Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/418

 328 EARLIER INDIAN SPEECHES

some exceptions it has not been possible for us to do so; we can never express ourselves as clearly as we can in our own mother tongue. How dare we rub out of our memory all the years of our infancy ? But that is precisely .what we do when we commence our higher life, as we call it, through the medium of a foreign ton- gue. This creates a breach in our life for bringing which we shall have to pay dearly and heavily. And you will see now the connection between these two things, education and untouchableness this persistance of th spirit of untouchableness even at this time of the day in spite of the spread of knowledge and education. Educa- tion has enabled us to see the horrible crime. But we are seized with fear also and therefore, we cannot taka this doctrine to oirr homes. And we have got a super- stitions veneration for our family traditions and for the members of our family. You say, " My parents will die if I tell them that I, at least, can no longer partake of his crime." I say that Prahlad never considered that his father would die if he pronounced the sacred syllables of the name of Vishnu. On the contrary, he made the whole of that household ring, from one corner to another, by repeating that name even in the sacred presence of his father. And so you and I may do this thing in the sacred presence of our parents. If, after receiving this rude shock, some of them expire, I think that would be no calamity. It may be that some rude shocks of the kind might have to be deli- vered. So long as we peYsist in these things which have been handed down to us for generations, these in- cidents may happen. But there is a higher law of Nature, and in due obedience, to that higher law, ray parents and myself should make that sacrifice.

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