W e must always remember that our backbone is spirituality, and to do that we must have a guide who will show the path to us, that path about which I am talking just now. If any of you do not believe it, if there be a Hindu boy amongst us who is not ready to believe that his religion is pure spirituality, I do not call him a Hindu.
I remember in one of the villages of Kashmir, while talking to an old Mohammedan lady, I asked her in a mild voice, ‘What religion is yours?’
She replied in her own language, ‘Praise the Lord! By the mercy of God, I am a Mussalman.’
And then I asked a Hindu, ‘What is your religion?’ He plainly replied, ‘I am a Hindu.’
I remember that grand word of the Katha Upanishad—shraddha or marvellous faith. An instance of Shraddha can be found in the life of Nachiketa. To preach the doctrine of Shraddha or genuine faith is the mission of my life. Let me repeat to you that this faith is one of the potent factors of humanity and of all religions. First, have faith in yourselves. Know that though one may be a little bubble and another may be a mountain-high wave, yet behind both the bubble and the wave there is the infinite ocean.