{"id":282,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:05","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=282"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:05","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:05","slug":"160-the-wheat-and-the-chaff-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/01-bande-mataram-volume-01\/160-the-wheat-and-the-chaff-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-160_The Wheat and the Chaff.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nThe Wheat and the Chaff<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n               
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>    T<\/font><\/b><\/span>HE<\/font><\/b>
\nresult of the Convention meeting at Allahabad is now certain and it seems that
\nafter a brief struggle Sir Pherozshah has prevailed. We have done much for
\nreunion, and have striven in vain. The personality of Sir Pherozshah Mehta and
\nthe votes of his Bombay henchmen have overborne the feeble patriotism and
\nwavering will of the Bengal Moderates and their Punjab supporters. The
\nConvention has thrown in its lot with Minto and Morley and sacrificed the
\ncountry at the altar of the bureaucracy and as the Bengal leaders have not
\ndissociated themselves from the Convention, we must hold that the entire
\nModerate Party have agreed to betray the mandate of their country and the future
\nof their people. For a brief moment God placed the destiny of India in their
\nhands and gave them a free choice whether they would serve Him or self, the
\ncountry or the bureaucracy. They have chosen, and chosen the worse course. They
\ntoo have made the great refusal. Whatever may happen henceforth, they must be
\nreckoned as servants of the alien bureaucrat, disguised as patriots to deceive
\nand mislead the people, enemies of Nationalism, foes of Indian independence who
\nprefer the service of a foreign domination to the perils of a struggle for
\nfreedom. They have refused to serve the Mother with an undivided heart, they
\nhave placed the alien on the throne of her future and dared to think that she
\nwill accept a left hand and inferior chair at the side of his seat of empire.
\nLet them serve the master they have chosen and find what wages he will give them
\nfor their service. No Nationalist henceforth can consent to seek reconciliation
\nwith them or clasp the hand that has sold the country for a foreign hire. A
\ncleavage has been made between those who will suffer for their country and those
\nwho have declared that they will have no share in those sufferings, no part or
\nlot in the great struggle of the future. It is well. We need waste no further
\ntime in seeking a union with the men who before Surat had resolved on a
\ndisruption motived by the desire of bureaucratic<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-870<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nfavour
\nand the fear of bureaucratic displeasure. The day of compromises is past. Frank,
\nclear and unmistakable, let the great issue stand for the country to decide as
\nbetween the lovers of freedom and the lovers of servitude, between the men who
\npalter with the demand of the Mother for whole-hearted service and those who
\nhave given all to her, between the politicians and the martyrs, between the
\nadvocates of a contradiction and the preachers of the unadorned Truth. On the
\none side the cry is "For India and freedom", on the other "For
\nIndia and the bureaucracy". Whichever appeals to its heart and its
\nintellect, the country will choose. Of the Conventionalists let us speak no
\nfarther. If any of them have it in them to repent, let them repent soon, for the
\nhour of grace that is given them will be short and the punishment swift. Into
\nthe secrets of their hearts we cannot pry, and it may be that there are some of
\nthem whose will only half consented to the betrayal, or whose intellectual
\nclarity was too small to understand what they were doing. But man’s fate is
\ndetermined by his acts which produce mechanically their inevitable result and
\nthey must share the fortune of those with whom they have cast in their lot.
\nBefore the world is much older, they will see the fruits of their work and
\nrejoice over them if they can. For Nationalism a new era begins with the 19th of
\nApril, 1908. The sharp division that it has created between the two parties will
\nbring the strength of Nationalism, the sincerity of its followers and the
\nvalidity of its principles to the fiercest test that any cause can undergo. Only
\nthat cause is God-created, entrusted with a mission, sure of victory which can
\nstand by itself in a solitude, absolute and supreme, without visible shield or
\nsword, exposed to all that the powers of the world can do to slay it, and yet
\nsurvive. The powers of the world are the servants of God commissioned to test
\nthe purity of His workers, their faith, their courage, their self-devotion, His
\nangels of destruction who put forth their whole strength to uproot the infant
\nfaith and scatter its followers, so that the wheat may be sifted from the chaff,
\nthe true believers from the half believers, and the new religion grow by
\nsuffering to its intended stature. Every religion therefore has to begin with a
\nperiod of persecution. The religion of Nationalism is already far on in this
\nperiod and the retreat of<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-871<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe
\nConventionalists from the field of battle, their distinct repudiation of the new
\nmovement and its works, is the first fruit of the persecution. So much chaff has
\nbeen sifted from the wheat, so many stones have been rejected by the great
\nBuilder from His material for the house He is building for our Mother. As time
\ngoes on, the test will be fiercer, the sifting more violent and the heavier part
\nof the chaff, if any remains, will follow the lighter. Only the heart that is
\nfree from fear, the spirit that is full of faith, the soul that is passionate
\nfor realisation will remain for the final test and the last purification. To men
\nof doubtful views and undecided opinions the crisis precipitated by the
\ndecision of the Convention Committee will prove a cruel embarrassment. To all
\nwho have an emotional preference for the new ideas without a
\nclear
\nunderstanding of their supreme and urgent necessity, to all <\/span>who
\nunderstand the new ideas with their intellects only but have them not in their
\nhearts, to all who, while loving and understanding the new ideas, have not faith
\nto put aside the cloaks of prudence
\nand dissimulation or courage to<\/span>
\n<\/span>avow
\n<\/span>their faith
\nopenly <\/span>before the world, the position is
\none of great perplexity. God is a hard master and will not be served by halves.
\nAll evasions, all subterfuges
\nHe cuts<\/span> <\/span>away
\n<\/span>and puts the
\nquestion plain and loud; <\/span>and before all
\nmankind, before the friend ready to cut the ties of friendship asunder, before
\nthe enemy standing ready with lifted sword to slay the servants of God as soon
\nas they confess their faith, it has to be answered:
\n<\/span>\u2014<\/span>
\n<\/span>"Who is on the Lord’s side?" Not
\nonce, not twice, but always that question is being put and the answer exacted.
\nIf you are unwilling to answer, either you do not believe that it is God’s work
\nyou are doing and are therefore unfit for it, or you have insufficient faith in
\nHis power to get His work done without the help of your diplomacy and cunning,
\nor you are unwilling to meet any plain risks in His service. To serve God under
\na cover is easy, to stipulate for safety in doing the work is natural to frail
\nhuman nature, to sympathise and applaud is cheap; but the work demands sterner
\nstuff in the men who will do it and insists on complete service, fearless
\nservice and honest service. The waverer must make up his mind either to answer
\nGod’s question or to give up the work. There is plenty for him to do in a cheap,
\nsafe and easy way if he cannot<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-872<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nface
\nthe risks of self-devotion. He can hold Conferences, enrol himself as a member
\nof the Convention’s District Associations, open funds for National purposes,
\npass resolutions, sign petitions, hold patriotic interviews with Magistrates,
\nCommissioners, Lieutenant-Governors, Governors and even perhaps with a live
\nViceroy; he can, if he is a barrister, plead in Swadeshi cases; he can take
\nshares in profitable Swadeshi investments and boast himself a great Swadeshi
\nworker, a captain of industry, a solid patriot; he can do real good to the
\ncountry without peril to himself by subscribing to help National Education. In
\nthese and other ways he can satisfy his secret proclivities for the service of
\nhis country. But the days when this easy service could pass for Nationalism are
\nnumbered. The work now before us is of the sternest kind and requires men of an
\nunflinching sternness to carry it out. The hero, the martyr, the man of iron
\nwill and iron heart, the grim fighter whose tough nerves defeat cannot tire out
\nnor danger relax, the born leader in action, the man who cannot sleep or rest
\nwhile his country is enslaved, the priest of Kali who can tear his heart out of
\nhis body and offer it as a bleeding sacrifice on the Mother’s altar, the heart
\nof fire and the tongue of flame whose lightest word is an inspiration to
\nself-sacrifice or a spur to action, for these the time is coming, the call will
\nsoon go forth. They are already here in the silence, in the darkness slowly
\nmaturing themselves, training the muscles of the will, tightening the strings of
\nthe heart so that they may be ready when the call comes. Whoever feels the power
\nof service within him, let him make sure of himself while there is yet time; for
\nthe present is an hour of easy probation, of light tests in which the punishment
\nof failure is also light, but whoever fails in the day that is coming, will be
\nthrown away not in the rubbish heap as the Conventionalists will be thrown, but
\ninto the fire of a great burning. For all who now declare themselves
\nNationalists the tests will be far severer than that before which the
\nplace-hunter, the title-hunter, the popularity-hunter, the politician of mixed
\nmotives and crooked ways, the trimmer, the light speaker and ready swearer of
\nthe old politics have paled and recoiled so early and so easily. The profession
\nof Nationalism should not be lightly made but with a full sense of what it means
\nand involves. The privi-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-873<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nlege
\nof taking it is attended with severe pains and penalties for those who take it
\nlightly. If we are few, it matters little, but it is of supreme importance that
\nthe stuff of which we are made should be sound. What the Mother needs is hard
\nclear steel for her sword, hard massive granite for her fortress, wood that will
\nnot break for the handle of her bow, tough substance and true for the axle of
\nher chariot. For the battle is near and the trumpet ready for the signal.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nBande
\nMataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> April 23, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font>874<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wheat and the Chaff                       THE result of the Convention meeting at Allahabad is now certain and it seems that after a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","wpcat-8-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","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=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}