Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This is called “fanaticism”, but without its bad odor. You do your
work with fervor because you are convinced that it is “the thing to
be done”. You do it not necessarily for your sake, not necessarily
for your country’s sake or that of your community, but you do it
out of a strong conviction that, that must be done, and not to do it
would be an agony. If that feeling has not come in you, you can all
be labeled only as “Sevak”; you cannot work effectively in the
field of culture.
For this reason, though we have many great souls and great leaders
of thought, where few have been able to achieve anything or leave
a mark on the cultural life of the country. Mighty men they may
be. They could start schools and hospitals, but to leave the country
at the end of their lives at least one inch more supreme in its
cultural and moral life, one should be made of sterner material.
Ordinary mortals with their sentimental emotions, with all their
weakness and passions cannot achieve it. The cultural leader may
not even look like a hero, but his dynamism will come from the
self-sufficiency within himself, from the conviction of his goal and
of his programme to achieve it.
The true spiritual worker must calmly work in the face of jealousy,
passions and competitions, even within his own institution. You
cannot avoid these things. But to expect it to be otherwise is
foolish. Our work is not outside this world, and this is the nature of
the world. Also in the world, in trying to do good, you are likely to
get only kicks. Don’t wait for the consolation of getting
appreciation from other. Discover goodness in yourself. Seek
others and do as much good as you can. You will then find that
every moment is rewarding. You will find your happiness in the
feeling of doing what you wanted to do in the world. This must be
the attitude of sevaks, the workers.