Archives: Visvabharati quarterly editorial

This is an editorial taken from the first issue of Visvabharati Quarterly.
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All civilisations are creations. They do not merely offer us information about themselves; but give outer expression to some inner ideals which are creative. Therefore we judge each civilisation, not by how much it has produced, but by what idea it expresses in its activities. When, in things which are a creation, the structure gets the better of the spirit, then it is condemned. When a civilisation merely gives a large stock of facts about its own productions, its mechanical parts, its outward successes, then we know that there must be anarchy in its world of idea, that some living part is lacking, that it will be torn with conflicts and will not be able to hold together human society in the spirit of Truth.

In the ebb of the tide, the river bed becomes too evident, its mud and sand and debris stand out in prominence;—with the loss of its depth the current loses its strength. In the history of every civilisation, there comes a period when the store of vitality, which it has accumulated in the distant ages, is exhausted at last. The manifestation of the creative delight, which is life's ultimate object, becomes smothered by the intricate overgrowth of appliances,—the means thwarting the end itself.

Senility becomes apparent when the mind cannot create new ideas, or have the courage and faith to believe in its own ideal world; when individuals merely repeat, mechanical movements endlessly, and the habits of life become fixed. This is sure to happen when utility occupies the principal place in our endeavours. For life is not utilitarian in its spirit, its inmost desire being for truth and fulness of its own expression. Men have sometimes thought, in their career of prosperity, that the repetition of the methods whereby they achieved success, the multiplication of material, could go on for ever; until they were suddenly startled by the warning touch of death.

The time has now come when humanity can only be saved by the awakening of a new faith. For this, the one thing that is needed, most of all, is to make a place in our education for some great idealism. The principle of material self-seeking, which pervades the atmosphere to-day, can never give us new life. It carries with it unchecked passion which, as it burns itself out, exhausts vitality and brings its own doom.

It is a fact of unique importance in the history of the world to-day, that the human races have come together as they have never done before. In the olden days, the geographical barriers kept them apart. At that time of physical separation, each people, in its separate area, had to evolve a moral ideal of its own. Only those groups of men, who had the mutual sympathy and trust which could lead to unity, developed great civilisations, because they alone were able to transform the external fact of their close neighbourhood into a spiritual truth. So were the peoples of the earth developed. Some survived, with marked characteristics of their own. Some perished owing to strife and conflict.

Now, in our own days, through the advance of modern science, the rapid transport of modern times has altered the past situation irrevocably. The physical barriers between man and man are overcome; only the barriers of habit remain. But men go on living as though the old limitations were still real. In place of the natural obstacles of the past, they put up their own artificial modes of exclusion, their armaments, their prohibitive tariffs, their passport regulations, their national politics and diplomacies. These new obstructions, being artificial, are a burden that crush the people under the weight of their dead material and create deformities in their moral nature.

The mentality of the world has to be changed in order to meet the new environment of the modern age. Otherwise we shall never attain that peace which is the infinite atmosphere of Truth.

But to accept this truth of our own age demands a new education. Just as, hitherto, the collective egoism of the Nation has been cultivated in our schools, and has given rise to a nationalism which is vainglorious and exclusive, even so will it be necessary now to establish a new education on the basis, not of nationalism but of a wider relationship of humanity.

The aim of Visva-bharati is to acknowledge the best ideal of the present age in the centre of her educational mission. The question therefore arises, what is the immediate step that she should take in order to fulfil her object. The first thing which thus occupy our attention is to concentrate in this institution the different cultures of the East and West, especially those that have taken their birth in India, or found shelter in her house. India must fully know herself in order to make herself known to others.

Love hungers for perfect knowledge. The first step, therefore, must be to secure a true understanding of all the real wealth that has been produced and cherished by every section of those who compose the varied life of India. With the realisation of the ancestral wealth of our own culture, comes our responsibility to offer to share it with the rest of the world.

We have educational establishments where we are brought up in the idea that we can only borrow, but not give. Have we absolutely settled down into this state of destitution? We must not say so. Our wealth is truly proved by our ability to give, and Visva-bharati is to prove this on behalf of India. Our mission is to show that we also have a place in the heart of the great world; that we fully acknowledge our obligation of offering it our hospitality.

It has been said in our scriptures "atithi devo bhavas", asking us to realise that the Divine comes to us as our guest, claiming our homage. All that is great and true in humanity is ever waiting at our gate to be invited. It is not for us to question it about the country to which it belongs, but to receive it in our home and bring before it the best that we have. We are told in Kalidasa's drama, how Sakuntala, absorbed in her passionate love for Duslyanta, sat dreaming only of that which was the immediate object of her desire. She allowed the Guest to go away, unwelcomed and unattended. Therefore the curse fell on her that "she should not realise her desire for the sake of which she neglected her duty." When she forgot to pay her attention to him who was for her the representative of the large world of men, she lost her own little world of dreams.

Visva-bharati is India's invitation to the world, her offer of sacrifice to the highest truth of man.

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