Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/165

 with his life-blood—all live and move and have their being in an ethical atmosphere purer, nobler and holier than that of the morality enjoined by "Love thy neighbour as thyself". To live up to the dictates of a pure conscience and to uphold an inspiring ideal is an impossibility with one who takes any cognition of self as such. In the higher stages of moral progress, in the loftier flights of philanthropy and heroism, self is left behind as a mere nonentity; God, truth, and the world are the only concerns; and faithful service in their behalf and towards their glorification is the sole aim and ambition. To love thy neighbour as thyself is surely a noble law, a golden rule; but to shake off self, to live for the peace of the world and the glory of God, is the noblest of all laws, the very crest-gem of a moral precept. A total denial of self, an unhesitating march into the very forefront of truth, is an absolute necessity in the more advanced stages of that endless pilgrimage called life.