Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, December 26th, 1906 }   The Man of the Past and the Man of the Future   Two men of the moment stand conspicuously before the eyes of the public in connection with the present session of the National Congress. The advent of these two men close upon each other is full of meaning for us at the present juncture. Both of them are sincere patriots, both have done what work lay in them for their people and for the land that bore them; both are men of indomitable perseverance and high ability; but there the resemblance ends. One of them worn and aged, bowed down with the burden of half a century's toils and labours

Our Work in the Future   My countrymen, those who have minutely observed with open eyes the agitation started two years ago, must have been convinced that the wonderful force of this agitation, this revolution in ideas, and these extreme changes in behaviour must have the support of some unseen wonderful supernatural and divine force. This movement is not an ordinary one, its regulator and leader is certainly not a human being, and it has the support of the best force in the universe. All the revolutions in the world have been brought about by this wonderful force. Some extraordinary superhuman strength has suddenly become visible in the nation. Those p

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 6th, 1907 }   Omissions and Commissions at Berhampur   The spirit of mendicancy has not been given much play in the proceedings of the Berhampur Conference and so far this year marks a distinctive advance. Last year's Conference was totally exceptional; and there could be no certainty that the victory, then won for reason and patriotism, would be permanent, for the mendicant spirit fled from the Conference Pandal before Kemp's cudgels and the triumph of the gospel of self-help was accomplished in an atmosphere of such excitement that even the chill blood of a Legislative Councillor was heated into seditious

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 13th, 1907 }   From Phantom to Reality   The action of the omnipotent and irresponsible executive in obstructing District Conferences alike in the proclaimed and unproclaimed areas of Bengal ought to carry home to every mind, however persistent in self-deception, the absurdity of vaunting the rights and privileges of a subject people. There is a taunt writ large over these ukases and it is this: "Fools and self-deceivers who think that rights can be held as the gift of a superior! Nothing is a right till it has been purchased by sacrifices as great as the aspiration is high. You were allowed to speak and pas

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 3rd, 1908 }   The Question of the President   The union of the two parties in the Congress is now in sight. If the Convention Committee which is about to meet at Allahabad, will be guided by the country and not by the single will of one masterful and obstinate personality, the reconciliation of the parties is certain. When this desirable consummation is brought about, the next step will be the formation of a Constitution under which a harmonious working may be possible. We have already formulated what in our opinion should be the principles of the Constitution; the basis should be democratic and not oligarchic

The Eleventh Hymn to Mitra-Varuna   AN INVOCATION TO THE SACRIFICE   [The Rishi invokes Mitra and Varuna to the sacrifice as the godheads who lead man on the path according to the law of the truth and confirm our spiritual gains by its workings.]     1. With the words we sacrifice to Mitra and to Varuna as the Atri. Sit on the seat of the largeness for the drinking of the wine     2. By your working you keep firm the gettings of good and you make men to walk the path by your law. Sit on the seat of the largeness for the drinking of the

The Twenty-Fourth Hymn to Agni   A HYMN TO THE DELIVERER AND PROTECTOR   [The Rishi invokes the Divine Will for protection from evil and for the fullness of the divine light and substance.]     1-2. O Will, become our inmost inmate, become auspicious to us, become our deliverer and our armour of protection. Thou who art the lord of substance and who of that substance hast the divine knowledge, come towards us, give us its most luminous opulence.     3-4. Awake! hear our call! keep us far from all that seeks to turn us to evil. O shining One, O flame of purest Light, thee for our co

The Second Hymn to the Dawn   [The Rishi hymns the divine Dawn, daughter of Heaven, as the bringer of the Truth, the bliss, the heavens of light, creator of the Light, giver of vision, maker, follower, leader of the paths of Truth, remover of the darkness, the eternal and ever youthful goddess of our godward journeying.]     1. Dawn of the luminous journey, Dawn queen of truth, large with the Truth, how wide is the gleam from her rosy limbs, —Dawn divine who brings with her the heaven of light! Her the seers adore with their thoughts.     2. This is she who has the vision and she awakens man and m

The Third Hymn to Mitra-Varuna   THE LEADERS TO THE BLISSFUL HOME   [The Rishi invokes the Lords of the infinite wideness and harmony whose arms embrace the soul's highest plane of the Truth and Bliss, to extend to him those arms of awakened consciousness and knowledge, so that he may have their all-embracing delight. He aspires by the path of Mitra to the joy of his harmonies in which there is no wound nor hurt; conceiving and holding the highest by the power of the illumining word, he would aspire to an increase in that plane, the proper home of the gods. Let the two great gods create in his being that wide world of their divine

The Fifth Hymn to Agni   A HYMN OF THE SUMMONING OF THE GODS   [The hymn calls to the sacrifice by the summons of the divine Flame the principal godheads. Each is described or invoked in that capacity and functioning in which he is needed and helpful to the perfection of the soul and its divine growth and attaining.]     1. To the Will that knoweth all the births, to the Flame highly kindled, purely luminous offer a poignant clarity.     2. This is he that expresses the powers of the gods, the untameable who speeds on its way this our sacrifice, this is the seer who comes with the wine of s