Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/414

 3t4 EARLIER INDIAN SPEECHES

suppose that it is a sign of civilization, a sign of real life that we should multiply our eatables so far that we do not even know where we are ; and seek dishes until at last we have become absolutely mad and run after the newspaper sheets which give us advertisements .about these dishes ? Then we have

THE VOW OF NON-THIEVING.

I suggest that we are thieves in a way. If 1 take anything that I do not need for my own immediate use, and keep it, I thieve it from somebody else. I venture to suggest that it is the fundamental law of Nature, with- out exception, that Nature produces enough for our wants from day to-day, and if only everybody took enough for himself and nothing more, there would be no pauperism in this world, there would be no man dying of starvation in this world. But so long as we have got this inequality so long we are thieving. I am no socialist and I do not want to dispossess those who have got possessions ; but I do say that, personally, those of us who want to see light out of darkness have to follow this rule. I do not want to dispossess anybody. I should then be departing from the rule of Ahimsa. If somebody else possesses more than I do, let him. But so far as my own life has to be regulated, I do say that I dar* not possess anything which I do not want. In India we have got three millions of people having to be satisfied with one meal a day, and that meal consisting of a chapatti containing no fat in it, and a pinch of salt. You and I have no right to any thing that we really have until these three millions are clothed .and fed better. You and I, who ought to know .better, must adjust our wants, and even undergo volun- tary starvation, in order that they may be nursed, fed

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