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Bunch of Thoughts 2486072a 106

The document critiques the infatuation with wishful thinking and emphasizes the necessity of national strength for true honor and peace. It argues that the world respects strength over philosophy, using historical examples to illustrate how weakness leads to suffering and national degradation. The author warns against the misconceptions of non-violence that equate weakness with virtue, advocating for the recognition of strength as essential for survival and dignity.

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Sharad Kumar
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6 views2 pages

Bunch of Thoughts 2486072a 106

The document critiques the infatuation with wishful thinking and emphasizes the necessity of national strength for true honor and peace. It argues that the world respects strength over philosophy, using historical examples to illustrate how weakness leads to suffering and national degradation. The author warns against the misconceptions of non-violence that equate weakness with virtue, advocating for the recognition of strength as essential for survival and dignity.

Uploaded by

Sharad Kumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A Lesson for the Present

Thus we find that the various high-sounding concepts that we have taken up as the sheet-
anchor of our national prestige and progress have really no value in this world of hard
reality. However, in spite of burning our fingers repeatedly, we are not able to overcome
the infatuation for wishful thinking. This has been a curse on our people not merely now
but for a number of centuries past. When Chengiz Khan was planning to invade our
country he came to know that a large number of people in our N.W. region had embraced
Buddhism. So he made a show of becoming a Buddhist and then invaded. Many of the
Buddhist here, seeing that he was their co-religionist, went forward to welcome him. The
result was, Chengiz Khan could raise mountain-high heaps of human heads – all under
the ‘non-violent’ cover of Buddhism!

World Worships Strength

Let us at least now recognise the truth that for real national honour and peace, there is no
other way except the building of invincible national strength. It is only then that the great
principles that we preach to the world will carry weight and prestige. The world is not
prepared to listen to the philosophy, however sublime, of the weak. There is an old
incident, which appeared in many of our important papers. Our great national bard
Rabindranath Tagore had gone to Japan. He was to address the University students on the
greatness of Hindu philosophy. But the lecture hall remained vacant except for a few
professors! Thinking that such a poor show would be an insult to the distinguished
visitor, one of the professors tried to persuade the students, who were standing far away,
to attend the lecture. The students firmly refused saying, "We do not want to listen to the
philosophy of a slave nation"!

The world worships only the strong. Before the last war, when England was powerful,
our people tried to imitate and eulogise the English. But when, during the war, it
appeared for a time that Germany would win, they began to adore Hilter and even
Nazism. We know of persons now most vociferous in their condemnation of Hitler and
Nazism but who were turning their radios in secret to listen to German news in those days
with a sense of admiration. How elated they were to hear of the fall of France within
hardly two weeks of German invasion! Now the very same persons worship either
America or Russia because these happen to be the countries, which shattered the military
might of Germany and stand today as great world powers. The fascination communism
holds for many people today is mainly due to the show of brute strength by the votaries
of Communism-Russia and China. That is the way of the world. Nobody cares a whit for
the voice of the weak. Long ago our forefathers had declared that the desires of the poor
and weak are just castles in the air-

mRi|Urs foyh;Urs nfjnzk.kka euksjFkk%A

Strength is Virtue, Weakness is Sin


Whatever the external conditions, it is the weak who suffer. No amount of external
adjustment or juxtapositions will be able to save a nation if it is inherently weak. To
remain weak is the most heinous sin in this world, as that would destroy oneself and also
incite feelings of violence in others. Our forefathers have said that physical survival is
part of the highest religion and for physical survival strength is the only basis. It is said of
Vishwamitra that once during an acute famine he did not get any food for days together.
One day he saw the rotting leg of a dead dog lying in a Chandala’s house. Vishwamitra
snatched it and got ready to eat it by first making an offering to God. The Chandala
exclaimed, "Oh, sage, how is it you are eating a dog’s leg?" Vishwamitra replied, "Yes I
must first live and be strong enough in order to do penance and good deeds in the world."

But the thinking in our country during the last few decades has been one of looking down
upon strength as something sinful and reprehensible. A wrong interpretation of ‘non-
violence’ has deprived the national mind of the power of discrimination. We have begun
to look upon strength as ‘violence’ and to glorify our weakness.

Once a Sadhu said, "The very word ‘ahimsa’(non-violence) is a negative expression


derived form ‘himsa’(violence) by prefixing ‘a’ (non) to the positive idea of himsa
(violence). A person sufficiently strong to do himsa, but not doing so out of restraint,
discretion and compassion can alone be said to be practising ahimsa. Suppose a strong
man is going in a road and somebody knocks against him. If the strong man says with
compassion, "All right, my dear fellow, I excuse you for the wrong you have done me",
then we say that the strong man has practised non-violence. For, though he is capable of
giving him a blow and smashing his skull, he has restrained himself. Suppose, a thin, lean
man – just a mosquito! – is going and somebody pulls his ears and the ‘mosquito’
trembling form head to foot says, "Sir, I excuse you", who will believe him? Who will
say that he is practising non-violence? He is like a man who, unable to check the dacoits
plundering his house, loudly proclaims vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the entire world is my
home)! People will only say that he is a coward and hypocrite, that he dare not to do
anything and is only hiding his cowardice behind big platitudes. The atmosphere of our
country today is charged with such misconceptions and platitudes of self-deception. A
dense cloud of dust is raised in the form of high-sounding words like ‘peace’ and ‘non-
violence’ with an assumed air of moral authority only to cover up our imbecility.

Non-Violence of the Imbecile

It is because of such perverse notions that we have been losing all-round. We find our
frontiers shrinking. No one is in a mood to protect the integrity and honour of the
motherland. Every national insult is covered up under the mast of ‘peace’. Day after day
insults are being heaped upon us. Our people are being shot down by the enemies. And
China presents the dead bodies of our eleven soldiers on the birthday of Pandit Nehru!
All these we gulp down saying that we are devotees of ‘peace’! It is said in the
Mahabharata that a person who goes on swallowing insults is neither a male nor a
female.

,rkokuso iq#"kks ;ne"khZ ;n{kehA

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