We can also consider this question from a philosophical point of view. What is construction and what is reconstruction? A construction is that which is already made. A newborn child is a construction. But after a disorder in the body or in the mind, there comes a need of reconstruction. In English there is an expression: to pull oneself together. The reconstruction of the world today means that the world has to pull itself together. Education, the political, social, and financial condition, religion, all these things which made civilization, seem to have been scattered; and in order that they may come together again, the secret of life must be studied.

What is the secret of healing power? It is making oneself strong enough to pull oneself together; and that is the secret of the life of the mystic. The world has lost its health, and if one pictures the world as an individual, one can see what it means to lose one's health. It is just like illness in the life of an individual; and as for every illness there is a remedy, so for every disaster there is a reconstruction.

But people have different ideas.

There is a pessimist who says, "If the world has got to this state of destruction who can help it, how can it be helped?" This is like a person who says, "Well, I have been so ill, I have suffered so much, I do not care. How can I be well now? It is too late." In this way he holds on to his disease and he cherishes it, though he does not like it.
And then there is the curious person, who is very anxious to look at the newspaper and see whether his investments have gone up or whether they have gone down, and to see whether there is the probability of war; and he will excite his friends about it.
Then there is another person who says, "Committees must be formed, there must be societies and leagues; congresses must be held, and many more meetings, many more discussions." There seems to be no end to the discussions and disputes in order to find out the ways and means of how to improve conditions!

I do not mean to say that any effort, in whatever form, towards the reconstruction or towards the betterment of conditions is not worth while. But what is most needed is for us to understand that religion of religions and that philosophy of philosophies which is self-knowledge. We shall never understand the outer life if we do not understand ourselves. It is knowledge of the self that gives knowledge of the world.

The politician, the statesman, however qualified, will dispute about things for years and years, but he will never come to a satisfactory conclusion unless he understands the psychology of life and of the situation. And so the educationist will try new schemes but he will never come to a satisfactory conclusion unless he has a psychological knowledge of life, the knowledge which will teach him the psychology of human nature. But I do not mean by psychology what is generally understood by this word; I mean the understanding of the self, the understanding of the nature and character of the mind and of the body.

What is health? Health is order. And what is order? Order is music. Where there is rhythm, regularity, co-operation, there is harmony, there is sympathy. Health of mind and health of the body depend therefore upon the preserving of that harmony, upon keeping intact that sympathy which exists in the mind and body. Life in the world, and especially as we live it amidst the crowd, will test and try our patience every moment of the day, and it will be most difficult to preserve that harmony and peace which is all happiness. For what is the definition of life? Life means struggle with friends and battle with foes. It is continual giving and taking.

And where are we to learn this? All education and learning and knowledge is acquired, but this one art is a divine art, and man has inherited it. Because he is absorbed in the outer learning he has forgotten it, but it is an art which is known to the soul; it is his own being; it is the deepest knowledge that he has in his heart. No progress in any line that man can make will give him the satisfaction which his soul is craving for, except this one which is the art of life, the art of being, the pursuit of his soul.

In order to further the reconstruction of the world the only thing possible and the only thing necessary, before trying to serve humanity, is to learn the art of being, the art of life, for oneself and in order to be an example for others.