Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/186

 corded in a book can obviate the necessity of a person working out the life-problem for himself. It there is no royal road to Geometry, there is absolutely no other path to truth than the one which a person, under the guidance of God and the helpful advice of the elder brothers in the great family of humanity, can cut out for himself. The grand law of 'sow and reap' is nowhere so true as in the investigation of truth. An infallible guidance is but a mechanical guidance incompatible with a free will and a full growth. Has the All-merciful Donor of all blessings endowed man with the precious gifts of intellect and emotion, conscience and devotion, that they may be mere parasites on an infallible revelation or be stunted in their growth under the deep shade of an overshadowing guru? An impious thought! For no kind of easy conveyance would we bargain away our own legs; nor shall we cast out our own eyes that we may be safe under a skilful guide. Again, they give us but a Hobson's choice who ask us to