Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/237

 materialistic an age. In Mr. Tilak we find the hero as a patriot, in Mr. Gandhi—the HERO. Where he is a hero and where not, it will be idle to differentiate. For anything specific, self is necessary, is in fact indispensable. But "self" is a great circumscribing factor. It limits. Mr. Gandhi has worked the "self" out of his nature and he is therefore radiance that is not colored by " self." India has produced within our own memory men who have cast the "self" from them; the greatest example we can give of such a life is that of Sri Ram Krishna Paramahamsa. But the self-less Rama Krishna was "at rest" as it were. He was a great influence even at rest. But he was only at rest whereas Gandhi is "dynamic." "Dynamic," having inhaled the agony and the suffering of men and women, moved by the pathos of a social fabric which keeps them unhappy, and incapable of making themselves anything but miserable. His active interest even in politics is of that impersonal nature which has its roots in the immortal Gita and the Gospel of Christ. "Think not of the morrow" is the greatest economic doctrine ever propounded; but how few have understood its import! For, what is the