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October-November 1970
Personal
(Contin11ed ¡,.om page 2)
had the finest embassy building. He
smiled. "The United States, of course,"
he said. The Ambassador's mansion
adjoins our own embassy building. 1
was surprised to see the red flag of the
U.S.S.R. so close to the U. S. A., and
Red China close by. Of course there
were the embassies of Japan, Britain,
West Germany, Belgium, Italy, France,
Canada, and all the others. A truly
impressive " lnternational" boulevard,
with spacious grounds and magnificent
landscaping, and outstanding examples
of architecture.
We are staying at the comparatively
new Intercontinental Hotel, one of the
better hotels of the new Intercontinental
chain. 1 think it worth mentioning that
not only at the hotel, but everywhere we
bave gone in India, there is a rare and
unusual atmosphere of friendliness.
Everywhere one is met with a smile, and
a cheerful greeting. This is true in this
hotel of desk clerks, cashiers, bellmen,
waiters, maids in hallways.
These are sorne of the good things in
India 1 wanted to mention, for too
much of the other has seemed to be
conveyed to other parts of the wodd by
those who write about it.
It is, regrettably, only too true that
there are vast populations in India that
are illiterate, living in pitiful and ill-fed
conditions. But the government is mak–
ing good progress in modernizing
India. Although a very large majority
of the population over ten years of age
is illiterate, that is no longer true of the
younger children. As stated above, there
is now compulsory free education
through age 14.
To give you an example of the large
number of educated people in India, we
began running two-page advertisements
in the English-language !odian edition
of
Readers Digest
in 1968. We our–
selves did not then realize the Jarge
number of educated people in India.
We were advertising
The
PLAJN
The
PLAIN TRUTH
TRUTH, offering a three-month trial
subscription, and the free booklet about
hippies. Incidentally, I saw few hippies
in India, and most were tourists from
other countries. We were caught by
surprise, when results f rom the ads
swamped us. The first two ads brought
us 20,000 new subscribers.
I did get all the view I cared for of
the backward conditions that exist pri–
marily in sorne of the larger cities, when
we drove through the congested Old
Delhi city center. The condition of
many of the buildings reminded
me
of
sorne of our deserted "Wild West"
"ghost towns" in the United States.
Only this "ghost town" was not
deserted. It was crowded with teeming
throngs - more people per block than
I had ever seen. Most were afoot,
sorne on bicycles, sorne driving three–
wheeled conveyances, one wagon pulled
amid the confused conglomerate crowded
street by a great big ox.
Here were the crowded masses of
illiterates. 1 could think of only one
thing - scrawny, ill-fed sheep milling
about in confusion without a shepherd
to guide them. Modernization has not
come to this area yet. It takes time.
Rome wasn't built in a day. I
did
see,
as
J
have emphasized, real progress being
made.
WHY Human Misery?
But WHY, 1 asked myself, have
human beings ever come to such a
wretched condition? More than half of
all people on earth are existing in the
same condition of ignorance, poverty
and wretchedness - in China, southeast
Asia, Arab states, much of Africa, many
parts of South America. And we have
too much of such degenerate conditions
in affiuent U. S. A.
WHY?
And then, at the opposite end of the
pendulum, 1 have known many of the
supposedly "successful" - the rich -
and almost none really happy. They
never have enough to satisfy. They
strive relentlessly to GET - to pile up
money and material goods it will buy.
But it never seems to make them happy.
Then consider the NATIONS. No
peace. All "working for peace" yet the
world never finds it. WHY?
Yes, this took my mind, as we were
driving through this congested mass of
47
humanity, directly back to the Biblical
narrative of the "Forbidden Fruit."
I wrote of this last month.
THAT
is
where it all started.
So few seem to realize that animals
are actuated by instinct - but
h11mam
are
not!
Animals do not have
minds
-
only animal brains, and precious little
of that. Humans have MINOS! Yet the
moment humans are born, they know
NOTHJNG! They are born with minds
capable of receiving knowledge - of
coming to KNOW, to UNDERSTAND,
and to reason and make decisions. But
the newborn mind is unfilled with
knowledge, and it takes time to store it
with knowledge.
The newborn animal does not have
to be taught everything. It lives by
instinct. But the newborn human ís
utterly
helpleJI
of himself. He must be
TAUGHT - Or he must LEA.RN -
EVERYTHING!
He is not born know–
ing
anything
he needs to know.
These poor illiterates seemed so help–
less - so in need of enlightenment -
of right knowledge. Yes, it all goes
back to the story of the "Forbidden
Fruit."
The .first pacents rejected knowledge
by revelation. They had good minds -
perfect minds. They had been given
basic beginning knowledge by their
Maker. They were intelligent. But tbey
allowed vanity of intellect to reject their
Maker as the souRCE of basic right
knowledge, became imbued with the
idea that their intelligence was capable
of producing their own knowledge, by
observation and exploration, by experi–
ment, and by reason.
So
they chose to
TAKE to themselves the production of
the KNOWLEDGE of what is GOOD and
what is EVIL - to decide for themselves
what is right and what is wrong.
But the great Omnipotent Creator
bad designed for human GOOD an invis–
ible spiritual LAW to
ca11Je
all good for
man. And when the .first parents
rejected that WAY that is the CAUSE of
all good, and decided to supply them–
selves the knowledge of what is right
and what is wrong they automatically
chose the WAY that causes all evils.
For every effect, there is of necessity a
CAUSE. When they rejected the inexo–
rable LAW that is the
cause
of al! good,
they and all humanity automatically