Brāḥmaṇa by R Tagore

Brāḥmaṇa by Rabindranath Tagore
from the anthology Bhāratavarṣa.
Translated into English by Sreejit Datta

Everyone knows that recently [c. 1902 – translator] one Marathi Brahmin was beaten up with a shoe by his English employer; the matter was taken to the highest court for hearing – finally, the judge has dismissed the matter as trifle.

The incident is so shameful that we had decided not to mention it in our monthly magazine. Having been beaten up by another, whether one should retaliate or cry or complain – the papers have carried out all such tittle-tattle; we don’t intend to bring up such discussions either. However, it is time we express certain matters deserving of serious consideration that have occurred to us.

The judge has dubbed it a trivial incident – in reality, it has turned out to be a trivial matter as well, and therefore he hasn’t spoken unfairly. But the very fact that this incident is being regarded as trifle indicates that the deterioration of our samāja is happening at breakneck speed.

The English deeply value what they call ‘prestige’, i.e., the esteem that the people have for their government. Because, the might of this prestige often works like the might of the army. One must gain prestige from those who one wishes to command. The British Empire has never felt so embarrassed as it did in India when during the initial days of the Boer war it had to face repeated humiliations at the hands of a small band of peasants. At that time, we could all feel that the click-clack of Englishmen’s boots aren’t so loud in this country as it earlier used to be.

Once upon a time, the Brahmin used to enjoy such prestige in our country. Because the responsibility of directing the samāja was bestowed upon the Brahmin. Whether or not the Brahmin are properly conserving the samāja, whether or not they have the unselfish virtues that are necessary to conserve the samāja – these questions never occurred to anybody as long as the Brahmin had their prestige. As the Englishman prizes his prestige, so did the Brahmin.

The way the samāja is formed in our country makes such prestige of the Brahmin necessary for the samāja as well. And it is precisely out of that necessity that the samāja had offered so much reverence to the Brahmin.+++(5)+++

The functioning of the social system of our country is a very vast and complex affair. It is this system that has kept order in the country and has thus sustained it. It is this very system that has constantly attempted to protect the masses from sinking into crime and degeneration. Had it not been so, the British would not have been able to maintain order so remarkably well by depending solely upon its police force and its army. Even during the reign of the Nawabs and the Badshah-s, tranquillity had continued to prevail in the social sphere despite various upheavals at the political sphere – even during that period one did not see any slackening of civility and general good conduct of the people, integrity used to be maintained in transactions, perjury was looked upon with contempt, the debtor did not swindle the creditor and everyone honoured the principles of common virtuous conduct out of plain trust.

The responsibility of preserving the ideals of that vast society and reminding it of its principles and codes of conduct lay with the Brahmin. The Brahmin is the driver and superintendent of this society. He was given due respect for executing these tasks, too.+++(5)+++

If this kind of social order, which is in keeping with the Oriental spirit, is not considered reprehensible, then the task of keeping its ideals pure and disciplined forever must be entrusted to a particular community. It is to be hoped that by simplifying and purifying their lifestyle, minimising their wants, vowing to dedicate themselves to studying, teaching, conducting, and overseeing the sacred rituals, and by protecting the highest ideals of the country from the muck of all sorts of trading, they will be truly entitled to the social respect they have been receiving.

People are deprived of their rightful prerogatives due to their own fault. We see that happening with the British too. When a Britisher, having done injustice to some native, seeks to escape punishment by appealing to his prestige, he then deprives himself of his claim to the rightful prestige. The prestige of uprightness is the greatest among all forms of prestige – our hearts voluntarily bow before it. Terror holds us by the neck and makes us bow before it, our minds cannot help but inwardly rebel against such humiliation of obeisance.

Even the Brahmin, when he has given up his duty, can no longer maintain his position in the highest seat of the society just by bullying people into fearing the afterlife.+++(4)+++

No prestige is without a price – prestige cannot be maintained by doing whatever you want.+++(4)+++ The king who sits on the throne cannot open a shop and run a business. He who is worthy of respect must always curb his desire on all counts. In our country, the master and the mistress of the household end up being more deprived in worldly matters compared to the other members of the household – the mistress of the house gets to eat at the very end when everyone else has had their share. Without this, authority cannot be maintained for too long by depending solely on arrogance. You will continue to demand respect, but will not pay any price for it – such an arrangement will never be tolerated forever.+++(4)+++

Our modern Brahmins resorted to the practice of exacting prestige without paying a price for it. As a result, their prestige in our society is becoming more and more a mere lip service. Not only that, due to the slackening of the high work of the society in which the Brahmins were engaged, the cohesion of the society is also becoming weaker with every passing day.

If the society in our country is to be preserved in the Oriental spirit, if it is not possible or not desirable to radically change this long-standing vast society in the European way, then the existence of a true Brahmin community is crucial. They will be a people of modest means, they will be scholarly; they will be devoted to Dharma, and they will be the standard and shelter of all kinds of Ashrama-Dharma, and they will be gurus.+++(5)+++

For that society, there is no humiliation in poverty or even in subordination to a foreign power, in which a particular group knows how to neglect wealth and fame, and hates luxury; whose conduct is unblemished, who are deeply committed to Dharma, who are selflessly engaged in acquiring knowledge and who equally selflessly participate in imparting knowledge. A society is honoured by the very souls whom it truly honours.

In every society, the respectable people – the best people of a particular society – are the true representatives of that society’s quality and nature. When we call England rich, we do not take into account the countless poor who belong to the English society.+++(4)+++ When we call Europe free, we do not consider the unbearable subordination of her vast masses. There, only a handful at the top are rich, only a few at the top are independent, only a few at the top are free from bestiality. A civilised society has nothing to fear as long as the few at the top continually apply their will and regularise their happiness to impart knowledge, religion, happiness and health to the majority of the people at the bottom.

A discussion on whether the European society is indeed operating this way may seem unnecessary, but it is not entirely futile.

It is difficult to uphold the ideal of duty in a set-up where each moment every man has to fight under the compulsion of competition, driven by the urge to surpass the man standing next to him.+++(4)+++ And within such a set-up, it becomes truly difficult for people to draw a limit to their aspirations.

Presently, the great empires of Europe are desperately trying to outdo each other. Amidst such a state of affairs, no one can really utter things like “I would rather accept a fall from the first class to the second class, but I will never act unjustly.” Neither does anyone think such things as: “we would rather reduce the armament on the land and on the seas and thus accept a status inferior to our neighbours in terms of royal power, but our focus should be on spreading comfort, happiness, enlightenment, and piety within the society.” The momentum generated by the pull of competition drives one recklessly – and running at this great pace is called progress in Europe; we too have learned to call it progress.

But the movement which is not regulated by pauses at measured steps cannot be called progress.+++(4)+++ The metre that does not have punctuation is no metre at all.+++(4)+++ Day and night the sea may be turbulent with plunging waves constantly seething and crashing at the foot of the society, but at its highest peak, the society must maintain the eternal ideals of peace and stability forever.+++(4)+++

Who are the people who can steadfastly defend those ideals? Only those – who have hereditarily stayed aloof from the conflicts arising out of a pursuit of self-interest; only those who have found glory in economic deprivation, who do not see good deeds as a commodity, whose minds, permeated with pure knowledge and upright virtue, dwell in the lofty regions beyond the skies, and who have attained holiness and reverence by abandoning all else to accept the noble duty of protecting the highest ideals of the society.

In Europe, too, a few sages appear in the scene from time to time in the midst of relentless turbulences of action, and upholds the ideals of stability, ultimate goal, and ultimate end. But who cares to stand a while and listen to them? How can one or two such individuals stop the tremendous momentum of this aggregate self-interest of gigantic proportions? Fifty-nine sails of the merchant ship have caught the wind; on the outstretched field of Europe, surrounded by frenzied spectators, rows of war-horses are racing against each other –who will now stop for a moment?

The argument that spirituality may arise even amidst such frenzy, even from within such desperate and excessive churning of one’s own power, does arise in our mind too. The attraction of this momentum is too great; it tempts us, and we fail to suspect that it can lead to catastrophe.

What sort of temptation is it? It is like a group of bark-clad men who identify themselves as sadhus and sādhaka-s and take their cannabis addiction to be a pursuit of spiritual bliss.+++(4)+++ Intoxication increases one’s concentration, generates excitement; but it reduces spiritual independence and vigour. And though all else can be abandoned, one cannot quit the excitement generated by this addiction – in fact, one is compelled to go on increasing the level of intoxication as one’s willpower gradually decreases.+++(4)+++ It is also artificial to indulge in the luxuries of religious fanaticism by dancing round and round or by playing loud instruments, thus exciting oneself and almost fainting. When such a habit takes root in us, it continues to haunt us like the intoxication of opium at our moments of depression.+++(4)+++ Without self-absorbed, quiet, and single-pointedly steadfast devotional pursuits, nothing of truly lasting value can be achieved and neither can anything of enduring worth be preserved.

But no work can happen without passionate motivation and no society can function without work. That is why India had attempted to bring about harmony of movement and stability in its society. The Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, etc., who carry out, first-hand, the works of society, had a definite boundary for the domain of their actions. That is why Kshatriyas could consider their duty as a religion by defending the ideals of Kṣātra Dharma. When duty is placed on a foundation of Dharma way above the petty self-interests and instincts, one finds room for respite and spiritual gains even in work.

The ways in which the European society functions push most people towards a particular tendency to keep moving. There, the intellectuals tend to get attracted to the affairs of the state, and the common people are drawn towards the tendency to make money. At present, imperialist greed has possessed everyone and there’s an ongoing scramble for colonies all over the world. It will not be strange to soon stumble upon a time when the quest for pure knowledge will not attract enough people. Similarly, there may come a time when troops will not be available even when they are necessary. For, who will check this instinctive tendency? If the German that was a scholar till the other day becomes a merchant now, who will preserve her erudition? The Englishman, who had once upon a time taken the vow of the Kshatriya to protect the afflicted, is presently rushing to set up and run his shop all around the world by brute force. What power could now possibly bring him back to his old generous spirit of the Kshatriya?

Instead of conceding all authority to this tendency, the Indian social system confers the burden of authority upon restrained and well-ordered provisions of duty. If the society is alive, if it is not overwhelmed by external attacks, then, in accordance with the provisions of this system, there will be harmony in the society at all times – there will be no sudden rush to any one direction and a total evacuation from the other. Everyone would defend their ideals and would be proud of what they do.

But work does have a momentum of its own. Due to this momentum, work obscures the outcomes that it produces. And then work becomes an end in itself. There’s a certain kind of bliss in letting go of oneself with the flow of work’s momentum. The ghost of action often possesses the man of action.

And that is not all. When the accomplishment of an action becomes too pre-eminent an end, the discernment of the means wears off. Then the one who acts has to make various compromises with the world and with the exigencies of his times.

Therefore, any society where there is action must also have a set of provisions to regulate action. There has to be an ever-vigilant watch such that humanity does not come under the sway of blind action. To always show the right path to the men of action, to hold on to the pure note in the midst of the cacophony of actions, we need a group of people who will keep themselves free from actions and interests as much as possible. These are the Brahmins.+++(4)+++

These Brahmins are truly independent.+++(5)+++ They are the ones who devotedly and sternly defend the ideal of true freedom in the society. Society gives them the leisure, the capacity, and the prestige to that end. This freedom of theirs is but the freedom of the society itself. The society in which they are able to keep themselves free (from the compulsions of actions and interests), is a society that has no fear or danger in mere foreign subjugation. Such a society can always experience the freedom of its mind – the freedom of its very soul – within its Brahmin section. If the present Brahmins of our country had defended this greatest treasure of the society in a firm, upright, and uncovetous manner, the society would never have allowed any insult to the Brahmin; and neither could such a thing have ever come out of the mouth of a judge that beating up a decent Brahmin with a shoe is a trivial matter. Even being a foreigner, the judge could have understood the prestige of the esteemed Brahmin.+++(4)+++

But the Brahmin who works in the office of a sahib with his head bowed in obedience, the Brahmin who sells his leisure and abandons his great authority, the Brahmin who becomes a merchant of knowledge in the university and a trader of justice in the court of law, the Brahmin who insults his own Brahminhood for money – how will such a Brahmin uphold his ideal?+++(4)+++ How will he preserve the society? Why would we go to him with due deference in order to obtain the provisions of Dharma? After all, he has mingled with the crowd in the scrimmage and his sweaty body is now indistinguishable from those others who participate in the daily fracas! Such a Brahmin does not pull the society upwards by virtue of the reverence for him, he takes it to the pit.

We know that not every member of a community upholds his dharma in its pristine form at all times; in fact, many of them fail to do so. In the Purāṇa-s we come across instances wherein many individuals, even though they were Brahmins themselves, have functioned as Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. However, if the ideal remains alive within a community, if efforts are made to uphold one’s dharma; if, notwithstanding the progress or decline of individuals, there still are a few pilgrims on the path to attaining the community’s ideal; and if the ideal is directly exemplified by a considerable number of people, then by such pursuits, through such sadhana, and by the very accomplishment of those who succeed in them, the entire community can attain an exalted fulfilment.

That very ideal is missing from our modern Brahmin community! That is why a Brahmin’s child takes to English manners as soon as he learns the English language – and that doesn’t even upset the father.+++(5)+++ Why doesn’t an MA-qualified Mukhopadhyay or a Scientist Chattopadhyay invite the students over to his house and sit them down to dispense his acquired knowledge? Why do they deprive themselves as well as the Brahmin community of the glory of making the society beholden to them by the debt of knowledge?+++(4)+++

They might ask, how shall we make ends meet? If they can manage without feasting on Kalia-Pulao, then surely the society will come and feed them of its own accord. The society will not be able to do without them; indeed, the society will fall at their feet and protect them. Today, they spread out their palms to get their salaries, and so the society pays them the salary only after a thorough scrutiny of the pay-bill and extracts work from them down to the last penny. They too, like machines, function strictly according to the predetermined set of coded instructions; neither do they give reverence, nor do they get any — moreover, from time to time they end up making themselves a famous party to extremely trivial events such as the landing of some sahib’s shoes on their back.+++(5)+++

I do not consider the possibility of a recommencement of the Brahmin’s mission in our society to be far-fetched; and I cannot flippantly dismiss the hope of this recommencement from my mind. The eternal character of India will certainly rectify its momentary distortion.+++(4)+++

Many Non-Brahmins will also join in the mission of this reawakened Brahmin community. Even in Ancient India, many Non-Brahmins had vowed themselves to the mission of the Brahmins and had taken to the pursuit of pure knowledge and the vocation of instructors – there is no dearth of such examples where even Brahmins had received instructions from them.

In ancient days, when Brahmins were not the only Dvija-s¹ of this society, when the Kshatriyas as well as the Vaishyas were also counted as members of the Dvija community, when the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas were duly endowed with proper education while observing the discipline of Brahmacarya and following the investiture of the Upavīta – it was during those times that the ideal of the Brahmin was held high in this country. For, no one community can maintain its lofty standards when the society all around it has degenerated; gradually the attraction of the lower forms of existence gravitates it to the lower levels.+++(5)+++ When the Brahmins remained the only Dvija-s in India – when there was no one around to remind the Brahmin of his ideals and to exact the vows of Brahminhood from him – it was at such a time that the pure and onerous ideals of his Dvija-hood began to deteriorate rapidly.+++(4)+++ It was from that time onwards that the Brahmin fell into the ranks of the lesser possessors of knowledge, faith, and taste. To protect one’s distinction, it is enough to build a proper eight-roofed thatched hut in a neighbourhood of crude shanties; one naturally feels averse to undertaking the labour and expenses of raising a seven-storied palace in such a locality.

In the old days, all Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas were Dvija-s, that is to say the entire society of the ārya²-s was a Dvija society. The people who were known as the Shudras were those who belonged to the communities of the Santal, the Bhil, the Kol, or the Dhangar. The complete unification of their instructional methods, their customs and their dharma with those of the ārya society was absolutely impossible. And yet there was no harm in that, because the entire ārya society was Dvija — that is to say, the same methods of instruction were followed throughout the ārya society. Distinctions remained in the domain of duties only. Due to this uniformity in their instructional methods, they could fully support each other in maintaining the pristineness of their respective ideals. The Kshatriyas and the Vaishyas helped the Brahmins to attain their Brahminhood, and likewise the Brahmins assisted the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas to attain their respective ideals of Kshatriyahood and Vaishyahood.+++(4)+++ This could never have happened, had the standards and ideals of education not been equally lofty, cutting across all communities in the society.

If it is essential for even the present society to maintain a head, if that head is to be held high, and if that head should be regarded as the Brahmin, then its shoulder and its neck cannot be levelled with the ground.+++(5)+++ Unless the society is uplifted, its head cannot be raised high up; and it is the job of that head to elevate the society by all means.

If the gentlefolk of our present society – that is, the Vaidya, the Kayastha and the Vanik³ communities — are not considered as Dvija-s by the society, then there is no hope for the Brahmins to rise again.+++(4)+++ The society cannot stand only on one foot and keep talking hypocritical nonsense.

The Vaidya-s have already taken up the sacred thread. From time to time the Kayastha-s are saying that they are Kshatriyas, the Vanik-s are saying that they are Vaishyas. I see no reason to disbelieve these claims. They do not differ from the present-day Brahmins with respect to their physical features, their intellect, or their capabilities – that is, with respect to the signs of ārya-ness.+++(4)+++ Unless one looks for the sacred thread, it is impossible to differentiate the Kayastha, the Suvarna-vanik⁴ etc. from the Brahmins in any learned assembly of Bengal. But it is easy to distinguish them from the real anārya⁵, that is, the forest-dwelling people of India. The pure ārya blood has mixed with the anārya blood, something which is clear in our complexion, build, religion, customs, and weak-mindedness; but that admixture is present in Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas – in all communities.

However, even after this mingling and the social anarchy of the Buddhist era, the society has protected the Brahmins with a special boundary. For, such is the structure of our society, that, but for the Brahmins, it would face hindrances in all directions; it has to protect the Brahmins by any possible means for its own self-preservation. In recent history, even such incidents are found where, in some places, a group of Brahmins has been constituted by the king by investing them with the sacred thread in order to address the demands of some special exigencies.+++(5)+++ When the Brahmins of Bengal lost their Brahminhood in terms of their customs, practices, and learning, the king was forced to bring in Brahmins from outside to run the affairs of the society.+++(5)+++ And when the same Brahmin was degenerating under all sorts of influences from all around, the king had artificially established Kulinism⁶ to prod and awaken the about-to-be-extinguished dignity of the Brahmin.+++(5)+++ On the other hand, the barbarism created by Kulinism with respect to marriage itself became a secret way of adulteration of the Varnas.

Be that as it may, the society felt compelled to put extra efforts to especially confine and distinguish the Brahmins as a matter of special necessity. There was no pressing need in the Bengali society to confine the Kshatriyas and the Vaishyas to the hardness of their previous age-old customs in such a special way. Whosoever wanted could go to war or indulge in trade – it did not affect the society much and there was no need to distinguish those who would be engaged in war/trade/agriculture/industry with some special mark. People engage in commerce of their own accord; they don’t depend on any special arrangements in order to do that – but the same does not apply on religion; it is bound by ancient rules; its methods, organisation, and rituals are not determined by our whims.

Therefore, due to the laxity of the inert society, the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas have at one point in time deviated from their prerogative and become mixed up to form a confused mass. If they now become aware, if they come forward to truly lay claim to their prerogative, if they take the initiative to rightly prove their glory, then it will be good for the whole society, and it will be good for the Brahmins.

Just as the Brahmins have to strive towards the ancient ideals in order to attain their true glory, so must the entire society strive. Only the Brahmin will go there alone and everyone else will be lying where they currently are – this can never happen. If the whole society does not move in one direction, no one part of it can attain fulfilment. When we will see that the Kayastha-s and the Vanik-s of our country are trying to become greater by associating themselves with the ancient Kshatriya and Vaishya communities, that they are trying to unite with the very old and make the soul of our nation coherent and continuous by integrating Modern India with Ancient India, only then will we know that hand in hand with the modern Brahmins and the ancient Brahmins they will succeed in unifying the Indian society in a vital, just, and integral manner. Otherwise, it will be impossible to save the society from the deadly impact of foreign influences with only local quarrels, petty disputes or factionalism; otherwise, the prestige of the Brahmins, that is, the prestige of all of our society, will gradually become less and less.

The whole of our society is primarily Dvija⁷; and if it does not remain so, if it ends up being primarily a Shudra society, then, with only a handful of Brahmins living in it, this society will fall short of both the European ideal as well as the Indian ideal.+++(5)+++

Every highly developed society demands vitality from its people. A society which leniently allows most of its people to believe that they are so debased that they can easily indulge in sluggish material comforts, dies; and if not, it is better for such a society to die.

Europe is ever ready to proffer her life to the thrill of action and to the excitement of instincts. If we, on the other hand, are not ready to give our life for the sake of dharma, then it ill behoves us to keep sulking when that life continues to be humiliated.

European soldiers give up their life for the sake of the thrill of war, greed for wages, and the assurance of glory; but Kshatriyas remain prepared to lay down their lives in battle even if the excitement and wages are lacking. This is because war is an essential task for the functioning of society. If one community accepts that difficult duty as its very own dharma, then the protection of dharma is ensured along with the performance of the task.+++(5)+++ If everyone in the country starts preparing themselves for battle, then the excesses of militarism bring serious harm to the country.

Commerce is essential work for the protection of society. If a community accepts that social necessity as its communitarian duty, as its ancestral glory, then commerce does not engulf the other forces of the society through a pervasive intrusion into everything. Moreover, the ideal of dharma remains ever awake in that work.

Acquisition of dharma and knowledge, the waging of wars and the running of a government, carrying out commerce and the fine arts – these are the three vital activities of a society. None of these can be abandoned. If each of these activities is endowed with the glory of dharma as well as the glory of a lineage, and then handed over to a particular community, then not only are these activities kept under control, but they are also given the opportunity to strive for excellence.

The thrill of action might itself become the overlord and thus overwhelm our souls – India has always been apprehensive of this possibility. Therefore, in India, the social being fights, trades; but the eternal being, the whole human being does not remain a mere soldier, it does not remain a mere merchant. If a certain kind of work is sanctified in order to make it a sacred vow to be kept by a particular lineage, if that work is sacralised to become a community’s religion, then not only the work is accomplished, but moreover work does not get to occupy the very throne of the human spirit by transgressing its own boundaries, by damaging the equilibrium of society, by overwhelming the very humanity of human beings.+++(4)+++

Those who are the Dvija have to give up their work at one point in their life. From that point onwards, they are no longer Brahmins, nor Kshatriyas, nor Vaishyas — from that point onwards they become the eternal human being — from then onwards, work for them is no longer a vow, and therefore it can be given up without effort. In this way, the Dvija society was able to preserve both Vidyā and Avidyā — they said, “avidyayā mṛtyuṁ tīrtvā vidyayā’mṛtamaśnute”⁸,+++(5)+++ after crossing beyond death by the help of Avidyā, attain immortality by the help of Vidyā. This samsara is the very abode of death, this itself is Avidyā — if you want to go beyond it, you must go through it; but you have to travel in such a way that it does not become the supreme goal.+++(4)+++ If work is given the utmost primacy, then this samsara becomes supreme; thus, it becomes impossible to overcome death; and the very goal of attaining immortality is lost, there being no time to pursue such a goal. Hence the necessity to limit work, hence the necessity to associate work with dharma — that is why work is not left to instinct, to thrill, to the tremendous momentum generated by work; and that is why work is divided and assigned to specific communities of people in India.

This, then, is the ideal. I for one do not see any other way of maintaining the harmony between dharma and work, and making the human being worldly on the one hand and worthy of liberation on the other by releasing the mind from the various shackles of action. This ideal is the noblest of all, and it is the ideal of India. We must put our minds to finding a way by which the present society can lay claim to this ideal and be guided by it in general. No one has to make an effort to incite action and instincts – and thus make them intractable – by breaking down all societal bonds. That state is catching up with the society on its own, by way of inertia, by laxity of discipline.

I am fully aware that this Indian ideal will not be able to quickly and easily capture the imagination of the entire society due to the prevalence of foreign education system and in the face of adverse economic conditions in the country. Neither do I cherish the hopeless notion that it would be easy for us to adopt the European ideal. The easiest way, of course, is to forsake all sorts of ideals – and that indeed is the easy route that we have taken.+++(4)+++ The ideal of the European civilisation is not some loose thing that can easily find its way into one’s grip like the low-hanging ripe fruit that is merely waiting to be plucked.

There is a balance between the forces of destruction and preservation in every old and great ideal. That is to say, when one of these two forces tends to destroy an ideal by committing excesses, the other checks and protects it. In our body too, there is a physiological process to get rid of the excess work that is harmful to the body, while extracting as much work as is necessary. The body accepts only that portion of the bile which is essential, and ensures that the inessential part is continually thrown out.

All these fine faculties, refined through a long-drawn-out process involving many actions and reactions, have given the society’s physiology its present form. When imitating others, we cannot make this entire natural process our own, just like that. And so, what brings good in other societies becomes the root cause of evil in the imitators’ own society.+++(4)+++ We could consider seeking one or two fruits from the tree of European civilisation which the nature of the European people has made fructuous through its incessant work of a prolonged time, but we cannot make all of the tree our own. That past of theirs is past our reach.+++(4)+++

But even if our Indian past has stopped bearing fruit for us due to lack of care, yet that great past has not perished, it cannot perish – for it is that very past which, living inside each of us, is repeatedly rendering our imitation of the other out of place and unsuccessful.+++(4)+++ When we bring in the new by neglecting that past, then the past silently takes its revenge – it destroys the new, turns it putrid, and thus pollutes the very air we breathe. We may as well think that we need this new thing, but unless we have reached a clear settlement with the past by means of a thorough negotiation, there’s no way we can gain entry to the new merely on the pretext of necessity. Even if the novelty is snuck in, it all comes to naught unless the old and the new have assimilated with each other.

That is why we have to inject new strength into our past itself, we have to breathe new life into it. This new lease of life cannot be given to it by dry analysis and debate alone. Neither will it happen if we allow things to continue in just the same manner as they are going on at the moment. A sublime mental state prevailed in Ancient India. The joy exuding from this mental state inspired our free-spirited forefathers to meditate, to sacrifice, to work, and to lay down their lives. If we can fill our lives to the brim with the joy and the nectar of that mental state, then that joy itself will dissolve all barriers between the present and the past using the forces of its prodigious strength with unimaginable ease.+++(5)+++ Instead of trying to hypnotise people by complex expositions, their hearts should be filled with the rasa of the past.+++(5)+++ If you can do that, then our fundamental nature will carry on its work on its own. When that nature does its work, only then the task is accomplished. We cannot even account for its workings – no intellectual or scholar can ever predict the method or model of how that work is carried out. Help comes from even those quarters that are perceived by logic as obstacles, and even those things that are proved to be insignificant turn out to be substantial.

Nothing is attained simply by asserting that one wants it — one should never expect that the aid of the past is going to make itself comprehensively attainable merely because we are saying that it is the need of the hour. When our intellect, mind and soul are duly initiated in the ideal of that past, only then shall we see that the ancient is exuberantly expressing itself to us in a new mode, in newer shapes and in newer manifestations. It will then no longer remain the sapless kindling of the cremation-bed, but will have grown into a fructuous tree in the sanctuary of life.

Like a tsunami that rises from the suddenly swelling sea, when the joy of the ideal will deluge our society, then all these ancient riverbeds of our land will be filled to the brim. Then our country will spontaneously rise up with the support of the brahmacarya⁹, it will wake up to the music of the Sāma hymns, it will arise as Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas.+++(5)+++ Those very birds that used to fill the sylvan hermitage with their music at daybreak, will sing once again, and not the cockatoos on its decorated perch nor the caged canaries and nightingales.

The whole of our society is becoming restive to attain that ancient Dvija-hood, and our minds are filled with hope when we see its signs every day. There was a time when we made efforts to hide our Hindutva¹⁰, we tried to get rid of it – and in that hope, for a long time we went around the shops in the bazaars of Chandni¹¹ and dutifully flocked the lobbies of the Chowringhee¹² area. If today the lofty ambition of establishing ourselves as Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas has arisen in our minds, if today we wish to attain to greatness by ennobling our society with nothing but ancestral glory, then it is truly a day of rejoicing for us. We do not want to become Firangis, we want to become Dvija-s.+++(5)+++

Those who hinder this due to the pettiness of their intellect and engage in meaningless squabbles, those who cannot see its far-reaching success amidst the dust of arguments, those who do not cease the futile disputations of their diminutive erudition out of shame before the greatness of the sublime ideal – such people are enemies of the very society in whose protection they have grown. From time immemorial, India has been calling upon her communities of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas. Europe, having categorised and segregated her knowledge and her sciences into numerous parts, has in a state of bewilderment started looking for the unity among those parts in recent times. Where is the Brahmin of India, who, by the powers of his innate genius, can effortlessly point out the hidden but direct path of unity amidst all that vast complexity? India is inviting this Brahmin to take his seat, in a meditative posture, upon the preceptor’s dais amidst the sylvan hermitage, far from the city’s noise and bustle and far from the strife of self-interests. By drawing the Brahmin away from all his insults, India is trying to remove her own humiliation.+++(4)+++ By the blessings of God, perhaps the beatings of the shoe that the Brahmin received will not go in vain. When the slumber becomes too deep, it needs to be interrupted by such a rude blow.

In Europe the men of action are entangled in the web of work, they are unable to find a way out of it, and so they are rummaging about in every direction. The ones who are fit to take up the solemn vow of the Kshatriya or that of the Vaishya in India – may they glorify work by means of dharma in today’s world. May they prepare themselves to surrender their lives with unflinching devotion to the summons not of the instincts, nor of thrill, but of dharma, without getting solely addicted to the desire for the fruit of action.+++(4)+++ Otherwise, the Brahmin will become Shudra every day, the society will be diminished at every moment;+++(4)+++ and the greatness of Ancient India, which stood firm as an immovable mountain, will melt into thin air like a cloud, like the mist, on the farthest horizon of a distant historical memory; and the rush to drag one of a pair of gigantic shoes into an underground cavity with all their might – like those files of tiny black ants – will be considered as the only way of living one’s life by a large community of work-fatigued clerks.+++(5)+++

(End)