BANDE MATARAM

 

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Contents

 

PRE CONTENT

 India Renascent

1890-92

New Lamps For Old

1893-94

Unity-An Open Letter

 

Bhawani Mandir

 

An Organisation

 

The Proposed Reconstruction Of Bengal- Partition Or Annihilation?

 

Bandemataram

 A Note On  "Bande Mataram"

 

The Doctrine Of Passive Resistance

 

 I. Introduction

11-04-1907

 II. Its Objects 

12-04-1907

III.Its Necessity

13-04-1907

IV. Its Methods 

17-04-1907

V. Its Obligations 

18/19-04-1907

VI. Its Limits

20-04-1907

VII.  Conclusions

23-04-1907

The Morality Of Boycott 

 

 

  

Bandemataram

Daily

Darkness In "Light"

20-08-1906

Our Rip Van Winkles

  20-08-1906

Indian Abroad

20-08-1906

Officials On The Fall Of  Fuller

20-08-1906

Cow - Killing

20-08-1906

National Education And The Congress

22-08-1906

A Pusillanimous Proposal

25-08-1906

By The Way

27-08-1906

The "Mirror" And Mr. Tilak

28-08-1906

Leaders In Council

28-08-1906

By The Way

30-08-1906

Lessons At  Jamalpur

1-9-1906

By The Way

1-9-1906

By The Way

3-9-1906

English Enterprise And  Swadeshi

4-9-1906

Jamalpur

4-9-1906

By The Way

4-9-1906

The Times On Congress Reforms

8-9-1906

By The Way

8-9-1906

The "Sanjibani" On Mr. Tilak

10-9-1906

Secret Tactics

10-9-1906

By The Way

10-9-1906

The Question Of  The Hour

11-9-1906

A Criticism

11-9-1906

The Old Policy And The New

12-9-1906

 

Is A Conflict Necessary?

12-9-1906

The Charge Of  Vilification

12-9-1906

Autocratic Trickery

12-9-1906

The Bhagalpur Meeting

12-9-1906

By The Way

12-9-1906

Strange Speculations

13-9-1906

The "Statesman" Under Inspiration

13-9-1906

A Disingenuous Defence

14-9-1906

The Friend Found Out

17-9-1906

Stopgap Won't Do

17-9-1906

By The Way

17-9-1906

Is Mendicancy Successful?

18-9-1906

By The Way

18-9-1906

Mischievous Writings

20-9-1906

A Luminous Line

20-9-1906

By The Way

20-9-1906

By The Way

1-10-1906

By The Way

10-10-1906

By The Way

11-10-1906

The Coming Congress

13-10-1906

Statesman's Sympathy Brand

29-10-1906

By The Way : News From Nowhere

29-10-1906

 

The Man Of The Past And The Man Of The  Future

26-12-1906

The Results Of  The Congress

31-12-1906

Yet There Is Method In It

25-2-1906

Mr  Gokhale's  Disloyalty

28-2-1906

The  Comilla Incident

15-3-1907

British Protection Or Self-Protection

18-3-1907

By The Way

21-3-1907

The Berhampur  Conference

29-3-1907

The President Of The Berhampur  Conference

2-4-1907

Peace And The Autocrats

3-4-1907

Many Delusions

5-4-1907

Omissions And Commissions At Berhampur

6-4-1907

The Writing On The Wall

8-4-1907

A Nil- Admirari  Admirer

9-4-1907

Pherozshahi  At  Surat

10-4-1907

The Situation In East Bengal

11-4-1907

The Proverbial Offspring

12-4-1907

By The Way

12-4-1907

By The Way

13-4-1907

The Old Year

16-4-1907

A Vilifier On Vilification

17-4-1907

By The Way: A Mouse In A Flutter

17-4-1907

Simple, Not Rigorous

18-4-1907

British Interests And British Conscience

18-4-1907

A Recommendation

18-4-1907

An Ineffectual Sedition Clause

19-4-1907

The "Englishman" As A Statesman

19-4-1907

The Gospel According to Surendranath

22-4-1907

A Man Of  Second Sight

23-4-1907

Passive Resistance In The Punjab

23-4-1907

By The Way

24-4-1907

Bureaucracy At  Jamalpur

25-4-1907

Is This Your Lion Of  Bengal?

25-4-1907

Anglo-Indian Blunderers

25-4-1907

The Leverage Of Faith

25-4-1907

Graduated Boycott

26-4-1907

Instinctive Loyalty

26-4-1907

Nationalism Not Extremism

26-4-1907

Shall India Be Free?  The Loyalist Gospel

27-4-1907

The Mask  Is Off

27-4-1907

A Loyalist In A Panic

27-4-1907

Shall India Be Free? National Development And Foreign Rule

29-4-1907

Shall India Be Free?

30-4-1907

Moonshine For Bombay Consumption

1-5-1907

The "Reformer" On Moderation

1-5-1907

Shall India Be Free?  Unity And British Rule

2-5-1907

Extremism In The "Bengalee"

2-5-1907

Hare Or Another

3-5-1907

Look On This Picture, Then On That

3-5-1907

Curzonism For The University

8-5-1907

 

By The Way

9-5-1907

The Crisis

11-5-1907

In Praise Of The Government

13-5-1907

How To Meet The Ordinance

15-5-1907

The Latest Phase Of  Morleyism

15-5-1907

An Old Parrot Cry Repeated

15-5-1907

Mr Morley's Pronouncement

16-5-1907

What Does Mr.  Hare Mean

16-5-1907

The "Statesman" Unmasks

17-5-1907

Sui  Generis

17-5-1907

The "Statesman" On Mr. Mudholkar

20-5-1907

Silent Leaders

20-5-1907

The Government Plan Of Campaign

22-5-1907

And Still It Moves

23-5-1907

An Irish Example

24-5-1907

The East Bengal Disturbances

25-5-1907

Newmania

25-5-1907

Mr. Gokhale On Deportation

25-5-1907

The Gilded Sham Again

27-5-1907

National Volunteers

27-5-1907

Bande Mataram

Daily

Weekly

The True Meaning Of  The Risley Circular

28-5-1907

2-6-1097

The Effect Of  Petitionary Politics

29-5-1907

 

The Ordinance And After

30-5-1907

 

Common Sense In An Unexpected Quarter

30-5-1907

 

Drifting Away   

30-5-1907

 

The Question Of  The Hour

1-6-1907

2-6-1907

Regulated Independence

4-6-1907

9-6-1907

A Consistent "Patriot"

4-6-1907

 

Wanted, A Policy

5-6-1907

9-6-1907

Preparing The Explosion

5-6-1907

 

A Statement

6-6-1907

9-6-1907

Defying The Circular

7-6-1907

9-6-1907

By The Way:  When Shall We  Three Meet Again?

7-6-1907

9-6-1907

The Strength Of The Idea

8-6-1907

9-6-1907

Comic Opera Reforms

8-6-1907

9-6-1907

Paradoxical Advice

8-6-1907

9-6-1907

An Out Of Date Reformer

12-6-1907

16-6-1907

The Sphinx

14-6-1907

 

Slow But Sure

17-6-1907

 

The Rawalpindi Sufferers

18-6-1907

 

The Main Feeder Of  Patriotism

19-6-1907

23-6-1907

Concerted Action

20-6-1907

 

The Bengal Government's Letter

20-6-1907

23-6-1907

British Justice

21-6-1907

23-6-1907

 

The Moral  Of  The Coconada  Strike

21-6-1907

23-6-1907

The "Statesman" On Shooting

21-6-1907

23-6-1907

Mr. A. Chowdhury's Policy-

22-6-1907

23-6-1907

A Current Dodge

22-6-1907

 

More About British Justice

24-6-1907

30-6-1907

Morleyism Analysed

25-6-1907

30-6-1907

Political Or Non-Political

25-6-1907

30-6-1907

The "Statesman" On Mr. Chowdhuri

26-6-1907

 

"Legitimate Patriotism"

27-6-1907

 

Personal Rule And Freedom Of Speech And Writing

28-6-1907

30-6-1907

The Acclamation Of The House

2-7-1907

 

Europe And Asia

3-7-1907

7-7-1907

English Obduracy And Its Reason

11-7-1907

14-7-1907

Work And Speech

*12-7-1907

14-7-1907

From Phantom To Reality

13-7-1907

14-7-1907

Swadeshi In Education

13-7-1907

14-7-1907

Boycott And After

15-7-1907

21-7-1907

The Khulna Comedy

20-7-1907

21-7-1907

The Korean Crisis

22-7-1907

22-7-1907

One More For The Altar

25-7-1907

28-7-1907

The Issue

29-7-1907

4-8-1907

The 7th Of August

6-8-1907

11-8-1907

The "Indian Patriot" On Ourselves

6-8-1907

11-8-1907

To Organise

6-8-1907

11-8-1907

A Compliment And Some Misconceptions

12-8-1907

 

Pal On The Brain

12-8-1907

 

To Organise Boycott

14-8-1907

14-8-1907

The Foundations Of Nationality

14-8-1907

18-8-1907

Barbarities At Rawalpindi

*19-8-1907

25-8-1907

The High Court Miracles

*19-8-1907

25-8-1907

Justice Mitter And Swaraj

*19-8-1907

25-8-1907

Advice To National College Students(Speech)

25-8-1907

 

Sankharitola's Apologia

24-8-1907

25-8-1907

Our False Friends

26-8-1907

 

Repression And Unity

*27-8-1907

1-9-1907

The Three Unities Of  Sankharitola

*11-8-1907

1-9-1907

Eastern Renascence

3-9-1907

8-9-1907

The Martyrdom Of Bepin Chandra

12-9-1907

15-9-1907

The Unhindu Spirit Of Caste Rigidity

20-9-1907

22-9-1907

Caste And Democracy

22-9-1907

22-9-1907

Impartial Hospitality

23-9-1907

 

Free Speech

24-9-1907

29-9-1907

"Bande Mataram" Prosecution

25-9-1907

29-9-1907

The Chowringhee Pecksniff And Ourselves

26-9-1907

29-9-1907

The "Statesman" In Retreat

28-9-1907

6-10-1907

True Swadeshi

4-10-1907

 

Novel Ways To Peace

5-10-1907

6-10-1907

"Armenian Horrors"

5-10-1907

6-109-1907

The Vanity Of Reaction

7-10-1907

13-10-1907

The Price Of A Friend

7-10-1907

13-10-1907

A New Literary Departure

7-10-1907

13-10-1907

Mr. Keir Hardie And India

8-10-1907

8-10-1907

The Nagpur Affair And True Unity

23-10-1907

27-10-1907

The Nagpur Imbroglio

29-10-1907

3-11-1907

English Democracy Shown Up

31-10-1907

3-11-1907

How To Meet The Inevitable Repression

2-11-1907

 

Difficulties At Nagpur

4-11-1907

10-11-1907

Mr.  Tilak And The Presidentship

5-11-1907

10-11-1907

Nagpur And Loyalist Methods

16-11-1907

17-11-1907

The Life Of Nationalism

16-11-1907

17-11-1907

By The Way: In Praise Of Honest John

18-11-1907

24-11-1907

Bureaucratic Policy

19-11-1907

24-11-1907

The New Faith

30-11-1907

1-12-1907

About Unity

2-12-1907

8-12-1907

Personality Or Principle

3-12-1907

8-12-1907

Persian Democracy

3-12-1907

8-12-1907

More About Unity

4-12-1907

8-12-1907

By The Way

5-12-1907

8-12-1907

Caste And Representation

6-12-1907

8-12-1907

About Unmistakable Terms

12-12-1907

15-12-1907

The Surat Congress

13-12-1907

15-12-1907

Reasons Of  Secession

14-12-1907

15-12-1907

The Awakening Of Gujerat

17-12-1907

22-12-1907

"Capturing The Congress"

18-12-1907

22-12-1907

Lala Lajpat Rai's Refusal

18-12-1907

22-12-1907

The Delegates' Fund

18-12-1907

22-12-1907

The Present Situation (Speech)

19-1-1908

 

Bande Mataram (Speech)

29-1-1908

 

Revolutions And Leadership

6-2-1908

9-2-1908

 

The Slaying Of Congress (A Tragedy In Three Acts)

*11-15-2-1908

16-23-2-1908

Swaraj

18-2-1908

23-2-1908

The Future Of The Movement

19-2-1908

 

Work And Ideal

20-2-1908

23-2-1908

By The Way

20-2-1908

23-2-1908

The Latest Sedition Trial

21-2-1908

23-2-1908

The Soul And India's Mission

21-2-1908

1-3-1908

The Glory Of God In Man

22-2-1908

1-3-1908

A National University

24-2-1908

1-3-1908

A Misconception

24-2-1908

1-3-1908

Mustafa Kamil Pasha

3-3-1908

8-3-1908

A Great Opportunity

4-3-1908

8-3-1908

The Strike At Tuticorin

4-3-1908

8-3-1908

Swaraj And The Coming Anarchy

5-3-1908

8-3-1908

Back To The Land

6-3-1908

8-3-1908

The Village And The Nation

*8-3-1908

 

Welcome To The Prophet Of Nationalism

10-3-1908

 

The Voice Of  The Martyrs

11-3-1908

 

Constitution-Making

11-3-1908

 

What Committee?

11-3-1908

15-3-1908

A Great Message

12-3-1908

15-3-1908

The Tuticorin Victory

13-3-1908

15-3-1908

Perpetuate The Split!

14-3-1908

15-3-1908

Loyalty To Order

14-3-1908

15-3-1908

Asiatic Democracy

16-3-1908

22-3-1908

Charter Or No Charter

16-3-1908

 

The Warning From Madras

17-3-1908

22-3-1908

The Need Of The Moment

18-3-1908

22-3-1908

The Early Indian Polity

20-3-1908

22-3-1908

The Fund For  Sj. Pal

21-3-1908

22-3-1908

The Weapon Of Secession

23-3-1908

29-3-1908

Sleeping  Sirkar And Waking People

23-3-1908

29-3-1908

Anti- Swadeshi In Madras

23-3-1908

29-3-1908

Exclusion Or Unity?

24-3-1908

 

Biparita Buddhi

24-3-1908

 

Oligarchy Or Democracy?

25-3-1908

29-3-1908

Freedom Of  Speech

26-3-1908

29-3-1908

The Comedy Of Repression

26-3-1908

29-3-1908

Tomorrow's Meeting

27-3-1908

29-3-1908

Well Done, Chidambaram!

27-3-1908

29-3-1908

The Anti-Swadeshi Campaign

27-3-1908

29-3-1908

Spirituality And Nationalism

28-3-1908

29-3-1908

The Struggle In Madras

30-3-1908

 

A Misunderstanding

30-3-1908

 

The Next Step

31-3-1908

5-4-1908

A Strange Expectation

31-3-1908

5-4-1908

A Prayer

31-3-1908

 

India And The Mongolian

1-4-1908

 

Religion And The Bureaucracy

1-4-1908

 

The Milk Of  Putana

1-4-1908

 

Oligarchy Rampant

2-4-1908

 

The Question Of  The President

3-4-1908

5-4-1908

Convention And Conference

4-4-1908

5-4-1908

By The Way

4-4-1908

5-4-1908

The Constitution Of The Subjects Committee

6-4-1908

 

The New Ideal

7-4-1908

12-4-1908

The "Indu And The Dhulia Conference

8-4-1908

 

The Asiatic Role

9-4-1908

12-4-1908

Love Me Or Die

9-4-1908

 

The Work Before Us

10-4-1908

12-4-1908

Campbell-Bannerman Retires

10-4-1908

12-4-1908

United Congress (Speech)

10-4-1908

 

The Demand Of The Mother

11-4-1908

12-4-1908

Baruipur Speech

12-4-1908

 

Peace And Exclusion

13-4-1908

 

Indian Resurgence And Europe

14-4-1908

19-4-1908

Om Shantih

14-4-1908

19-4-1908

Conventionalist And Nationalists

18-4-1908

19-4-1908

The Future And The Nationalists

22-4-1908

26-4-1908

The Wheat And The Chaff

23-4-1908

26-4-1908

Party And The Country

24-4-1908

26-4-1908

The "Bengalee" Facing-Both-Ways

24-4-1908

26-4-1908

Providence And Perorations

24-4-1908

26-4-1908

The One Thing Needful

25-4-1908

26-4-1908

Palli Samiti (Speech)

26-4-1908

 

New Conditions

29-4-1908

3-5-1908

Whom To Believe?

29-4-1908

3-5-1908

By The Way: The Parable Of Sati

29-4-1908

3-5-1908

Leaders And A Conscience

30-4-1908

3-5-1908

An Ostrich In Colootola

30-4-1908

3-5-1908

I Cannot Join

30-4-1908

3-5-1908

By The Way

30-4-1908

 

Ideals Face To Face

*1-5-1908

3-5-1908

The New Nationalism

 

 

 

Bibliographical Note

Contents arranged subjectwise

 

February 5, 1913

 

THY voice is heard as a melodious chant in the stillness of my heart, and is translated in my head by words which are inadequate and yet replete with Thee. And these words are addressed to the Earth and say to her: "Poor sorrowful Earth, remember

Page - 10


that I am present in thee and lose not hope; each effort, each grief, each joy and each pang, each call of thy heart, each aspiration of thy soul, each renewal of thy seasons, all, all without exception, what seems to thee sorrowful and what seems to thee joyous, what seems to thee ugly and what seems to thee beautiful,  all infallibly lead thee towards me, who am endless Peace, shadowless Light, perfect Harmony, Certitude, Rest and Supreme Blessedness.

Hearken, O Earth, to the sublime voice that arises.

Hearken and take new courage.

 

February 8, 1913

 

O LORD, Thou art my refuge and my blessing, my strength, my health, my hope, and my courage. Thou art supreme Peace, unalloyed Joy, perfect Serenity. My whole being prostrates before Thee in a gratitude beyond measure and a ceaseless worship; and that worship goes up from my heart and my mind towards Thee like the pure smoke of incense of the perfumes of India.

Let me be Thy herald among men, so that all who are ready may taste the beatitude that Thou grantest me in Thy infinite Mercy, and let Thy Peace reign upon earth.

Page - 11


February 1O, 1913

 

MY being goes up to Thee in thanksgiving, not because Thou usest this weak and imperfect body to manifest Thyself, but because Thou dost manifest Thyself, and that is the Splendour of splendours, the Joy of joys, the Marvel of marvels. All who seek Thee with ardour should understand that Thou art there whenever there is need of Thee; and if they could have the supreme faith to give up seeking Thee, but  rather to await Thee, at each moment putting them selves integrally at Thy service. Thou wouldst be  there whenever there was need of Thee; and is there not always need of Thee with us, whatever may be the different, and often unexpected, forms of Thy manifestation?

 

Let Thy glory be proclaimed,

Let life be sanctified by it,

Let it transform men's hearts,

Let Thy Peace reign on earth.

 

February 12, 1913

 

AS soon as all effort disappears from a manifestation, it becomes very  simple, with the simplicity of a flower opening, manifesting its Beauty  and spreading its fragrance without clamour or vehement

Page - 12


gesture. And in this simplicity lies the greatest power, the power which is least mixed and least gives rise:  to harmful reactions. The power of the vital should  be mistrusted, it is a tempter on the path of the work,  and there is always a risk of falling into its trap, for it gives you the taste of immediate results; and, in our  first eagerness to do the work well, we let ourselves  be carried away to make use of this power. But   very soon it deflects all our action from the right course and introduces a seed of illusion and death into what we do.

Simplicity, simplicity! How sweet is the purity of Thy Presence!

 

March 13,1913

 

LET the pure perfume of sanctification burn always, rising higher and higher, and straighter and straighter, like the ceaseless prayer of the integral being, desiring to unite with Thee so as to manifest Thee.

 

May 11 1913

 

As soon as I have no longer any material responsibilities, all thoughts about these things flee far away from me, and I am solely and entirely occupied

Page - 13


with Thee and Thy service. Then, in that perfect peace and serenity, I unite my will to Thine, and in that integral silence I listen to Thy truth and hear its expression.

It is by becoming conscious of Thy will and identifying ours with Thine that there is found the secret of true liberty and all-puissance, the secret of  the regeneration of forces and the transfiguration of the being,

To be constantly and integrally at one with Thee is to have the assurance that we shall overcome  every obstacle and triumph over all difficulties, both within and without,

O Lord, Lord, a boundless joy fills my heart songs of gladness surge through my head in marvellous  waves, and in the full confidence of Thy certain  triumph, I find a sovereign Peace and an invincible Power. Thou fillest my being, Thou animatest it,  Thou settest in motion its hidden springs, Thou illuminest its understanding. Thou intensifiest its life. Thou increasest tenfold its love; and I in  longer know whether the universe is I or I the universe, whether Thou art in me or I in Thee  Thou alone art and all is Thou; and the streams

Sing, O lands, sing, O peoples, sing, O men, The Divine Harmony Is there.

Page - 14


June 15, 1913  

 

EVEN he who might have arrived at perfect contemplation in silence and solitude, could only have done so by extracting himself from his body,  by making an abstraction of himself; and thus the substance of which the body is constituted would remain as impure, as imperfect as before, since he would have abandoned it to itself; by a misguided mysticism, by the attraction of supraphysical splendours,  by the egoistic desire of being united with Thee for his personal satisfaction, he would have turned his back upon the reason of his earthly existence, he would have refused cowardlike to accomplish  his mission to redeem and purify Matter. To know that a part of our being is perfectly pure, to commune with that purity, to be identified with it, can be useful only if we subsequently utilise this knowledge for hastening the earthly transfiguration, for accomplishing Thy sublime work.

 

June 17, 1913

 

GRANT, O Lord that I may be like a fire that illumines and warms, like a fountain that takes away thirst, like a tree that shelters and protects... men are so unhappy, so ignorant, they need so much to be helped.

 Page - 15


My confidence in Thee, my inner certitude grow from day to day; and from day to day also I feel Thy love more living in my heart. Thy light at once brighter and more soft; and more and more I fail to make a distinction between Thy work and my life, between my personality and the whole earth.

Lord, Lord, Thy splendour is infinite. Thy Truth is marvellous; and Thy all-powerful Love will save the world.

 

June 18, 1913

 

TO turn towards Thee, unite with Thee, live in Thee and for Thee, is supreme happiness, unmixed  joy, immutable peace; it is to breathe infinity, to soar in eternity, no longer feel one's limits, escape from time and space. Why do men flee from these boons as though they fear them? What a strange thing is ignorance, that source of all suffering! How miserable that obscurity which keeps men away from the very thing which would bring them happiness  and subjects them to this painful school of ordinary existence fashioned entirely from struggle and suffering!

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June 27, 1913

 

THY voice is so modest, impartial, sublime in its patience and its mercy that it does not make itself heard with any authority, any potency of will; it is like a cool, soft and pure breeze; it is like a crystalline murmur that imparts a note of harmony to a discordant concert. Only for him who knows how to listen to that note, how to breathe that breeze, it contains such a treasure of beauty and such a perfume of pure serenity and noble grandeur, that all extravagant illusions vanish or are transformed into a joyful acceptance of the marvellous truth that has been glimpsed.

 

July 21, 1913

 

YET what patience is needed! How imperceptible  the stages of progress!...

Oh! how I call Thee from the very depths of my heart. True Light, Sublime Love, Divine Master who art the source of our light and of our living, our guide and our protector, the Soul of out soul and the Life of our life, the Reason of our being, the supreme Knowledge, the immutable Peace!

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July 23, 1913

 

O LORD, O inconceivable Splendour, may Thy — Beauty overflow the earth, may Thy Love be kindled in all hearts and the reign of Thy Peace be upon all.

A chant grave and profound, smiling and subtle, rises from my heart, and I do not know whether this chant travels from me towards Thee or from Thee towards me or whether Thou, I and the whole universe are this marvellous chant of which I have now become conscious......There is certainly no more Thou, nor I, nor any separate and distinct universe: there is an immense harmony, sublime and infinite, which is everything and of which everything will become conscious, one day. It is the harmony of limitless Love, Love victor over all suffering and every obscurity. By this law of Love, Thy Law, I would live more and more totally; to it I give myself without reserve. . And my being exults in an ineffable Peace.

 

August 2, 1913

 

AS I cast a glance this morning on the month which is about to begin, asking myself what was the best means of serving Thee, I heard the small inner voice like a murmur in the silence, and it said

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this to me: "See, how small is the importance of external circumstances. Why strain and stiffen in the effort to realise thy conception of the Truth? Be more supple, more confident. The only thing thou hast to do is not to let thyself be troubled by anything.  To torment oneself about doing good brings about as bad results as bad will. It is in the calm of deep waters that lies the sole possibility of True Service."

And this reply was so luminous and so pure, it carried in it such an effective reality that the state described was communicated without any difficulty. I seemed to myself to be floating in the calm of deep waters; I understood; I saw clearly the attitude which was the best; and I have only to ask Thee, O Sublime Master, Supreme Instructor, to give me the strength and the clairvoyance necessary to maintain myself constantly in this state.

"Child, trouble not thyself, silence, peace, peace."

 

August 8, 1913

 

O SWEET harmony dwelling in all things, sweet harmony filling my heart, manifest thyself in the most outward forms of life, in every feeling, in every thought, in every act.

All appears to me beautiful, harmonious, silent, in spite of the din outside. And in this silence, it

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is Thou, O Lord, whom I see, and I so perceive Thee that I can only express this perception as that of a constant smile. In truth, the essence of the impression that is felt in the presence of the most sweet, the most calm, the most compassionate smile has a feeble analogy with what I feel when I so perceive  Thee. May Thy Peace be with all.

 

August 15, 1913

 

IN this falling dusk. Thy Peace becomes more deep and intimate and Thy Voice more clearly perceived in the silence which fills my being.

O Divine Master, for Thee is our life, our thought, our love, all our being. Take back possession of Thy own; for Thou art ourselves in our real being.

 

August 16, 1913

 

O LOVE, Divine Love, Thou fillest my being and overflowest to every side. I am Thyself and Thou art I, and I see Thee in every being, in every thing, from the slightest passing breeze to the radiant Sun that illumines us and is Thy symbol.

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O Thou whom I cannot understand, in the silence of the purest devotion I adore Thee.

 

August 17,19I3

 

O LORD, Master of our life, let us soar up high, very high, far above all care of the preservation of the body. Nothing can be more humiliating, nothing more depressing than these thoughts turned always towards the preservation of the body, this pre- occupation with health, with our subsistence, with the frame-work of our life. How trivial are these things, a thin smoke dissolved by a simple breath, vanishing like mirage before a single thought turned towards Thee.

Liberate those who live in this slavery, even as those who live in slavery to their passions. These obstacles  on the path that leads towards Thee are at once terrible and puerile; terrible to those who are still subjected to them, puerile to one who has passed beyond them.

How inexpressible is the utter sense of relief, the delicious lightness we feel when we are disembarrassed  of all this anxious care for ourself, for our life, for our health, for our satisfactions and even for our progress.

This relief, this liberation Thou hast granted to me, O Divine Master, Life of my life. Light

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of my light. Thou who ever teachest me the lesson of love and hast made me know the reason of my existence.

It is Thou who livest in me and Thou alone; and why should I be preoccupied with myself and what may happen to me? Without Thee the dust constituting this body which is striving to manifest Thee, would be dispersed shapeless and inconscient; without Thee this sensibility which opens to us a relation  with all these other centres of manifestation, would vanish in an obscure inertia; without Thee this thought which animates and throws its light on the synthesis, would be diffuse, toneless, unrealised; without  Thee the sublime love which vivifies, which coordinates  which animates and gives a warmth to all, would remain an unawakened possibility. Without Thee all is inert, brute or inconscient. Thou art all that illumines and enchants us, our sole reason for existing and our whole aim. Is that not enough to cure us of all personal thoughts and to make us unfurl our wings and soar above the contingencies of the material  life, so that we can fly up into Thy divine atmosphere  with the power to return as messengers to the earth and announce the glorious tidings of Thy Advent which is near?

O Divine Master, Sublime Friend, Marvellous Teacher, in a fecund silence, I salute Thee.

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October 7, 1913

 

THIS return, after three months of absence, to the house which is consecrated to Thee, O Lord has been an occasion for two experiences. The first is that in my outer being, my surface consciousness, I have no longer any feeling that I am in my own house or the owner of anything at all. I am a stranger in a foreign land, much more of a stranger here than in an open field among the trees; and I smile, now that I have learnt what I did not know before, I smile at the idea of the feeling of being the "mistress  of the house" which I had before my departure; it was necessary that all pride should be broken, crushed, trampled down definitively, so that I may at last be capable of understanding, seeing and feeling things as they are. I offered Thee this dwelling, O Lord, as if it was possible for me to possess anything and so make of it an offering to Thee. All is Thine, O Lord, it is Thou who placest everything at our disposal; but how great is our blindness when we imagine that we can be the owners of anything! I am a visitor here as everywhere else. Thy messenger and Thy servant upon earth, a stranger among men, and yet the very soul of their life and the love in their hearts.

In the second place, the whole atmosphere of the house is charged with a religious gravity; here one descends immediately into the depths; meditation is more gathered in and more serious; dispersion

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disappears and gives place to concentration; and I feel this concentration literally descending From my head to enter into my heart, and my heart seems to reach greater depths than my head. It is as if for three months I had been loving with my head and that now only I begin to love with my heart; and this brings with it an incomparable gravity and sweetness  of feeling.

A new door has opened in my being and an immensity  has appeared before me!

I cross the threshold with devotion, feeling hardly worthy yet to enter upon this hidden path veiled from the sight and, as though, invisibly luminous within.

All is changed, all is new; the old garbs have dropped  and the new-born child half-opens its eyes to the light of the dawn.

 

November 22, 1913

 

A FEW minutes passed in silence before Thee are worth centuries of felicity......

Grant, O Lord, that all shadows may be dispersed and that, more and more, I may become Thy faithful servant in constancy and in serenity; may my heart be before Thee pure like a pure crystal, so that all of it may reflect Thee. How sweet it is to be before Thee in silence.

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November 25, 1913

 

THE greatest enemy of a silent contemplation turned towards Thee is certainly this constant subconscient registering of the multitude of phenomena  with which we are put into contact. So long as we are occupied with cerebral activity, our conscious thought veils for us this excessive activity of our subconscient reception of things; quite a portion of our sensibility, and not perhaps the smallest, plays the role of a cinematographic apparatus without our knowledge and indeed to our detriment. It is only when we silence our active thought, which is comparatively  easy to do, that we find surging from all sides the multitude of little subconscient notations which often drown us in their overflowing stream. This is why it happens, as soon as we try to enter into the silence of deep contemplation, that we are assailed by innumerable thoughts—if thoughts they can be called—which do not in the least interest us, do not represent for us any action of desire, any conscious attachment, but which only prove to us our inability to control the receptivity, we might say, mechanical, of our subconscient. A considerable  labour is needed to silence all these useless noises, to stop this tiresome succession of images, to purify our minds from these thousand little cumbersome and valueless nullities. And it

means so much time unprofitably lost, a terrible waste.

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What is the remedy? In their simplistic way, some ascetic disciplines preconize solitude and inaction: to shelter the subconscient from all possibility of any registration; this appears to me a child's remedy, for it leaves the ascetic at the mercy of the first surprise, and when he thinks he is perfectly master of himself, if one day, he wishes to come back among his fellows to help them, his subconscient so long deprived of its receptive activity, is sure to abandon itself to it with an intensity greater than ever as soon as it gets the smallest opportunity.

There is certainly another remedy. Which? Undoubtedly  we must learn how to control our subconscient  as we control our conscious thought. The means for arriving at that are numerous. A regular introspection in the manner of the Buddhists and a systematic analysis of one's dreams—almost always constructed with this subconscient registration— form part of the method to be discovered. But there is certainly something more rapidly effective......

O Lord, Eternal Master, it is Thou who wilt be the Teacher, the Inspirer; Thou who wilt teach me what I should do; so that I can, after an indispensable application to my own case, make others profit by what Thou wilt have taught me.

With a loving and confident devotion, I salute Thee.

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November 28, 1913

 

IN that calm of collected contemplation which precedes the break of day, more than at any other moment, my thought rises towards Thee, O Lord of our being, in an ardent prayer.

May this day which is about to begin bring to earth and to men a little more of pure light and true peace; may Thy manifestation be more complete and Thy sweet law better recognised; may something higher, nobler, truer be revealed to mankind; may there spread a vaster and deeper love so that the wounds and the pain may be healed; and may this first ray of the sun which is about to dawn be an announcer of joy and harmony, the symbol of the glorious splendour hidden in the essence of life.

O Divine Master, grant that this day may be for us an opening to a completer consecration to Thy law, a more integral self-giving to Thy work, a more total forgetfulness of self, a greater illumination, a purer love; grant that in a communion with Thee ever deeper and more constant, we may unite always more, so that we may be Thy worthy servitors. Remove from us all egoism and mean pride, all covetousness and obscurity, so that all aflame with

Thy divine love, we may be Thy torches in the world.

A silent canticle rises from my heart like the white smoke of the perfumes of the East.

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And with the serenity of a perfect surrender, I salute Thee in the light of this rising day.

 

November 29, 1913

 

WHY all this noise, all this movement, this vain and hollow agitation; why this whirlwind sweeping men away like a swarm of flies caught in a storm? How sad is the spectacle of all this energy wasted, all these efforts lost. When will they cease from dancing like puppets at the end of threads held they know not by whom or by what? When will they take the time to sit and draw inwards, to collect themselves and open that inner door which hides from them Thy priceless treasures. Thy infinite boons? ...

How painful and miserable seems to me their life of ignorance and obscurity, their life of foolish agitation and profitless dissipation, when a single spark of Thy sublime light, a single drop of Thy divine love can transform this suffering into an ocean of joy!

O Lord, my prayer rises towards Thee: may they know at last Thy peace and that calm and irresistible power which springs from an immutable serenity appanage of those whose eyes have been opened and who can contemplate Thee in the enkindled core of their being.

But the hour of Thy manifestation has come.

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And canticles of joy will soon break out from every wide.

I bow down religiously before the solemnity of that hour.

 

December 13, 1913

 

ENLIGHTEN me, O Lord, grant that I may not  be mistaken. Grant that the infinite respect the utmost devotion, the love so intense and profound with which I approach Thee may be irradiating, convincing,  contagious, and that they may be awakened in the hearts of all.

O Lord, Eternal Master, Thou art my Light and. my Peace; guide my steps, open my eyes, enlighten my heart, and direct me on the paths which lead

straight towards Thee.

O Lord, Lord, grant that I may have no other will than Thine and that all my acts be an expression of Thy diine law.

A great light bathes me all over, and I am no longer conscious of anything else than Thee...

Peace, peace, peace on all the earth.

 

December 16 1913

 

LOVE pure and disinterested. Thy love in so far as we can perceive and manifest it, is the only key

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that can open the hearts seeking for Thee. Those who follow the path of the intellect can have a conception very high and very true, they can conceive the true life

the life One with Thee, but they do not know it; they have no inner experience of that life and they are unaware  of any contact with Thee. These, who have an intellectual knowledge and who have shut themselves up for action in a construction which appears to them the best, are the most difficult of all to convert; one finds it harder to awaken in them the consciousness of the Divine than in any other being of good-will. It is love alone that can accomplish this miracle, for love opens all doors, pierces through all walls, crosses beyond all obstacles. And a little of true love does more than the finest speeches.

O Lord, let this pure flower of love blossom in me, so that it may make fragrant all who approach us and its perfume sanctify them.

In this love are found peace and joy, the source of all strength and realisation. It is the infallible physician, the supreme consoler; it is the conqueror, the sovereign teacher,

O Lord, my sweet Master, whom I adore m silence and to whom I am wholly consecrated, who governest my life, inflame my heart with Thy pure love, so that it may bum like a fiery brazier, consuming all imperfections and transforming into a comforting warmth and radiating light the dead wood of egoism and the black coal of ignorance.

Lord, I turn towards Thee with a devotion

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at once joyful and grave and I implore Thee:

May Thy love be manifested,

May Thy reign come,

May Thy peace govern the world.

 

December 29 1913 

 

O LORD, grant that this collective convention of the end of the year may be for us an opportunity for finishing at once with the whole mass of ties and attachments, illusions and weaknesses that have no longer any reason for existence in our life. We must at each moment shake off the past like falling dust so that it may not soil the virgin path which, also at each moment, opens before us.

May our errors, recognised and repaired within us, be no longer anything else than vain mirages incapable of producing any consequences, and may we setting our foot firmly on all that should no more be on all ignorances, all obscurities, all egoisms, boldly take our flight towards larger horizons and an intenser light, a more perfect compassion, a more disinterested love ....towards Thee.

I salute Thee, O Lord, Master of all life and I would proclaim Thy reign upon earth.

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