
when realizing that he acts accordingly — Peace
would come when there is complete harmony
between one individual and another in thought,
deed and action, when his thought is in harmony
with that of his fellow-beings and this mutually
harmonious thought finds expression in har-
monious action.
Before we seek to reconstruct the world, we
must find God, we must attain Godhood. Only
that man will be permitted to have a hand in
the establishment of the New World in whom
God has first revealed the New World — only he
will help to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven
on earth, whose heart itself has become the
Kingdom of Heaven. We shall be able to think
rightly when our thought springs from Him,
our action will end in great good when we act at
188 THE master's world- union scheme
His bidding, our steps will be unfaltering when
we walk in His Light.
The one permanent basis on which human
society could be rebuilt is on the basis of Brother-
hood of man. But before we have Brotherhood,
we must have Fatherhood. Where is the Father?
We must know the Father first. Unless we
know the Father first, all will be in vain. The
human society must be converted into one huge
family, all the members working under the
command of the Father.
How would you bind Humanity? By the
bond of common interest? The human society
consists of such a variety of races, each differ-
ing from the others in manners, habits and
customs — ^there is such a variety of cultures
—each distinct, and each beautiful in its own
way and each necessary for the common
humanity — that it would be difficult to unite
them in a bond of common interest even. Com-
mon interest is an unsafe bond for knitting man-
kind into one. The only sure bond is Love.
Put the human races together, if you can, but
they will disintegrate very soon if the bond unit-
ing them be not something stronger than com-
mon interest. Love must be that bond. Who
WHAT IS THAKUR DAYANANDA*S SCHEME 189
is there so strong that will cut the bond of Love >
Love must fill every human heart. Love shall
fill the earth, the air and the whole firmament.
But this Love can come only when we have
filled our hearts in His Love, only when we have
plunged and soaked our heart in His. Love.
Love for brothers and sisters will come only
when we love the Father. He is Love and we
must live in Him and living in Him, we shall
find Him everywhere, in our fellow-beings, in
animals, in nature. Love shall govern the
relation between man and man and this love
shall roll down even to animals and inemimate
objects.
The world to-day is steeped in misery.
The sorrow and suffering of man has reached
the highest point. Who has given these sorrows
zmd sufferings to man? Why has He given
these to His children? Does He not love us?
He loves us more than we love ourselves. Then
why has He flung Humanity in this abyss of
sorrow and suffering? It is for our good.
These will serve a great purpose. Those who
have eyes to see will find that there is a great
design behind all this sorrow and suffering.
That design is to knit His children in one bond
13
190 THE MASTER*S WORLD-UNION SCHEME
*of Love, to make them return to Him, to make
them surrender themselves to Him for therein
lies their highest happiness. He has put them
to pain and suffering so that He could confer
on them Eternal Bliss, Eternal Happiness.
TTie world must have peace no doubt for
that is what He intends to confer on His children.
But the world will not have it so long as it has
not known Him, so long as the world does not
surrender itself to Him. He must be found first
of all and then everything else will follow. Our
first and foremost duty is to find Him, to know
Him, to love Him and to surrender ourselves at
His feet.
The starting point in Dayananda*s
SCHEME IS God, — God first, God foremost and
God above everything. That is the Master's
scheme of World-Union.
This scheme is the only scheme and there
is no other. That is the scheme which can and
-which will save Humanity. The world must
accept this scheme or the sorrow and suffering
of the world will only increase. The sooner the
lATorld accepts it, the better for it — the longer it
is put off, the greater will be the misery and
suffering.
IX
TWO OTHER SCHEMES:
The Scheme of the League of Nations,
The Scheme of the Bolsheviks.
A word or two about the League of Nations
wU not be out of place here.
The first 26 articles of the Versailles Treaty
relate to the establishment of a League of
Nations. The seat of the League is to be at
Geneva. The League is to consist of a Council
zuid an Assembly. The Council is to consist
of one member each of the *Big Five' and four
members chosen from the other members of the
League. The Assembly is to consist of six
members of England and her dominions and
one each of other nations joining the League.
The main authority is to rest with the Council.
The objects of the League are to reduce
national armaments to the lowest point consonant
with national safety, to enforce international
obligations, to respect and preserve, as against
external aggression, the territorial integrity and
192 THE master's world-union SCHEME
existing political independence of all members
of the League, to arbitrate on all disputes
between themselves and not to resort to war
until three months after the award given by
the League, and to establish an International
0)urt of Justice.
Provision has also been made for (a)
administration of colonies and territories taken
away from the * enemy* by Powers that are
mandatory of the League, who are required
annually to report to the League ; (b) *fair* and
*humane' conditions of labour; (c) *just' treat-
ment of natives in controlled territories, and (J)
freedom of transit and communication for mem-
bers of the League and their commerce.
A glance at the constitution and the objects
of the League will convince any casual observer
that this make-shift arrangement is not what
Humanity seeks. This is not what will make
the world safe for democracy far less bring
Universal Peace. The great powers met in a
solemn conclave and produced this poor thing.
It reminds one of the proverbial saying of the
mountain in labour. How this could have satis-
fied President Wilson's soul no intelligent man
can conceive. The authors of the League may
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 193
hug it on to their breast but the people of the
world will refuse to accept it. The real object
of the authors was not to make a new heaven
and a new earth but only to improve the present
state of things by minimising the possibilities of
war. But, whether they have been minimised
or not, the possibilities remain all the same.
The possibilities of friction, of clash of interests,
of one member attacking another member and
all the root evils from which Humsuiity is suffer-
ing remain fully as before. The League will
only attempt at accommodating conflicting inter-
ests. And in case those attempts failed? War
would break out. The member who declares
war will be 'considered to have declared war*
on all the members of the League. Possibly,
he won't have the hardihood of declaring war on
his opponent and of *being considered to have
declared war' on all. But if he does, it may
at once be a world war again ! So the possibi-
lity of war is not eliminated. It is made only
a little difficult to wage war.
They want to reduce national armaments
to the lowest point consonant with national
safety. Would reduction of armaments make
war impossible? At the beginning of the war.
194 THE master's world-union SCHEME
England had no arms and ammunitions to cope
with the Germans. But in course of a year or
two she surpassed even Germany by converting
her highly organised industries into munition
factories. So reduction of armaments is no
guarantee. It will not make war impossible.
And after such terrible suffering, it would be
but a poor consolation for the world if war is
not made altogether impossible. And to make
war impossible is to make it unnecessary, to take
away even the need for national safety, to make
the conditions such that one nation would find
it not merely dangerous or difficult but unneces-
sary to wage war on another. The safety of
Humanity lies only that way.
Consonant with national safety ! So the
old atmosphere of distrust of one's neighbour is
not cleared. They cannot altogether rule out the
possibility of one nation attacking another.
Nations will still have to be on their guard —
perhaps more so now, than before, for the old
system of keeping prepared at all times gave
them some sense of security. Now the nations
will have to walk the highway of life with their
pistol in their pockets and one hand always on
the pistol lest some one should spring upon them.
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 195
You cannot even now dismiss the possibility of
your neighbour endangering your safety ! Then
where is the improvement on the old order of
things? Only you lessen the percentage of
the chances of your neighbour attacking you [
You cannot still remove the motive for his
attacking you !
Is it really from a sense of disgust of war
that you reduce armaments, or, because you feel
you cannot bear the burden of armaments any
longer and that you must come to some sort of
arrangement with your neighbours ? If it is the
former, if your feeling is genuine, the only logi-
cal step for you to take would be to stamp out
war altogether. If it is the latter, why not
advance a step further? Instead of reducing it
to a point * consonant with national safety', why
not reduce it to a vanishing point? Why not
abolish it altogether? That would leave you
free to spend, for promoting human welfare, the
money that you now spend on armaments. Is
not the cup of human misery full to overflowing ?
Does it not require the very last farthing that
you could spend? Of course, that requires
mutual agreement with your neighbours — that
requires closer association — that requires clear-
1% THE master's world-union SCHEME
ing every ground of suspicion and distrust — that
requires removal of every cause for which your
neighbour could think, rightly or wrongly, that
he should attack you. Or, in other words, there
must be a world-common-wealth of all the
peoples.
You want to kill Militarism. How could you
by your League of Nations? Militarism is the
spirit of dominance by one man or one nation
upon another. Militarism is inherent in the
system of human society. The League of
Nations has not sought to remodel it. It could
not think of bringing about a change in the
spirit of man. It deals only with the barest
surface of things.
The League has failed entirely to see the
real issue. It has failed to go to the root. It
provides for the arbitration of disputes. But if
disputes remain still, they are sure to cause
trouble. If there is to be any improvement on
the present order of things, it must be altered
in such a way that disputes may not arise at all.
Theo, most of the peoples of the world are
to be governed by it but not to be represented in
it. The specious arrangement of governing by
powers holding **mandate'* from the League
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 197
will deceive nobody. Why should the well-
being of so large a number of people be bartered
away by the authors of the League, sitting far
away in a secret conclave, without hearing the
people concerned, without the least semblance
of an enquiry into the fact whether these peoples
were fit to rule themselves or not ? The League
provides for the just treatment of natives in
controlled areas. Who is to judge what is
*just' and what is * unjust* ? Will the League
hear the peoples who consider they are being
treated unjustly or are they to take the version
of the mandatory as true? If the League is to
hear the aggrieved people, why did they turn
out the representatives of Korea? Why were
the representatives of Egypt not allowd to lay
their case before the League? Why were the
representatives of Ireland not given a hearing?
Why were the mouths of the representatives of
Persia, who wanted to speak against the British
domination, shut? Why, in the name of God?
The League provides for mandatories to report
annually. Will a mandatory report the wrongs
and injustices that he has committed? Will
England report how many Arab villages she has
bombed? Will England furnish the League
196 THE master's world-union scheme
with a true account of the massacre at
JalHan walla? Even if she did, and the League
found it guilty. What then? Will the League
take away the mandate and hand over that
country to another mandatory or set that country
free? Or, will the League simply censure the
Mandatory as the British Government in India
have censured those who machine-gunned and
bombed unarmed mob? Then again, India is
an original member of the League. In the
assembly she sits as a member equal in rank
and status with the member for America or
France or any other nation. But really she is
a slave-country. Why should one original
member rule over another original member >
Persia is another original member of the League..
But she is completely under the domination of
Britain. Why should she not be absolutely
free? Why should the rope of the Anglo-
Persian agreement be round her neck ?
Is this the way to secure Universal Peace?
Is this the peace which the best brains of
Europe and America have devised for mankind ?
Is it for this that Humanity has suffered and
millions have died?
The fact that England controls six votes in
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 199
the Assembly while America has only one has
been the subject of long and bitter controversy
in America. The fact that amendments to the
covenant of the League cannot be altered unless
by the unanimous consent of the Council has
also been vigorously attacked. Mr. Justice
Wesley O. Howard of America makes the
following observation generally on the scheme
of the League of Nations : —
**It is in no sense a world democracy but
is a great central powerful oligarchy
dominated by the will of monarchs.
...The scheme of the League of
Nations bears not the resemblance to
a democracy It is antipode of
democracy It is autocracy . ' '
How has the League proved its existence in
actual working ? How has it justified itself even
during its short existence? When Poland
attacked Soviet Russia, Labour Members of
Parliament pressed Government to invoke the
League of Nations to settle the dispute. Mr.
Bonar Law declared from his seat on the
Treasury Bench that * * any action that the League
might take would not be effective.** Lord
Robert Cecil implored Lord Curzon to invoke
200 THE master's world-union scheme
the aid of the League of Nations to stop the
Polish war but Lord Curzon replied to the same
effect. Then what is the League there for?
Was it not one of its objects to maintain the
peace of the world? The question of Ireland
still hangs fire. What has the League done to
solve it? The border states which have been
helped to come into existence to wall off Soviet
Russia from the rest of Europe are fighting
amongst themselves over the question of
boundary. Has the League been able to stop
that? Not yet. The Greeks are fighting the
Turkish Nationalists to gain possession of their
sphere of influence in Asia Minor. Sometime
ago a telegram appeared in the ** Morning Post**
of London to the effect that the Greeks had
captured 20,000 men and put the majority of
them to death on the ground that they were not
regular soldiers but rebels and therefore the laws
of humane warfare did not apply to them. Has
the League been able to prevent this hideous
massacre ? Many such instances can be cited as
to the working of the League of Nations.
Half the world is starving today. What
lias the League done to remedy it ? Disease and
sickness is decimating Central Europe. What
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 201
has the League done to combat it? What has
the League done to rid the world of the pain-
ful sight of man eating man's flesh? The
League has done nothing from which one could
justify its existence. Sometime ago an appeal
was issued for funds for typhus-sticken Poland.
The same old charity ! When half the world
is starving is charity the method for stopping it?
We do not hear of the League of Nations except
in the speeches of statesmen and politicieuis.
The more the League is breaking to pieces, the
more they are shouting frantically to people to
come and uphold it. But this wont be of any
use. The League was an unreal thing and like
all unreal things it is bound to perish. It is
dead. Poking a dead horse won't make it run.
Except the authors of the League everyone in
the world is agreed that the League has failed.
TTie consciousness of failure is creeping also over
the mind of the authors themselves. In his
speech in the House of Commons, on return from
San Remo, Mr. Lloyd George said: **If the
League of Nations failed, the only hope was a
federation of nations." That is good news
coming from such a quarter. TTie very word
*if' speaks a volume. It only indicates that in
202 THE master's world-union scheme
his heart of heart Mr. Lloyd George is convinced
that the League of Nations is a total failure.
America has done a service to mankind by
walking out of this League. Senator Harding
has pledged himself to call a World Association
of all the peoples of the world. That is good
news too. But that is not enough. We must
rise higher up still.
BOLSHEVISM.
While the scheme of the League of Nations
is a huge sham, the scheme of the Bolsheviks is
inspired with a genuine desire to rescue the long-
suffering poor all over the world from their
wretched condition. While the scheme of the
League of Nations is halting, half-hearted and
wholly inadequate even for the object which it
professes, the Bolsheviks have honestly attempt-
ed to reconstruct human society on an equitable
basis. While the League of Nations represent
a group of politicians who are bent more on
protecting the interests of their respective
countries than evolving world-peace, the
Bolsheviks have made the true interests of
Humanity their own. While the League of
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 203
Nations is trying to prolong the life of a dying
state of things based on wrong, injustice and
oppression the Bolsheviks are the harbinger of
a new order of society based on right, justice and
fair-play. But both have ended in failure. Both
have caused greater suffering to Humanity than
before — the authors of the League by their utter
lack of vision and failure to rise to the height of
the occasion and the Bolsheviks by their wholly
wrong method and their incomplete ideal. The
Bolsheviks have entirely ignored or lost sight of
the fact that man is a spiritual being, that the
evolution of human beings is not governed by
physical laws but by the will of a Supreme Being.
Their highly sensitive souls caught the message
of the New Era and at once set to reconstruct the
human society with their undeveloped and im-
perfect nature. In their hurry to impose a better
order of society from without, they have caused
greater suffering than they have removed.
Let us examine the scheme of the Bolsheviks
in very brief. The goal of the Bolshevist move-
ment is to evolve a new order of things in place
of the present capitalistic regime by establishing
the dictatorship of the proletariat, by common
ownership of the means of production, by
204 THE master's world-union scheme
popular administration thereof and by an equit-
able distribution of social wealth. The method
by which they seek to establish it is by force and
violence.
The dictatorship of the proletariat or
workers is their goal. We have had it on the
authority of Mr. George Lansbury that Lenin's
absorbing aim in life is to rescue the workers of
the world from thraldom and wage-slavery and
capitalism and to establish internationalism. It
seems the Bolsheviks want to bring about a state
of things by which all will be benefited but the
supreme control and authority will be in the
hands of the proletariat. It is said workers will
include both brain and manual workers. But in
practice that has not been so. In a circular
letter* which had been sent round by Lenin to
all the branches of the Russian Communist party
concerning labour conscription for the economic
regeneration of Russia, Lenin talks of **due
control over their (of bourgeoisie scientists and
technical experts) work by the working people.**"
Even if workers include both manual and brain ^
* Published in the first instance in the Morning
Post of London and reprinted in the Pioneer of India..
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 205
they are not the whole community. Why should
there be dictatorship of a part over the whole?
It will no doubt be a distinct improvement on the
present capitalistic system since it will be the
majority instead of the minority ruling over the
community. The Bolsheviks intend to evolve
a social order in which peace will reign. But
will dictatorship of one class over another ensure
peace? True, the other class will be in a
minority and robbed of its powers for evil. But
still there will be a class which will be kept under
subjection to the will of another and so they
will continue to be discontented. Peace reigns
in a community where all the elements of
society are in harmony. Here they could not
possibly be.
Then, their method is violence, their
motive-force is not love but hatred. Bolshevism
had its birth in hatred of the bourgeoisie. We
have it also on the authority of Mr. George
Lansbury that Lenin and most of his friends are
convinced that * *this evil system can only be got
rid of by means of violent revolution." The aim
of the Bolsheviks is to banish war and militarism
by putting an end to the capitalistic system
of which these are the offspring. They want to
14
206 THE master's worlx)-union scheme
kill the system with its own weapon. They
want to kill oppression and tyranny by means of
violence. War ending war again ! They do
not rule out violence altogether. They only want
it for another object, a benevolent object. The
difference between the Capitalistic system and
the Bolshevik system in this respect would then
be in this : Capitalists want to use violence to
further their own selfish ends — the Bolsheviks
want to use violence for the good of the whole
community. So the monster of violence remains
all the same. If a minority can be oppressive,
the majority also can. Once you start with
violence there is no end of it. The presence of
a class in the community not sharing their views
and smarting under a sense of wrong will tempt
them to permanently retain the instrument of
violence in their hands. Will that make for the
New World that Humanity longs for?
It may be urged we will use violence for
attaining our goal and when the goal is attained,
we will have no need of it and will be in a posi-
tion to abolish it. Will that really be so ? How
will you impose the will of the proletariat on the
whcJe community? Even if it is granted that
workers will include all sections of the people,,
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 207
and that proletariat' will cover the whole com-
munity, how will you keep them together ? You
must require some amount of force to prevent
the disruption of the state. Then again, if motive
of *gain' is taken away, how v^ll you make
men work? *He who shall work shall eat' —
that is not a sufficiently strong motive for work
and in actual practice it has proved not to be so.
Already, you have had to make men work under
threat of violence. That is fcir from the ideal
state of society. If this is the order of society
for which Humanity has suffered so much, its
sufferings have gone in vain.
The thing is : that is not the method. Their
ideal is incomplete, their method is wrong. The
very inception of their ideal was in hatred and
in a spirit of vengeance and violence was the
means for carrying out their object. They
started the wrong way. The change must come
from within and not from without. Two wrongs
won't make one right. If you want right, you
must give a complete go-by to wrong and start
with right. Love must be the basis of the whole
structure. Love must be the goal, love the
means. The best way to subdue the brute in man
is not by confronting the brute in him, by the
208 THE master's world-union scheme
brute that is in me, but by revealing the God that
is in me. The best means of keeping together
the different elements of society is not violence
but love. Love is by far the greatest cementing
agent. In the absence of motive of gain, the
only motive that can make men work is the
motive of love. It will not do to begin with
violence and when the goal is reached to substi-
tute love for violence. The fruit of nectar does
not grow on the tree of poison. Love won't grow
on the tree of violence. If love is to be the
cementing agent, you must rule out violence al-
together and begin by cultivating love. The
seed of all future discord and unhappiness will
be weeded out not by violence but by love.
If you start in a spirit of hatred, you will
have spent yourself when that object of hatred is
gone and it is not unlikely by the time you
succeed in crushing your object of hatred, hatred
has become part of your nature. When the work
of reconstruction begins you will be found un-
equal to the task. Construction requires far
other power than the power of hatred. It re-
quires a heart full of love and not a heart filled
with hatred. The spirit of vengeance is a
destructive force but when the work of destruc*
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 209
tion is complete you can not construct with the
same spirit. It is the spirit of brotherliness that
you must invoke. If that is what you have to
do, you must begin with a brotherly feeling now,
this very moment. The feeling of * comrade '-
ship is born of love and not of hatred. It cannot
be that your motive force will be love and hatred
at one and the same time — love for the proletariat
and hatred for the bourgeoisie. Love and
hatred do exist side by side in an ordinary human
being who follows his own selfish ends but the
heart of a man who seeks to rebuild society must
be overpowered by love. You want to secure
justice for all. How could you do that unless
you are actuated by love for all. That is a
qualification which you must possess or you will
be prejudiced in favour of one class and against
another even against your own will, even without
knowing it.
Why talk of the proletariat*? Why start
with this idea of exclusiveness ? *He who
works shall eat* — that may be an equitable
maxim. But why start with that mean spirit?
Why not fill every heart with love? Love is the
most powerful incentive to work. You start
your New World by depriving the wealthy
210 THE master's world-union scheme
classes of their wealth. In the New Era, there
must, no doubt, be an equitable distribution of
wealth. But that is to be done not by robbing
the wealthy by force but by making the rest
wealthy — that must be the proper spirit.
The Bolsheviks have failed to go to the root
of the present social distemper. It lies deep in
human nature and not merely in the capitalistic
system. They have not sought to change
human nature. They have turned their face
away from God and have begun the task of
reconstructing human society without first seek-
ing the aid of God, who alone can fructify human
efforts. To do great things requires divine
inspiration. Where is that inspiration to come
from if not from God? Where is the Pole star
with reference to which they will find their
direction? Will your system satisfy man's
soul? Even the most perfect system can't do
that. You may secure bread for everybody but
a man liveth not by bread alone. He requires
some other thing which your system can't
provide. Only God can give that. We must
therefore seek the mercy of God, surrender our-
selves to Him. If we can do that, the system
will be changed in a day, a stable organization
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 211
will spring up in no time. The base of an ideal
human society must be in human heart and that
human heart must be lodged in God.
The Bolshevik movement is doomed to
failure. Destruction is their role. As soon as
they have played this role out, they will have to
disappear. Lenin the agnostic can't construct
a better world by this rough and ready method.
It is not the purpose behind it. It is the task
of some Higher Being, Whose spirit is merged
in the Great Spirit, Whose soul is not tinged with
the faintest trace of hatred, Whose soul is
burning love. It is He and He alone that can
save Humanity from this abyss of suffering.
The regeneration of the human race is no task
of a politician or statesman or philosopher. No
statecraft, no amount of intellectual subtlety
will achieve this grand object. It requires the
will of One Whose will is the will of God — It
requires a heart as big as the sky — It requires
all-pervading, all-embracing love. None but a
Sannyasin, Who is One with God, Who has
nothing to gain in this world and nothing ta
lose in this world — none but One Who is the
true Friend of the world, of the whole world,
that can achieve this stupendous task. The
212 THE master's world-union scheme
task of creating a New Heaven and a New Earth
is for Him who will dominate the Thought
World by His own Thought, who will drive
away selfishness, greed and jealousy from
human nature by His mere will. Only He will
save and uplift Humanity Who will transform
human heart by His spiritual force. Who will
dispel the thick fog of darkness that hangs over
the world by the movement of His finger. Only
He will bring a better state of existence for man
Who will make a gift of faith, love and good-
will to Humanity. Only He will bring peace
on earth Whom, when He says, *Come and
follow me' the whole world must follow £is the
fishermen did follow Christ. Only He will
bring the Kingdom of Heaven on earth Who
will satisfy the hunger of every human soul,
Who will confer supreme bliss on each and
all — ^Whose touch will sanctify. Whose glance
will dispel doubt. Whose mere smile will con-
quer. It is for One endowed with the supreme
spiritual force of a Srikrishna, a Buddha, a
Christ. It is for none other.
Is Bolshevism an unmitigated evil? No,
nothing in this world is. The nemesis has come
:in the shape of Bolshevism. It has been an in-
TWO OTHER SCHEMES 213
strument in the hand of God for driving men
to the path that leads to Him just as the war
and the suffering and misery following it has
been. It is a passing phase — a stage in the
evolution of the human race. It is a warning
to Humanity to surrender themselves to Him.
Will Humanity take heed ? They must. That is
absolutely certain. The sooner they do it the
better for them. The longer they tarry, the
greater will be the misery. Let man seek God,
and He will reveal Himself. Let man seek His
Light and his heart will be overflooded with
Divine Light. Let man surrender himself
unreservedly to Him and he will at once find
himself possessed of the most glorious heritage.
To bestow this glorious heritage on Humanity
is the mission of Dayananda.
APPENDIX.
I have said before that great and noble thoughts
are active spiritual forces, which are bound to
conquer the world. In the end they are bound to
uplift human thought to the same plane, however
short or long the process may be. This greatest
thought of uniting the whole Human Race in one
bond of Love that Thakur Dayananda sent out to
the world more than 12 years ago, has worked its
way to every human heart. Consciously or
unconsciously the whole mentality of mankind
has been changed. Human thought that centred
before mainly round the narrow individual
'self* and no less narrow "national self" has
soared to the highest point, to the Universal and
the Infinite. A study of this process of transforma-
tion of the human mind — how human thought has
ascended from one height to another and so on to
the highest is highly interesting. But this is not the
place for that, nor this the occasion. But the truth
of this statement will be amply borne out by a
perusal of the following few letters out of many
received from well-known ladies and gentlemen in
the West and from the passages taken at random
from the utterances and writings of men and womeii
in various parts of the world who may truly be said
to be the highest exponents of the Thought World.
[ 2 ]
A. LETTERS.
(1)
Srimat Amritananda,
Arunachal Mission, Silchar.
Dear Brother,
I was very glad to hear from you and to get
the very interesting appeal I know that Mr. Lloyd
George got his copy, and several men who take a
keen interest in the League of Nations have also
seen it and have been very interested in it May
the day soon come when wars and envy and hatred
will have ceased. That can only come when men
will allow the Prince of Peace to be enthroned in the
hearts of men as well as in the Governments of the
world.
Yours sincerely,
(Sd.) Laura Evans.
On Board the S. S. City of
Calcutta. April 5th. 1919.
(2)
Mr. a. Mahabharati,
Etc. Etc.
Dear Sir,
I am in receipt of your letter of March 1st and
may say that I am wholly in sympathy with the senti-
ments you express and I am always ready in my
own life to do what I may be able to counteract the
undesirable tendency of our modern so-called civiliza-
[ 3 ]
tion. Especially I approve of your sentence "to find
peace and happiness the modern world has taken
the wrong road."
I am. Dear Sir,
Yours truly,
(Sd.) Ernest Bell.
The Animals' Friend Society,
York House, Portugal St,,
Kingsway, London, W. C. 2.
1st April, 1920.
(3)
Alokananda Mahabharati,
Etc. Etc.
Dear Sir,
Your most kind letter of Feb 12th reached me
here and though I am going on my journey within
an hour I must send you a hasty line to thank you
for being so good as to write. All you say interests
me deeply, especially as I have for some time been
convinced that our old evil system is breaking up
and a new and better one is on the way. That the
signs of it will come first from the East, all things
induce me to think and that those of non-Caucasian
race will be leaders in this movement as they have
been in all others, that make for the improvement
of the human race, I feel sure. It is therefore with
deep gratitude that I read your words — as it is also
with a true sense of brotherhood that I send you a
greeting of affection.
I 4 ]
My permanent address is I, Berkeley Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U. S. A. though I am
a Canadian by nationality. I hope to arrive there
by the middle of May.
Again expressing my most genuine appreciation
of your Jcindness and regretting that travel compels
me to be brief, believe me, dear sir.
Yours sincerely,
(Sd.) Basil King,
Hotel Alexandria,
Los Angelos,
6. 4. 20.
(4)
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharati,
Etc. Etc.
My dear sir,
I have your letter of March 1,1920, and thank
you for writing me. Very naturally I sympathise
with the object which your worthy Master has in
mind. The world ardently longs for the time to
come when there shall be peace and happiness every-
where; when man shall no longer contend with man
and be given over wholly to selfishness and greed.
I have no doubt in my mind but what the method
proposed by your Master will ultimately result in
great good, and I wish his plan success.
We are undoubtedly tending towards the condi-
tion of things which your worthy Master desires, and
for which his disciples are so unselfishly workings
[ 5 ]
It will come in due time. I commend your efforts and
sympathize with your desires.
Again thanking you for writing, I am
Very sincerely yours,
(Sd.) W. O. Stillman,
President.
The American Humane Association.
Albany. N. Y,.
April 8th, 1920.
(5)
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharati.
Etc. Etc.
Dear Sir,
Lady Astor wishes me to thank you very much
for your letter of March 19th.
She is very much interested in the views of
Thakur Dayananda. She fully agrees that there can
be no real peace or harmony in the world unless
nations and individuals have peace and good will
m their hearts, and she feels that in emphasising this
truth the East has much to teach the West.
Yours faithfully.
(Sd.) H. Matheson,
Parliamentary Secretary.
House of Commons,
S. W. I.,
April 15th. 1920.
[ 6 ]
(6)
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharati.
Etc. Etc.
Dear Sir,
Your letter to me dated at Arunachal Mission,
March 1st., 1920, is the most thoughtful and inspiring
letter received by me during the eight years that I
have been president of the American Anti-Vivisection
Society and I wish it were possible for us to co-
operate with you in your work for International
Brotherhood
As for myself, personally and unofficially, I beg
to assure you that I am in deep sympathy with your
movement for the federation of nations and the
expression of the ideal of human brotherhood in
some practical scheme of international government^
and that as far as my poor powers go, I am working
towards the same goal as yourself.
Great was the opportunity of the Peace Con-
ference and great the failure thereof and I much fear
the next practical opportunity will come only after
years of misery and famine, wars and revolutions.
The time is upon us when our race must definitely
break with the theory and practice of evolution
through blind and selfish competition and must
grasp, how^ever imperfectly, the fact of universal
kinship and enter upon its further evolution through
the control of 'self, not others. This conception
once adopted, even if it be accepted by the many
rather as a battle-cry than as a spiritual realization,
must inevitably affect all forms of human activity and.
[ 7 ]
p2issing downwards from the knowers to the doew^
leaven all aspects of our mortal life.
International peace, national good government;
business, law and medicine for the common welfare;
religion, for the building of character not the exhalta-
tion of priesthood ; science for love not power ;
these are some of the manifestations of the outlook
which begin dimly to be seen on our horizon. How
long before anything measurable is accomplished
none shall say; for the forceful men, the intellectual
leaders of our age, have wandered from the Verace
Via of Dante and are now urging us down the by-path
of materialism, while the un-intelligent, the sullen
masses are striking blindly at they know not what.
Yet, even as we speak the night is passing.
Greater than weapons is the power of Thought;
greater than armies the will-to-grow of the spirit.
Even the ignorant build better than they know and
out of the aspirations of the dreamers, out of the
«imple deeds, the daily strivings of the toilers there
shsJl Eirise a new heaven and a new earth.
Permit me, sir, to thank you for your letter and
to lay at the feet of your Master, Thakur Dayananda
my humble admiration and respect.
Yours truly,
(Sd.) Robert Logan.
Editor, The Starry Cross*
Office of Publication,
22, South Eighteenth Street.
Philadelphia,
April 22nd„ 1920.
15
[ 8 I
(7)
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharati.
Etc. Etc.
My dear sir,
Thank you so much for having brought to my
notice the work of Thakur Dayananda and of the
Arunachal Mission.
I am very much touched by the trouble you
have taken in the matter and by the high ideals which
both you in your letter and Thakur Dayananda in
his manifesto have expressed. Needless to say, I
with you, desire to see a better understanding between
the peoples of the world take the place of this present
system of misrule and chaos, and you may be assured
of my every sympathy in anything that you may do
towards that end.
Believe me,
4. King's Bench Walk.
Temple, London, E. C. 4.
April 28th, 1920.
Yours very sincerely,
(Sd.) Norman Angell.
(8)
Alokananda Mahabharati,
Etc. Etc.
Dear Sir,
In reply to your letter of the 22nd. April, Sir
Horace Plunkett has asked me to thank you for it
and for a copy of the Thakur Dayeoianda's appeal
[ 9 ]
to the Peace Conference. As you are aware, he,
too considers that merely material and economic
improvement is not sufficient either to satisfy men
in the present or to assure peace and security in the
future. Co-operation, as he has always thought and
understood it, means nothing less than the denial
of competition, struggle and conflict. It means the
great and only alternative to war whether the war
of commercialism with its motto "The Devil take
the hindermost" or the franker but not less pitiless
other side, war as we have known it for 4 years, war
ever, of necessity, more ruthless and horrible. Sir
Plunkett believes however that men have inborn in
them the desire to work together and to benefit
each other. He believes that given opportunity men
prefer to seek a common good than to struggle for
private advantage. Teach them how to do this in
the simplest and most obvious ways, assist them
materially, make them understand that others are
not only interested in but positively need their pros-
perity and they will be taught by such actualities
the unity of the Human Race — the Brotherhood of
man — and will be compelled to a faith in a unifying
directing purpose — the Fatherhood of God.
With best wishes for the success of your work,
Yours faithfully,
(Sd.) Gerald Heard,
Secretary.
Kilteragh, Foxrock,
Co. Dublin, 24. 5. 20.
[ 10 I
(9)
Alokananda Mahabharati.
Dear Sir,
I have read your letter with much interest and
thank you for sending it. I agree with it and because
I have been trying to carry out its spirit to some
extent I have had to sujffer. Thakur Dayananda's
scheme would not suit the people who met in Paris.
They meant to create no new world. Their hearts
were not bent that way. So mankind must suffer.
Will you be so good as to allow me to pay my respects
to Thakur Dayananda.
Yours fgdthfully,
(Sd.) Ramsay Macdonald.
The Independent Labour Party.
8 & 9, Johnson's Court,
Fleet Street, London, E. C. 4.
28th May. 1920.
(10)
THE INDEPENDENT LABOUR PARTY. NATIONAL
ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL.
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharati,
Etc. Etc.
Dear Sir,
I have received your letter dated 5th May and I
theoik you for it. First of all, let me say that you
misunderstand the propaganda work of the I. L. P.
It would be a most unfair and unjust criticism of the
1. L. P. to say that it is concerned only with conditions
[ n 1
of Great Britain and with ameliorating the lot of the
people of this land. Such a criticism could not
possibly be further from the truth. On the contrary,
there are those who criticise the I. L. P. because of
its internationalism and the world-wide nature of
its interests. During the last six years, particularly,
the whole of the energies of the I. L. P. and its
propaganda work have been devoted to International-
ism, or in other words, to the preaching of the brother-
hood of man. No people who are suffering injustice,
whether it be in Ireland, Egypt or India, have warmer
or more active friends than the I. L. P. A reference
to the column of our weekly paper, "The Labour
Leader" will support this statement.
I mention these facts for two purposes, first, to
remove what is apparently a misunderstanding on
your part of the work of the I. L. P. and second to
assure you that an appeal to help in any movement
for the regeneration of the world is hardly necessEury.
There are parts of your letter which are almost a
verbal repetition of things I have often myself said.
This remark applies particularly to what you say
about the genesis of the world unrest and misery.
I agree wholly with your comments upon the failure
of the Paris Conference and of the causes responsible
for this failure. There had been no change in the
hearts and minds of the statesmen who met together
at that Gjnference.
I am interested in what you tell me about your
Mission and in the appeal sent to the Paris Conference
Tby the founder of your Mission. I may say with
[ 12 ]
cotifidence that I am in complete agreement with
your aim and I am sure that I can repeat that assurance
in the name of the whole of the I. L. P. Like you
the I. L. P. is opposed to methods of violence, and
the revolution we want to see is a change of heart
and mind.
Although we are working widely separated by
space, we are united by our aims and I think, to a
considerable extent, in our methods.
Believe me.
Yours very sincerely,
(Sd.) Philip Snowden,
Chairman.
8 & 9, Johnson's Court,
Fleet Street,
London, E. C. 4.
Ist June, 1920.
(11)
Alokananda Mahabharati,
Etc. Etc.
Dear Sir,
I am very much obliged for your long and most
interesting letter of April 5th, which readhes me today.
I need hardly say I entirely sympathise with its
purport. You ask me whether I will work for your
objects. I assure I do little else. It is a splendid
scheme you have in mind, and I only wish the races
of men were more ready for conversion to it.
[ 13 ]
With kind regards and repeated thanks for your
kindness in writing to me,
Yours very truly,
(Sd.) Henry W. Nevinson.
New York,
June 14. 20.
(12)
Babu Mangobinda Chaudhury,
Arunachal Mission, Silchar,
My dear friend,
Very many thanks for your letter received yester-
day I have shown the Thakur's appeal to many
of my friends and have many times made reference
to it in my public meetings.
The aftermath of the war has resulted in much
restlessness in this country. Trade is constantly
dislocated and the prices of most commodities shew
a steady tendency to rise. Democracy is finding its
feet stuck in the process. All departments of life
are seriously disturbed. I do believe that the
materialism and selfishness of the world today will
sooner or later, sooner rather than later, exhaust
itself. The war has passed but other and more fear-
ful antagonisms remain. I agree with you in think-
ing that peace and goodwill, the spirit of the Christ,
was never more necessary for healing the world's
wounds than now.
I
[ 14 ]
With our united kind regards to you both,
Yours sincerely,
(Sd.) T. W. Reese.
Leaton House,
Regent Street,
Wrexham, N. Wales.
1 4th June. 1920.
(13)
THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION.
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharati,
Etc. Etc.
My dear friend.
Your letter of the first of June is duly received.
I note with interest all you say. Undoubtedly, the
time will come when the Fatherhood of God and
Brotherhood of man will be generally recognised.
The world is becoming more and more united in
brotherhood and aims and I have no doubt but what
the next generation or two will see wonderful changes
in this direction.
Remember that the world is drawing closer to-
gether and that thoughts similar to ours are making
their way into new minds all over the world. Wishing
you success in your quest and in your propaganda,
I am with kind regards,
Fgdthfully yours,
(Sd.) W. O. Stillman,
President.
Albany. N. Y.,
July 23rd.. 1920.
[ 15 ]
(14)
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharati.
Dear Sir,
I am very thankful for the letter you have
written and also for the appeal which accompanies
it.
I have the deepest sympathy with the endeavours
you are making, and shall be glad to hear from you as
to the progress of your efforts. The ideas of the
Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of maui
must rule out the disorder of the world, quiet the
unrest from which we suffer, and inaugurate the
better era towards whidh the Eternal Father is surely
leading us.
Yours faithfully,
(Sd.) John Clifford.
18, Waldeck Road,
West Ealing, London, W. 18.
July 27th, 1920.
(15)
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharati,
Etc. Etc.
'My dear sir,
I am writing to tell you that Mr. Norman Angell
Teceived your cable* of June 9th and your letter of
June 1 7th He has been wondering in what way he
could best further your cause, which he recognises to
*The following cable v/as sent to Mr. Norman
Angell with copy to Lady Astor, Mr. H. G. Wells,
I 16 ]
be bound up intimately with his own ideas for world-
peace It seems to him perhaps that he can best
work for his and your ideals by continuing to write
and expound them, But if you can think of any
other way in which he could help your association
I feel sure he would be happy to do what he could.
With good wishes,
Believe me.
Yours very faithfully,
(Sd.) Illegible,
Secy, to Mr. Norman AngelL
4, Kings Bench Walk,
Temple, E. C, 4.
August II th, 1920.
(16)
Alokananda Mahabharati,
Etc, Etc.
Dear Friend,
I now have to acknowledge your letter dated
Miss Kate Simmons and Mr. Ernest Bell on 9th June,
1920:—
"Brother of the mankind yours of April. World
situation extremely critical. Must squarely face
situation. Even a day's delay means slaughter of
thousands brethren and untold suffering to millions.
Very great responsibility on well-wishers. Please
present scheme of reconstruction to National Peace
Congress Glasgow 17th. Insist on World Conference
invited by cables. Will get support from many in
different countries, specially from (Here follows
a list of names) Cable if necessary."
[ 17 1
May 16th and your cablegram.* I was not able to
attend the Peace Conference in Scotland, but I wrote
off immediately to a member attending, the Secretary
of the "League of Peace and Freedom", and I asked
him to speak and place your appeal before the
Conference. Then I gathered together passages from
your letters to Mr. Bell, Miss Behrens and myself;
and had these inserted in a paper sympathetic to our
views which also is circulated in America, and here-
with send you a copy of same.f
I wrote to Lady Asquith, and Mr. H. G. Wells
but have had no reply. Also I showed your corres-
pondence to Miss Callow, Secretary of the Inter-
national New Thought Alliance When all men
unite in the love of God, all good will flow out to
them from the Central Source of all supply, and they
will know how to proceed and act that all may have
their needs met
Very sincerely yours,
(Sd.) Kate Simmons.
Clarendon House,
Eddington, Heme Bay,
England.
August 13th, 1920.
(17)
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharati.
Dear Sir,
Your esteemed favour duly reached me. 1 but
recently however returned to New York where your
*The same as to Mr. Norman Angell.
t 'The Active Service."
[ 18 ]
registered packet awaited me. I shall certainly
distribute your appeals urging peace and harmony
as I have opportunity to those I meet who will
appreciate the beautiful sentiment therein expressed.
Your letter portrays the distracting unrest every-
where very vividly. Perhaps unrest prevails nowhere
more than in America today. Here it would seem as
if every one is over-strained — many in their rush to
profiteer, many oppressed by our excessive taxation,
working over-time, yet really unable to make ends
meet, others given over to fashion and folly and
waste — and others striving to better conditions and
to help the suffering, especially children, prisoners
and abused animals, finding themselves quite over-
whelmed with the demands on purse and mind in
their altruistic endeavours. Our daily papers are
intensely exciting, filled as they are with revelations
of incredible waste of money recklessly spent by
•our incompetent government the past few years
The noble spirit of your Master, Thakur Daya-
nanda Deb alone will light a conflagration of peace
and harmony impossible to extinguish — in which you
also seem an earnest helper and upholder.
Accept kind wishes for your active mission which
has high ideals of peace for all people.
Most truly yours,
(SJ.) Georgiana Kendall,
Vice-President, Humane Education Society.
The Ploya, New York.
Novr. 12, 1920.
[ 19 i
m
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharati.
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your letter. I am in complete
agreement with all you say of the present state of the
world and its governments. And the principle you
lay down are those which have always guided me,
although I might not use quite the same phraseology.
But religion is not so well understood in the West as
in the Elast, nor its intimate relationship to human
welfare....
Cordially yours,
(Sd.) Havelock Ellis.
14, Dover Mansions,
Canterbury Road,
Brixton, London, S. W. 9.
28th November, 1920.
(19)
Mr. Alokananda Mahabharatl
My dear friend,
I do hope that you will not consider my long
delay in answering your interesting letter of July 29,
1920, showing any lack of appreciation of your very
great kindness in writing me so fully about your
Master, and about the Brotherhood of the Arunachal
Mission. I am deeply interested in all that you told
me, and also in the appeal to the Peace Conference,
which you enclosed.
This blood-stained and war-torn world of ours
[ 20 J
needs the Sannyasin. If only there were more
"friends of the world" !
A few months ago I had the pleasure of enter-
taining in my home Rabindranath Tagore, and we
talked over these things.
From the other side of the world I send you
affectionate greetings. If any of your Brotherhood
come to America, they will receive a warm welcome
at my home in Princeton.
Faithfully yours,
(Sd.) Herbert Adams Gibbons.
Princeton, N. J.,
March 11, 1921.
B. EXTRACTS :
[ It is a remarkable fact, as will be seen, also
from the following extracts which are taken at
random from a mass of them that it is admitted on
all hands that the old order has gone and that a
New Elra has come. Most people who utter the word
'New Era' do not know what the New Era is like, in
what respects it is to differ from the one that has just
passed, from what point of time dates the New Ejra.
It would be difficult to prove to demonstration to the
ordinary man in the street in the midst of chaos and
confusion that the New Era has really come. But the
New Era is on everybody's lips. The thing is the
New Era has really come — it has been born in the
Thought World — and even those who have not the
vision to see it clearly, unconsciously give expression
to it — they could not but do it — even though they
could not yet point to anything tangible to base their
conclusion. Those who have been given the vision,
can clearly discern the advent of the New Era and
to them the chaos and confusion which, like darkness
before the dawn, instead of clearing is only thicken-
ing, is but the surest sign of its coming.
Another highly significant fact in support of the
coming of the New Era is the dodge very often
employed by advertisers to arrest the attention of
newspaper readers of referring to the New Era — and
sometimes with great display.]
[ 22 ]
(I)
A New Elra is opening. Let it begin with ai
common determination to work together for a
common purpose. — King George's Message to the
Indians, December, 1919.
(2)
The gathering (of the Peace Gjnference) marks
the beginning of a New Elra, assisting the peoples of
all the countries in the desire for peace, prosperity and
happiness. — President Wilson.
(3)
(I am) sure that the Great To-morrow has already
come. — Rabindranath Tagore.
(4)
The War was fought to establish the New World..
— Lloyd George.
(5)
This is a turning point — Humanity is taking a
turning point — Shall we or shall we not take our
legitimate part in the making of the New World? —
Lala Lajpat Rai in his address to his countrymen.
[ 23 ]
(6)
1 am confident that it auspiciously comes at the
dawn of a New Era of friendship and good will whidi
it will be the privilege of our kindred peoples to
advance towards full achievement. — Wilson to King
George.
(7)
1 most cordially echo the hope that in the struggle
to create a better world for mankind which is the first
duty bequeathed to us by the glorious comradeship
of war our two nations may be found indissolubly
linked alike in effort and achievement. — King George
to Wilson.
(8)
This reconstruction is not confined to any one
department of life but to the whole life as such
The desideratum is to bring the Kingdom of Heaven
on earth. This is the spirit of the New Age. —
The Indian Review, August, J 920.
(9)
We have had several New Worlds. The Jews
call this year 5680 ; Christians with a newer world call
it, 1920, the Mahomedans dating from Mahommed's
flight, say it is 1307 ; and in England the Lloyd
Georgites consider the New World really began on
January 10th, when the Peace Treaty was ratified,
so with them this should be the Year One.
But the question still remains ; is it really a New
World or the same Old World, with the same trials
16
[ 24 ]
and difficulties, the same good patdhes and bad, the
same hopes, — not always fully realised? Human
nature is always hopeful. The poor hope for better
times, the unfortunate for better luck, 2md the sick
land suffering for better heeJth. It is not enough,
Kowever, to hope without endeavouring, at the same
time, to achieve our object.
Try Mother Seigel's Syrup yourself and enter a
New World of health and happiness. — Advertisement
in Newspapers,
(10)
But a New Reign is coming, that of the spirit ;
after the human, the divine. — Mirra Richard, Asian
Review,
(II)
A New World is being created, a New Era is at
hand. — Invitation to International Congress of Reli-
gious Liberals, Boston, 1920.
(12)
Standing as I do in view of God and Eternity,
I realise that patriotism is not enough ; there must
be no bitterness nor hatred in my heart against
anyone. — Edith. Cavell before her execution.
[The sublime note of this passage reveals the
fact that the soul of Edith Cavell before her execution,
was in perfect union with the Universal Soul of
Humanity.]
[ 25 ]
(13)
In the name of Humanity, multiple and one, etc.,
we declare and proclaim the UniversEJ Equality of
the Human Race. — Universal League for the Equality
of Races in Japan.
(14)
For the mciximum effort in the war, each nation
pooled all its resources and its strength, amd
theoretically at least, the people of that nation were
for the time but one family. This sort of action on
an international plane seems to be the only hope for
Europe. — Anatole France.
(15)
The work which has been done, the seed whicii
has been sown, cannot, will not be wasted ; and,
because of the martyrdom of Russia, her children and
our dhildren will reap a glorious harvest of love and
comradeship in the true commonwealth that is to
be. — Lanshury in ** Daily Herald.'*
(16)
If the world is indeed to become one of peace
then it is impossible to have one part of it within the
ring fence of Monroe Doctrine cut off from the
responsibility of federal world-commonwealth. —
H. G. Wells in "Sunday Express.**
[ 26 I
(17)
"What solution do you see for Europe's plight ?'\
asked the correspondent of the "Observer." "Action
based on a new spirit on the common interests and
needs of all Europe, and of all the world," said
Anatole France.
(18)
The first object of the International would be
the prevention of all war. That message must
spread in our late enemy countries as well as in the
allied countries. — *' Ex-soldiers in Council," — "Daily
Heraldr April 5ih.
(19)
1 think that, soldiers as most of us have been in
our time, there is no prospect more abhorrent to the
vast majority of us than that of a future war The
multitude has but one desire — "Peace." — Aidan De
Gemon, D. H. April 17th.
(20)
To destroy false ideas about war among civilians
and especially among children, to get as many men
as possible in each country to pledge themselves
against war, to abolish secret diplomacy, to destroy
the capitalist system. — Programme of International
Congress of Ex-service men at Geneva.
[ 27 ]'
(21)
The man who knows most about war is the man
most anxious to see war abolished. The man who
fought in the trenches and saw his comrade smashed
at his side, who has known desolation of warfare, is
the man who does not want any more war. — Major
General Sir Frederic Maurice.
(22)
Speaking of world peace and disarmament, Mr.
Harding, President-elect of the U. S. A. said :
"World disarmament is only one phase in the
attainment of actual peace towards whidh we are all
working.... With the conscience of the world awaken-
ed against war and the growing desire of each nation
to do its part there is reasonable assurance that the
time is not far distant when considerations of right
rather than might will prevail and when disarmament
will become an actuality. 1 believe that a campaign
to create world-wide public opinion such as that
inaugurated by the "World" is a step towards the
hastening of world tranquility."
(23)
It seeks not a slave state but a co-operative
commonwealth of Free Citizens and it is in this
direction that the Brothers of Light are seeking to
guide the evolution of Humanity. — Annie Besant in
"New India/' Sept 1920.
I 28 ]
(24)
We needed a real League of Free Peoples, not a
League of Kings, nor a League of Cabinet Ministers.
— y. H. Thomas, M. P., *'Daily Herald/* Feb. 16.
1920.
(25)
An equal system of International rights and
obligations, just liberties and wholesome necessary
restrictions can alone be a sound basis of International
Law and order. — Aurohindo Ghose.
(26)
United States would take no interest because she
will join no combination of powers which is not a
combination of all. She is not interested merely in
tlie Peace of Europe but in the peace of the world.
— Arthur Benington, U. S. A.
(27)
To start any League with any hope of success
all powers must be in it — not to wrangle and intrigue
but to find a common basis for useful co-operation
...the mechanism of which can only be a League of
Nations, free individually and so willing to think and
act collectively. — Austin Harrison in ** Sunday
Pictorial/*
[ 29 ]
(28)
Senator Harding in a speech on the League of
Nations declared that President Wilson's League was
a definite and irredeemable failure. Senator Hard-
ing therefore proposed a new effort to construct a
World Association on the framework of the Hague
Tribunal and pledged himself to make an immediate
effort to form such an association. — ''Englishman/*
31st., Aug. 1920.
(29)
I look higher now, I am against the League of
Nations because it is the League of Governments. I
am for a League of peoples, for a league of oppress-
ed peoples, who are the victims of the Peace of
Versailles." — D'Anunzio.
(30)
The only other conceivable policy was to seek
some new state of things in which war would no
longer be the inevitable resort for settling interna-
tional disputes. — Lord Robert Cecil.
(31)
If one-hundredth part of the thought given to
this war were given to peace, there would never be
a war eigain. I believe that a passion for peace hzts
been bom in this war which will prove greater than
I 30 1
any passion for gain or conquest, and as far ea is
humanly possible, such a war as this should never
be tolerated again. However, there is a danger in
believing too much in treaties until we have a radical
change in the hearts of men, but I think that change
is coming. There must be no patch-work peace
which is simply a compromise of conflicting interests.
Every nation must have the choice of its destiny and
not be cut and curved to please the Great Powers.
— General Smutts.
(32)
No nation must desire domination and power
over another. We shall only reach this condition of
things by understanding that capitalism has finished
its work and that future development of mankind
must be based on co-operation. — ** Daily Herald/*
July, H, 1920.
(33)
A genuine society of all nations and an all-round
revision of the Peace Treaty involving the abandon*
ment of our own Imperialistic aims. — Robert Dell.
(34)
Future must bring international reconciliation.
Only a real Democracy including all nations would
give the suffering world peace. — Ebert, late German
President.
[ 31 }
(35)
We must feel our way towards a group organisa-
tion within the community and to a world federation
beyond it. — Ivor Brown.
(36)
In the field where our aims are one, our enthusi-
asms the same, our rivalry and ambition generous,
we can surely look to be reconciled, and the fellow-
ship of learning offers a road which may — and if our
spiritual ideals be alive, must — lead to a wider
sympathy and better understanding between our
kindred nations.
While political dissensions are threatening to
extinguish the honourable comity of the great
European States, we pray that we may help to
hasten that amicable reunion which civilization
demands.
— Extracts from the letter addressed by Doctors,
Heads of houses, Professors and other Officers and
Teachers in the University of Oxford to the Pro-
fessors of the Arts and Sciences and to Members of
the Universities and Learned Societies in Germany
^nd Austria sometime in October, 1920.
(37)
Professor Gilbert Murray in the course of his
presidential address at a meeting of the Geographical
Association held sometime towards the end of
[ 32 ]
December, 1920 or the first week of January, 1921,
interpreted the duty of mankind towards the universe
as being similar to that of the patriotic citizen towards
his own country.
He proceeded to speculate whether the economic
exploitation of helpless nations and territories by
strong ones, stimulated by the pressing hunger of the
Western world was likely to prevail, or whether
there was to be the consciousness of the earth as one
great city with a great conception of the duty, that
would be normally expected from a civilised and
educated man towards his fellow man. He was
convinced that the latter conception was becoming
more and more an integral part of public opinion
in this country If the better elements'
in the great nations, backed by outside inter-
national opinion, set their faces resolutely against
uncontrolled and irresponsible covetousness, he be-
lieved that a co-operation between the nations would
be secured which would make not only for the main-
tenance of peace but for the welfare, concord, and
good will of the entire world.
(38)
All over the continent specially where they have
suffered most there is a real awakening, a revolt
against war and sincere enthusiasm for the New
International Union. — Daily News (London).
(39)
Gjngress of International Brotherhood, London,
14th, September, 1919.
[ 33 ]
(40)
There never was a time in history of a distracted
and torn world when the Brotherhood movement was
more needed said Mr. Lloyd George, at the National
Brotherhood Congress at the City Temple, Sept., 1919.
(41)
Mighty festival of Unity : We want a League of
Nations but it must be a League in which men and
women are banded together with the bonds of
Brotherhood. — Robert Fleming in D. H. May 3rd,
1920.
(42)
Comrades and Brothers, remember that nation-
ality is not enough, nationality must not be the zdm.
There is something higher than nationality, and that
is International Brotherhood, the Brotherhood of man
under the Fatherhood of God. — Col. Wedgwood on
landing at Bombay.
(43)
International Brotherhood after all, means that
humanity is one great family of human beings with
a common origin. — Lansbury in D. H.
(44)
I have no doubt that they will find the people of
the United States very ready and willing (inspite of
[ 34 ]
Ker refusal to join the League of Nations) to come into
the Brotherhood. — H. G. Wells in "Sunday Express."
(45)
To endeavour by united efforts to advance the
triumph of reason, freedom and progress in religion,
the Brotherhood of man and the peaceful federation
of the world.... A New World is being created, a
New Era is at hand. Shall not we of liberal faith and
progressive spirit come together again.... for the Uni-
versal and enduring religious needs of mankind ? Let
us become later day pilgrims of the Spirit — like the
Fathers of old seeking "a city which hath founda-
tions, whose builder and maker is God." — Invitation
to the International Congress of Religious Liberals,
Boston, 1920.
(46)
As religious people we recognise that the only
real power that can make such an object effective
is the religious power. The world of men is one
because God has made us one. At bottom the
human race is one. There is one fraternity, and it is
going to be realised — Bishop of Kensington,
"Inquirer," Feb. 21, 1920.
(47)
The Conference calls attention to the fresh vision
wliich has come to many of that Kingdom of God
in which all the nations of the world shall be united
[ 35 ]
in righteousness and peace, etc. — Resolution /^
Lambeth Conference, moved by Bishop of Peter-
borough, August, 1920.
(48)
Fatherhood of God, ultimate foundation for re-
construction of ordered harmonious life for all men —
tiie one hope for the permanent peace of the world.
— Lloyd George.
(49)
The world is becoming one we are no longer
strangers or foreigners upon the earth, but fellow-
citizens in the great household of the Eternal Father.
—Dr. John Clifford.
(50)
They (Non-Qiristians) are as dear and precious
to the One Universal Father-Mother as Christians are,
and should therefore be included in the same Reli-
gious International. — Revd. Dr. Walter Walsh.
(51)
All the civilizations which had risen and died
— had they not failed because they had not been
based upon the one foundation of God, the Universal
Father? And was it not natural that women
should see God as the Father of all, and the world
[ 36 ]
as one family? — Maude Roydens address at Geneva
(D. H. June 7tK 1920),
(52)
Wiien will the truth dawn on the hearts of
mankind that they were all created by one God, out
of His own image that they were all brethren and
have for their eternal welfare, to live in peace and
amity?— i4. B. Patrika (Calcutta) Oct. 26th, 1920.
(53)
I attribute this (the fact of his being alive after
35 days of fasting) to the spiritual strength which
1 receive from my daily communion bringing me
bodily strength assisted by a world of masses and
prayers I believe God has directly intervened
to stay the tragedy for a while for a Divine purpose
of His own. I believe He has intervened not solely
for our sakes but also for our enemy's sake. —
MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork-
[This declaration of Mr. MacSwiney is in tune
w^ith that of Eldith Cavell. He has discovered his spiri-
tual one-ness with the rest of his fellow-beings. He
finds a divine purpose in everything — even in his death
that, he knew, was coming. He realizes that he is
an instrument in the hand of God and realizing that
he joyfully surrenders himself to His will.]
(54)
Where is God the good, exclaims the world,
Avhich has been trying to wade through slaughter to
[ 37 ]
a safe haven of peace. — "Servant** (Calcutta),
6th November, 1920.
(55)
And thou Divine Being who sleepest in the
bosom of men and of nations the hour is come. —
Paul Richard in "To the Nations**,
(56)
Only a new spiritual influx creating in man a new
consciousness can overcome the enormous mass of
difficulties barring the way of the workers. A new
spiritual light, a manifestation upon earth of some
divine force, unknown until now, a thought of God,
new for us, descending in this world and taking a
new form here. — Mirra Richard tc the Women of
Japan, "Indian Daily News,** May 17th, 1920.
(57)
If we are to found the Kingdom of God in
humanity, we must first know God and see and live
the diviner truth of our Being in ourselves. —
Aurohindo Ghose.
(58)
The processes of war and blockade are a denial
of our Christianity and a complete barrier to the
establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. —
Extract from an appeal issued by Dr John Clifford
and others headed "A Call to Christians.**
[ 38 ]
(59)
To doubt that this perfect consummation (the
Kingdom of God) will ever be effected is in reality to
question the inspiration of divine prophecy, and also
to declare presumptuously that mankind will never
answer the grand design of creation. — "The Coming
World Government" by Carlyle B. Haynes in **The
Signs of the Times/' U. S. A„ June, /7, 1919.
(60)
The world can only recover as a unit It lies
under a common affliction that will only yield to a
common remedy It is a spiritual remedy. —
A. G. Gardiner, in "Daily News**, London.
(61)
Lord Robert Cecil said until Christian ideals were
wrought into the texture of national life and policy
there was no hope of peace — "D. H.*\ June 8th.
(62)
You cannot get a change in social conditions until
you change the moral and religious outlook of men
and women towards one another. — Lansbury, D. H.r
July 19, 1920.
(63)
As Christians we must see that the present condi-
tions are changed. The Church is asleep now but
surely she is destined to bring about a revolution in.
I 39 ]
the matter of human relationships, such that men
may be able to seek the Kingdom of God. — Rev. Paul
Jones, President of the Church Socialist League in
America.
(64)
Never before in the history of our country has
there been such a general turning of the masses to
the things of the soul as we see about us today. —
W. G. Shepherd in *' Harper's Monthly*.
(65)
1 have decided to eschew politics and devote
myself to the attainment of the Higher Self which
should be the mission of human beings. — Rashhehari
Bose, an Indian anarchist now a refugee in Japan.
(66)
A spiritual Brotherhood and International Peace.
— Reo. Dr. Walter Walsh.
(67)
They (the devastations of famine and typhus, the
cloud over Mesopotamia, the cloud over India and
the darker cloud over Ireland) are the poisonous
fruits of the spiritual disaster that has befallen the
world and they will continue until the ruin is com-
plete or the spiritual remedy is found The thing
17
[ 40 ]
for which the world is looking is a great lead in the
path of reconciliation. It calls for a gospel that will
offer it a way out of the wilderness in which it is
^wandering. — A. G Gardiner.
(68)
The world of men and women is waiting, longing,
hoping for the new day ; people, as of old, ask for a
sign, run hither and thither after this theory and the
other in a vain endeavour to find the solvent for
present-day needs. Whereas all we need is to stand
still and take stock of ourselves and find out what
it is we really ask of life and what we expect to gain
for the trouble of living Spiritual forces are
stronger than ambition, glory, or power ; that, indeed,
the truest expression of glory and power is to be
found among those who are willing to put everything
upon the altar of service and find their happiness in
giving even life itself to the cause of humanity. —
Lansbury in *'D. H." Oct, 30th, 1920.
(69)
Our Master has said, "One is your Father, and
all are brethren". These are the fundamental
principles of human society as God designed it
to be.
Every association or community of men is
intended by God to be a Brotherhood, in which each
tries to do all the service he can for the others.
This conception of Brotherhood should deter-
[ 41 ]
mine all industrial relations, putting an end to in-
justice and dishonesty, inconsiderateness and careless-
ness of employers and employed.
Once again, this conception of Brotherhood
should determine the relation between nations,
turning the world into a family of nations, respecting
and helping one another, instead of injuring one
another by selfish competition and from time to time
breaking out into open war.
We call upon all men in the name of God to
lay aside all race hatred and class hatred, upon
which it is impossible to build any solid structure,
social or political.
We beg all our fellow citizens to turn to God,
who created them to be brethren, and to seek from
Him, who alone can give it, the power to love as
brethren and in love to serve one another. By that
power we can find the way out of our anxieties.
In His light we shall see light. — Extracts from the
appeal issued by the National Council of Missionaries
in India, Burma and Ceylon and addressed to the
peoples of India and Europeans in India.
(70)
Before that can happen there must come new
leaders, new enthusiasm for the ideals of life, a new
spirit of unselfishness and service for the common-
weal and just now, we do not see them coming. —
Sir Philip Gibhs in the "Daily Chronicle', Sept 1920,
(71)
For Him we look, for His coming we try to
[ 42 1
prepare tiie public mind of man — * 'The coming of the
World Teacher." — By Annie Beaant.
(72)
The World now really stands in need of a Saviour.
—^'Servant** (Calcutta), November, 6th, 1920.
(73)
God is the King of kings (cries of "We should
fear Allah and nobody else") There is no govern-
ment except the government of God. We shall
not serve anybody as subjects except Allah. —
Mahommed A It at the meeting of the A ll-India Muslim
League, Amritsar, Dec. 1919.
(74)
[The following remarkable document, coming, as
it does, from a quarter, from which it would ordinarily
be least expected, is a strong proof, if any were
needed, of the fact that the Satya Yuga has come
when man, having outlived his material existence
has entered a career of spiritual existence. This shews
conclusively to what sublime height human thought
has ascended. Even our sisters of shame have not
been impervious to the great idea of living a higher
state of existence. Their thought has been lifted to
the highest pitch — to the expectancy of the coming
of the Saviour who will regenerate the world and
will not spare them also. It is a translation from a
manifesto issued by sisters of shame in Calcutta who
count many hundreds.]
[ 43 ]
The world has now arrived at the parting of the
*01d Era. Educated or uneducated, rich or poor, high
or low — all are marching forward to attain their
highest progress at this auspicious moment of a new
awakening. Why should we alone rest in dumb in-
activity? We may not ordinarily have a status in
society nor could we expect any sympathy from it
but none can deny that we also form a part of
Humanity. For want of a tight social organisation
and cohesion amongst us, we are pursuing each our
own course and are being swiftly dragged along rfie
path of the lowest degradation. But cannot we — if
we are only of the opinion and determined on the
salvation of our fsdlen race — ^find out a path of our
upliftment? Certainly we can. We all know it is
to save the fallen that the God of Humanity descenHs
on earth in human form. If the Infinitely Merciful
Lord, bent on destroying the elements of evil in the
world comes, then shall not we also receive a drop of
His mercy and, strengthened in His mercy, be able to
break the bond of degradation in the midst of which
we live and enter upon a future career of unfold-
ment? It is through His mercy that we have met
today and have been £iif orded an opportunity of giving
vent to our feeling of anguish — it is through His
mercy which showers on all alike, that we hope to
banish the darkness that enshrouds us and see the
light of progress and salvation, etc., etc.
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