I have drawn a bleak picture of independent India but it was unavoidable. The freedom that we accepted about four decades ago was itself born of a supercilious disregard of patriotic values. The nation came into its own only by considering to sacrifice a part of itself. It is this mentality, this lack of faith in our strength or lack of attachment to the motherland that has led us from one unreality to another. All this has happened because we strayed away from Swamiji’s ideal of spirituality for the makeshifts of diplomacy. No wonder the nation mistook glib promises for performance, expedience for principles & tawdry splendour for inner strength. But cynicism, which suffers from an inner contradiction, soon becomes cynical about itself, & it must ultimately veer round to Swamiji’s ‘perennial philosophy’, his ‘man-making religion’, which takes all existence (sat), matter & mind, Good & evil, in its stride; it is this comprehensiveness which is knowledge(chit), & this knowledge is the source of happiness & joy(ananda).

         No one has spoken more eloquently than Vivekananda of the salutary effects of material science or secular education, which has helped to rid us of superstition & the stranglehold of ‘privilege’. But unless secular thinking is illumined by spiritual education, we shall commit the blunders that we have brought the West to the brink of disaster. Modern Western civilization, with its stockpiling of arms, is basically a civilization of fear, & the way of life it has brought into fashion cannot give peace & happiness. To my mind, not the least important aspect of Vivekananda’s philosophy & programmes is the enunciation of priorities. First in importance is universal education, which must be both secular & spiritual. Independent India’s most grievous blunder was to start with an enormous political machinery for its people, the majority of whom were not only ignorant but illiterate. There can be no uniform criterion of education, but as for as possible, all men should have equal opportunity, & education should be both secular & spiritual, with the proviso that spiritual education will not be confused with the teaching of any particular creed, but that it should enable the learner to realize the value & limitation of all creeds, & above all, the primacy of sprit over matter.

         The priority is economic betterment which should go hand in hand with the dissemination of knowledge. The aim of economic activity should be to give sufficiency to people of all classes. In the preceding pages, I have considered the views of three of the greatest socialists of the modern world-Marx, Lenin & Bernard Shaw-- & shown that not only did these socialists differ from one another but none had clear & cogent ideas on the proper distribution of wealth. Unhampered by any dogma, Vivekananda thought clearly on the subject & gave the right guidelines to our economists. Everybody expects reward for his work, but if he is properly educated, he would be aware also of his altruistic instincts; he would never forget that we do good work mainly because it is good to do good. The balance between self-gratification & renunciation would vary from man to man, but it would not be difficult to arrive at a norm if sufficient stress is laid on spiritual education. In this way we shall be able to establish a socialistic society in which equality will coexist with inequality.

         And third is in order of priority will be the evolution of the political system that will be subject to modification from time to time, but our principal objective will be to avoid the Scylla of tyranny & the Charybdis of corruption. This may at first sound Utopian, but it will not be difficult to compass if we remember that although all men strive to make their own fortunes, no man is a mere bundle of selfish impulses, that it will not matter if some enterprising people are given adequate incentives for their initiative provided no one is allowed to starve & no tyrant is allowed to throttle freedom of thought, expression or association. Then we shall be able to say with Shelly: