Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1.djvu/402

 heart, in which there is the Sunshine of God. Once t was asked to preside Over the Provincial Social Conference at Ranipet; Pandit Sastri was then at Madras. Having taken my leave of him, I went and presided. And when I came back, Pandit Sastri asked me. What did you tell them in your address, Venkata Ratnam?” “In your name, sir, I told them to be cheerful.” “Why, do you always find me cheerful And even with the familiarity I always enjoyed with my guru, my soul’s parent, as when Coleridge asked Lamb whether he found him sermonising and Lamb, in his own broken, stammering way, blurted out, ‘I ne-ne-never saw you doing anything else,’ so I said I never found him anything but cheerful. And he burst into a laughter and said, “Yes, yes, you have correctly characterised me. Our religion must teach men to be cheerful. Too long have they taught in this country that the longer a man pulls his face, the deeper is his spirituality. Our religion must make men put on a broad face and teach them to be cheerful.” Think not it is a cheerfulness that