BANDE MATARAM

SRI AUROBINDO

Contents

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

CANTO NINE

THE PARADISE OF THE LIFE-GODS

AROUND him shone a great felicitous Day.

A lustre of some rapturous Infinite,

It held in the splendour of its golden laugh

Regions of the heart's happiness set free,

Intoxicated with the wine of God,

Immersed in light, perpetually divine.

A favourite and intimate of the Gods

Obeying the, divine command to joy,

It was the sovereign of its own delight

And master of the kingdoms of its force.

Assured of the bliss for which all forms were made,

Unmoved by fear and grief and the shocks of Fate

And unalarmed by the breath of fleeting Time

And unbesieged by adverse circumstance,

It breathed in a sweet secure unguarded ease

Free from our body's frailty inviting death,

Far from our danger zone of stumbling Will.

It needed not to curb its passionate beats;

Thrilled by the clasp of the warm satisfied sense

And the swift wonder-rush and flame and cry

Of the life-impulse's red magnificent race,

It lived in a jewel-rhythm of the laughter of God

And lay on the breast of universal love.

Immune the unfettered Spirit of Delight

Pastured his gleaming sun-herds and moon-flocks

Along the lyric speed of griefless streams

In fragrance of the unearthly asphodel.

A silence of felicity wrapped the heavens,

A ceaseless radiance smiled upon the heights;

A murmur of inarticulate ravishment

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Trembled in the winds and touched the enchanted soil;

Incessant in the arms of ecstasy

Repeating its sweet involuntary note

A sob of rapture flowed along the hours.

Advancing under an arch of glory and peace,

Traveller on plateau and on musing ridge,

As one who sees in the World-Magician's glass

A miracled imagery of soul-scapes flee

He traversed scenes of an immortal joy

And gazed into abysms of beauty and bliss.

Around him was a light of conscious suns

And a brooding gladness of great symbol things;

To meet him crowded plains of brilliant calm,

Mountains and violet valleys of the Blest,

Deep glens of joy and crooning waterfalls

And woods of quivering purple solitude;

Below him lay like gleaming jewelled thoughts

Rapt dreaming cities of Gandharva kings.

Across the vibrant secrecies of Space

A dim and happy music sweetly stole,

Smitten by unseen hands he heard heart-close

The harp's cry of the heavenly minstrels pass,

And voices of unearthly melody

Chanted the glory of eternal love

In the white-blue moonbeam air of Paradise.

A summit and core of all that marvellous world,

Apart stood high Elysian nameless hills,

Burning like sunsets in a trance of eve.

As if to some new unsearched profundity,

Into a joyful stillness plunged their base;

Their slopes through a hurry of laughter and voices sank,

Crossed by a throng of singing rivulets,

Adoring blue heaven with their happy hymn,

Down into woods of shadowy secrecy:

Lifted into wide voiceless mystery

Their peaks climbed towards a greatness beyond life.

The shining Edens of the vital gods

Received him in their deathless harmonies.

All things were perfect there that flower in Time;

Beauty was there creation's native mould,

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Peace was a thrilled voluptuous purity.

There Love fulfilled her gold and roseate dreams

And Strength her crowned and mighty reveries;

Desire climbed up, a swift omnipotent flame,

And Pleasure had the stature of the gods;

Dream walked along the highway of the stars;

Sweet common things turned into miracles:

Overtaken by the spirit's sudden spell,

Smitten by a divine passion's alchemy,

Pain's self compelled transformed to potent joy

Curing the antithesis between heaven and hell.

All life's high visions are embodied there,

Her wandering hopes achieved, her aureate combs

Caught by the honey-eater's darting tongue,

Her burning guesses changed to ecstasied truths,

Her mighty pantings stilled in deathless calm

And liberated her immense desires.

In that Paradise of perfect heart, and sense

No lower note could break the endless charm

Of her sweetness ardent and immaculate;

Her steps are sure of their intuitive fall.

After the anguish of the soul's long strife

At length were found calm and celestial rest

And, lapped in a magic flood of sorrowless hours.,

Healed were his warrior nature's wounded limbs

In the encircling arms of Energies

That brooked no stain and feared not their own bliss.

In scenes forbidden to our pallid sense

Amid miraculous scents and wonder-hues

He met the forms that divinise the sight,

To music that can immortalise the mind

And make the heart wide as infinity

Listened, and captured the inaudible

Cadences that awake the occult ear:

Out of the ineffable hush it hears them come

Trembling with the beauty of a wordless speech,

And thoughts too great and deep to find a voice,

Thoughts whose desire new-makes the universe.

A scale of sense that climbed with fiery feet

To heights of unimagined happiness,

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Recast his being's aura in joy-glow,

His body glimmered like a skyey shell;

His gates to the world were swept with seas of light.

His earth, dowered with celestial competence,

Harboured a power that needed now no more

To cross the closed customs-line of mind and flesh

And smuggle godhead into humanity.

It shrank no more from the supreme demand

Of an untired capacity for bliss,

A might that could explore its own infinite

And beauty and passion and the depth's reply

Nor feared the swoon of glad identity

Where spirit and flesh in inner ecstasy join

Annulling the quarrel between self and shape.

It drew from sight and sound spiritual power,

Made sense a road to reach the intangible:

It thrilled with the supernal influences

That build the substance of life's deeper soul.

Earth-nature stood reborn, comrade of heaven.

A fit companion of the timeless Kings,

Equalled with the godheads of the living Suns,

He mixed in the radiant pastimes of the Unborn,

Heard whispers of the Player never seen

And listened to his voice that steals the heart

And draws it to the breast of God's desire,

And felt its honey of felicity

Flow through his veins like the rivers of Paradise,

Made body a nectar-cup of the Absolute.

In sudden moments of revealing flame,

In passionate responses half-unveiled

He reached the rim of ecstasies unknown;

A touch supreme surprised his hurrying heart,

The clasp was remembered of the Wonderful,

And hints leaped down of white beatitudes.

Eternity drew close disguised as Love

And laid its hand upon the body of Time.

A little gift comes from the Immensitudes,

But measureless to life its gain of joy;

All the untold Beyond is mirrored there.

A giant drop of the Bliss unknowable

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Overwhelmed his limbs and round his soul became

A fiery ocean of felicity:

He foundered drowned in sweet and burning vasts:

The dire delight that could shatter mortal flesh,

The rapture that the gods sustain he bore.

Immortal pleasure cleansed him in its waves

And turned his strength into undying power.

Immortality captured Time and carried Life.

END OF CANTO NINE

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