{"id":2778,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2778"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:46","slug":"111-bande-mataram-3-7-07-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\/111-bande-mataram-3-7-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-111_Bande Mataram 3-7-07.html"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t<\/p>\n

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

\n

\n\t
\n\t{
\n\tCALCUTTA, July 3rd, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\nEurope and Asia
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe London correspondent of a contemporary quotes, with the apposite change of a word, some verses from a poem by Wilfrid
\nBlunt which so admirably express the basic motive of the Nationalist movement in India that we reproduce it here. It is often
\nrepresented by our opponents that the cry for Swaraj is a mere senseless cry for freedom without any recognition of the responsibilities of freedom. This is not so. Those who have followed the exposition of the Nationalist ideal in
\nBande Mataram <\/i>know well
\nthat we advocate the struggle for Swaraj, first, because Liberty is in itself a necessity of national life and therefore worth striving
\nfor for its own sake; secondly, because Liberty is the first indispensable condition of national development intellectual, moral,
\nindustrial, political (we do not say it is the only condition) and therefore worth striving for for India’s sake; thirdly, because in
\nthe next great stage of human progress it is not a material but a spiritual, moral and psychical advance that has to be made and
\nfor this a free Asia and in Asia a free India must take the lead, and Liberty is therefore worth striving for for the world’s sake. India
\nmust have Swaraj in order to live; she must have Swaraj in order to live well and happily; she must have Swaraj in order to live
\nfor the world, not as a slave for the material and political benefit of a single purse-proud and selfish nation, but as a free people
\nfor the spiritual and intellectual benefit of the human race. The verses quoted are from a poem called “The Wind and
\nthe Whirlwind”, addressed to England. England, by her oppression of the Asiatic peoples under her sway, by her selfish and
\nruthless exploitation of their wealth, by her refusal to allow them the chance of national life and free development, is sowing
\n   
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\nthe wind, and she will reap the whirlwind in the loss of her
\nEmpire, perhaps in national decay and death.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n“Truth yet shall triumph in a world of justice;
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis is of faith. I swear it. East and West
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe law of Man’s progression shall accomplish
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nEven this last great marvel with the rest.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThou wouldst not further it. Thou canst not hinder.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIf thou shalt learn in time, thou yet shalt live.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nBut God shall ease thy hand of thy dominion
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAnd give to these the rights thou wouldst not give.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe nations of the East have left their childhood.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThou art grown old. Their manhood is to come;
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAnd they shall carry on Earth’s high tradition
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThrough the long ages when thy lips are dumb,
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nTill all shall be wrought out. O lands of weeping,
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nLands watered by the rivers of old Time,
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nGanges and Indus and the streams of Eden,
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nYours is the future of the world’s sublime.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nYours was the fount of man’s first inspiration,
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe well of wisdom whence he earliest drew.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAnd yours shall be the flood-time of his reason, <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe means of strength which shall his strength renew.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe wisdom of the West is but a madness,
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe fret of shallow waters in their bed.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nYours is the flow, the fullness of man’s patience, <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe ocean of God’s rest inherited.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAnd thou, too, India, mourner of the nations,
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThough thou hast died today in all men’s sight,
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAnd though upon thy cross with thieves thou hangest,
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nYet shall thy wrong be justified in right.”   
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n\tThe view of the East as just emerging from its childhood and
\nthe West as old and senile, is contrary to received ideas, but there is a deep truth underlying it. The East is more ancient by
\nmany thousands of years than the West, but a greater length of years does not necessarily imply a more advanced age. The
\nyears which would mean only childhood to a long-lived species would bring old age and death to more ephemeral stocks. Asia
\nis long-lived, Europe brief and ephemeral. Asia is in everything hugely-mapped, immense and grandiose in its motions, and its
\nlife-periods are measured accordingly. Europe lives by centuries, Asia by millenniums. Europe is parcelled out in nations, Asia in
\ncivilisations. The whole of Europe forms only one civilisation with a common, derived and largely second-hand culture; Asia
\nsupports three civilisations, each of them original and of the soil. Everything in Europe is small, rapid and short-lived; she
\nhas not the secret of immortality. Greece, the chief source of her civilisation, matured in two or three centuries, flourished
\nfor another two, and two more were sufficient for her decline and death. How few in years are the modern European nations,
\nyet Spain is already dead, Austria death-stricken and suffering from gangrene and disintegration, France overtaken by a mortal
\nand incurable malady, England already affected by the initial processes of decay. Germany and America alone show any signs
\nof a healthy and developing manhood. In the place which is left vacant by the decline of the European nations Asia young,
\nstrong and vigorous, dowered with the gift of immortality and the secret of self-transmutation, is preparing to step forward and
\npossess the future. She alone can teach the world the secret of immortality which she possesses and in order that she may do
\nso, she must reign. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tAsia has been described by the Europeans as decrepit; they
\nwill find to their amazement and dismay that she is rather emerging into her age of robust and perfect manhood. It is true that
\nshe reached ages ago heights of science, philosophy, civilisation which Europe is now toilfully trying to reach and that afterwards there was a slackening down, loss and disturbance from which she is only now recovering, but there was no decay or
\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n\tdecline. It was rather the disturbance, the temporary arrest,
\ndisorganization and derangement which marks the transition from boyhood to manhood. Her mighty civilizations, her great
\nphilosophies, her acute scientific observations and intuitions were the toys and games of her yet immature and imperfect
\npowers, the light and easy play of a child-giant, and form merely a slight index of the far greater things she will accomplish in the
\ncoming days of her ripe strength and maturity. What she did, she did by the activity of intuition and imagination, the first free
\npenetrating sympathy of a mind fresh from the divine source of life. She will now learn the scientific method of the adult and
\nsenescent West and apply it with a far greater force and ability to lines of development in which Europe is a bungler and novice.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tThe wisdom of the West is but a madness,
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe fret of shallow waters in their bed.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tThis shallowness proceeds from the fact that the West has developed materially and on the surface, but has not sought for
\nstrength and permanence in the deeper roots of life of which our outer activity is only a partial manifestation. The fundamental
\ndifference between East and West has been exemplified more than once in recent times. What European nation could have
\nchanged its whole political, social and economic machinery in a few years like Japan, with so little trouble, with such thoroughness and science, with the minimum of disturbance to its national economy? The phenomenon is so alien to European
\nnature and European experience that even to this day Western observers have been unable to understand it. Japan is a “weird”
\nnation, that is all the conclusion they can come to on the subject. What European nation again would deal so swiftly, directly and
\nearnestly with its own national vices as the Chinese are dealing with the opium vice in China? The very idea that China really
\nmeant it, was incredible to English observers. And well it might be, for one can imagine what would be the fate of any such
\nattempt to deal with the national vice of drunkenness in England. If India is unable to show such signal triumphs, it is because she
\nhas been disorganized by the merciless pressure of the alien rule   
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n\tand all her centres of strength and action destroyed or disabled.
\nYet even so, she has shown and is still showing signs of a prolonged and unconquerable vitality such as no nation subject for
\nan equally long time has evinced since history began. It is this moral strength, this ability to go to the roots, this gift of diving
\ndown into the depths of self and drawing out the miraculous powers of the Will, this command over one’s own soul which is
\nthe secret of Asia. And he who is in possession of his soul, the Scripture assures us, shall become the master of the world.
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tPage \u2013
\n\t576<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 3rd, 1907 }   Europe and Asia   The London correspondent of a contemporary quotes, with the apposite change of…<\/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-2778","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\/2778","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=2778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}