Page:Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches.djvu/214

M. K. Gandhi needs, but we perhaps of all the other Nations of the world need just now, is nothing else and nothing less than character-building. You know that Mr. Gokhale used so often to say that our average was less than the average of so many European Nations. I do not know whether that statement of him, whom with pride I consider to be my political Guru, has really foundation in fact. But I do believe that there is much to be said to justify that statement in so far as the educated India is concerned, not because the educated portion of the community blundered, but because we have been creatures of circumstances. Be that as it may; this is the maxim of life which I have accepted, namely, that no work done by any man, no matter how great he is, will really prosper unless it has a religious backing. By religion, I do not mean the religion which you will get after reading all the scriptures of the world; it is not really a grasp by the brain, but it is the heart-grasp. It is a thing which is not evident to us, but it is a thing which is evolved out of us; it is always within us, with some, consciously so, with the others quite unconsciously, but it is there, and whether we wake up this religious instinct in us through 94