The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 3/Chapter 1
I
CONVOCATION ADDRESS,
University of Madras:
CULTURE AND DUTY.
(1923)
My Lord the Chancellor and other Members of the Senate, and Graduates of the year:
The privilege of addressing—of felicitating and counselling—the graduates of the year I owe entirely to the favor of the Chancellor; to whom I beg to tender my humble thanks. The honor of the position, it is obvious, consists essentially in a highly responsible task; from which, if merit were the main test, I should instantly shrink. For it is a task the difficulty of which— from the double dearth of new subjects and of fresh forms for familiar themes—has been repeatedly owned by those admittedly my superiors in learning and experience. Yet an impressive ceremonial affecting so large an assemblage of the choice youth of the land cannot but be intensely grateful to the heart of an old school-master, especially an Indian school-master. To him, as he nears the close of the working-period of life, this solemn scene is as a Pisgah-height vision of that Promised Land towards which, in humble imitation of shining exemplars, he has striven in his day to direct a succession of pilgrim steps. To the sight this is a joy; to the spirit, a benediction.
Another introductory word may recall the sublime sentiment shared in by all leading faiths that where even a few congregate for a worthy object, the Eternal Witness is unfailingly present to inspire and to bless. If there be some real significance in the myth which traces the genesis of learning to a striking incident in the self-manifestation of the Supreme, an occasion on which hundreds of ardent lives, with a promising future before them, are to be consecrated to the noble ends of culture and character, ought to be solemnised by the felt presence of the Parent of light and life. May we, while we are here, think and feel as under that pure, all-witnessing Eye!
A distinguished predecessor of mine in this position concluded his learned discourse with the world-renowned name of one whom he judged to be ‘the greatest man’ of the nineteenth century — ‘one who combined in himself more of the rich characteristics of greatness than were to be found in any other man of his time’ — ‘the great and good’ Master of Rugby. It becomes my sacred, if melancholy, duty to open my humble address with the widely respected name of one who has been frequently styled the Arnold of India. On the I5th of July of this year terminated a career which close study and correct appreciation can designate by only one word, ‘glorious.’ The ideals which inspired that life, the principles which governed it, the vigour and devotion which characterised it, the activities which engaged it, the beneficence which resulted from it, the affection and reverence which were elicited by it, have imparted to that life the significance of a dispensation of Providence. The University is indebted to the Rev. Dr. William Miller for work which, estimated by the period over which it extended, by the directions in which it ramified, by the ends which it sought to achieve, by the results which it helped to realise, will, I feel assured, be universally acknowledged as the richest contribution made by any single person to the growing usefulness of our Alma Mater. With all the might of keen fore-sight, broad sympathy and wide experience, he strove to enlarge the influence of this University upon its Affiliated Colleges so as to augment their usefulness as centres of liberal education. It were far from easy to calculate in terms of ordinary computations the full value of the monumental work he could achieve as the presiding genius of that splendid Institution whose history, during nearly two generations, may be interpreted as his own concretised autobiography. But one fact is clear : with the cordial co-operation of devoted co- workers, who always accepted him as their guide and pattern, he replenished the entire South Indian community with the rich asset of successive bands of well-educated and carefully-trained members, whom precept and example would inspire to a life of industry and integrity, fidelity and sympathy. Services of this high order and large magnitude justly entitled him to be designated, in one of the previous Convocation Addresses, “the doyen of the Madras University and Madras education”. But immeasurably richer than the work is the gift to humanity of the model life exemplified by this prince among men. It is a life which, in the phrase dear to our hearts in this land, may be named Dhanya jeevana : the blessed life, a life abundant in the blessings of grace. It is a life illustrative of the sage words of one of the broadest-minded* and finest-souled thinkers of our day : ”the good, the absolutely good, is eternally working itself out in the world”; and it is man’s prerogative “to feel himself infinite in his finitude, to learn to accept his closely bounded life and task as the process in which the side of him idiat is touched by infinity becomes real, to be aware of the immanence of the Divine in the humblest and saddest oonsciousness.” Dedicated to an end that surmounts the bounds of time and sense, refined and expanded through a strenuous course of self-liberation — ever-taxing and yet ever re-assuring, the pilgrim is led on to an illumination that visions the divine harmony which , like the calm above the storm, prevails eternally through the hankerings and strivings of the work-a-day world. ‘The numbing cloud mounts off the soul’; the whole being is filled with undimmed light and unmixed sweetness ; the full current of life is set, free and pure, to noble ends. The message of this emancipated and illumined life may, in some measure, be summed up in the master’s own words : the ideal life, for every man as for every nation, is the life of service; and service and subordination are the life of the Universe, isolation and selfishness, its death. To the graduates of the year I can offer no happier felicitation than the benediction of his spirit, and I can address no loftier exhortation than the counsel to follow the guiding signal of his life. Before I pass from this subject, might I bespeak your very calm and deep consideration, as befitting persons of culture, to one observation made by this great teacher? Does it not furnish food for reflection to one and all of us, when Drr. Miller, with his profound knowledge of history, confidently asserts that “the partnership between India and Britain is the appointed channel through which the influences tending towards the complete unification of humanity are to flow”? Dr. Miller was the bearer of this great message of confidence, goodwill and co-operation—of light, love and life—from the heart of Britain to the heart of India.
An expression of deep regret is due to another great loss of the year. Eminent in position, widely respected in society for simplicity of ways, sobriety of temper, independence of spirit and steadfastness of purpose. Sir K. Sreenivasa Iyengar closed his brilliant career with startling suddenness. For this University he won high credit as he rose steadily from undergraduate to Vice-Chancellor. Equally striking was the success he achieved in the larger sphere of public life ; where he owed it entirely to his solid merit that he was elevated to two of the highest offices open to an Indian in this Presidency. His whole spirit was in happy accord with the ideals of the University; and he cherished a glowing zeal for the honor of Alma Mater. In his impressive Convocation Address the key-note of the exhortation was : be true to the spirit of the student”; and how sublime was the picture he drew of that spirit! This loyalty to the spirit of the student he sought to enjoin with an austere unconcern for passing consequences. This rule of conduct explains his last noteworthy act as the Vice-Chancellor of the University, in dealing with a most unfortunate incident which saddened every thoughtful mind. 'Morality as regards study’, observes Carlyle, 'is a primary consideration which overrides all others’; and the Vice-Chancellor acted in this spirit of uncompromising rectitude — a spirit which could not but be respected not only by those who disagreed with him but oven by those on whom the chastisement fell. The example of this worthy life is bound to hearten many an aspirant after true distinction. In this instance also, my congratulations to the graduates of the year may he formulated in the wish that to their portion in life may come some of the success which he achieved; while my exhortation to them may find fit expression in the noble words with which he bade farewell to the graduates who had the privilege of being addressed by so distinguished a son of the University: "speak the truth, do your duty, swerve not from the highest study".
To these two departed worthies — each remarkable in his own way, the one an illustration of the amplest culture united to the sublimest character and the other a fine specimen of the rich fruit of University Education in this country — to these two gifted souls we render the tribute of our profound respect, even as we mark their exit from our plane of existence with keen regret. However, may there not be found something more significant than mere accident in the coincidence that these two striking persopalities, so prominently connected with this University, should be translated to a brighter realm even as the Institution which lies beholden to them for great services ungrudgingly rendered is to be ushered into a new day through the operation of the University Reorganisation Act? Who can say but that the illumining memories of the two brilliant lives have been set up as a double rainbow arch of hope to cheer the University in its fresh tasks?
The passing, in February last, of the Reorganisation Act just referred to, marks an epoch-making event in the history of the Madras University. As the first fruit of an administratiive reform, whereby Education has become a "transferred subject", placed under a people’s Minister, the Enactment is a welcome augury«of the generous interest which this University will, in future, receive from both the Government and the community. A teaching and residential University is the very heart of higher education; and its formal establishment , after a series of preparatory developments, furnishes just occasion for much satisfaction. Through large and wholesome improvements effected partly before, and largely after, the Universities’ Act of 1904, the University had, for years, ceased to be a merely examining body. The affiliated Colleges were, in a real sense, centres of University teaching and academic life. The masterly Report of the Calcutta University Commission, which is a mine of helpful suggestions, roused thought on the subject all over the land. It also presented a carefully-designed model-scheme of University reform. And the time was thought to be ripe for the final—the definitely finishing—step being taken for creating a teaching and residential University. The policy of focussing the operations within a circumscribed area has been adopted. Exception has been taken to this method. But its practicability has been urged as its justification. The intention to extend the plan to other areas has been acknowledged in the Act. As it is, the ample character of the scheme will take several years to unfold itself in its completeness. But the prospect is bright. To all friends of liberal education the future offers rich opportunities for zealous work. A commendable feature of the scheme is the reorganised constitution. The principle of election has been liberally applied. The bifurcation of the administrative function into executive and academic sections, each with a separate agency, is an improvement of great moment. The ideal of democracy is writ large on the reconstituted Senate, whereby that body becomes the meeting-place of all the interests and all the capacities necessary for the successful administration of a modern University. Even with the limitations to which they were subject under the old system, the Indian Universities have been appreciated as 'lasting monuments of glory which England has reared unto herself*, as convincing proofs that ‘England treated India as a trust from God’, and as fostering nurseries of noble influences which ‘are binding together the two lands and the numerous races with cords more powerful than the strength of armies and more enduring than the craft of statesmen’. May this University, as it grows under new conditions of increased resources and enhanced prestige, prove the wisest exponent of national life and the mightiest inspirer of humanity!
To a few topics relevant to this subject of educational reorganisation I shall request brief attention.
1. The status of the Mufassal Colleges, styled the Affiliated Colleges, under the new Act has been a subject of discussion. Is there any ground for the apprehension that the new scheme would tell adversely on this class of educational institutions? It has been urged that Colleges of this denomination retain an altogether unaltered, if not a somewhat improved, petition in relation to the University to which they are affiliated. But the real issue is, how does the translation of colleges within a certain area into Constituent Colleges determine the position of the rest? Do these latter stand, as they did before, on a footing of equality with the former? Is the division of the Colleges in this Presidency into Constituent and Affiliated Colleges a distinction without a difference? Are the advantages—the special facilities and opportunities—of a teaching and residential system, of negligible educational value? Or does not the existence of these advantages in which only one class of colleges can mostly, if not wholly, participate, place those colleges on a vantage-ground? The Council of Affiliated Colleges, whose sole function is to look to the interests of the Affiliated Colleges, will have, as its first duty, to give the most earnest attention to this question. The Act provides for the establishment of ‘University Centres’. The need for their establishment is thus recognised from the very commencement of the new operations. The Affiliated Colleges can, in my humble opinion, escape deterioration mainly through the creation of such Centres of University efficiency. The Council of Affiliated Colleges should presently set about the work of investigating the situation and formulating definite proposals. A ‘settled fact’ has been loyally accepted but that does not argue that the apprehensions of injury have been disproved. My esteemed friend, the Revd. Principal Meston, expects the establishment of one University, if not of more, in the regions outside the metropolis, before the close of the first quinquennium. May the expectation prove a prophecy!—2. In his Convocation Address the Rt. Hon. M. E. Grant Duff observed that the Madras University existed in the midst of a huge Dravidian people and yet one could hardly make a guess as to what the Dravidians might do. The outside world would seem even now to be little aware of the fact that a Dravidian Culture existed. Anyhow, the imperative duty in this respect lies in the direction of a vigorous development of the study of the leading South Indian Vernaculars. The compilation of Lexicons and the conduct of philological research are good in their own way. But they are accessories; the essential is the recognition of the Vernaculars as subjects of culture and the media of instruction. Vernacular poetry, the study of which is now a very minor concern, forms, according to the people’s innermost sentiment, a rich source of intellectual enlightenment and moral inspiration. The very manner in which a verse in a vernacular is recited by a pandit-educated and by a modern-educated Indian, brings out the difference—in the one case it is a chant, in the other a stammer. The Elementary school-master is learned in many sciences, but does not feel at home in Vemana’s verses ; and the simple rustic asks, 'what doth it profit a man to acquire so many sastrams but lose the soul of poetry’? Again, by bands of earnest workers, animated by various motives, the literary prose is being developed, at least in some of the Vernaculars, into a fit vehicle for cultured thought and sentiment. But it is a task weighed down with difficulties; and it merits generous encouragement from the University as well as the public. If modern learning is to be carried to the heart of the nation, it can be done only through the Vernaculars. Without a broad and well-laid basis of wide-spread Vernacular education, higher culture, restricted to a few, would, for national efficiency, mean something like the dwelling-place of Duessa—a mansion on a morass.—3. A former Convocation Address noted that the claims of studies relating to the industrial life of the community had been temporarily ‘waived in deference to the claims of pure learning’. But education along the lines of applied science is the clamant need of the land. The study of science enlists zeal only when it is directed to a practical end. Material prosperity and social harmony stand guaranteed to that nation alone which vigorously promotes the intellectual development of its industrial population. At the present time there exists an estrangement between ‘learning’ and ‘business’-Inestimable as have been the benefits of a liberal modem education, the best influences of the University have, however, been mostly confined to particular classes or communities. A feeling of ‘academic untouchability’ has been generated. For example, it has taken us some decades to realise the relation subsisting between the processes of irrigation and the fields to be irrigated—between Engineering and Agriculture. Similar limitations have tended to make the system lop-sided. A link of sympathy should be established between men trained in intellectual aptitudes and men trained in industrial skill. The University should steadily widen the orbit of her activities so as to stimulate technical training of a high order. Thus alone can a University justify itself to, and command the co-operation of, all sections of the great community, amidst which it exists.—4. The last of the subjects to be considered here is that of Moral Instruction. This subject has, a short while ago, been distinctly integrated into our educational courses. A certain class of educational institutions has always been alive to this responsibility. But the community as a whole has been rather torpid as regards this duty. Our system of education has, there-fore, been almost completely secular in aims and methods. But if ‘the formation and development of character is the central function’ of sound education, too much stress cannot be laid on the moral responsibilities of life. The promises demanded as a condition precedent to graduation are a testimony to the importance of this aspect of education. That all well-directed study has certain ethical tendencies may be granted. Yet, if the distinguishing mark of man is his moral sense—his susceptibility to ‘the three reverences’, direct, active, moral instruction should be a notable and noble feature of our educational system. I believe the best section of the community will endorse and support a liberal-spirited scheme of moral instruction. It will be in harmony with the finest traditions of the land. I venture to add that morality—man's correct response to his ‘temporal surroundings'—will irresistibly elevate itself to spirituality—man’s correct response to his ‘ eternal surroundings.' And this exaltation of morality need cause no alarm. India’s ultimate unity, consistently with her age-long genius, must rest on spiritual affinities. Let us only realise that sound education is a preparation for ‘fulness of life.’ As Bacon urges, the whole system of being should ‘be thrown out altogether’, as ‘Nature does in forming a flower.’ Thus alone the Teacher becomes the Guru.
Graduates of the Year, Ladies and Gentlemen : I feel grateful for the courtesy of your company in the foregoing* ramble over the field of education. This excursion were a digression but for the plea that to yon, one and all, education ought always to be a subject of absorbing interest. Distant as Utopia may be the millennium when, as a certain. enthusiast has hoped, the nations of the world would conclude to lay aside politics and concentrate attention and energy on education. The truth is, however, being made increasingly clear, for all the obsessions of the passing hour, that the sovereignty of arms and armaments is short-lived, and that the future chiefly belongs to culture and character. Hence the paramount importance of all problems of educational reconstruction. It is the duty as well as the privilege of every educated person to participate, with understanding and zeal, in this glorious work of national renaissance.—Now, ladies and gentlemen, I deem it an honor as I feel it a pleasure to offer to you—to each member of this fraternity—the most cordial congratulations of the University—might I add, of this assembly and of the whole South Indian Community?—on the respective degrees which you have won through tested capacity and acknowledged merit. As the eye dwells with delight on this thrice happy sight and the heart feels braced as if by an elixir of life, the memory spontaneously recalls that charming scene where, invited by a richly-ornamented friend to produce her jewels, a noble Roman matron introduced her beloved sons with words of the purest wisdom and love, ‘these are my jewels'. You are the latest—the freshest and brightest—jewels of the motherland; the youngest and, therefore, the dearest daughters and sons of Bharatamata. Unto you is richly due, and is hereby heartily accorded, all the prayerful joy, all the hopeful felicitation, befitting this auspicious hour. If the true wealth of a country consists in the numerical strength and the moral soundness of the educated section, the Convocation of the University is the annual presentation of the treasure-trove of South India for the appreciation of her well-wishers. This day is your ‘Day’; we rejoice with you; we render our thanks for you. The field of culture is world-wide; the domain of character is universal. To wish you well is to wish well of the whole country, indeed, of the entire race. This inspiring ceremony is significant of several noteworthy ideas and sentiments. It testifies to the lasting interest taken by the community in liberal education. It betokens the sympathy and the goodwill shown by all thoughtful persons towards zeal for learning and eagerness for self-improvement. It evidences how you are the objects of the tenderest solicitude from all quarters. It discloses the nature and scope of that fellowship, transcending faculties and professions, which a University seeks to establish. It aims at awakening in your minds and hearts a lively sense of your responsibility to augment the stores of your own knowledge and experience by incessant industry and to dedicate your powers and opportunities to the welfare of your fellow-beings. It commemorates your reception into a vast academic brotherhood of noble aims, generous sympathies and devoted services. It celebrates your initiation into that second—the higher and holier—life of the Spirit in Wisdom, Goodness and Grace.—My first word of counsel to you, therefore, is that, you value your degree at its intrinsic worth which is unquestionably high. Tour degree is your testimonial that you embody in yourself a respectable measure of talent and capacity, of perseverance and industry, of self-control and self-denial. It is the witness unto your possession of a cultivated intellect, chastened tastes, refined susceptibilities, worthy aspirations, considerate demeanour and disciplined character. The studies whereby you have qualified for the degree have ‘learnt’ you one supreme lesson— the tasks of the student are in themselves enlivening and elevating, that ‘labor is life’ and ‘labor is glory'. Those studies were designed and directed to evolve in you the true spirit of the scholar—the spirit noted for passionate quest of knowledge, cheerful submission to discipline, unswerving adherence to duty, keen appreciation of the realities of life and an inexhaustible fund of humane impulses. The ‘promises’ which you have had to guarantee with your honor before you could be admitted to your degree, constitute a comprehensive covenant that you would bo ever alive to your obligations as an individual, as a worker, as a citizen, as a member of society, as a factor of humanity. Through these pledges you have bound yourself to eschew whatever is low and unworthy, to strive after whatever is high and honorable, to employ your talent and influence for the diffusion of enlightenment and the propagation of virtue, to discharge with loyalty and integrity the whole round of your duties in life and to further the best interests of the community and of humanity to the utmost possibility of your opportunities. Thus, in eloquent symbol, your gown is the robe of a Dedicated Life; your hood, the budge of an ever-growing League of the Leading Light; and the diploma now handed to you, the Lamp of Learning more constant and more potent than Aladin’s 'Wonderful Lamp’. These form the charter of your franchise in the Republic of Letters. By your graduation you have been admitted to the freedom of the world-wide Commonwealth of Culture. Your Degree is thus a pearl of great price. I exhort you to use it with wisdom and to wear it with honor. I wish you all the, happiness of its possession.
It goes without saying that the Degree the possession of which entitles you to the esteem of all lovers of learning, has been won with incalculable pains. ‘Tendrils strong as flesh and blood’ intertwine the several generations; and as Emerson teaches us, 'every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.' But how hard the task to sum up the full ‘tale' of their self-denying services to posterity I However, out of a vast number, may it be permitted to a descendant of three generations of military men to dwell for a moment on one striking instance, memorable but oft-forgotten? In his brilliant Convocation Address, after a glowing tribute to the countless deeds of endurance, self-denial and heroism of the Madras Army, Col. Hughes-Hallet assured the graduates of the year, ‘it is the Madras Army which has made your presence here to-day possible’. To the numerous lives laid down on the battle-field should be added the stil larger number spent out in winning the victories of peace. From the humble hind who binds the sheaf or watches the reef to the exalted sage who, from the Eiffel-tower of genius, surveys the domain of knowledge, there ranges a glorious procession of good men and true who have ‘toiled and bled and died' that we may gain and grow and thrive. To them all we owe the pious tribute of profound esteem and deep gratitude. Thus, as a fruit of great sacrifice your Degree has come to be yours; and as an offering of pure sacrifice alone will you be suffered to employ it. This is the true meaning of the noble precept, ‘freely ye have received, freely give As a free gift of the self-sacrifice of the past you have received it; and, rendered richer with your reverent mite, as a free offering of the present you will pass it on.
This incidental reference to a truth of great moment—namely, that life can perpetuate itself only through renunciation, that lasting good is achieved solely through ceaseless self-surrender—demands that I should make a fervent appeal to you, with all the earnestness of a sincere well-wisher, to cleanse your minds of even the slightest taint of one misleading and injurious notion. I refer to the not uncommon notion that there exists a real antithesis, an inherent conflict, between privileges and obligations, between rights and duties. Unlike certain other pairs of words—such, for example, as light and darkness, good and evil-which name irreconcilable and, therefore, mutually extinguishing. Antagonisms, the twin words we are now considering denote not divergences but parallels, not contraries but complements. Rights and duties are inseparable concomitants, inalienable allies. It would be a fatal mistake to think of rights as the bribe for duties or of duties as the penalty for rights. Rights and duties are two aspects of one concept, two directions of one energy, two results of one function. They form the inlet and the outlet of one fountain of life—the inlet of power and the outlet of service. Rights without duties would bean idle boast; duties without rights, a surly growl. Rights and duties are welded into the undivided serene strength of self-realisation through self-reliance and self-expansion. Is it right or is it duty that prompts the stream to flow, the seed to grow, the bird to sing, the heart to beat? Withhold from the heart the right to pulsate, it is numbed; withdraw from the heart the duty to purvey, it is clogged. Nor is it irrelevant that we ponder over this fact for a moment. Our Alma Mater prescribes to us Culture as the supreme end of our being; and the distinguishing characteristic of Culture is the equipoise of Truth, which, resists what the poet calls the ‘falsehood of extremes’. The goal of Culture is that emancipation from the bondage of self-interest whereby every right is instinctively transformed into a duty, as in unimpaired physical life food is automatically transmuted into energy. Let rights be received as a trust and duties be accepted as a call. Then their connascent relationship in man’s moral life will become manifest- Then it will be perceived that even by a divine ordinance wide-spraad respect waits on unflincbing self- control, and liberal privileges are invariably yoked with exacting obligations. Verily, unto whom much is given, of him much shall be required.
Thus we are brought back to the thought that for being a liberal ‘pensioner on the past’, every educated person must be 'indentured ’ as a servant of the future. This, too, is an illustration of industry claiming ‘an interest in its own fruits’. Our position places each one of us under a triple obligation—the obligation of ceaseless self-development, the obligation of disinterested service to humanity, the obligation of reverent response to ‘ the Eternal Power, not ourselves, by which all things fulfil the law of their being’. These are the intellectual, moral and spiritual obligations of Culture. Genuine Culture is thus a composite of three elements—a beam commingling three rays, a strength woven of three strands. Will you be good enough to bear with me while I attempt a very short study of this very great subject?
Culture has been designated ‘‘the true philosopher’s stone’. The phrase is happy as an appreciation of the sublime results of self-cultivation. The actual process, however, is one of development, and not of transformation. According to Novalis, Culture aims at giving man ‘ a perfect knowledge and mastery of his own self’, by rendering the human consciousness ‘its own light and its own mirror’. In other words, the object of Culture is to fit man for his noblest achievement—namely, self-realisation. In the illuminating language of the Seer of 'Santiniketan,‘ every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man’. Culture is the witness to this Divine Hope in man, in that it affirms his high destiny to enlarge towards a glorious consummation. Culture is the pilgrimage of wonder to the shrine of wisdom. The basal assumption of Culture is that the human bosom is a mine of mysterious powers. The one great end of true education is to put man in conscious possession of these powers. The first among these is perception— the capacity to see with an investigating mind. Every conscious act of man is an exercise of this power of perception—the 'dwelling of the mind on the objects and happenings of life. Education has to steady this power by discipline and strengthen it by suggestion—that is, to develop perception into reflection, through concentration and comparison. Man thus becomes a being of the ruminating kind’; the essence of his existence as man is to choose, to ponder and to realise. And in order effectively to exercise this ruminating capacity, man has to limit himself, even as a stream limits itself to its banks. This is 'concentration’ and 'devotion’—the first illustration of ‘renunciation.' As a consequence, the human mind establishes direct contact with the realities of life. Its fruit is clear thinking, penetrating insight, balanced judgment, and, therefore, sure ground under the foot and an open view before the eye. Man is thus enabled to stand erect and to look ahead—to think clear and to see straight. Thereby he enlarges the sphere of his interest and the field of his influence. Like a widening river, he receives affluents from all sides into himself and expands. This process of self-expansion inevitably sheds the old shell of narrow self-interest. The self is drawn out of its little cell into the broad light. The bead and the heart are alike illumined. Aims and considerations with a circuit ampler than individual life become the decisive factors of plan and action. The thinking man matures into the considerate man. Altruism is engendered. Knowledge, vidya, is widened and deepened into wisdom— that X ray of the spirit which pierces through forms and appearances to the reality of existence. This is viveka—the search-light of the soul turned on the face of the world. Dark recesses are radiated; new avenues of thought are opened out ; new springs of pure happiness are discovered. Wisdom is sublimated into illumination, vignana till each single object shines as a 'theophany’—a suggestive sample of the one Eternal Idea'. My meaning I may seek to elucidate with a humorous but instructive example borrowed from a well-known British journal. There is the familiar primrose. We pity the Peter Bells of the unthinking world to whom the primrose is nothing more than a yellow primrose. Out of their ignorance we have emerged into scientific knowledge : we have discovered the primrose to be a dicotyledon, and we have classified it as a rhododendron. Indeed, we have proved our practical sagacity by adopting it as the badge of a political party in the Primrose League. Nevertheless, have we been initiated into the secret of it? Why does the inspired bard name it the ‘rathe primrose’? Can it be for the reason that it is the first smile of the incoming year—the messenger of resuscitated life—the bearer of the ‘good tidings’ that in nature there is no death but that 'every winter changes to spring’? Similar is the light which Culture, the Science of the Truth, casts on all the experiences of life. It is man’s glory to be, as the Arabic phrase hae it, Ashraful-Makhlukhat—the exalted one of creation, because of his inborn power to ‘con’ the lessons of this occult science. The cultured man is thus a person endowed with a trained and developed capacity to appreciate aright the values of events and entities in relation to the whole round of existence. He possesses what Wordsworth and, after him, Newman call ‘the philosophic mind’.
The moral and social value of the man of Culture, as the efflorescence of passionless sacrifice—viraga, cannot but be rare- With stores of knowledge which he is to be ever ready to augment through participation with others, he is an abundant source of, enlightenment. With pure motive, high moral purpose and a strong sense of duty, he is an inspiring model character. With catholic spirit, courteous bearing, humane impulses and benevolent designs, he is a ‘heaven-born harmoniser With clear thought, wide outlook, balanced judgment and well-directed energy, he is a powerful organiser. Braced by the vitalising conviction that ‘the highest is also the most real’; refined by the chastening influences of that true humility, vinaya, which, like ‘the fruit-laden bough’, 'rests its head upon the ground’; and illumined by the savant’s truth—‘the laws of nature are the thoughts of God’, by the sage’s wisdom—‘the shoe-black is Infinite’, by the Seer’s evangel— ‘among the Daityas I am Prahlada’, he is (in Lord Haldane’s noble phrase) a brother of the ‘Priesthood of Humanity’.
Stated in my inadequate language, such are the content, the aim and the worth of that Culture which the University assigns to you as the supreme concern of life. It is an ‘excelsior’ ascent of ever-towering heights. With expanding horizons and multiplying marvels, the prospect is glorious. The enterprise is heroic in purpose and fruitful in results. It is a path adorned with the foot-prints of the wisest and noblest of all ages. No traveller along this track, as a Persian, poet assures us, has ever missed his way. Security and success are guaranteed of Heaven. Stout of heart and firm of foot, keep, then, to this path. The warmest benedictions of your Alma Mater go with you.
Before conclusion, a word of special welcome is due to the Bachelors of Agricultural Science—the pioneers, as we trust, of a steadily increasing corps of trained and willing workers in a field of vast possibilities. A great world-classic widely honoured in South India, defines the cultivators as ‘the pivot of the world’; and upon the intelligence and the industry of the recipients of the new Degree will largely depend the sustaining power of that pivot. This Faculty, perhaps, more than any other, demands that devotion to duty which accepts hard labour as a privilege. It will be your good fortune 'to scatter plenty o’er a smiling land’. May yours be the joy of benevolent duties zealously discharged!—The Lady Graduates are entitled to the warmest felicitations of all friends of India. If men-graduates prove India’s cultural power, their sisters in distinction represent India’s cultural glory, 'a light to young or old’. A hallowed sentiment of this land demands that the mother shall be venerated as the first—the earliest and dearest—object of worshipful esteem. To you who are the expression of ‘the mother’, I accord, not only the respect due to grace, but also the reverence due to sanctity. In you and the other members of the sisterhood is vested the true greatness of the nation. May you achieve your heaven-appointed mission!
To Graduates of the Year in all the Faculties I would, in conclusion, address one word with all the solemnity of the farewell moment. It is not a word new to you; nor is it a word you will be suffered to forget. It is a word associated in the human mind with mingled feelings of awe, sadness and thankfulness—even the regnant word, Duty. The longer one lives and strives to be true to the purer promptings of one’s nature, the more vividly is brought home to one ’s conscoiousness the sovereignty of this mighty word over human life. It is, theirefore, incumbent on the outgoing to offer to the in-eoming generation, even as a memento of mutual good-will, some vivid though succinct account of one’s deep-impressed experiences relating to this all-compelling idea.—On the subject of Duty it is not possible that I can say anything that is new. But the reiteration of a world-old ideal is a daily task, like the daily reappearance of the Sun. The precept, ‘whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might’, signifies that a dedicated life alone can be a useful life. The Sacred Book of Human Existence opens with the dedication—‘ To Duty '- In the estimates of Duty, there is no distinction of *high and humble. The day ’s duty notes the fulfilment of the day ’s worship. The privilege of performing Duty is ‘the only absolute Right’ of man.—Of the several characteristics of Duty, reference will here be made to two. The eye of Duty is ever upon man. .It is ‘ the Hound of Heaven' watching over him through all the windings of life. No moment, no incident, is too trivial for the purview of Duty. Th» final judgment on Life is the verdict of Duty. Again, marvellous is the change of aspect in which Duty successively presents itself. It is usual to picture Duty as 'stern’; and severely stern it undoubtedly is, as it enforces fidelity. But before long, experience discovers stern duty to be stimulating purpose. Through discipline comes development- And as development expands and enriches life, duty is ultimately hailed as delight. Discipline, Development, Delight—these mark the stages in the transformation of sternness into sweetness- Duty may at first be struck out ‘as the waters out of the rock but, in the end, Duty oozes ‘as honey from the comb’. With this grace of sublimating labour into pleasure. Duty endears itself to life. Indeed, in the crowning accomplishment of man—self-realisation, life is duty, duty is life. The paramount duty enjoined by Culture is to realise the soul and surrender it to service. The supreme reward of a life devoted to Culture is the privilege to dedicate itself to love and service—that beatitude the glory of which has been chanted in such enblime notes in that ‘Lord’s Lay’ of our times, the Gitanjali :
“Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing that thy living touch is upon all my limbs.
I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind.
I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower, knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart.
And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it is thy power gives me strength to act.”
Graduates of the Year, such is ‘the vision divine’ that Culture brings into ken. Such is the heavenly gleam that shall be followed, with unaverted eye and undaunted heart, by every votary of Culture—the ‘golden dream’
Of Knowledge fusing class with class,
Of dvic Hate no more to be,
Of Love to leaven all the mass,
Till every Soul be free’.
Ladies and Gentlemen, once again I offer to you, as Sister and Brother Graduates, the heartiest congratulations of our University. And as she bids you an affectionate farewell, our Alma Mater pronounces upon each one of you the benediction of the ‘benign mother': Heir of the Past, Trustee of the Future, Apostle of Truth, Harbinger of Hope, may the richest gifts of Grace abide with you all your days!