{"id":2798,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2798"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:53","slug":"192-bande-mataram-10-3-08-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\/192-bande-mataram-10-3-08-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-192_Bande Mataram 10-3-08.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t<\/p>\n

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

\n

\n\t
\n\t{
\n\tCALCUTTA, March 10th, 1908 } <\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nWelcome to the Prophet of Nationalism
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nToday Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal is due in Calcutta, a free man once more until it shall please irresponsible Magistrates and
\neasily-twisted laws to repeat his seclusion from the work which God has given him to do. A true leader of men today in India
\nholds his liberty as a light thing to be lost at a moment’s notice; when he chooses to defend himself he does so with the knowledge that no skill of defence but the choice of his prosecutors is the arbiter of the trial, no soundness of the law in his favour,
\nbut the convenience of those who employ and pay his judge, determines whether he goes free or incurs the honourable pains
\nof martyrdom\u2014 brief or long according to the caprice or policy of his political adversaries. To one who loves his country
\nabove all things, life in India today is as insecure as in the worst days of despotic caprice and arbitrariness from which British
\nbenevolence is fabled to have rescued us; he walks about under the constant sense of an insecurity which is the condition of his
\nlabours, not knowing whether the next day will not see him under arrest with the practical certainty of a sentence already
\nfixed and waiting only the idle formalities of a nominal trial for its confirmation. The price of safety, if he desires it, is the sacrifice
\nof his soul, to be silent when God has bidden him to speak, to refrain from action which his duty and conscience call on him
\nto perform. Bureaucracy sometimes promises him safety for the moment at an apparently lighter price, the loss of personal
\nself-respect and honour. It does not, as it once did, call upon him to fall down and worship it, it does not demand affection from its
\nopponents; but it is content to barter acquittal for an apology. Recantation was the alternative which the old persecutors of
\n    <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\tChristianity and the Christian persecutors of Jews and heretics
\noffered to those whom they threatened with the cross and the arena, with the rack and the fire, and it was offered for the same
\nreason that it is offered today to the political martyr. The force with which the old religious persecutors had to struggle was a
\nmoral force which fought tyranny not with material weapons but with the weapons of the spirit and it was by intimidating the
\nspirit and breaking the moral force of the resistance that they hoped to destroy the movement which they feared.
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\tRecantation meant a diminution of the moral force of the movement, so much to the credit of the tyrant, to the loss of
\nthe cause. Today also it is a great religious movement disguised for the moment in a political and Western garb with which the
\nbureaucracy is faced and the weapons which it uses are the weapons of the spirit, the force which makes it formidable is
\na spiritual force. We have nothing to oppose to the immense material engines of the bureaucracy except the exalted faith,
\nthe unflinching courage, the unswerving devotion to principle which has been so strangely, suddenly born in the hearts of this
\ngeneration of young men in Bengal. There lies the true strength of Nationalism and the enemies of Nationalism instinctively
\nfeel it. They are concerned therefore not so much to crush the inadequate and rudimentary material means which the movement has so far generated but to destroy the moral force which makes it a power. They are willing to forego the satisfaction
\nof vindictiveness if they can secure the solid advantage of an apology or recantation of some kind such as would fatally injure
\nthe moral force of at least one champion of Nationalism and by cumulative examples beat down the enthusiastic self-confidence
\nof the nation. Once or twice they have succeeded, but these solitary instances of weakness have been a beacon-light of warning
\nto the country and the stern resolution not to flinch has been strengthened by the perception of the incalculable harm a single
\ninstance of recantation can do to the whole cause. On the other hand everyone who can say to the bureaucratic tempter, “Get
\nthee behind me, Satan,” is scoring a victory for the cause of his country.
\n   <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\tYet there are signs that the counsels of prudence and the
\nwisdom of the diplomat are beginning to gain upon us, we are growing wise in our generation and calculate the harm that
\ncan be done to the success of the movement by rashness or the advantages to be gained by a little care and economy of life
\nor suffering. The exaltation of the movement is in danger of being lowered by an accommodating spirit. We have referred
\nbefore to this growing danger and we are led to dwell on it by a perception of the relaxation in popular enthusiasm and fire
\nwhich is apparent in Bengal. Now that Bipin Chandra is coming out of prison, we look to his triumphant oratory, the Pythian
\ninspiration of his matchless eloquence to reawaken the spirit of lofty idealism, of unflinching devotion to principle which
\nit was his mission to confirm if not awaken, and which is now more evident in Madras where his influence is the chief inspiring
\nforce than in Bengal, the home of Nationalism. The voice of the prophet will once more be free to speak to our hearts, the
\nvoice through which God has more than once spoken. We shall remember once more that the movement is a spiritual movement
\nfor prophets, martyrs and heroes to inspire, help and lead, not for diplomats and pinchbeck Machiavels; we shall realise that
\nthe spirit of India reawakened is the life of the movement and not a borrowed Western patriotism; we shall shrink once more
\nfrom accommodation and paltering with the high call of our conscience as a fatal concession to the adversary and feel again
\nthat only by perfect faith, perfect self-sacrifice, perfect courage can we generate that Brahmatej in the nation which will raise up
\nthe Kshatriya spirit to protect it. Without this Brahmatej, this spiritual force in our midst, all else will be vain; Swadeshi will
\ncease, National Education fail, the great hopes and schemes now forming in our midst disappear like idle wreaths of smoke and
\nthe whole movement stain the pages of history as an abortive and premature impulse, a great chance of freedom lost because
\nthe body of the nation was not strong enough and the soul of the nation was not pure enough to sustain the tremendous inrush of
\nspiritual force which had suddenly come upon it. Bipin Chandra stands before India as the exponent of the spiritual force of the
\n   
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\n\tmovement, its pure “Indianity”, its high devotion to principle;
\nthis has been the kernel of his teaching, the secret of the almost miraculous force which often breathed from his eloquence. To
\ngive this message was the work particularly chosen for him. We need that message to be repeated in yet mightier language and
\nwith more convincing logic; the voice has been too long silent, the word of inspiration wanting. We welcome back today not
\nBipin Chandra Pal, but the speaker of a God-given message; not the man but the voice of the Gospel of Nationalism. He comes to
\nus purified by an act of self-immolation, with a soul deepened by long hours of solitude and self-communion to repeat the word of
\nhope and inspiration, to call us once more to the task of national self-realisation. Welcome to him and thrice welcome.
\n    <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 914<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 10th, 1908 }   Welcome to the Prophet of Nationalism   Today Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal is due in Calcutta,…<\/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-2798","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\/2798","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=2798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}