Vanity and Self-respect

[To Shri Narandas Gandhi, the secretary of the Ashram]

I have my doubts about the propriety of enacting such scenes. I do not think we derive any benefit from scenes in which big people have acted unworthily. Children are apt to draw the moral that if big people behave like that, so can we. I therefore think that our theatricals should be of a different kind altogether like say Rabindranath's Muktadhara or Maithilisharan Gupta's Anagha, which is very good indeed and fit to be presented to the children there. The Hindi is simple and sweet, and the subject-matter leaves nothing to be desired (Translated from Gujarati).

XXXVIII

Vanity is emptiness : self-respect is substance. No one's self-respect is ever hurt except by self, vanity is always hurt from outside.