{"id":333,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:22","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=333"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:22","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:22","slug":"033-many-delusions-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\/033-many-delusions-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-033_Many Delusions.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nMany
\nDelusions<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n               
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>I<\/font><\/span>N <\/font><\/b>
\nA<\/b>
\ncountry where subjection has long become a habit of the public mind, there will
\nalways be a tendency to shrink from the realities of the position and to hunt
\nfor roundabout, safe and peaceful paths to national
\nregeneration.
\nServitude is painful and intolerable, <\/span>
\n\u2014<\/span>
\nservitude <\/span>is killing the nation by inches,
\n\u2014 servitude must be got rid of, true; but the pains and evils of servitude
\nseem almost more tolerable to a good many people than the sharp, salutary pangs
\nof a resolute struggle for liberty. Hence the not uncommon cry, \u2014 \u201cThe
\nviolent and frequently bloody methods followed by other nations are not suited
\nto a gentle, spiritual and law-abiding people; we will vindicate our
\nintellectual originality and spiritual superiority by inventing new methods of
\nregeneration much more gentlemanly and civilised.\u201d The result is a hydra-brood
\nof delusions, \u2014 two springing up where one is killed. The old gospel of
\nsalvation by prayer was based on the belief in the spiritual superiority of the
\nBritish people, \u2014 an illusion which future generations will look back upon
\nwith an amazed incredulity. God answers prayers and the British people are
\ngod-like in their nature; so why should we despair? Even now there are prominent
\npoliticians who say and perhaps believe that although there is no historical
\nexample of a nation liberated by petition and prayer, yet the book of history is
\nnot closed and there is no reason why so liberal and noble a nation as the
\nBritish should not open a new and unprecedented chapter, — a miracle which never
\nhappened before in the world’s records may very well be worked for the sole and
\nparticular benefit of India! The petitionary delusion, however, though not yet
\nkilled, has been scotched; its lease of life is not for long.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Another delusion of which Babu Narendranath Sen of the
\nIndian Mirror<\/i>, <\/i>and
\nthe cultured and eloquent lady whom the Mahatmas have placed at the head of the
\nnew Theosophist<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-234<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nChurch,
\nare the principal exponents, asks us to seek our regeneration through religion,
\n\u2014 only when we have become religiously and morally fit, can we hope to be
\npolitically free. In spite of the confusion of ideas which underlies this
\ntheory, it is one which has a natural charm for a religiously-minded people.
\nNevertheless it is as much a thing in the air as the petitionary delusion. If by
\nreligion is meant the nivrtti mā<\/font>rga <\/i>it is an absurdity to talk of
\npolitics and religion in the same breath; for it is
\nthe
\npath of the few, \u2014 the saints and the elect <\/span>
\n\u2014<\/span>
\nto whom there <\/span>is no I nor thou, no mine or
\nthine, and therefore no my country or thy country. But if we are asked to
\nperfect our religious development in the pravrtti mā<\/font>rga<\/i>, <\/i>then it is
\nobvious that politics is as much a part of pravrtti mā<\/font>rga <\/i>as any other
\nactivity, and there is no rationality in asking us to practise religion and
\nmorality first and politics afterwards; for politics is itself a large part of
\nreligion and morality. We acknowledge that nothing is likely to become a
\nuniversal and master impulse in India which is not identified with religion. The
\nobvious course is to recognise that politics is religion and infuse it with the
\nspirit of religion; for that is the true patriotism which sees God as the Mother
\nin our country, God as sakti <\/i>in the mass of our countrymen, and
\nreligiously devotes itself to their service and their liberation from present
\nsufferings and servitude. We do not acknowledge that a nation of slaves who
\nacquiesce in their subjection can become morally fit for freedom; one day of
\nslavery robs a man of half his manhood, and while the yoke remains, he cannot
\ncompass a perfect and rounded moral development. Under a light and qualified
\nsubjection, he may indeed develop in certain directions; but in what direction
\nare we asked to develop? In the morality of the slave, the Shudra, whose dharma
\n<\/i>is humility, contentment, service, obedience? In the morality of the
\nmerchant whose dharma <\/i>is to amass riches by honesty and enterprise and
\nspend them with liberal philanthropy? In the morality of the Brahmin whose dharma
\n<\/i>is to prepare himself for the nivrtti mā<\/font>rga <\/i>by learning and holy
\nexercises, to forgive injuries and accept honour or insult, wrong and injustice,
\nwith a calm and untroubled mind? It is obvious that we may develop far on these
\nlines without coming at all nearer to moral fitness for freedom. Politics is the
\nwork<\/font><\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font><\/span>235<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nof
\nthe Kshatriya and it is the virtues of the Kshatriya we must develop if we are
\nto be morally fit for freedom. But the first virtue of the Kshatriya is not to
\nbow his neck to an unjust yoke but to protect his weak and suffering countrymen
\nagainst the oppressor and welcome death in a just and righteous battle.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>A third delusion to which the over-intellectualised are subject is the
\nbelief in salvation by industrialism. One great danger of the commercial aspect
\nof the Swadeshi movement is that many of our young men may be misled into
\nthinking that their true mission is to go abroad, study industries and return to
\nenrich themselves and their country. We would warn them against this pernicious
\nerror. This work is an admirable work and a necessary part of the great national
\nyaj\u00f1<\/font>a <\/i>which we have instituted; but it is only a part and not even the
\nchief part. Those who have never studied Japanese history, are fond of telling
\nour young men that Japan owes her greatness to her commercial and industrial
\nexpansion and call on them to go and do likewise. Commercial and industrial
\nexpansion are often accompaniments and results of political liberty and
\ngreatness, \u2014 never their cause. Yet the opposite belief is held by many who
\nshould have been capable of wiser discrimination. We find it in the truly
\nmarvellous address of Srinath Pal Rai Bahadur at Berhampur; \u2014 there is a
\nwonderful contrast between the canine gospel of submissive loyalty preached in
\nthe first part of the address and the rampageously self-assertive gospel of
\neconomic independence preached in its tail-end. "Whatever the advantages of
\npolitical advancement, they sink into insignificance when compared with the
\nblessings which industrial prosperity brings in its train," \u2014 such is the
\ngospel according to Srinath Pal Rai Bahadur. It is so far shared by many less
\nloyal people that they consider industrial prosperity as prior to and the cause
\nof political advancement. The idea is that we must be rich before we can
\nstruggle for freedom. History does not bear out this peculiar delusion. It is
\nthe poor peoples who have been most passionately attached to liberty, while
\nthere are many examples to show that nothing more easily leads to national death
\nand decay than a prosperous servitude. We are particularly thankful that British
\nrule has not, like the Roman, given us industrial prosperity in exchange for poli-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font><\/span>236<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ntical
\nindependence; for in that case our fate would have been that of the ancient
\npeoples of Gaul and Britain who, buying civilisation and prosperity with the
\nloss of their freemanhood, fell a prey to the Goth and Saxon and entered into a
\nlong helotage from which it took them a thousand years to escape. We must strive
\nindeed for economic independence, because the despotism that rules us is
\nhalf-mercantile, half-military, and by mortally wounding the lower mercantile
\nhalf we may considerably disable the upper; at least we shall remove half the
\ninducement England now has for keeping us in absolute subjection. But we should
\nnever forget that politics is a work for the Kshatriya and it is not by the
\nvirtues and methods of the Vaishya that we shall finally win our independence.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> April 5, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font>237<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many Delusions                   IN A country where subjection has long become a habit of the public mind, there will always be a tendency to…<\/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-333","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\/333","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=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}