Prayer Book

16. India: Our Motherland

The longest night seem to be passing away, the sorest trouble seems to be coming to an end at last, the seeming corpse appears to be awaking ... she is awakening, this motherland of ours, from her deep long sleep. None can resist her any more; no outward powers can hold her back any more; for the infinite giant is rising to her feet.

Differentiation, infinitely contradictory, must remain, but it is not necessary that we should hate each other therefore; it is not necessary therefore that we should fight each other. Therefore we have again to learn the one central truth that was preached only here in our Motherland, and that has to preached once more from India. One vision I see clear as life before me, that the ancient Mother has awakened once more, sitting on Her throne rejuvenated, more glorious than ever. Proclaim Her to an world with the voice of peace and benediction.

Our nation is totally lacking in organisation. It is this one drawback which produces all sorts of evil. We are altogether averse to making a common cause for anything. The first requisite for organisation is obedience.

If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Punya Bhumi, to be the land to which soul on this earth must come to account for Karma, the land to which every soul that is wending its way Godward must come to attain its last home, the land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and of spirituality - it is India,

O India! Forget not that the ideal of thy womanhood is Sita, Savitri, Damayanti; forget not that the God thou worship is the great Ascetic of ascetics, the all renouncing Shankara, the Lord of Uma; forget not that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for sense-pleasure, are not for thy individual personal happiness; forget not that thou are born as a sacrifice to the Mother's altar; forget not that the lower classes, the ignorant, the poor, the illiterate, the cobbler, the sweeper, are thy flesh and blood, thy brothers.

We must grow according to our nature. Vain is it to attempt the liens of action that foreign societies have engrafted upon us: it is impossible. Glory unto God, that it is impossible that we cannot be twisted and tortured into the shape of other nations. I do not condemn the institutions of other races; they are good for them, but not for us. What is meat for them may be poison to us.

The national ideals of India are Renunciation and Service. Intensify her in those channels, and the rest will take care of itself. The tidal wave of Western civilization is now rushing over the length and breadth of the country. It won't do now simply to sit in meditation on mountain tops without realizing in the least its usefulness. Now is wanted intense Karmayoga, with unbounded courage and indomitable strength in the heart. Then only will people of the country be roused.

Religion is the one and sole interest of the people of India. This is the one great truth India has to teach to the world, because it is nowhere else. This is spirituality, the science of the soul.

Our life-blood is spirituality. If it flows clear, if it flows strong and pure and vigorous, everything is right; political, social, any other material defects, even the poverty of the land, will all be cured if that blood is pure.

India will be raised, not with the power of the flesh, but with the power of the spirit; not with the flag of destruction but with the flag of peace and love.

But mark you, if you give up that spirituality, leaving it aside to go after the materializing civilization of the West,the result will be that in three generations you will be an extinct race; because the backbone of the nation will be broken, the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built will be undermined, and the result will be annihilation all round.

What India wants is a new electric fire to stir up a fresh vigour in the national veins.

Let us all work hard, my brethren; this is no time for sleep. On our work depends the coming of the India of the future. She is there ready waiting. She is only sleeping. Arise and awake, and see her seated here, on her eternal throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than she ever was - this Motherland of ours.

I consider that the great national sin is the neglect of the masses, and that is one of the causes of our downfall. No amount of politics would be of any avail until the masses in India are once more well educated, well fed and well cared for.

Let New India arise out of the peasant's cottage, grasping the plough; out of the huts of the fisherman, the cobbler, and the sweeper. Let her spring from the grocer's shop, from beside the oven of the fritter seller. Let her emanate from the factory, from marts, and from markets. Let her emerge from groves and forests, from hills and mountains.