A rationalist should also be a utilitarian. He must know the sociological principle that bringing people together is never achieved by the individualism of each person. It will be necessarily based on a common principle binding all individuals. Hence, even if a
belief or tradition is superstitious but results in a greater national good, a resourceful rationalist will not fail to use it as a temporary means of bringing people together. He will outright demolish those beliefs or traditions that in the final analysis are harmful to the nation. To the rest, he will turn a blind eye. Without remaining superstitious himself, he will refrain from demolishing in a blind craze for rationalism, those superstitious beliefs which overall add to national strength. (1935, Maharashtra Sharada periodical,
September 1935)
In a Ram temple, some Hindu brethren will pray to the idol itself as God, some will worship it as an image of God’s incarnation, some will worship it in the belief that it gives deliverance. While a rationalist is not bound by any of these beliefs, he will nonetheless look upon the idol as a memorial of a national hero and will worship it with nationalist feeling. That is the difference. But he will not go to the extreme of refusing to participate in the festivity of King Ramchandra as this would harm public and national organization. Such extremism is not rationalism but madness akin to superstition. Sometimes, useful superstition is not to be rejected. (1935, Maharashtra Sharada periodical, September 1935)
