The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedRomain Rolland
Title QuotedInde: journal 1915-1943
Date (Year/Month/Day)1961/06/15
ImprintParis. Lausanne Bâle : Vineta, 1951
QuotationBegan the other day reading Romain Rolland's Inde. Wide awake and all there when I read this (I cannot say as much for Nels Ferre, whom nevertheless I like). Much more myself, much more awake, reading this than when reading some of the long chapters, in proof, of my own New Man, which is a failure. The thing that keeps me awake in Rolland is truth. I don't mean dogmatic truth, but the truth of life. He is a lover of India but not a zealot or an enthusiast and he sees the weaknesses, the vanities, the blindnesses. He does not just take Gandhi blindly. He sees the element of despotism in Gandhi. He likes Tagore and now so do I. I really want to read Tagore. Victoria Ocampo sent me a picture of him. I sent her Mencius.
JournalTurning Toward the World: The Pivotal Years. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 4, 1960-1963.; Edited by Victor A. Kramer. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1996, p. 127
Link to Merton's Copy