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A Slave Has Not The Freedom Even To Do The Right Thing.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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A Slave Has Not

Mahatma Gandhi

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A Slave Has Not The Freedom Even To Do The Right Thing.

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My Work Will Be Finished If I Succeed In Carrying Conviction To The Human Family That Every Man Or Woman, However Weak In Body, Is The Guardian Of His Or Her Self-respect And Liberty.

The Wind Of God's Grace Is Incessantly Blowing. Lazy Sailors On The Sea Of Life Do Not Take Advantage Of It. But The Active And Strong Always Keep The Sails Of Their Minds Unfurled To Catch The Favorable Winds And Thus Reach Their Destination Very Soon.

God Has Blessed Man With Seed That Has The Highest Potency And Woman With A Field Richer Than The Richest Earth To Be Found Anywhere On His Globe.

Fight If You Must On The Path Of Righteousness And God Will Be With You.

Power Is Of Two Kinds. One Is Obtained By The Fear Of Punishment And The Other By Acts Of Love. Power Based On Love Is A Thousand Times More Effective And Permanent Then The One Derived From Fear Of Punishment.

It Is Quite Proper To Resist And Attack A System, But To Resist And Attack Its Author Is Tantamount To Resisting And Attacking Oneself, For We Are All Tarred With The Same Brush, And Are Children Of One And The Same Creator, And As Such The Divine Powers Within Us Are Infinite. To Slight A Single Human Being, Is To Slight Those Divine Powers And Thus To Harm Not Only That Being, But With Him, The Whole World.

Hinduism Loses Its Right To Make A Universal Appeal If It Closes Its Temples To Harijans.

Tolerance Is The Only Thing That Will Enable Persons Belonging To Different Religions To Live As Good Neighbours And Friends.

Our Duty Is Very Simple And Plain. We Want To Serve The Community, And In Our Own Humble Way To Serve The Empire. We Believe In The Righteousness Of The Cause, Which It Is Our Privilege To Espouse. We Have An Abiding Faith In The Mercy Of The Almighty God, And We Have Firm Faith In The British Constitution. That Being So, We Should Fail In Our Duty If We Wrote Anything With A View To Hurt.

The Real Implication Of Equal Distribution Is That Each Man Shall Have The Wherewithal To Supply All His Natural Needs And No More.

A Country That Is Governed By Its National Army Can Never Be Morally Free And, Therefore, Its So-called Weakest Member Can Never Rise To His Full Moral Height.

Rationalists Are Admirable Beings, Rationalism Is A Hideous Monster When It Claims For Itself Omnipotence. Attribution Of Omnipotence To Reason Is As Bad A Piece Of Idolatry As Is Worship Of Stock And Stone Believing It To Be God.

The Charkha Is The Symbol Of Nonviolence On Which All Life, If It Is To Be Real Life, Must Be Based.

All Satyagraha And Fasting Is A Species Of Tyaga. It Depends For Its Effects Upon An Expression Of Wholesome Public Opinion Shorn Of All Bitterness.

You Can't Hurt Me Without My Permission.

To Forgive Is Not To Forget. The Merit Lies In Loving In Spite Of The Vivid Knowledge That One That Must Be Loved Is Not A Friend. There Is Not Merit In Loving An Enemy When You Forget Him For A Friend.

More Caution And Perhaps More Restraint Are Necessary In Breaking A Fast Than In Keeping It.

No Charter Of Freedom Will Be Worth Looking At Which Does Not Ensure The Same Measure Of Freedom For The Minorities As For The Majority.

Every Worthy Act Is Difficult. Ascent Is Always Difficult. Descent Is Easy And Often Slippery.

When A Man Wants To Make Up With His Maker, He Does Not Consult A Third Party.

Being Dissatisfied And Properly Dissatisfied With The Husk Of Hinduism, You Are In Danger Of Losing Even The Kernel, Life Itself.

India Must Protect Her Primary Industries Even As A Mother Protects Her Children Against The Whole World Without Being Hostile To It.

I Would Like To Assure Those Who Would Serve Daridranarayana That There Is Music, Art, Economy And Joy In The Spinning Wheel.

A Satyagrahi Has Always His Minimum And It Is This Minimum That Is Wanted In Connection With This Struggle.

In Any Case, The Fear Of Subservience Is Quite Imaginary.

A Coward Is Less Than A Man. He Does Not Deserve To Be A Member Of A Society Of Men And Women

The Pilgrimage To Swaraj Is A Painful Climb.

No Reform Is Possible Unless Some Of The Educated And The Rich Voluntarily Accept The Status Of The Poor, Travel Third, Refuse To Enjoy The Amenities Denied To The Poor And, Instead Of Taking Avoidable Hardships, Discourtesies And Injustice As A Matter Of Course, Fight For Their Removal.

For A Bowl Of Water Give A Goodly Meal; For A Kindly Greeting Bow Thou Down With Zeal; For A Simple Penny Pay Thou Back With Gold; If Thy Life Be Rescued, Life Do Not Withhold. Thus The Words And Actions Of The Wise Regard; Every Little Service Tenfold They Reward. But The Truly Noble Know All Men As One, And Return With Gladness Good For Evil Done.

Close The Day With Prayer So That You May Have A Peaceful Night Free From Dreams And Nightmares.

Men In Prison Are "civilly Dead" And Have No Claim To Any Say In Policy.

I Like Your Christ. I Do Not Like Your Christians. Your Christians Are So Unlike Your Christ.

No Matter What The Cause Was And Wherever It Was, Indian Governments Must Never Requisition The Services Of British Soldiers To Deal With Civil Disturbances.

British Soldiers

A Genuine Satyagraha Should Never Excite Contempt In The Opponent Even When It Fails To Command Regard Or Respect.

God Is Not A Power Residing In The Clouds. He Is An Unseen Power Residing Within Us And Nearer To Us Than Finger Nails To The Flesh.

It Is Indeed A Million Times Better To Appear Untrue Before The World Than To Be Untrue To Ourselves.

Even A Single Lamp Dispels The Deepest Darkness.

My Shyness Has Been In Reality My Shield And Buckler. It Has Allowed Me To Grow. It Has Helped Me In My Discernment Of Truth.

Religion All The World Over Offeres God As The Solace And Comfort For All In Agony.

I Will Not Have The Power Of Nonviolence To Be Underestimated In Order To Cover My Limitations Or Weaknesses.

[i]t Seems To Me As Clear As Daylight That Abortion Would Be A Crime.

They Might Kill Me But They Cannot Kill Gandhism. If Truth Can Be Killed, Gandhism Can Be Killed.

You Will Eat Not To Satisfy Your Palate But Your Hunger. A Self-indulgent Man Lives To Eat; A Self-restrained Man Eats To Live.

I Believe In The Absolute Oneness Of God And Therefore Of Humanity. What Though We Have Many Bodies? We Have But One Soul. . . . I Know God Is Neither In Heaven Nor Down Below, But In Everyone.

I Do Not Want To Foresee The Future. I Am Concerned With Taking Care Of The Present. God Has Given Me No Control Over The Moment Following.

Newspapers Should Be Read For The Study Of Facts. They Should Not Be Allowed To Kill The Habit Of Independent Thinking.

The Spirit Of Democracy Is Not A Mechanical Thing To Be Adjusted By Abolition Of Forms. It Requires Change Of Heart.

My Quarrel With The Advocates Of Contraceptives Lies In Their Taking For Granted That Ordinary Mortals Cannot Exercise Self-control.

Men Of Stainless Character And Self Purification Will Easily Inspire Confidence And Automatically Purify The Atmosphere Around Them.

Mankind Has To Get Out Of Violence Only Through Non-violence.

It Is Derogatory To The Dignity Of Mankind, It Is Derogatory To The Dignity Of India, To Entertain For One Single Moment Hatred Towards Englishmen.

If They Are Truly Nonviolent, They Must Also Realize That Civil Disobedience Is An Impossibility Till The Preliminary Work Of Construction Is Done.

Only He Can Take Great Resolves Who Has Indomitable Faith In God And Has Fear Of God.

The Whole Existence Of Man Is A Ceaseless Duel Between The Forces Of Life And Death.

Love Based Upon Indulgence Of Animal Passion, Is At Best A Selfish Affair, And Likely To Snap Under The Slightest Strain.

Khadi To Me Is The Symbol Of Unity Of Indian Humanity, Of Its Economic Freedom And Equality And, Therefore, Ultimately, In The Poetic Expression Of Jawaharlal Nehru, 'the Livery Of India's Freedom'.

That Nonviolence Which Only An Individual Can Use Is Not Of Much Use In Terms Of Society.

Civil Disobedience Is A Preparation For Mute Suffering.

Life Becomes Livable Only To The Extent That Death Is Treated As A Friend, Never As An Enemy.

Nonviolence Is The Greatest Force At The Disposal Of Mankind.

God's Word Is : He Who Strives Never Perishes.

Civility Does Not ...mean The Mere Outward Gentleness Of Speech Cultivated For The Occasion, But An Inborn Gentleness And Desire To Do The Opponent Good.

Woman Is The Companion Of Man, Gifted With Equal Mental Capacity.

Gender Equality

Love And Exclusive Possession Can Never Go Together.

Man Has Always Desired Power. Ownership Of Property Gives This Power. Man Hankers Also After Posthumous Fame Based On Power.

I Have Nothing Of The Communalist In Me Because My Hinduism Is All Inclusive.

A Man With A Grain Of Faith In God Never Loses Hope, Because He Ever Believes In The Ultimate Triumph Of Truth.

Though Violence Is Not Lawful, When It Is Offered In Self-defense Or For The Defense Of The Defenseless, It Is An Act Of Bravery Far Better Than Cowardly Submission. The Latter Befits Neither Man Nor Woman. Under Violence, There Are Many Stages And Varieties Of Bravery. Every Man Must Judge This For Himself. No Other Person Can Or Has The Right.

Let Us Learn From The English Rulers The Simple Fact That The Oppressors Are Blind To The Enormity Of Their Own Misdeeds.

Swaraj Means Ability To Regard Every Inhabitant Of India As Our Own Brother Or Sister.

People Say True Friends Must Always Hold Hands, But True Friends Don't Need To Hold Hands Because They Know The Other Hand Will Always Be There.

Let Not The Spirit Wander While The Words Of Prayer Run On Out Of Our Mouth.

Carrying Arms For The Removal Of The Arms Act Can Never Fall Under Any Scheme Of Nonviolence.

Non-co-operation Enables Us To Show That In Everything That Matters We Can Be Independent Of The Government.

No Society Can Possibly Be Built On A Denial Of Individual Freedom.

Be The Change You Are Trying To Create.

Time Is Wealth, And The Gita Says The Great Annihilator Annihilates Those Who Waste Time.

I Have No Other Wish In This World But To Find Light And Joy And Peace Through Hinduism.

Religious Truth, Or For That Matter Any Truth, Requires A Calm And Meditative Atmosphere For Its Percolation.

Glory Lies In The Attempt To Reach One's Goal And Not In Reaching It.

Imperialism Is A Negation Of God. It Does Ungodly Acts In The Name Of God.

Your Future Depends On What You Do Today.

A Slave Has Not The Freedom Even To Do The Right Thing.

In The Application Of Satyagraha, I Discovered, In The Earliest Stages, That Pursuit Of Truth Did Not Admit Of Violence Being Inflicted On One's Opponent, But That He Must Be Weaned From Error By Patience And Sympathy. For, What Appears To Be Truth To The One May Appear To Be Error To The Other. And Patience Means Self-suffering. So The Doctrine Came To Mean Vindication Of Truth, Not By Infliction Of Suffering On The Opponent But One's Own Self.

To Give One's Heart Is To Give All.

What Is A Man If He Is Not A Thief Who Openly Charges As Much As He Can For The Goods He Sells?

Hinduism Is Not A Codified Religion.

I Believe That The Civilization India Evolved Is Not To Be Beaten In The World. Nothing Can Equal The Seeds Sown By Our Ancestors, Rome Went, Greece Shared The Same Fate; The Might Of The Pharaohs Was Broken; Japan Has Become Westernized; Of China Nothing Can Be Said; But India Is Still, Somehow Or Other, Sound At The Foundation.

Even The Dog Is Described By The Poet To Have Received Justice Under Ramarajya.

They Cannot Take Away Our Self-respect If We Do Not Give It To Them.

Happiness Eludes Us If We Run After It.

A Votary Of Ahimsa Must Cultivate The Habit Of Unremitting Toil, Sleepless Vigilance, Ceaseless Self-control.

Man Is Sent Into The World To Perform His Duty Even At The Cost Of His Life.

There Is No "playing With Truth" In The Charkha Programme, For Satyagraha Is Not Predominantly Civil Disobedience But A Quiet And Irresistible Pursuit Of Truth.

All Society Is Held Together By Nonviolence Even As The Earth Is Held In Her Position By Gravitation.

The More Efficient A Force Is, The More Silent And The More Subtle It Is.

Decency Requires That When A Programme Is Approved By The Majority, All Should Carry It Out Faithfully.

Yajna Is Not Yajna If One Feels It To Be Burdensome Or Annoying.

Self-realization Is The Object Of The Gita, As It Is Of All Scriptures.

My Patriotism Is Not An Exclusive Thing. It Is All Embracing. The Conception Of My Patriotism Is Nothing If It Is Not Always, In Every Case, Without Exception, Consistent With The Broadest Good Of Humanity At Large.

Indeed, The Test Of Orderliness In A Country Is Not The Number Of Millionaires It Owns, But The Absence Of Starvation Among Its Masses.

Religion To Be True Must Satisfy What May Be Termed Humanitarian Economics, That Is, Where The Income And The Expenditure Balance Each Other.

I Believe That Religious Education Must Be The Sole Concern Of Religious Associations.

Temples Are Like Spiritual Hospitals, And The Sinful, Who Are Spiritually Diseased, Have The First Right To Be Ministered To By Them.

I Have So Much To Accomplish Today That I Must Meditate For Two Hours Instead Of One.

Violence Can Only Be Effectively Met By Nonviolence. This Is An Old Established Truth.

We, The English Educated Indians, Often Unconsciously Make The Terrible Mistake Of Thinking That The Microscopic Minority Of The English-speaking Indians Is The Whole Of India.

Khaddar Is An Attempt To Revise And Reverse The Process And Establish A Better Relationship Between The Cities And Villages.

To Say That A Single Human Being, Because Of His Birth, Becomes An Untouchable, Unapproachable Or Invisible Is To Deny God.

The Reaction That A Ruthless Dictator Sets Up In Us Either That Of Awe Or Pity According Respectively As We React To Him Violently On Nonviolently.

My Nonviolence Does Not Admit Of Running Away From Danger And Leaving The Dear Ones Unprotected.

The Essence Of A Vow Does Not Consist In The Difficulty Of Its Performance But In The Determination Behind It Unflinchingly To Stick To It In The Teeth Of Difficulties.

I Do Not Wish My House To Be Walled And My Windows Stuffed. I Want All Cultures To Blow Freely Through My Dwelling.

Liberty Is A Dearly Bought Commodity And Prisons Are Factories Where It Is Manufactured.

What The Sermon Describes In A Graphic Manner, The Bhagavadgita Reduces To A Scientific Formula.

The More I Reflect And Look Back On The Past, The More Vividly Do I Feel My Limitations.

Conversion Without A Clean Heart Is A Denial Of God And Religion.

Government Of The People By The People And For The People Cannot Be Conducted At The Bidding Of One Man, However Great He May Be.

Fearlessness Is The First Requisite Of Spirituality. Cowards Can Never Be Moral.

Robust Faith In Oneself And Brave Trust Of The Opponent, So Called Or Real, Is The Best Safeguard.

Tolstoy's So-called Inconsistencies Were A Sign Of His Development And His Passionate Regard For Truth.

Destruction Of The Churches And The Like Is Not The Way To Swaraj As Defined By The Congress.

The Golden Rule To Apply In All Such Cases Is Resolutely To Refuse To Have What Millions Cannot.

A Teacher Who Establishes Rapport With The Taught, Becomes One With Them, Learns More From Them Than He Teaches Them. He Who Learns Nothing From His Disciples Is, In My Opinion, Worthless. Whenever I Talk With Someone I Learn From Him. I Take From Him More Than I Give Him.

If The English Educated Neglect, As They Have Done And Even Now Continue, As Some Do, To Be Ignorant Of Their Mother Tongue, Linguistic Starvation Will Abide.

It Is No Non-violence If We Merely Love Those That Love Us. It Is Non-violence Only When We Love Those That Hate Us.

Jesus, To Me, Is A Great World Teacher Among Others.

It Is The Quality Of Our Work Which Will Please God And Not The Quantity.

Quality Not Quantity

Healthy And Nourishing Food Was The Only Alpha And Omega Of Rural Economy.

Truth, Purity, Self-control, Firmness, Fearlessness, Humility, Unity, Peace, And Renunciation - These Are The Inherent Qualities Of A Civil Resister.

Conquer The Heart Of The Enemy With Truth And Love, Not By Violence.

Let The Jews Who Claim To Be The Chosen Race Prove Their Title By Choosing The Way Of Non-violence For Vindicating Their Position On Earth. Every Country Is Their Home, Including Palestine, Not By Aggression But By Loving Service

I Simply Want To Tell The Story Of My Experiments With Truth...as My Life Consists Of Nothing But Those Experiments.

The Truest Test Of A Democracy Is In The Ability Of Anyone To Act As He Likes, So Long As He Does Not Injure The Life Or Property Of Anyone Else.

God Never Occurs To You In Person But Always In Action.

The Renunciation Of The Gita Is The Acid Test Of Faith.

Earth And Heaven Are In Us

Steam Becomes A Mighty Power Only When It Allows Itself To Be Imprisoned In A Strong Little Reservoir, Produces Tremendous Motion And Carries Huge Weights By Permitting Itself A Tiny And Measured Outlet.

Be The Change You Seek.

Christianity In India Is Inextricably Mixed Up For The Last Hundred And Fifty Years With The British Rule.

I Still Somehow Or Other Fancy That "my Philosophy" Represents The True Meaning Of The Teaching Of The Gita.

You Assist An Administration Most Effectively By Obeying Its Orders And Decrees.

It Is Difficult, But Not Impossible, To Conduct Strictly Honest Business.

The Way Of Peace Is The Way Of Truth. Truthfulness Is Even More Important Than Peacefulness.

Moral Result Can Only Be Produced By Moral Restraints.

Newspapers Have Become More Important To The Average Man Than The Scriptures.

A Jailer Is As Much A Prisoner As His Prisoner.

A Policy Is A Temporary Creed Liable To Be Changed, But While It Holds Good It Has Got To Be Pursued With Apostolic Zeal.

My Notion Of Democracy Is That Under It The Weakest Shall Have The Same Opportunities As The Strongest.

Yajna Having Come To Us With Our Birth, We Are Debtors All Our Lives, And Thus For Ever Bound To Serve The Universe.

Those Who Think Religion Has Nothing To Do With Politics Understand Neither Religion Or Politics... The Things That Will Destroy Us Are: Politics Without Principles, Pleasures Without Conscience, Knowledge Without Character, Business Without Morality.

To Double Your Successes, You Might Have To Double Your Failure Rate.

Adversity Is The Mother Of Progress.

My Life Has Been Full Of External Tragedies And If They Have Not Left Any Visible Effect On Me, I Owe It To The Teaching Of The Bhagavadgita.

This Belief In God Has To Be Based On Faith Which Transcends Reason.

Ahimsa Can Be Practiced Only Towards Those That Are Inferior To You In Every Way.

The Bravery Of The Nonviolent Is Vastly Superior To That Of The Violent.

A Satyagrahi Is Sometimes Bound To Use Language Which Is Capable Of Two Meanings, Provided Both The Meanings Are Obvious And Necessary And There Is No Intention To Deceive Anyone.

A Perfect Muslim Is He From Whose Tongue And Hands Mankind Is Safe.

The Essence Of All Religions Is One. Only Their Approaches Are Different.

When Faced With A Choice Between Violence And Cowardice, Always Choose Violence

I Refuse To Put The Unnecessary Strain Of Learning English Upon My Sisters For The Sake Of False Pride Or Questionable Social Advantage.

The Khadi Spirit Means Also An Infinite Patience.

The Cow To Me Is A Sermon On Pity.

An Awakened People Who Rely Upon Their Nonviolent Strength Are Independent In The Face Of Any Conceivable Combination Of The Armed Powers.

Truth And Untruth Often Co-exist; Good And Evil Often Are Found Together

God Has Enabled Me To Affect The Life Of The Country Since 1920 Without The Necessity Of Office.

The English Language Is So Elastic That You Can Find Another Word To Say The Same Thing.

English Language

If You Don't Find God In The Next Person You Meet, It Is A Waste Of Time Looking For Him Further.

What Is Really Needed To Make Democracy Function Is Not Knowledge Of Facts, But Right Education.

The Lower Animals Are Our Brethren. I Include Among Them The Lion And The Tiger. We Do Not Know How To Live With These Carnivorous Beasts And Poisonous Reptiles Because Of Our Ignorance.

To Have A Happy Ending, Choose A Happy Moment And Call It 'the Ending'. Honesty Is Incompatible With The Amassing Of A Large Fortune.

The Satyagrahi Should Not Have Any Hatred In His Heart Against The Opponent.

God Is Conscience. He Is Even The Atheism Of The Atheist.

An India Free From Exploitation From Within And Without Must Prosper With Astonishing Rapidity.

Man And His Deed Are Two Distinct Things. Whereas A Good Deed Should Call Forth Approbation And A Wicked Deed Dis-approbation, The Doer Of The Deed, Whether Good Or Wicked Always Deserves Respect Or Pity As The Case May Be. Hate The Sin And Not The Sinner Is A Precept Which Though Easy Enough To Understand Is Rarely Practised, And That Is Why The Poison Of Hatred Spreads In The World.

I Believe In The Essential Unity Of All That Lives. Therefore, I Believe That If One Person Gains Spiritually, The Whole World Gains, And That If One Person Falls, The Whole World Falls To That Extent.

Nothing Will Demoralize The Nation So Much As That We Should Learn To Despise Labour.

Nobody Can Hurt Me Without My Permission.

A Convert's Enthusiasm For His New Religion Is Greater Than That Of A Person Who Is Born In It.

The Rishis, Who Discovered The Law Of Nonviolence In The Midst Of Violence, Were Greater Geniuses Than Newton.

Men Should Do Their Actual Living And Working In Communities Small Enough To Permit Of Genuine Self-government And The Assumption Of Personal Responsibilities, Federated Into Larger Units In Such A Way That The Temptation To Abuse Great Power Should Not Arise.

Hindu Dharma Is Like A Boundless Ocean Teeming With Priceless Gems. The Deeper You Dive The More Treasures You Find.

A Successful Search For Truth Means Complete Deliverance From The Dual Throng, Such As Of Love And Hate, Happiness And Misery.

Education In The Understanding Of Citizenship Is A Short-term Affair If We Are Honest And Earnest.

Mine Is Not A Religion Of The Prison-house. It Has Room For The Least Among God's Creation.

It Does Not Require Money To Be Neat, Clean And Dignified.

If Hinduism Teaches Hatred Of Islam Or Of Non-hindus, It Is Doomed To Destruction.

My Effort Should Never Be To Undermine Another's Faith But To Make Him A Better Follower Of His Own Faith.

The Story Of Ramakrishna Is A Story Of Religion In Practice. His Life Enables Us To See God Face To Face.... In This Age Of Skepticism Ramakrishna Presents An Example Of A Bright And Living Faith Which Gives Solace To Thousands Of Men And Women Who Would Otherwise Have Remained Without Spiritual Light.

Democracy Necessarily Means A Conflict Of Will And Ideas, Involving Sometimes A War Of The Knife Between Different Ideas.

The Greatness Of A Person Lies In His Heart, Not In His Head; That Is Intellect.

Prayer Is A Confession Of One's Own Unworthiness And Weakness.

We Want To Go In For Suffering, And There May Be Torture. If We Put The Women In Front The Government May Hesitate To Inflict On Us All The Penalty That They Might Otherwise Inflict.

I Do Not Regard Flesh-food As Necessary For Us At Any Stage And Under Any Clime In Which It Is Possible For Human Beings Ordinarily To Live, I Hold Flesh-food To Be Unsuited To Our Species.

Vegetarian Health

Satan Mostly Employs Comparatively Moral Instruments And The Language Of Ethics To Give His Aims An Air Of Respectability.

I Would Heartily Welcome The Union Of East And West Provided It Is Not Based On Brute Force.

The Science Of Nonviolence Can Alone Lead One To Pure Democracy.

It Is Knowledge That Ultimately Gives Salvation.

The Power Of Nonviolent Resistance Can Only Come From Honest Working Of The Constructive Programme.

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