{"id":1072,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1072"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:23","slug":"02-uttarpara-speech-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/02-karmayogin-volume-02\/02-uttarpara-speech-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-02_Uttarpara Speech.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

Uttarpara Speech*<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nW<\/b><\/font>HEN
\n<\/b><\/span>I was asked to speak to you at
\nthe
\nannual meeting of your Sabha, it was my intention to say a
\nfew words about the subject chosen for today, the subject of the
\nHindu religion. I do not know now whether I shall fulfil that
\nintention; for as I sat here, there came into my mind a word
\nthat I have to speak to you, a word that I have to speak to the
\nwhole of the Indian Nation. It was spoken first to myself in
\njail and I have come out of jail to speak it to my people.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIt was more than a year ago that I came
\nhere last. When I
\ncame I was not alone; one of the mightiest prophets of Nationalism sat by my side. It was he who then came out of the
\nseclusion to which God had sent him, so that in the silence and
\nsolitude of his cell he might hear the word that He had to say. It
\nwas he that you came in your hundreds to welcome. Now he
\nis far away, separated from us by thousands of miles. Others
\nwhom I was accustomed to find working beside me are absent.
\nThe storm that swept over the country has scattered them far and
\nwide. It is I this time who have spent one year in seclusion, and
\nnow that I come out I find all changed. One who always sat by
\nmy side and was associated in my work is a prisoner in Burma; another is in the north rotting in
\ndetention. I looked round when
\nI came out, I looked round for those to whom I had been accustomed to look for counsel and inspiration. I did not find them.
\nThere was more than that. When I went to jail the whole country
\nwas alive with the cry of Bande Mataram, alive with the hope of
\na nation, the hope of millions of men who had newly risen out of
\ndegradation. When I came out of jail I listened for that cry, but
\nthere was instead a silence. A hush had fallen on the country
\nand men seemed bewildered; for instead of God’s bright heaven
\nfull of the vision of the future that had been before us, there
\nseemed to be overhead a leaden sky from which human thunders<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n* This speech was delivered at
\nUttarpara, on 30th May, 1909 under the auspices of the
\nDharma Rakshini Sabha, just after Sri Aurobindo’s acquittal in the Alipore Bomb
\nCase.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 1<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nand lightnings rained. No man seemed to
\nknow which way to
\nmove, and from all sides came the question, "What shall we do
\nnext? What is there that we can do?" I too did not know which
\nway to move, I too did not know what was next to be done.  But
\none thing I knew, that as it was the Almighty Power of God which
\nhad raised that cry, that hope, so it was the same Power which
\nhad sent down that silence. He who was in the shouting and the
\nmovements was also in the pause and the hush. He has sent it
\nupon us, so that the nation might draw back for a moment and
\nlook into itself and know His will. I have not been disheartened
\nby that silence, because I had been made familiar with silence in
\nmy prison and because I knew it was in the pause and the hush
\nthat I had myself learned this lesson through the long year of my
\ndetention. When Bepin Chandra Pal came out of jail, he came
\nwith a message, and it was an inspired message. I remember the
\nspeech he made here. It was a speech not so much political as
\nreligious in its bearing and intention. He spoke of his realisation
\nin jail, of God within us all, of the Lord within the nation, and in
\nhis subsequent speeches also he spoke of a greater than ordinary
\nforce in the movement and a greater than ordinary purpose before it. Now I also meet you again, I also come out of jail, and
\nagain it is you of Uttarpara who are the first to welcome me, not
\nat a political meeting but at a meeting of a society for the protection of our religion. That message which Bepin Chandra Pal
\nreceived in Buxar jail, God gave to me in Alipore. That knowledge He gave to me day after day during my twelve months of
\nimprisonment and it is that which He has commanded me to
\nspeak to you now that I have come out.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nI knew I would come out. The year of
\ndetention was meant
\nonly for a year of seclusion and of training. How could anyone
\nhold me in jail longer than was necessary for God’s purpose? He
\nhad given me a word to speak and a work to do, and until that
\nword was spoken I knew that no human power could hush me,
\nuntil that work was done no human power could stop God’s
\ninstrument, however weak that instrument might be or however
\nsmall. Now that I have come out, even in these few minutes, a
\nword has been suggested to me which I had no wish to speak.
\nThe thing I had in my mind He has thrown from it and what I<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 2<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

speak is under an impulse and a
\ncompulsion.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhen I was arrested and hurried to the
\nLal Bazar Hajat I was
\nshaken in faith for a while, for I could not look into the heart of
\nHis intention. Therefore I faltered for a moment and cried out in my heart to
\nHim, "What is this that has happened to me ? I believed that I had a mission to work for the people of my country
\nand until that work was done, I should have Thy protection.
\nWhy then am I here and on such a charge ?" A day passed and a
\nsecond day and a third, when a voice came to me from within,
\n"Wait and see." Then I grew calm and waited, I was taken from
\nLal Bazar to Alipore and was placed for one month in a solitary
\ncell apart from men. There I waited day and night for the voice
\nof God within me, to know what He had to say to me, to learn
\nwhat I had to do. In this seclusion the earliest realisation, the
\nfirst lesson came to me. I remembered then that a month or more
\nbefore my arrest, a call had come to me to put aside all activity,
\nto go into seclusion and to look into myself, so that I might enter
\ninto closer communion with Him. I was weak and could not
\naccept the call. My work was very dear to me and in the pride
\nof my heart I thought that unless I was there, it would suffer or
\neven fail and cease; therefore I would not leave it. It seemed to
\nme that He spoke to me again and said, "The bonds you had not
\nthe strength to break, I have broken for you, because it is not my
\nwill nor was it ever my intention that that should continue. I
\nhave had another thing for you to do and it is for that I have
\nbrought you here, to teach you what you could not learn for
\nyourself and to train you for my work." Then He placed the Gita
\nin my hands. His strength entered into me and I was able to do
\nthe Sadhana of the Gita. I was not only to understand intellectually but to realise what Sri Krishna demanded of Arjuna and
\nwhat He demands of those who aspire to do His work, to be free from repulsion
\nand desire, to do work for Him without the demand for fruit, to renounce self-will and become a passive and
\nfaithful instrument in His hands, to have an equal heart for high
\nand low, friend and opponent, success and failure, yet not to do
\nHis work negligently. I realised what the Hindu religion meant.
\nWe speak often of the Hindu religion, of the Sanatan Dharma,
\nbut few of us really know what that religion is. Other religions<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 3<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

are preponderatingly religions of faith
\nand profession, but the
\nSanatan Dharma is life itself; it is a thing that has not so much to
\nbe believed as lived. This is the Dharma that for the salvation of
\nhumanity was cherished in the seclusion of this peninsula from
\nof old. It is to give this religion that India is rising. She does not
\nrise as other countries do, for self or when she is strong, to
\ntrample on the weak. She is rising to shed the eternal light entrusted to her over the world. India has always existed for humanity and not for herself and it is for humanity and not for
\nherself that she must be great.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nTherefore this was the next thing He
\npointed out to me, \u2014
\nHe made me realise the central truth of the Hindu religion. He
\nturned the hearts of my jailors to me and they spoke to the Englishman in charge
\nof the jail, "He is suffering in his confinement; let him at least walk outside his cell for half an hour in the
\nmorning and in the evening." So it was arranged, and it was
\nwhile I was walking that His strength again entered into me. I
\nlooked at the jail that secluded me from men and it was no longer
\nby its high walls that I was imprisoned; no, it was Vasudeva who
\nsurrounded me. I walked under the branches of the tree in front
\nof my cell but it was not the tree, I knew it was Vasudeva, it was
\nSri Krishna whom I saw standing there and holding over me his
\nshade. I looked at the bars of my cell, the very grating that did
\nduty for a door and again I saw Vasudeva. It was Narayana
\nwho was guarding and standing sentry over me. Or I lay on
\nthe coarse blankets that were given me for a couch and felt
\nthe arms of Sri Krishna around me, the arms of my Friend and
\nLover. This was the first use of the deeper vision He gave me.
\nI looked at the prisoners in the jail, the thieves, the murderers,
\nthe swindlers, and as I looked at them I saw Vasudeva, it was
\nNarayana whom I found in these darkened souls and misused
\nbodies. Amongst these thieves and dacoits there were many who
\nput me to shame by their sympathy, their kindness, the humanity
\ntriumphant over such adverse circumstances. One I saw among
\nthem especially, who seemed to me a saint, a peasant of my
\nnation who did not know how to read and write, an alleged
\ndacoit sentenced to ten years’ rigorous imprisonment, one of
\nthose whom we look down upon in our Pharisaical pride of class<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 4<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

as Chhotalok. Once more He spoke to me
\nand said, "Behold the
\npeople among whom I have sent you to do a little of my work.
\nThis is the nature of the nation I am raising up and the reason
\nwhy I raise them."<\/font> <\/p>\n

When the case opened in the lower court
\nand we were
\nbrought before the Magistrate I was followed by the same insight. He said to me, "When you were cast into jail, did not your
\nheart fail and did you not cry out to me, where is Thy protection?
\nLook now at the Magistrate, look now at the Prosecuting Counsel." I looked and it was not the Magistrate whom I saw, it was
\nVasudeva, it was Narayana who was sitting there on the bench.
\nI looked at the Prosecuting Counsel and it was not the Counsel
\nfor the prosecution that I saw; it was Sri Krishna who sat there,
\nit was my Lover and Friend who sat there and smiled. "Now do
\nyou fear?" He said, "I am in all men and I overrule their actions
\nand their words. My protection is still with you and you shall
\nnot fear. This case which is brought against you, leave it in my
\nhand. It is not for you. It was not for the trial that I brought
\nyou here but for something else. The case itself is only a means
\nfor my work and nothing more." Afterwards when the trial
\nopened in the Sessions Court, I began to write many instructions
\nfor my Counsel as to what was false in the evidence against me
\nand on what points the witnesses might be cross-examined.
\nThen something happened which I had not expected. The arrangements which had been made for my defence were suddenly
\nchanged and another Counsel stood there to defend me. He came
\nunexpectedly, \u2014 a friend of mine, but I did not know he was
\ncoming. You have all heard the name of the man who put away
\nfrom him all other thoughts and abandoned all his practice, who
\nsat up half the night day after day for months and broke his health
\nto save me, \u2014 Srijut Chittaranjan Das. When I saw him, I was
\nsatisfied, but I still thought it necessary to write instructions.
\nThen all that was put away from me and I had the message from
\nwithin, "This is the man who will save you from the snares put
\naround your feet. Put aside those papers. It is not you who will
\ninstruct him. I will instruct him." From that time I did not of myself speak a word to my Counsel about the case or give a
\nsingle instruction, and if ever I was asked a question, I always<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 5<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

found that my answer did not help the
\ncase. I had left it to him
\nand he took it entirely into his hands, with what result you know.
\nI knew all along what He meant for me, for I heard it again and
\nagain, always I listened to the voice within; "I am guiding, therefore fear not. Turn to your own work for which I have brought
\nyou to jail and when you come out, remember never to fear, never
\nto hesitate. Remember that it is I who am doing this, not you
\nnor any other. Therefore whatever clouds may come, whatever
\ndangers and sufferings, whatever difficulties, whatever impossibilities, there is nothing impossible, nothing difficult. I am in the
\nnation and its uprising and I am Vasudeva, I am Narayana, and
\nwhat I will, shall be, not what others will. What I choose to bring
\nabout, no human power can stay."<\/font><\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile He had brought me out of
\nsolitude and placed
\nme among those who had been accused along with me. You
\nhave spoken much today of my self-sacrifice and devotion to my
\ncountry. I have heard that kind of speech ever since I came out of
\njail, but I hear it with embarrassment, with something of pain. For I know my
\nweakness, I am a prey to my own faults and backslidings. I was not blind to them before and when they all rose
\nup against me in seclusion, I felt them utterly. I knew then that I the man was
\na mass of weakness, a faulty and imperfect instrument, strong only when a higher strength entered into me.
\nThen I found myself among these young men and in many of
\nthem I discovered a mighty courage, a power of self-effacement
\nin comparison with which I was simply nothing. I saw one or
\ntwo who were not only superior to me in force and character,
\n\u2014 very many were that, \u2014 but in the promise of that intellectual
\nability on which I prided myself. He said to me, "This is the
\nyoung generation, the new and mighty nation that is arising at
\nmy command. They are greater than yourself. What have
\nyou to fear ? If you stood aside or slept, the work would still be
\ndone. If you were cast aside tomorrow, here are the young men
\nwho will take up your work and do it more mightily than you
\nhave ever done. You have only got some strength from me to
\nspeak a word to this nation which will help to raise it." This was
\nthe next thing He told me.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThen a thing happened suddenly and in a
\nmoment I was<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 6<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nhurried away to the seclusion of a
\nsolitary cell. What happened
\nto me during that period I am not impelled to say, but only this
\nthat day after day, He showed me His wonders and made me realise the utter truth of the Hindu religion. I had had many doubts
\nbefore. I was brought up in England amongst foreign ideas and  an atmosphere entirely foreign. About many things in Hinduism
\nI had once been inclined to believe that they were imaginations, that there was
\nmuch of dream in it, much that was delusion and Maya. But now day after day I realised in the mind,
\nI realised in the heart, I realised in the body the truths of the
\nHindu religion. They became living experiences to me, and things
\nwere opened to me which no material science could explain.
\nWhen I first approached Him, it was not entirely in the spirit of
\nthe Bhakta, it was not entirely in the spirit of the Jnani. I came
\nto Him long ago in Baroda some years before the Swadeshi
\nbegan and I was drawn into the public field.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhen I approached God at that time, I
\nhardly had a living
\nfaith in Him. The agnostic was in me, the atheist was in me, the
\nsceptic was in me and I was not absolutely sure that there was a
\nGod at all. I did not feel His presence. Yet something drew me
\nto the truth of the Vedas, the truth of the Gita, the truth of the
\nHindu religion. I felt there must be a mighty truth somewhere
\nin this Yoga, a mighty truth in this religion based on the Vedanta.
\nSo when I turned to the Yoga and resolved to practise it and find
\nout if my idea was right, I did it in this spirit and with this prayer
\nto Him, "If Thou art, then Thou knowest my heart. Thou
\nknowest that I do not ask for Mukti, I do not ask for anything
\nwhich others ask for. I ask only for strength to uplift this nation,
\nI ask only to be allowed to live and work for this people whom I
\nlove and to whom I pray that I may devote my life." I strove
\nlong for the realisation of Yoga and at last to some extent I had
\nit, but in what I most desired I was not satisfied. Then in the
\nseclusion of the jail, of the solitary cell I asked for it again. I
\nsaid, "Give me Thy Adesh. I do not know what work to do or
\nhow to do it. Give me a message." In the communion of Yoga
\ntwo messages came. The first message said, "I have given you a
\nwork and it is to help to uplift this nation. Before long the time
\nwill come when you will have to go out of jail; for it is not my will<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 7<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthat this time either you should be
\nconvicted or that you should
\npass the time, as others have to do, in suffering for their country.
\nI have called you to work, and that is the Adesh for which you
\nhave asked. I give you the Adesh to go forth and do my work."
\nThe second message came and it said, "Something has been
\nshown to you in this year of seclusion, something about which
\nyou had your doubts and it is the truth of the Hindu religion. It
\nis this religion that I am raising up before the world, it is this that
\nI have perfected and developed through the Rishis, saints and
\nAvatars, and now it is going forth to do my work among the nations. I am raising up this nation to send forth my word. This
\nis the Sanatan Dharma, this is the eternal religion which you
\ndid not really know before, but which I have now revealed to you.
\nThe agnostic and the sceptic in you have been answered, for I
\nhave given you proofs within and without you, physical and
\nsubjective, which have satisfied you. When you go forth, speak
\nto your nation always this word, that it is for the Sanatan Dharma
\nthat they arise, it is for the world and not for themselves that
\nthey arise. I am giving them freedom for the service of the world.
\nWhen therefore it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatan
\nDharma that shall rise. When it is said that India shall be great,
\nit is the Sanatan Dharma that shall be great. When it is said that
\nIndia shall expand and extend herself, it is the Sanatan Dharma
\nthat shall expand and extend itself over the world. It is for the
\nDharma and by the Dharma that India exists. To magnify the
\nreligion means to magnify the country. I have shown you that
\nI am everywhere and in all men and in all things, that I am in
\nthis movement and I am not only working in those who are striving for the country but I am working also in those who oppose
\nthem and stand in their path. I am working in everybody and
\nwhatever men may think or do they can do nothing but help in
\nmy purpose. They also are doing my work, they are not my enemies but my instruments. In all your actions you are moving forward without knowing which way you move. You mean to do
\none thing and you do another. You aim at a result and your
\nefforts subserve one that is different or contrary. It is Shakti
\nthat has gone forth and entered into the people. Since long
\nago I have been preparing this uprising and now the time has<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 8<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

come and it is I who will lead it to
\nits fulfilment."<\/font><\/p>\n

This then is what I have to say to you.
\nThe name of your
\nsociety is "Society for the Protection of Religion". Well, the
\nprotection of the religion, the protection and upraising before
\nthe world of the Hindu religion, that is the work before us. But
\nwhat is the Hindu religion ? What is this religion which we call
\nSanatan, eternal ? It is the Hindu religion only because the Hindu
\nnation has kept it, because in this Peninsula it grew up in the
\nseclusion of the sea and the Himalayas, because in this sacred
\nand ancient land it was given as a charge to the Aryan race to
\npreserve through the ages. But it is not circumscribed by the confines of a single country, it does not belong peculiarly and for
\never to a bounded part of the world. That which we call the
\nHindu religion is really the eternal religion, because it is the
\nuniversal religion which embraces all others. If a religion is not
\nuniversal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion, a sectarian
\nreligion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and
\na limited purpose. This is the one religion that can triumph over
\nmaterialism by including and anticipating the discoveries of
\nscience and the speculations of philosophy. It is the one religion
\nwhich impresses on mankind the closeness of God to us and embraces in its compass all the possible means by which man can
\napproach God. It is the one religion which insists every moment
\non the truth which all religions acknowledge that He is in all men
\nand all things and that in Him we move and have our being. It
\nis the one religion which enables us not only to understand and
\nbelieve this truth but to realise it with every part of our being.
\nIt is the one religion which shows the world what the world is,
\nthat it is the Lila of Vasudeva. It is the one religion which shows
\nus how we can best play our part in that Lila, its subtlest laws
\nand its noblest rules. It is the one religion which does not separate life in any smallest detail from religion, which knows what
\nimmortality is and has utterly removed from us the reality of
\ndeath.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThis is the word that has been put into
\nmy mouth to speak
\nto you today. What I intended to speak has been put away from
\nme, and beyond what is given to me I have nothing to say. It is
\nonly the word that is put into me that I can speak to you. That<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 9<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nword is now finished. I spoke once
\nbefore with this force in me
\nand I said then that this movement is not a political movement
\nand that nationalism is not politics but a religion, a creed, a
\nfaith. I say it again today, but I put it in another way. I say no
\nlonger that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it
\nis the Sanatan Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu
\nnation was born with the Sanatan Dharma, with it it moves and
\nwith it it grows. When the Sanatan Dharma declines, then the
\nnation declines, and if the Sanatan Dharma were capable of perishing, with the Sanatan Dharma it would perish. The Sanatan
\nDharma, that is nationalism. This is the message that I have to
\nspeak to you.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 10<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n\tHOME<\/span><\/a><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uttarpara Speech*   WHEN I was asked to speak to you at the annual meeting of your Sabha, it was my intention to say a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-02-karmayogin-volume-02","wpcat-23-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11502,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions\/11502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}