The need of the nations is not mere reconstruction but regeneration.
To battle nobly against poverty itself, we must batter against egotism and moral disorder.
Europe’s socialism is a socio–political creed. The Rishis glimpsed a truth greater than socialism—the truth of brotherhood, the truth of solidarity, the truth that there is but “one life in all.”
Tolstoy glimpses this truth and voices it in his story of the rich man whose servant was Nikita. The two march through fog and ice, the master taking to himself all the fur and clothing—leaving nothing for Nikita.
Poor Nikita is shivering in the cold. “I am dying,” he says to his master, “give my wages to my little lad or my wife. I am dying! Pardon me for Christ’s sake!”
And now the master’s heart is touched! The master—Vassih is his name—now begins to shake off the snow from Nikita’s body. Vassih, overcome with compassion, says— “You lie still and grow warm, and me…”
Vassih is prepared to die, he must save Nikita. Vassih covers Nikita with fur and clothing. Tears trickle down Vassih’s cheeks, tears choke him. He feels happy, —his one anxiety is to protect Nikita.
“Nikita is alive!” he says to himself joyfully. He feels he himself is Nikita, he feels that one life belongs to both.
This is one of Asia’s intuitions. To this, has Asia borne witness through the ages.
The modern nations need the inspiration of this Asian teaching. Then may they know that man is not, essentially, a fighting animal but a citizen of the Kingdom of Souls.
A civilisation may expand ever so much, but if there be emptiness at its centre, if it is not enriched with the truths of the inner life, it is as a soap bubble which breaks.
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