Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/357

 dormant in us, we are living in a state of per- petual fear. We fear the temporal as well as the spiritual authority. We dare not speak out our minds before our priests and our Pandits. We stand in awe of the temporal power. I am sure that in so doing we do > a disservice to them and us. Neither the spiritual teachers nor our political governors could possibly desire that we should hide the truth from them. Lord Willing- don speaking to a Bombay audience has been saying recently that he had observed that we hesitated to say 'no 'when we really meant it and advised his audi- ence to cultivate a fearless spirit. Of course, fearless- ness should never mean want of due respect or regard for the feelings of others. In my humble opinion fear- lessness is the first thing indispensable before we could achieve anything permanent and real. This quality is unattainable without 'rel'gious consciousness. Let us fear God and we shall cease to fear man, If we grasp the fact that there is a divinity within us which wit- nessess everything we think or do and which protects- us and guides us along the true path, it is clear that we shall cease to have any other fear on the face of the earth save the fear of God. Loyalty to the Governor of governors supersedes all other loyalty and gives an intelligent basis to the latter.

MEANING OF SWADESHI

And when we have sufficiently cultivated this spirit of fearlessneess, we shall see that there is no salvation for us without true Swadeshi, not the Swadeshi which can be conveniently put off. Swadeshi for me has a deeper meaning. I would like us to apply it in our religions, political and econo- mic life. It is not therefore merely confined to

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