The Coconino sun., 1923-08-17
INDIA
BY HARENDRANATH MAITRA
S-
Written Especially for The
Coconino Sun

The sun has just risen from behind
4 the golden temple of Bishewswar and
men, women and children are stream
+ ing across the road to battle in the
i Ganges, the sacred river of the Hin
4 doc from time irnmemorial.
What is it that has given water
such sanctifying power. Not only
I in India, but all throughout Asia, the
4 Orientals bathe in the river before
I they do anything. It IS the daily bap-
4 tisnl.
They dress themselves in beautiful
4 garments this, the gala dress they
1 adorn themselves and with garlands Of
H flowers and wreaths Of all kinds they
go to the Ganges and offer the first
worship that has been sanctioned to
them from the dawn of time.
With men, women and children rise
4 the birds and animals, especially the
sacred COW (for all animals are sacred
/ to them) and they all enjoy their
morning feast without any distinction
of caste, color or creed.
Who could understand India? Those
assuredly who have tried to hear the
beating. of India's heavenly heart,
/ who have yearned to kiss the lotus
4 feet of the Bharat Mata; who have
\ had in some measure in their inner
most hearts the ideals Of universal
+ love and spiritual rapture which IN
4 dia has been teaching to the world
/ from the dawn of time.
What country has been favored
with such wonderful gifts from ma
ture? On the north the mighty Him
alayas soaring aloft and what a his
tory has not been written in their
Y caves and heights?
The minds of the Hindu Dhilosoph-
ers saw the great forest groves, the
hidden temples near mountain
streams and gorges, and above all,
rearing majestic in still beauty, the
snow peaks of the holy Himalayan
/ heights.
Seeing through and beyond the
mere concrete of natures manifesto
ticns, they viewed these ramparts of
eternal radiance as ever-present SYM
bols of angelic hosts keeping their
watch and guard over India, beloved
Of the Gods and revered Mother OF
Earth's spiritual life.
IF you plunge into the deep imneas-
/. urable forests of the Himalayan
slopes, you would sense something Of
that mystery which still forms a hid
den link between today and the
ancient and primeval Hindu thought
Here we shall still find the may
tread of paths marked by the sandal
shod who down the ages trod the frlys-
tic way. Innumerable are still the
signs left by those silent wayfarers
who journeyed peacefully up and ever
on to the great glaciers on the eternal
quest Of the inner lightl
When we come down to the Gangetic
plains we see huts and cottages
where men and women live in that
ancient simplicity which was the char
acteristic Of the Aryan race in ancient
Greece and ancient India.
But unhappily that ancient Greece
is gone, but the charm Of India still
allures. Still the arts and crafts of
Hindustan fascinate human magma
tion.
India has always tried to seek for
the one amongst many; her endeavor
has always been to concentrate the
diverse and the scattered in one, and
not to diffuse herself over many. We
shall miss the perfume of the Indian.
4 ideals If we do not recognize how her
great dream has been the attainment
of spiritual rapture and the realiza-
ton OF that
Fair beauty which no eye can see
And that sweet music which no ear
can measure"
The great Indian ideal of love for
all living creatures including plants
Il. Ln 4nI
sympathy with all has made India
realize beauty and emotion in their
highest sense.
4 Every morning our fathers and
mothers get up at three and commune
with the infinite spirit and in the
evening when the twilight comes and
the cowherd boys bring their cows
from the pasture lands our mothers
light the earthen lamp and burn in
cense in our cottage homes and with
disheveIled hair go to their little
chapel to offer evening prayer and
worship and children blow conch shells
and village boys and girls gather to-
gether to hear stories from epic
poems recited by our grandmothers.
"Where the mind is without fear and
the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken
up into fragmets by narrow do
mestic walls;
Where word came out from the
depths Of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its
arms toward perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has
not lost its way into the dreary
sand Of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by
Thee into ever widening thought
and action
Into that heaven of freedom, MY
Father, let my country awake.
a landlord was fined $3.50 for not