The Danish Peace Academy

GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES

Letter, August 4, 1932

[Esther Menon, in a letter to Gandhi, asked “why the idea of brotherhood did not take root among nations in spite of the example set by Bapu, Kagawa, Albert Schweitzer and others”. (The Diary of Mahadev Desai, Vol. I, page 270)]

Y.C.P.

August 4, 1932

Brotherhood is just now only a distant aspiration. To me it is a test of true spirituality. All our prayers, fasting and observances are empty nothings so long as we do not feel a live kinship with all life. But we have not even arrived at that intellectual belief, let alone a heart realisation. We are still selective. A selective brotherhood is a selfish partnership. Brotherhood requires no consideration or response. If it did, we could not love those whom we consider as vile men and women. In the midst of strife and jealousy, it is a most difficult performance. And yet true religion demands nothing less from us. Therefore each one of us has to endeavour to realise this truth for ourselves irrespective of what others do.

Source: Diary of Mahadev Desai; Collected Works, Volume 50, page 328

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