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The past is ever with us, and all that we are and that we have comes from the past. We are its products and we live immersed in it. Not to understand and feel it as something living with us is not to understand the present.
To combine it with the present and extend it to the future, to break from it where it cannot be united, to make all this the pulsating and vibrating material for thought and action – that is life.
All the long past of the individual, even of the race, has prepared the background for the psychological moment of the action. All the racial memories, influences of heredity and environment and training, subconsciousness urges, thoughts and dreams and actions from infancy and childhood onwards, in their curious and tremendous mix-up inevitably drive to that new action which again becomes yet another factor in influencing the future.
It is true that the past is unaffected by the storms and upheavals of the present, but it maintains its dignity and repose and tempts the troubled spirit and tortured mind to seek shelter in its vaulted catacombs. There is peace and security and one may even sense a spiritual quality. With the past, the present and the future are inextricably intertwined. It is to the benefit of those to recall past history who have got a past which makes us proud and hopeful for the future.
India inspires the world.
People today are not eager to hear either the politician, the statesman, or even the so-called spiritual minister. They need a solution today of the chaotic and disruptive elements that are pitching man against man, country against country, and nation against nation.
And they might find a solution in India alone. The whole world today is looking forward to this land for its message, the message of love and service to the suffering humanity. The occidental countries which stand today in the forefront of scientine advancement have begun to realize that there is a great poverty of spiritual life and divinity.
There is a higher mission in life, the mission of love and service to humanity. Even America is today feeling the sting of that poverty. And India is the only country which could give the message of love and service to humanity.
~ Jawaharlal Nehru
