Uttarpara
Speech
(Delivered
at Uttarpara, on 30th May, 1909 under the auspices of the Dharma
Rakshini Sabha, just after Sri Aurobindo’s acquittal in the Alipore
Bomb Case)
Page 2
Therefore
this was the next thing He pointed out to me, — He made me realise
the central truth of the Hindu religion. He turned the hearts of
my jailors to me and they spoke to the Englishman in charge of the
jail, “He is suffering in his confinement; let him at least walk outside
his cell for half an hour in the morning and in the evening.” So it
was arranged, and it was while I was walking that His strength again
entered into me. I looked at the jail that secluded me from men and
it was no longer by its high walls that I was imprisoned; no, it was
Vasudeva who surrounded me. I walked under the branches of the tree
in front of my cell but it was not the tree, I knew it was Vasudeva,
it was Sri Krishna whom I saw standing there and holding over me his
shade. I looked at the bars of my cell, the very grating that did
duty for a door and again I saw Vasudeva. It was Narayana who was
guarding and standing sentry over me. Or I lay on the coarse blankets
that were given me for a couch and felt the arms of Sri Krishna around
me, the arms of my Friend and Lover. This was the first use of the
deeper vision he gave me. I looked at the prisoners in the jail, the
thieves, the murderers, the swindlers, and as I looked at them I saw
Vasudeva, it was Narayana whom I found in these darkened souls and
misused bodies. Amongst these thieves and dacoits there were many
who put me to shame by their sympathy, their kindness, the humanity
triumphant over such adverse circumstances. One I saw among them especially,
who seemed to me a saint, a peasant of my nation who did not know
how to read and write, an alleged dacoit sentenced to ten years’ rigorous
imprisonment, one of those whom we look down upon in our Pharisaical
pride of class as Chhotalok. Once more He spoke to me and said, “Behold
the people among whom I have sent you to do a little of my work. This
is the nature of the nation I am raising up and the reason why I raise
them.”
When
the case opened in the lower court and we were brought before the
Magistrate I was followed by the same insight. He said to me, “When
you were cast into jail, did not your heart fail and did you not cry
out to me, where is Thy protection? Look now at the Magistrate, look
now at the Prosecuting Counsel.” I looked and it was not the Magistrate
whom I saw, it was Vasudeva, it was Narayana who was sitting there
on the bench. I looked at the Prosecuting Counsel and it was not the
Counsel for the Prosecution that I saw; it was Sri Krishna who sat
there, it was my Lover and Friend who sat there and smiled. “Now do
you fear?” He said, “ I am in all men and I overrule their actions
and their words. My protection is still with you and you shall not
fear. This case which is brought against you, leave it in my hand.
It is not for you. It was not for the trial that I brought you here
but for something else. The case itself is only a means for my work
and nothing more.” Afterwards when the trial opened in the Session
Court, I began to write many instructions for my Counsel as to what
was false in the evidence against me and on what points the witness
might be cross-examined. Then something happened which I had not expected.
The arrangements which had been made for my defence were suddenly
changed and another Counsel stood there to defend me. He came unexpectedly,
— a friend of mine, but I did not know he was coming. You have
all heard the name of the man who put away from him all other thoughts
and abandoned all his practice, who sat up half the night day after
day for months and broke his health to save me, — Srijut Chiiaranjan
Das. When I saw him, I was satisfied, but I still thought it necessary
to write instructions. Then all that was put away from me and I had
the message from within, “This is the man who will save you from the
snares put around your feet. Put aside those papers. It is not you
who will instruct him. I will instruct him.” From that time I did
not of myself speak a word to my Counsel about the case or give a
single instruction, and if ever I was asked a question, I always found
that my answer did not help the case. I had left it to him and he
took it entirely into his hands, with what result you know. I knew
all along what He meant for me, for I heard it again and again, always
I listened to the voice within; “I am guiding, therefore fear not.
Turn to your own work for which I have brought you to jail and when
you come out, remember never to fear, never to hesitate. Remember
that it is I who am doing this, not you nor any other. Therefore whatever
clouds may come whatever dangers and sufferings, whatever difficulties,
whatever impossibilities, there is nothing impossible nothing difficult.
I am in the nation and its uprising and I am Vasudeva, I am Narayana,
and what I will, shall be, not what others will. What I choose to
bring about, no human power can stay.”
Meanwhile
He had brought me out of solitude and placed me among those who had
been accused along with me. You have spoken much today of my self-sacrifice
and devotion to my country. I have heard that kind of speech ever
since I came out of jail, but I hear it with embarrassment, with something
of pain. For I know my weakness, I am a prey to my own faults and
backslidings. I was not blind to them before and when they all rose
up against me in seclusion, I felt them utterly. I knew then that
I the man was a mass of weakness, a faulty and imperfect instrument,
strong only when a higher strength entered into me. Then I found myself
among these young men and in many of them I discovered a mighty courage,
a power of self-effacement in comparison with which I was simply nothing.
I saw one or two who were not only superior to me in force and character,
— very many were there, — but in the promise of that intellectual
ability on which I prided myself. He said to me, “ This is the young
generation, the new and mighty nation that is arising at my command.
They are greater than yourself. What have you to fear? If you stood
aside or slept, the work would still be done. If you were cast aside
tomorrow, here are the young men who will take up your work and do
it more mightily than you have ever done. You have only got some strength
from me to speak a word to this nation which will help to raise it.”
This was the next thing He told me.
Then
a thing happened suddenly and in a moment I was hurried away to the
seclusion of a solitary cell. What happened to me during that period
I am not impelled to say, but only this that day after day, He showed
me His wonders and made me realise the utter truth of the Hindu religion.
I had had many doubts before. I was brought up in England amongst
foreign ideas and an atmosphere entirely foreign. About many things
in Hinduism I had once been inclined to believe that they were imaginations,
that there was much of dream in it, much that was delusion and Maya.
But now day after day I realised in the mind, I realised in the heart,
I realised in the body the truths of the Hindu religion. They became
living experiences to me, and things were opened to me which no material
science could explain. When I first approached Him, it was not entirely
in the spirit of the Bhakta, it was not entirely in the spirit of
the Jnani. I came to Him long ago in Baroda some years before the
Swadeshi began and I was drawn into the public field.
-
Sri Aurobindo
