{"id":2696,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2696"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:17","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:17","slug":"180-bande-mataram-6-2-08-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/06-07-bande-mataram\/180-bande-mataram-6-2-08-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-180_Bande Mataram 6-2-08.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPart Six <\/font><\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n Bande Mataram <\/font> <\/i><\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nunder the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo <\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nwith Speeches Delivered during the Same Period
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n6 February \u00ad 3 May 1908 <\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAfter returning from Maharashtra in February 1908, Sri Aurobindo resumed his duties as chief editorial writer of the Bande<\/i> Mataram<\/i>. He wrote regularly for the journal over the next three
\nmonths; during the same period he was occasionally called on to deliver speeches in Calcutta and other places in Bengal. Some
\nof these speeches were published in the Bande Mataram <\/i>. They are reproduced here at the date of their delivery and not the date
\nof publication.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nOn 2 May 1908 Sri Aurobindo was arrested in connection
\nwith the revolutionary activities of his brother Barindrakumar Ghose and others. He remained in Alipore jail from 5 May 1908
\nto 6 May 1909, when he was acquitted and released. The Bande<\/i> Mataram<\/i>, edited during his imprisonment by his colleagues,
\nceased publication in October 1908, when it was suppressed by the British government under the provisions of the Press Act
\nof 1908.  
\n   
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t
\n\tBande Mataram<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t
\n\t{
\n\tCALCUTTA, February 6th, 1908 }<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t
\n\tRevolutions and Leadership
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\tAmong many of those who are our leaders, there is a feeling of resentment against Nationalists because there is so little recognition of their past services, so strong a disposition to find fault with their actions and question their authority. It is asked of us
\nwhether we are going to upset all authority, disregard discipline and overthrow the natural pre-eminence of men who have long
\nworked for their country. This question is the expression of an inevitable feeling of personal pique forced from them by the sense
\nof exasperation which the loss of prestige and power cannot fail to create. If we answer this question at all, it is because it takes
\nits stand on points of general importance instead of appearing in its native character of personal feeling. The authority of a
\npolitical leader depends on his capacity to feel and express the sentiments of the people who follow him; it does not reside in
\nhimself. He holds his position because he is a representative man, not because he is such-and-such an individual. To take the
\nposition that because he has led in the past therefore his word must be law so long as he lives, is to ignore the root principles of
\npolitical life. His past services can only give him the claim to be regarded as a leader in preference to others so long as he voices
\nthe sentiments of the people and keeps pace with the tendencies of the time. The moment he tries to misuse his position in order
\nto impose his own will upon the people instead of making their will his own, he forfeits all claim to respect. If he has fallen
\nbehind the times, his only course is to stand aside; but to demand that because he is there and wishes to remain, the march of the
\nworld shall wait upon his fears and hesitations is to make a claim against which the reason and conscience of humanity rebels.
\n   
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 867<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tWhat the Moderate leaders ask is that the immense revolution which has begun in India, shall ask for their permission before it chooses its course or rolls forward to its great goal.
\nLike so many Canutes they set their chairs, Presidential or other, on the margin of the tide of Nationalism and looking over the
\nstormy waters command them to respect their thrones and stay the upsurging wrath of their billows so that their robes may not
\nbe drenched by the spray. It is a vain and fantastic demand. This tide was not created by any human power, nor can any man
\nimpose on it a limit or a bourne. As well ask the thunderbolt to respect the tallest oaks or the avalanche to regulate the line of
\nits descent so that ourselves may go safe, as ask this tremendous revolution to obey the will of the insignificant individuals whom
\nchance has lifted to a momentary eminence. Nationalism is itself no creation of individuals and can have no respect for persons. It
\nis a force which God has created, and from Him it has received only one command, to advance and advance and ever advance
\nuntil He bids it stop, because its appointed mission is done. It advances, inexorably, blindly, unknowing how it advances, in
\nobedience to a Power which it cannot gainsay, and everything which stands in its way, man or institution, will be swept away
\nor ground into powder beneath its weight. Ancient sanctity, supreme authority, bygone popularity, nothing will serve as a
\nplea. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tIt is not the fault of the avalanche if it sweeps away human
\nlife by its irresistible and unwilled advance; nor can it be imputed as moral obliquity to the thunderbolt that the oak of a thousand
\nyears stood precisely where its burning hand was laid. Not only the old leaders but any of the new men whom the tide has
\ntossed up for a moment on the crest of its surges, must pay the penalty of imagining that he can control the ocean and impose
\non it his personal likes and desires. These are times of revolution when tomorrow casts aside the fame, popularity and pomp of
\ntoday. The man whose carriage is today dragged through great cities by shouting thousands amid cries of “Bande Mataram”
\nand showers of garlands, will tomorrow be disregarded, perhaps hissed and forbidden to speak. So it has always been and
\n   
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 868<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tnone can prevent it. How can such-and-such a barrister, editor,
\nprofessor whom his personal talents have brought forward for a time, say to Revolution, “Thou shalt be my servant” or to
\nChaos, “I will use thee as the materials of my personal aggrandisement”? As the pace of the movement is accelerated,
\nthe number of those who are left behind will increase. Men who are now acclaimed as Extremists, leaders of the forward
\nmovement, preachers of Nationalism and embodiments of the popular feeling will tomorrow find themselves left behind, cast
\naside, a living monument of the vanity of personal ambition. The old leaders claim eternal leadership because they have rendered
\nservices\u2014 some few eloquent speeches or well-written petitions, to wit; but before we are much older, those who are serving their
\ncountry by personal suffering and self-sacrifice will find that they too must not presume on their services. Only the self-abnegation
\nwhich effaces the idea of self altogether and follows the course of the revolution with a childlike belief that God is the leader and
\nwhat He does is for the best, will be able to continue working for the country. Such men are not led by personal ambition and
\ncannot therefore be deterred from following the will of God by personal loss of any kind.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tRevolutions are incalculable in their goings and absolutely uncontrollable. The sea flows and who shall tell it how it is to
\nflow? The wind blows and what human wisdom can regulate its motions? The will of Divine Wisdom is the sole law of revolutions and we have no right to consider ourselves as anything but mere agents chosen by that Wisdom. When our work is done,
\nwe should realise it and feel glad that we have been permitted to do so much. Is it not enough reward for the greatest services that
\nwe can do, if our names are recorded in History among those who helped by their work or their speech or better, by the mute
\nservice of their sufferings to prepare the great and free India that will be? Nay, is it not enough if unnamed and unrecorded
\nexcept in the Books of God, we go down to the grave with the consciousness that our finger too was laid on the great Car and
\nmay have helped, however imperceptibly, to push it forward? This talk of services is a poor thing after all. Do we serve the
\n   
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 869<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tMother for a reward or do God’s work for hire? The patriot
\nlives for his country because he must; he dies for her because she demands it. That is all.
\n  
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 870<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part Six   Bande Mataram   under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo   with Speeches Delivered during the Same Period   6 February \u00ad 3…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-06-07-bande-mataram","wpcat-54-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696","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=2696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}