{"id":439,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=439"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:02","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:02","slug":"53-a-great-mind-a-great-will-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17\/53-a-great-mind-a-great-will-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","title":{"rendered":"-53_A Great Mind, a Great Will.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nA Great
\nMind, a Great Wi11*<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

                     
\n<\/font>
\nA<\/font> <\/font> GREAT<\/font><\/b> mind, a great
\nwill, a great and preeminent leader of men has passed away from the field of
\nhis achievement and labour. To the mind of his country Lokamanya Tilak was much more, for he had become to it a
\nconsiderable part of itself, the embodiment of its past efforts and the head of
\nits present struggle for a free and greater life. His achievement and
\npersonality have put him amidst the first rank of historic and significant
\nfigures. He was one who built much rapidly out of little beginnings, a creator
\nof great things out of an unworked material. The
\ncreations he left behind him were a new and strong and self-reliant national
\nspirit, the reawakened political mind and life of a people, a will to freedom
\nand action, a great national purpose. He brought to his work extraordinary
\nqualities, a calm, silent, unflinching courage, an unwavering purpose, a
\nflexible mind, a forward-casting vision of possibilities, an eye for the
\noccasion, a sense of actuality, a fine capacity of democratic leadership, a
\ndiplomacy that never lost sight of its aim and pressed towards it even in the
\nmost pliant turns of its movement, and guiding all, a single-minded patriotism
\nthat cared for power and influence only as a means of service to the Motherland
\nand a lever for the work of her liberation. He sacrificed much for her and
\nsuffered for her repeatedly and made no ostentation of his suffering and
\nsacrifices. His life was a constant offering at her altar and his death has
\ncome in the midst of an unceasing service and labour.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The passing of this
\ngreat personality creates a large and immediate void that will be felt acutely
\nfor a time, but it is the virtue of his own work that this vacancy must very
\nsoon be filled by new men and new forces. The spirit he created in the country is
\nof that sincere, real and fruitful kind that cannot consent to<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/sup> This article which first
\nappeared in The Independent on August 5, 1920, was sent by Sri Aurobindo in the
\nform of a telegram at the request of that journal’s editor Bipin
\nChandra Pal on the occasion of Lokamanya Tilak’s death on August 1 of that year.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 364<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ncease
\nor to fail, but must always throw up minds and capacities that will embody its
\npurpose. It will raise up others of his mould, if not of his stature, to meet
\nits needs, its demands, its call for ability and courage. He himself has only
\npassed behind the veil, for death and not life is the illusion. The strong
\nspirit that dwelt within him ranges now freed from our human and physical
\nlimitations, and can still shed upon us, on those now at work, and those who
\nare coming, a more subtle, ample and irresistible influence; and even if this
\nwere not so, an effective part of him is still with us. His will is left behind
\nin many to make more powerful and free from hesitations the national will he
\ndid so much to create, the growing will whose strength and single wholeness are
\nthe chief conditions of the success of the national effort. His courage is left
\nbehind in numbers to fuse itself into and uplift and fortify the courage of his
\npeople; his sacrifice and strength in suffering are left with us to enlarge
\nthemselves, more even than in his life-time, and to heighten the fine and
\nsteeled temper our people need for the difficult share that still lies before
\ntheir en- deavour. These things are his legacy to his
\ncountry, and it is in proportion as each man rises to the height of what they
\nsignify that his life will be justified and assured of its recompense.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Methods and
\npolicies may change but the spirit of what Lokamanya Tilak was and did remains and will continue to be needed, a
\nconstant power in others for the achievement of his own life’s grand and single
\npurpose. A great worker and creator is not to be judged only by the work he
\nhimself did, but also by the greater work he made possible. The achievement of
\nthe departed leader has brought the Nation to a certain point. Its power to go
\nforward from and beyond that point, to face new circumstances, to rise to the
\nmore strenuous and momentous demand of its future will be the greatest and
\nsurest sign of the soundness of his labour. That test is being applied to the
\nNational Movement at the very moment of his
\ndeparture.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The death of Lokamanya Tilak comes upon us at a time when the country is passing through most troubled and poignant hours. It occurs at a
\ncritical period, it coincides even with a crucial moment when questions are
\nbeing put to the nation by the Master of Destiny, on the answer to which
\ndepends the whole \n<\/p>\n

\nPage – 365<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nspirit,
\nvirtue and meaning of its future. In each event that confronts us there is a divine
\nsignificance, and the passing away at such a time of such a man, on whose
\nthought and decision thousands hung, should make more profoundly felt by the
\npeople, by every man in the Nation, the great, the almost religious responsibility that lies upon him personally.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At this juncture it is
\nnot for me to prejudge the issue; each must meet it according to his light and
\nconscience. This at least can be demanded of every man who would be worthy of
\nIndia and of her great departed son that he shall put away from him in the
\ndecision of the things to be done in the future all weakness of will, all
\ndefect of courage, all unwillingness for sacrifice. Let each strive to see with
\nthat selfless impersonality, taught by one of our greatest scriptures, which
\ncan alone enable us to identify" ourselves both with the Divine Will and
\nwith the Son of out Mother. Two things India demands, a farther future, the
\nfreedom of soul, life and action needed for the work she has to do for mankind;
\nand the understanding by her children of that work and of her own true spirit
\nthat the future India may be indeed India. The first seems still the main sense
\nand need of the present moment, but the second is also involved in them – a yet
\ngreater issue. On the spirit of our decisions now and in the next few years depends the truth, vitality and greatness of our future
\nnational existence. It is the beginning of a great Self-Determination not only
\nin the external but in the spiritual. These two thoughts should govern our
\naction. Only so can the work done by Lokamanya Tilak find its true continuation and issue.<\/p>\n

\nPage – 366<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Great Mind, a Great Wi11*                         A GREAT mind, a great will, a great and preeminent leader of men has passed away from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","wpcat-9-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","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=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}