Page:Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches.djvu/172

M. K. Gandhi life will certainly be dedicated to prove worthy of them if I am to be a worthy servant. In India's beautiful national song (Bande Mataram) the poet has lavished all the adjectives that he possibly could to describe Mother India. Have we a right to sing that hymn? The poet no doubt gave us a picture for our realisation, the words of which remain simply prophetic, and it is for you, the hope of India, to realise every word that the poet has said in describing this Motherland of ours. To-day I feel that these adjectives are very largely misplaced in his description of the Motherland.

You, the students of Madras as well as the students all over India, are you receiving an education which will make you worthy to realise that ideal, and which will draw the best out of you? Or is it an education which has become a factory for making Government employees, or clerks in commercial offices? Is the goal of the education that you are receiving for mere employment, whether in Government department or in other departments? If that be the goal of your education, if that is the goal that you have set before yourselves, I feel, I fear, that the vision that the poet 54