[continued …]
“All at once?” Collins inquired.
“Yes. Hard liquor should have been barred, but not beer and wine. We might then have had a law that could have been enforced. As it is, we have a law which makes money for dishonest officials and increases vice everywhere.”
Continuing, Baba spelled out, “I believe in self-control, not in coercion. Coercion is based on oppression, and results in fear and hatred. Self-control requires courage and may be induced by love. A person will do many things for those whom he loves which he would not ordinarily do, which he would not ordinarily have the strength of mind and power to do. How many habits has a person been able to break through love which he would never have the strength to break without love? And when the love is universal love, all habits which are detrimental, either to the individual or to the social order, will be dissolved in its light.
“It is the same with the economic situation you were asking me about. There is a very close connection between a man’s character and his circumstances, between his internal environment of thoughts and desires and his external social environment. ‘As within, so without’ is the law.
“If a man is dissatisfied with his environment, it is usually because he does not know how to properly adjust himself to the environment. Instead of thinking, how can I get out of this? And becoming discouraged and depressed, one should think, what is the lesson that I should learn from this experience?
–www.lordmeher.org, p1622
[1932, New York]