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I HAVE spent the earlier part of my life in a foreign country from my very childhood, and even the time which I have spent in India, the greater part of it has been spent by me on the other side of India where my mother tongue is not known and therefore although I have learnt the language like a foreigner, and I am able to understand it and write in it, I am unable, I have not the hardihood, to get up and deliver a speech in Bengali.

The repression and the reforms are the two sides of the political situation that the authorities in this country and in England presented to us today. That policy has been initiated by one of the chief statesmen of England, one famous for his liberal views and professions, one from whom at the inception of his career as Secretary of State for India much had been expected. Lord Morley stands at the head of the administration in India, clad with legal and absolute power; he is far away from us like the gods in heaven, and we do not see him. And just as we do not see the gods in heaven, but are obliged to imagine them in a figure, so we are compelled to imagine Lord Morley in a sort of figure, and the figure in which he presents himself to us is rather a peculiar one. Just as our gods sometimes carry weapons in their hands and sometimes they carry in one hand the kharga and in another hand the barābhaya so Lord Morley presents himself to us with a kharga in one hand and barābhaya in another, and he invites us to consider him in this image. From the beginning there has been this double aspect in him. He has, so to speak, spoken in two voices from the beginning. One voice at the beginning said, "sympathy" while the other voice said, "settled fact"; one voice speaks of reforms and elective representation and the other voice speaks of the necessity of preserving absolute government in India to all time. First of all he has given you, with a great flourish it has been announced that he was going

* Speech delivered at the Raja Bahadur’s Havelie, Bakergunj, on 23rd June, 1909.

to give and he has given a non-official majority in the Legislative Council, he has given an elective system, he has given to a certain extent the power of voting in the Council, voting on Government measures. On the face of it these seem very large concessions; it seems that a very substantial measure of self-government has been given and that is the tone in which the English papers have been writing today; they say that this reform, is a great constitutional change, and that it opens a new era in India. But when we examine them carefully it somehow comes to seem that these reforms of Lord Morley are like his professions of Liberalism and Radicalism, more for show than for use.

This system which Lord Morley has given us is marred by two very serious defects. One of them is this very fact that the elected members will be in the minority, the nominated non-officials and the officials being in the majority; and the second is that an entirely non-democratic principle has been adopted in this elective system, the principle of one community being specially represented.

The Government of India is faced today by a fact which they cannot overlook, a fact which it is by no means pleasant to the vested interests which they represent, but at the same time a fact which cannot be ignored, and that is, that the people of India have awakened, are more and more awakening, that they have developed a real political life, and that the demands they make are demands which can no longer be safely loft out of the question. There is the problem before the Government "What to do with this new state of things ?" There were two courses open to them — one of frank repression and the other course was the course of frank conciliation, either to stamp out this new life in the people or to recognise it; to recognise it as an inevitable force which must have its way however gradually. The Government were unable to accept either of these alternative policies. They have tried to mix them, and in trying to mix them they have adopted the principle of: with one hand pressing down the movement and with the other hand trying to circumvent it. You demand a popular assembly, you demand self-government. Well, we give you a measure of self-government, an enlarged and important Legislative Council, but in giving we try so to

arrange the forces that the nation instead of being stronger may be weaker. Your strength is in educated classes, your strength is more in the Hindu element in the nation than in the Mahomedan element, because they have not as yet awakened as the Hindu element has awakened. Well let us remember our ancient policy of divide and rule, let us depress the forces which make for strength and raise up the force which is as yet weak and set up one force against the other, so that it may never be possible for us to be faced in the Legislative Council by a united majority representing the Indian people and demanding things which we are determined never to give.

Obviously when two forces stand against each other equally determined in two opposite directions the people can only effect their aim by pressure upon the Government. That is a known fact everywhere, which every political system recognises, for which every political system has to provide. In every reasonable system of government there is always some provision made for the pressure of the people upon the Government to make itself felt. If no such provision is made, then the condition of that country is bound to be unsound, then there are bound to be elements of danger and unrest which no amount of coercion can remove, because the attempt to remove them by coercion is an attempt to destroy the laws of nature, and the laws of nature refuse to be destroyed and conducted. We have no means to make the pressure of the people felt upon the Government. The only means which we have discovered, the only means which we can use without bringing on a violent conflict, without leading to breaches of the law on both sides and bringing things to the arbitrament of physical force, have been the means which we call passive resistance and specially the means of the boycott. Therefore just as we have said that the boycott is a settled fact because the partition of Bengal is not rescinded, and it shall remain so until it is rescinded, so we must say that the boycott must remain a settled fact, because we are allowed no real control over the Government.

For the time the Government have succeeded in separating two of the largest communities in India; they have succeeded in drawing away the Mahomedans because their want of educa-

tion and enlightenment and of political experience which allows them to be led away by promises that are meant for the year, by promises of concessions which the Government cannot give without destroying their own ends. For a time until the Mahomedans by bitter experience see the falseness of their hopes and the falseness of the political means which they are being induced to adopt, until then it will be difficult for the two communities to draw together and to stand united for the realisation of their common interest.

There are times of great change, times when old landmarks are being upset when submerged forces are rising, and just as we deal promptly or linger over the solution of these problems, our progress will be rapid or slow, sound or broken. The educated class in India leads, but it must never allow itself to be isolated. It has done great things; it has commenced a mighty work, but it cannot accomplish these things, it cannot carry that work to completion by its own united efforts. The hostile force has recognised that this educated class is the backbone of India, and their whole effort is directed towards isolating it. We must refuse to be isolated, we must recognise where our difficulties are, what it is that stands in the way of our becoming a nation and set ourselves immediately to the solution of that problem.

The problem is put to us one by one, to each nation one by one, and here in Bengal it is being put to us, and He has driven it home, He has made it perfectly clear by the events of the last few years. He has shown us the possibility of strength within us, and then He has shown us where the danger, the weakness lies. He is pointing out to us how is it that we may become strong. On us it lies, on the educated class in Bengal, because Bengal leads, and what Bengal does today the rest of India will do tomorrow; it specially lies upon us, the educated class, in Bengal, to answer the question which God has put to us and according as we answer on it depends how this movement will progress, what route it will take, and whether it will lead to a swift and sudden salvation, or whether, after so many centuries of tribulation and suffering there is still a long period of tribulation and sufferings before us. God has put the question to us and with us entirely it lies to answer.

Speech at Khulna*

Gentlemen, Today I will speak a few words on the Gita. The main object of that philosophy is found in the Vedanta, which is the basis of Hindu thought and life, and according to the Vedanta, life is dominated by Maya or Avidya. We are driven into action because we are ignorant of our true selves, of the true nature of the world. We identify ourselves with our bodies, our desires, our sorrows, and spirits. We lose ourselves in our happiness, grief, and pleasures.

By these motives we are driven into action. This life is a chain of bondage which keeps us revolving. We are surrounded on all sides by forces which we cannot control. As man has a perpetual desire for freedom, he is driven by forces he cannot control. Under the influence of these forces within or without, action takes place. The object of Hindu philosophy is to make man no longer a slave, but to escape from bondage and to make human beings free. Hindu philosophy tries to go into the root of things. What is the real beginning of māyā ?… Whatever we may try, from the nature of the world, we cannot escape from bondage. There is our knowledge by attaining which we can become free.

In the Gita we find that Sri Krishna unites the Vedanta philosophy with the philosophy of Sankhya. Modern science denies that man has a soul. Science considers only the laws of nature. It regards nature as material, and man as merely a product of nature. It says man is a creation of natural forces. All his actions are results of fixed laws and he has no freedom. According to the Sankhya, man has a soul and is essentially the Purusha and not matter. The spirit does not act. The soul is calm and motionless. Prakriti is always shifting and changing, and under her influence all actions take place. Prakriti (nature) acts.

* Speech delivered on the 25th June 1909 at Khulna on the Gita under the presidentship of Babu Beni Bhusan Ray.

Man can only free himself by recognising that he is the purusa. Sri Krishna adopts this theory of Sankhya in the Gita, and he also adopts the philosophy of Vedanta. He says that man has an immortal soul, but there is also a universal soul. Man is merely part of God. He is merely a part of something that is eternal, infinite, omniscient, and omnipotent. This eternal power is what really exists, and in all that we see, hear, feel, it is He alone who exists. It is He alone whom we feel and see. Parameshwara builds up this world by his Maya (illusion). He is the master of the great illusion which He calls Maya. This He made to express Himself the One. All these things around us are transitory. Within us is that which cannot change, which is eternally free and happy. If he feels himself miserable, it is because he in his ignorance allows himself to be dominated by egoism (Ahankara). He thinks that he is all. He does not realise that God is the master of this Lila (God’s action). He thinks that it is I who act, am the lord of my body, and because he thinks so, he is bound by his action. By these forces he is driven from birth to birth. The. great illusion is that this body which he inhabits is himself; next he identifies himself with the mind, and thinks it is I who think, see, and feel. In reality, according to the Gita, God is within the heart of every creation.

The second thing you have to recognise is that you are only a part of Him, who is eternal, omniscient, and omnipotent.

His first answer to Arjuna is that the feeling which has come upon you is not the pure feeling. It is a feeling of egoism. Still Arjuna does not understand how that can be.

How can it be my Dharma to kill my own brothers and relations ? How can it be to slaughter my nation and house ? Sri Krishna answered according to the spirit of Hindu ideas. He says that it is your Dharma, because you are a Kshatriya. This is your Dharma of a particular kind. The duty of the Kshatriya is not the same as that of the Brahmin, and that of the Kshatriya is not equal to that of the Shudra. If a Shudra adopts the Dharma of a Brahmin, he brings the confusion of all laws and leads to the destruction and not to the betterment of mankind. It is nature which teaches you your own Dharma. This is your Dharma. If you shrink from upholding the cause of virtue, truth, and justice,

out of feeling which is inconsistent, you are guilty, you bring in confusion, you encourage yourself to give up your duty. Still Arjuna is not satisfied. Sri Krishna still goes deeper. He says that the whole of our life is determined by Maya which is of three kinds — Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. Their nature is this. Sattwa leads to knowledge. Rajas leads to action, and Tamas leads to inaction and ignorance. These are the qualities of nature which governs the world. The Swabhava which leads you to work is determined by three Gunas. Action is determined by Swabhava. All action leads to bondage, and is full of defects. What you call virtue or virtues, they have defects in themselves. The virtue of the Brahmin is a great virtue. You shall not kill. This is what Ahimsa means. If the virtue of Ahimsa comes to the Kshatriya, if you say I will not kill, there is no one to protect the country. The happiness of the people will be broken down. Injustice and lawlessness will reign. The virtue becomes a source of misery, and you become instrumental in bringing misery and conflict to the people. Your duty to your family seems to conflict with your duty to society, that of society to nation, and that of the nation to mankind. How shall we follow the path which leads to salvation ? It is difficult to say what is right and what is wrong. How to decide it then ? There is one way: do action in Yoga, and then you rise above ignorance and sin cannot touch you, and you rise above all that hampers you and binds you. What is Yoga ? No certain process. When we think of Yoga, we think of a man who shuts up himself in a cave and subjects himself to certain practices. He frees himself from all the bondages. But Sri Krishna uses Yoga in a different sense. He says: Do action in Yoga. The first element is Samata. Samata means you shall look with equal eyes upon happiness and misfortune, praise and blame, honour and dishonour, and success and failure. You shall regard none of these, but with a calm and unshaken mind, the work which you are given to do you should proceed with that, unshaken by the praise or censure of the world. The man who has this Samata, has no friends and no enemies. He looks upon all with equal feelings, because he has knowledge, because he has looked into himself and out into the world. He finds himself everywhere and all in himself. He finds himself in all, because God is in all. Whe-

ther he looks at the high or low, he sees no difference and sees that in every creature there is Narayan. He sees that he is only an Amsha (part) of one which is in every matter. If there be any differences, they are only temporary and outward. He is only that through which Vasudeva carries on his Lila (play). He is not anxious to know what will happen tomorrow, because the action is not guided by laws. The man who has communion with God has no reason to be guided by laws, because he knows God is alone and all. He is not troubled by the fruits of his action. You have the right to action, to work, but not to the fruit. Work and leave the result to Me. Those men whom you shrink from slaying are already slain. These men would all perish. Therefore the fruit is already obtained beforehand by Me. Your anxiety for the result is ignorance. The destiny of the world is fixed. When a man has to do anything he must know that the fruits are with God. Man is to do what God wills.

Yoga means freedom from Dwandwa. He is free from the bondage of pleasure and pain, of anger and hatred and attachment, of liking and disliking, because he looks with equal eyes on all. He does not shrink from misfortune or misery, happiness and unhappiness. He rises above the bondage of the body, because no man can give him pleasure or pain, because he has his own source of strength, of delight and happiness. This is the freedom which the Gita says the Yoga gives. The freedom which we ordinarily mean is Mukti. This is the freedom which the Gita promises. He says if you act in Yoga, you rise above grief and pain, even above all things. You are free from fear or sin, because you do not act for yourself. You do not act because you will get pleasure, but for the sake of God : that is how you are to reach Yoga. If you wish to be happy, you must give up all your works to God. You must do all your work for His sake, and therefore sin does not touch you. It is only for selfishness that sin touches you. If you realise that Narayan is in all, it follows that you lose the smaller, the individual limit itself. You look to wider things. You see yourself in the family, in community, race, humanity, and all things in the world. You forget yourself altogether. You work for the race and others, for mankind. It is not God’s work that you follow after your selfishness. The Gita

says: "Your welfare is God’s business." If you work for Him you have no fear, because God stretches out his hand of mercy to you. It is to that which the Yoga leads. The teaching of the Gita, if it is followed, delivers you from all possibility of sin, of sorrow. He says: "Take refuge in Me, I shall free you from all evil. Do everything as a sacrifice to Me." That is the goal towards which you move. The name of Hari will free you from all evil. This is the way in which Sri Krishna has solved the problem put by Arjuna. Arjuna says that "It is my duty to fight for justice, it is my duty as a Kshatriya not to turn from Dharmayuddha, but I am perplexed, because the consequences will be so terrible. The people I am to slay are dear to me. How can I kill them ?" Krishna says, "There is no doubt an apparent conflict of duties, but that is the nature of life. Life is itself a problem, a very entangled thread, which it is impossible to undo. But it is I who do all these, am leading you to the fulfilment of your duties. Leave it to Me. If you do your duty it is a thing which I am bringing about. You are not doing it from selfishness. It is a thing necessary for my purpose. It is a thing which is decreed, already done, but it is now to be effected in the material world. Whatever happens, it happens for the best. I now give you my knowledge, the key to Yoga. I remove the evil of ignorance from you. I give you the meaning of Yoga". In the Gita Sri Krishna gives certain rules by which a man may hold communion with God.

The Gita says that man is not a bundle of outward cares and griefs, of things that do not last. Man is a garment which is put off from time to time, but there is within us something which is omniscient and eternal and cannot be drowned.

Sri Krishna gave Arjuna Divya Chakshu (Divine eye), with which he saw Vishwarupa (the real appearance of God). He now sees Vasudeva everywhere. He sees within him things that cannot be seen by the mysteries of science. With this knowledge comes to him that force.

How can I act, yet be free from bondage ? The Gita says that the man who has no knowledge, has to do exactly what other men do. He has to live as a man in his family, race and nation. But there is the difference which is internal and not external. By

the internal difference he acts in communion with God; others act in pursuance of their desires. He knows by experience how a man can act when he is free from desire. This force of action is the force of God himself. He is not troubled by the result of action : he gets eternal bliss.

This is the whole teaching of the Gita. It is Yoga which gives utter perfection in action. The man who works for God is not shaken by doubts.

The teaching of the Gita is the teaching for life, and not a teaching for the life of a closet. It is a teaching which means perfection of action. It makes man great. It gives him the utter strength, the utter bliss which is the goal of life in the world.

The New Mantra*

WE HAVE worshipped the country, the National Mother, as God. That was well, that carried us far. But it was only a stage, a means to bring the Europeanised mind back to spirituality. It was the worship of a rūpa, an ista by which to rise to the worship of God in His fullness. We used the Mantra Bande Mataram with all our heart and soul, and so long as we used and lived it, relied upon its strength to overbear all difficulties, we prospered. But suddenly the faith and the courage failed us, the cry of the Mantra began to sink and as it rang feebly, the strength began to fade out of the country. It was God, who made it fade out and falter, for it had done its work. A greater Mantra than Bande Mataram has to come. Bankim was not the ultimate seer of Indian awakening. He gave only the term of the initial and public worship, not the formula and the ritual of the inner secret upāsanā. For the greatest Mantras are those which are uttered within, and which the seer whispers or gives in dream or vision to his disciples. When the ultimate Mantra is practised even by two or three, then the closed Hand of God will begin to open; when the upāsanā is numerously followed the closed Hand will open absolutely.

There are some who sit watching for an ādeś and, until the ādeś comes, are resolved not to act. But to such the command will always be denied. It is those who act, who are sure to find a solitude created within them in which they are alone with God and come face to face with Reality. Moments of physical loneliness, periods of meditative retirements are needed, but they are subordinate and auxiliary. Action done as a Sadhana, as a sacrifice to God, done first without attachment to the results and then without attachment to the action itself, is the indispensable condition. And it must be action done with Shraddha, with faith, whatever action it may be; it is not only for God but from God. There will be errors, there will be stumblings, but this is the

* This article is reproduced from the Standard Bearer of August 22, 1920.

vīramarga, the way of the heroes, and in it one must be afraid of nothing, still less afraid of errors and stumblings. Only if we rely upon our own strength in the action, we shall go on stumbling to the end of the chapter. There must be the Shraddha that God leads, that He has taken the burden of our Sadhana upon Himself, and that every error and stumbling is from Him and intended to prepare an unfaltering and instructed strength. This is the Vakalam, of which Ramakrishna always spoke. The nation, too, has gone on stumbling, but progressing, exhausting its errors, its sins, and the possibility of calamity and defeat, taking swiftly and intensely the remnants of its evil Karma, ever since it began its Sadhana of action. And because it took the Name on its lips when it started, the Eternal Mother will not abandon it. For the name, even when taken in vain, inadvertently, or by accident, saves alive. Much more when it is taken with heart and soul and made the foundation of the Sadhana.

It is a national ātmasamarpana, self-surrender that God demands of us and it must be complete: Then the promise will come true:   I will deliver thee from all evils, do not grieve.

The Reform Proposals*

I DO not see that any other line can be taken with regard to these astonishing reforms than the one you have taken. It can only be regarded as unwise by those who are always ready to take any shadow, — how much more a bulky and imposing shadow like this, — and are careless of the substance. We have still, it appears, a fair number of political wisemen of this type among us, but no Home Rule leader surely can stultify himself to that extent.

A three days’ examination of the scheme, — I have only the analysis to go upon and the whole thing is in the nature of a cleverly constructed Chinese puzzle, — has failed to discover in them one atom of real power given to these new legislatures. The whole control is in the hands of Executive and State Councils and Grand Committees and irresponsible Ministers, and for the representative bodies, — supposing they are made really representative, which also is still left in doubt, — there is only a quite ineffective and impotent voice. They are, it seems, to be only a flamboyant edition de luxe of the present Legislative Councils. The only point in which there is some appearance of control is the Provincial Budget and what is given by the left hand is taken away by the right. Almost every apparent concession is hedged in by a safeguard which annuls its value. On the other hand new and most dangerous irresponsible powers are assumed by the Government. How, under such circumstances, is acceptance possible ? If, even, substantial control had been definitely secured by the scheme within a brief period of years, five or even ten, something might have been said in favour of a sort of vigilant acceptance. But there is nothing of the kind: on the contrary there is a menace of diminution of even these apparent concessions. And, as you say, the whole spirit is bad. Not even in the future is India to be allowed to determine its own destinies or its

* A letter addressed to Dr. Annie Besant on the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms of 1918, in answer to a request from her for Sri Aurobindo’s opinion on the reform proposals.

rate of progress ! Self-determination, it seems, has gone into the waste-paper-basket, with other scraps, I suppose.

If by unwisdom is meant the continuation of the present political struggle and what is advised is a prudent submission and making the best of a bad matter, it seems to me that it is the latter course that will be the real unwisdom. For the struggle cannot be avoided; it can only be evaded for the moment, and if you evade it now, you will have it tomorrow or the day after, with the danger of its taking a more virulent form. At present it is only a question of agitating throughout the country for a better scheme and getting the Labour Party to take it up in England. And if the Congress does less than that, it will stultify itself entirely. I hope your lead will be generally followed; it is the only line that can be taken by a self-respecting Nation.

New India, Saturday, August 10, 1918