I MAKE........................MEEKNESS 289
have to bestir itself to come up to your level. I implicitly believe in the necessity for this volunteer organization. It must not only be maintained, but it should be started in every Province and it should be so expanded until it has embraced every young man from the Depressed Classes within its membership.
There are people who object to such volunteer organizations. They are believers in Ahimsa and they object to these organizations and exhibitions of strength. I am myself a believer in Ahimsa. But I make a distinction between Ahimsa and meekness. Meekness is weakness, and weakness which is voluntarily imposed upon itself is not a virtue. In one of the Upnishadas there is a story of a lamb which went to God and lodged a complaint saying that he was the father of all the creatures and all the creatures were therefore brethren: but that notwithstanding this, every creature, said the lamb, was threatening its life forgetting all brotherly affection. How do you explain this ? asked the lamb to God. The reply God is alleged to have given is very instructive. God said you look so meek that even I am tempted to devour you. We have been very much like the lamb in the story and that is why every one has threatened to devour us. I am quite convinced that meekness in the sense of self-imposed weakness is not a virtue. I am a believer in Ahimsa, but in the sense defined by your great Saint Tukaram. Tukaram said and quite rightly that Ahimsa consisted of two things : (1) Love and Kindness towards all creatures, and (2) destruction of all evil-doers. The second part of this definition of Ahimsa is often lost sight of and it is because it is lost sight of that the doctrine of Ahimsa becomes so ridiculous. To destroy all evil-doers is the principal element in the doctrine of Ahimsa. Without that Ahimsa is an empty shell, only a beatitude. It ceases to be a positive duty. So long as we have no evil intention to do harm to anybody and so long as we have confined ourselves to destruction of all evil-doers, nobody can cavil at the acquisition and building up of strength. Shakti controlled by sheel is our ideal. You need not be afraid of any