of certain nations is living for the future. All the
modern nations are striving to win force and power from nature. There is
another class of men who live on the glory of the past. Now, what is to
be the future of our nation? Are we to live only on the glory of the
past and die off from the face of the earth, to show that we are worthy
descendants of the glorious past and to show by our work, by our
intellect and by our service that we are not a decadent nation? We have
still a great and mighty future before us, a future that will justify
our ancestry. In talking about ancestry, do we ever realise that the
only way in which we can do honour to our past is not to boast of what
our ancestors have done but to carry out in the future something as
great, if not greater than they. Are we to be a living nation, to be
proud of our ancestry and to try to win renown by continuous
achievements? These mighty monuments that I see around me tell us what
has been done till very recent times. I have travelled over some of the
greatest ruins of the Universities of India. I have been to the ruins of
the University of Taxilla in the farthest corner of India which
attracted the people of the west and the east. I had been to the ruins
of Nalanda, a University which invited all the west to gain knowledge
under its intellectual fostering. I had been all there and seen them. I
have come here also and want to visit Conjeevaram. But are you to foster
the dead honours or to try to bring back your University in India and
drag once more from the rest of the world people who would come down and
derive knowledge from India? It is in that way and that way alone we can
win our self-respect and make our life and the life of the nation
worthy. The present era is the era of temples of learning. In order to
erect temples of learning we require all the offerings of our mighty
people. We want to erect temples and "viharas" which are so
indispensable to the study of nature and her secrets. It is a problem
which appeals to every thoughtful Indian. It is by the effort of the
people and by their generosity that all these mighty temples arose; and
now are we to worship the dead stones or are we to erect living temples
so that the knowledge that has been made in India shall be perpetuated
in India? I received requests from the different Universities in America
and Germany to allow students from those countries to come and learn the
science that has been initiated i