Chapter XXIV   Matter   He arrived at the knowledge that Matter is Brahman. Taittiriya Upanishad.1   WE HAVE now the rational assurance that Life is neither an inexplicable dream nor an impossible evil that has yet become a dolorous fact, but a mighty pulsation of the divine All-Existence. We see something of its foundation and its principle, we look upward to its high potentiality and ultimate divine out-flowering. But there is one principle below all the others which we have not yet sufficiently considered, the principle of Matter upon which Life stands as upon a pedes

Chapter IV   Reality Omnipresent     If one knows Him as Brahman the Non-Being, he becomes merely the non-existent. If one knows that Brahman Is, then is he known as the real in existence. Taittiriya Upanishad.1   SINCE, then, we admit both the claim of the pure Spirit to manifest in us its absolute freedom and the claim of universal Matter to be the mould and condition of our manifestation, we have to find a truth that can entirely reconcile these antagonists and can give to both their due portion in Life and their due justification in Thought, amercing neit

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 30th, 1907 }   District Conference at Hughly   We are glad to hear that arrangements have been made for holding a District Conference at Hughly, some time in September next. Hughly, as some earnest workers of the District complain, has not been much stirred by the new impulses. A District Conference, whether held or prohibited, has everywhere been instrumental in giving an impetus to the Swadeshi cause. We are thoroughly confident that Hughly, which claims now the best intellects of Bengal, will rise equal to the occasion and recover the lost ground by imparting a swifter pace to their patriotic activities

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 18th, 1908 }   Conventionalist and Nationalist   If we look to the pros and cons of the controversy between Conventionalists and Nationalists, we shall be placed in a better position to understand the real aim of the Moderates in putting the barrier of a creed between themselves and the people. In the first place a part of the quarrel is over ultimate ideals; the Conventionalists are for the declaration of Colonial Self-Government as the goal of our efforts, the Nationalists for Swaraj without any qualification. Whatever the rights of the controversy, the ideal of the Conventionalists has been accepted in the

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, February 25th, 1907 }   Yet There Is Method in It   The "Moderate" Indian politician aspires to be an Imperial citizen. His ambition has at last been screwed up to the point of seeking equality with his "colonial brother". His loyalty draws him towards the Empire and his politics draws him towards self-government and the resultant is self-government within the Empire. Colonies have been granted self-government within the Empire and it logically follows that if the Indians try, try and try again they too will gain their end because nothing is impossible to perseverance. Thus two birds will be killed with one s

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 26th, 1907 }   Srijut Bhupendranath   At the meeting held day before yesterday in the College Square to express sympathy with the editor of the Yugantar and congratulate him on his good fortune in being so signally chosen out to suffer for the Motherland, it was pointed out that Srijut Bhupendranath had initiated a new departure in the struggle with the bureaucracy. He is the first who standing in the dock, called to account by the alien under alien-made law for preaching the gospel of Indian freedom to his countrymen, has refused to acknowledge any responsibility to the alien bureaucracy. It is extremely i

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 6th, 1908 }   The Constitution of the Subjects Committee   When we first wrote of the Constitution we pointed out the importance of the Subjects Committee as the first approach towards the democratisation of the Congress. The whole assembly of delegates is too large and too loose a body to discuss what resolutions shall be placed before it or what particular form of words should be used. This has necessarily to be done by a smaller body. But before the Subjects Committee came into existence these questions were decided irresponsibly by a small cabal of leaders in secret. When the first difference arose between

Part Five   Speeches   22 December 1907 ­ 1 February 1908   On 21 December 1907, Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta to attend the Surat session of the Indian National Congress. The next day he addressed a meeting in Nagpur. After the violent break-up of the Congress he passed a few days in Baroda, and then visited a number of cities in Maharashtra at the invitation of Nationalist colleagues. In all of these places he gave speeches, most of which have been preserved in one form or another. See the next page for details.   All told, Sri Aurobindo delivered fourteen speeches in Maharashtra between 22 December 1907 and 1 February 19