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LETTERS FROM ABROAD

33

silence of meditation, I am able to find the eternal perspective of truth, where the vision of outward success dwindles away to its infinitesimal minuteness. What is needed of me is sacrifice, Our payment is for success, our sacrifice is for truth. If the spirit of my sacrifice is pure in quality, then its reward will be more than can be counted and proved. And let my gift to my country and to the world be a life of sacrifice.

But my earnest request to you is to keep your minds high above politics. The problem of this new age is to help to build the world anew, Let us accept that great task. Santiniketan is to make accommodation for the workers from all parts of the world. All other works can wait. We must make room for Man, the guest of this age, and let not the Nation obstruct his path. I am afraid lest the cry of our own sufferings and humiliations should drown the announcement of His coming. For His sake we shall sct aside our grievances and shall say that, whatever may happen to us, let His cause triumph ; for the future is His.

NEW YORK, November 30, 1920.

I am often reminded of my Gitanjali poem in which the woman tells how she found God's sword when she had been seeking for a petal from God’s flower garland. All through my life I have been seeking for such a petal, and I stand puzzled at the 3