{"id":300,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=300"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:11","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:11","slug":"119-revolutions-and-leadeership-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\/119-revolutions-and-leadeership-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-119_Revolutions and Leadeership.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nRevolutions and Leadership<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n            
\nAMONG<\/b> many of those who are our leaders, there is a feeling of resentment against
\nNationalists because there is so little recognition of their past services, so
\nstrong a disposition to find fault with their actions and question their
\nauthority. It is asked of us whether we are going to upset all authority,
\ndisregard<\/span> discipline and overthrow the natural pre-eminence of men who have long
\nworked for their country. This question is the expression of an inevitable
\nfeeling of personal pique forced from them by the sense of exasperation which
\nthe loss of prestige and power cannot fail to create. If we answer this question
\nat all, it is because it takes its stand on points of general importance instead
\nof 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
\nthe people who follow him; it does not reside in himself. He holds his position
\nbecause he is a representative man, not because he is such and such an
\nindividual. To take the position that because he has led in the past therefore
\nhis word must be law so long as he lives is to ignore the root principles of
\npolitical life. This past service can only give him the claim to be regarded as
\nleader in preference to others so long as he voices the sentiments of the people
\nand keeps pace with the tendencies of the time. The moment he tries to misuse
\nhis position in order to impose his own will upon the people, instead of making
\ntheir will his own, he forfeits all claim to respect. If he has fallen behind
\nthe times, his only course is to stand aside; but to demand that because he is
\nthere and wishes to remain, the march of the world shall wait upon his fears and
\nhesitations is to make a claim against which the
\nreason and conscience of humanity
\nrebels<\/span>.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>What the Moderate leaders ask is that the
\nimmense revolution which has begun in India, shall ask for their permission
\nbefore it chooses its course or rolls forward to its great goal. Like so many Canutes they set their chairs, Presidential or other,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-668<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

on
\nthe margin of the tide of Nationalism and looking over the stormy waters command
\nthem to respect their thrones and stay the upsurging wrath of their billows so
\nthat their robes may not be drenched by the spray. It is a vain and fantastic
\ndemand. This tide was not created by any human power, nor can any man impose on
\nit a limit or a bourne. As well ask the thunderbolt to respect the tallest oaks
\nor the avalanche to regulate the line of its descent so that ourselves may go
\nsafe, as ask this tremendous revolution to obey the will of the insignificant
\nindividuals whom chance has lifted to a momentary eminence. Nationalism is
\nitself no creation of individuals and can have no respect for persons. It is a
\nforce which God has created, and from Him it has received only one command, to
\nadvance and advance and ever advance until He bids it stop, because its
\nappointed mission is done. It advances, inexorably, blindly, unknowing how it
\nadvances, in obedience to a Power which it cannot gainsay, and every thing which
\nstands in its way, man or institution, will be swept away, or ground into powder
\nbeneath its weight. Ancient sanctity, supreme authority, bygone popularity,
\nnothing will serve as a plea.<\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>It is not the fault of the avalanche if it sweeps away human life by its
\nirresistible and unwilled advance; nor can it be imputed as moral obliquity to
\nthe thunderbolt that the oak of a thousand years stood precisely where its
\nburning hand was laid. Not only the old leaders but any of the new men whom the
\ntide has tossed up for a moment on the crest of its surges, must pay the penalty
\nof imagining that he can control the ocean and impose on it his personal likes
\nand desires. These are times of revolution when tomorrow casts aside the fame,
\npopularity and pomp of today. The man whose carriage is today dragged through
\ngreat cities by shouting thousands amid cries of "Bande Mataram" and
\nshowers of garlands, will tomorrow be disregarded, perhaps hissed and forbidden
\nto speak. So it has always been and none can prevent it. How can such and such a
\nbarrister, editor, professor whom his personal talents have brought forward for
\na time, say to Revolution, "Thou shalt be my servant" or to Chaos,
\n"I will use thee as the materials of my personal aggrandisement"? As
\nthe pace of the movement is accelerated, the number of those who<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-669<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

are
\nleft behind will increase. Men who are now acclaimed as Extremists, leaders of
\nthe forward movement, preachers of Nationalism, and embodiments of the popular
\nfeeling will tomorrow find themselves left behind, cast aside, a living monument
\nof the vanity of personal ambition. The old leaders claim eternal leadership
\nbecause they have rendered services \u2014 some few eloquent speeches or
\nwell-written petitions to wit; but before we are much older, those who are
\nserving their country by personal suffering and self-sacrifice will find that
\nthey too must not presume on their services. Only the self-abnegation which
\neffaces the idea of self altogether and follows the course of the revolution
\nwith a childlike belief that God is the leader and what He does is for the best,
\nwill be able to continue working for the country. Such men are not led by
\npersonal ambition and cannot therefore be deterred from following the will of
\nGod by personal loss of any kind.<\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>Revolutions are incalculable in their goings and absolutely
\nuncontrollable. The sea flows and who shall tell it how it is to flow? The wind
\nblows and what human wisdom can regulate its motions? The will of Divine Wisdom
\nis the sole law of revolutions and we have no right to consider ourselves as
\nanything but mere agents chosen by that Wisdom. When our work is done, we should
\nrealise it and feel glad that we have been permitted to do so much. Is it not
\nenough reward for the greatest services that we can do, if our names are
\nrecorded in History among those who helped by their work or their speech or
\nbetter, by the mute service of their sufferings to prepare the great and free
\nIndia that will be? Nay, is it not enough if unnamed and unrecorded except in
\nthe Books of God, we go down to the grave with the consciousness that our finger
\ntoo was laid on the great Car and may have helped, however imperceptibly, to
\npush it forward? This talk of services is a poor thing after all. Do we serve
\nthe Mother for a reward or do God’s work for hire? The patriot lives for his
\ncountry because he must; he dies for her because
\nshe demands it. That is all.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>, <\/i><\/font>February 6, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-670<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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