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“ If we but realise this God-given function of India, our aim will become true, our shame will depart from us, and we shall revive the undying shakti of India. Before that great day comes, call once on the Mother! The One Mother who, through the ages, has been nourishing her children from her eternal store of wisdom and truth, preserving them from destruction, drawing them nearer one another, and to Herself. ”

“ When any nation loses its creative power, it hangs limp like a paralysed limb, for there is no virtue in mere continued existence.
India never fought for domination, nor scrambled for spoils. China, Japan and Tibet, who are so careful to bar their windows against the advances of Europe, welcomed India with open arms as their guru, for she had never sent out her armies for plunder and pillage, but only her messages of peace and goodwill. ”

“ I refuse to be a party to the attitude that unless we bend our knees and fold our hands there is no hope for the country. I believe in our country and I have a great respect for the powers of our people. And, above all, I know for certain that if our present unity be not a realisation of India’s essential oneness from within, if it be something depending on the changing of his mood by the foreigner, then is it doomed to repeated futility. ”

“ She does not purify her soul by sacrifice, and so on every side she suffers futility. She cannot meet the outsider on equal terms and so receives nothing of value from him. No cleverness or violence can deliver her from the sufferings and insults of which the Englishman is but the instrument. Only when she can meet him as his equal, will all reason for antagonism, and with it all conflict, disappear. Then will East and West unite in India,—country with country, race with race, knowledge with knowledge, endeavour with endeavour. ”

“ We have to do for India — though we hope with less arrogance — what the long and illustrious line of German thinkers, scientists, poets, philosophers, and historians did for Germany, or what the poets and artists of Greece did for the Athenians and that is, to create national ideals which will dominate the policy of statesmen, the actions of citizens, the universities, the social organizations, the administration of State departments, and unite in one spirit urban and rural life. ”

“ Of late the British have come in and occupied an important place in India’s history. This was not an uncalled for, accidental intrusion. If India had been deprived of touch with the West, she would have lacked an element essential for her attainment of perfection. Europe now has her lamp ablaze. We must light our torches at its wick and make a fresh start on the highway of time. That our forefathers, three thousand years ago, had finished extracting all that was of value from the universe, is not a worthy thought. We are not so unfortunate, nor the universe so poor. ”

“ The true way of self-defence is to loose our inherent powers. The policy of protection by imitation of the conqueror is a self-delusion which will not serve, either,—the imitation cannot prevail against the reality. I repeat, therefore, that the only way to stem the tide of waste of heart and taste and intellect is, to become our true selves, consciously, actively and with our full strength. Our dormant shakti must awake at the impact of the outside, for to-day the world stands sorely in need of the priceless fruits of the discipline of our ancient Rishis. ”

“ Our countrymen are mainly villagers. When the village desires to feel in its veins the throb of the greater life of the outside world, the mela has always been its way of achieving that object. The mela is the invitation of the village to the world into its cottage home. On such festive occasion the village forgets its narrowness in a hospitable expansion of heart. Just as in the rains the water-courses are filled with water from the sky, so in mela time the village heart is filled with the spirit of the Universal. ”

“ If the Englishman should be moved to pity that would be the worst thing for us. It is our manhood which must awaken his. We should remember that the Englishman himself has had to realise his best through supreme toil and suffering. We must cultivate the like power within ourselves. There is no easier wav of gaining the Best.
Those of us who go to the Englishman’s durbar with bowed heads and folded hands, seeking emoluments of office or badges of honour,— we only attract his pettiness and help to distort his true manifestation in India. ”

“ There can be no doubt that India has its original contribution to make to the theory and practice of government, and that she has too long believed in government by parliament as truly democratic. She has discovered by bitter experience the hollow futility of Parliamentary rule, and it is time that she ceases to trust in a system which has, even in the country of its birth, proved itself bankrupt and self-condemned. ”

“ The truths—that we must look after our own interests, carry on our own work, wipe away our own shame, earn our own welfare, do everything ourselves—are certainly not new. And I shall glory in any censure that may be passed on me because of their triteness. What I dread is lest any one should accuse me of advocating something new-fangled, for then must I confess ignorance of the art of proving self-evident things. It is the sign of a critical condition indeed, if the simple should appear difficult and old truths come as a surprise, or rouse honest indignation! ”

“ India does not admit difference to be conflict, nor does she espy an enemy in every stranger. So she repels none, destroys none, she abjures no methods, recognises the greatness of all ideals, and she seeks to bring them all into one grand harmony.
By reason of this genius of India, Hindu, Moslem and Christian need not fight here for supremacy, but will find common ground under the shelter of her hospitality. That common ground will not be un-Hindu, it will be more especially Hindu. And however foreign the several limbs may be, the heart will still be the heart of India. ”

“ But in national life it is the most dangerous of all guides. There are springs of power in ourselves which in passion we draw on and are amazed at their depth and intensity, yet we do not make these the master light of our being, but rather those divine laws which we have apprehended and brooded upon, and which shine with clear and steady light in our souls. Now the State is higher in the scale of being than the individual, and it should be dominated solely by moral and intellectual principles. ”

“ And yet self-government lies at our very door, waiting for us. No one has tried, nor is it possible for any one even if he does try, to deprive us of it. We can do everything we like for our villages—for their education, then sanitation, the improvement of their communications,—if only we make up our minds to set to work, if only we can act in unison. For this work we do not need the sanction of a government badge. ”

“ It is to the young men of Bengal that we look for the regeneration of the country. They have the moving force of youthful enthusiasm and faith in the infinite possibilities of their country. But there lies before us a long road of effort and endeavour in which feelings alone will not be sufficient to carry us over the rough and toilsome places. Will and thought must take the place of enthusiasm, and excited political controversies must give way to persistent and constant effort. ”

“ So, in the evolving History of India, the principle at work is not the ultimate glorification of the Hindu, or any other race. In India, the history of humanity is seeking to elaborate a specific ideal, to give to general perfection a special form which shall be for the gain of all humanity,—nothing less than this is its end and aim. And in the creation of this ideal type, if Hindu, Moslem or Christian should have to submerge the aggressive part of their individuality, that may hurt their sectarian pride, but will not be accounted a loss by the standard of Truth and Right. ”

“ Many of us who belong to the educated class, think that these attempts at union of the different races belonging to India are for the purpose of gaining political strength. Thus, as in so many other cases, do we view the Great as subservient to the Small. That we in India should attain Unity, is a much greater thing than any particular purpose which our union may serve,—for it is a function of our humanity itself. That we are not succeeding in becoming united is due to some basic defect in our manhood, which also is the reason why on every side we perceive our lack of shakti. ”

“ To consider all responsibilities as being light in one’s own case and heavy in the case of others, is not a good moral code. When sitting in judgment on the behaviour of the British towards ourselves, it is well to take note of the difficulties in their way and their human weaknesses. But when searching out our own lapses, there must be no invention of excuses or palliations, no lowering of the standard on grounds of expediency. And so I say, the rousing of indignation against the British Government may be an easy political method, but it will not serve to lead us to our goal. ”

“ It is now no longer necessary to discuss whether Swaraj is attainable or not in India. Our observation tells us that it is already in being. Wherever a man or a woman refuses to be enslaved, wherever inner freedom and self-mastery are highly valued, there we have true Swaraj. The people of India have at last realised that the old state of subjection was an intolerable form of slavery, and the desire for Swaraj can no longer be stifled either by a foreign bureaucracy which has lost its moral right to rule nor by those politicians who plead for caution and compromise. ”

“ The present flood of profound love and enthusiasm for the Motherland, which rejoices the heart of all true lovers of India, would be a dangerous symptom it it were not accompanied by wisdom of purpose and steadfast self-sacrifice. Nothing has encouraged me personally more than the action of the students in going out into the villages to work for the people and to serve the sick and uneducated. But enthusiasm alone is apt to wane, and in order that the noble work of these young men of Bengal may bear its fullest fruits it is necessary to find ways in which its effects may be made permanent. ”

“ Where the responsibility for the welfare of the people lies, there beats the heart of the nation, and if a blow should fall thereon, the whole nation is wounded unto death. In England the overthrow of the state would mean destruction for the nation. But disaster can only overtake our country when its social body, its Samaj, is crippled. That is why we have never staked our all to resist a change of sovereignty, but have clung with might and main to the freedom of our Samaj. ”

“ Men of your opinion are ready to employ force against force, and violence against violence, in order to gain your ends, but you are not ready to sacrifice your family at the command of your conscience.”
One of the revolutionists broke out and said,—“Truly, these landowners, these usurpers of the soil, deserve nothing but our hatred. We hate them, and would kill them, if we got the chance.”
At this Tolstoy could only with great difficulty restrain himself. “Hatred,” he cried, “is the most bestial thing. It is the lowest sentiment which exists! ”

“ Would it be too much to ask of our Hinduism that it should unite us in concrete relations with this India of ours, the resort of our gods, the retreat of our rishis, the motherland of our ancestors? The relation of good works with our own land,—are we not to gain that for each one of ourselves, rather than leave it to others, and take our hearts off elsewhere? ”

“ The river may think that it divides a country, but it really brings one part nearer another by carrying commerce and keeping open a permanent way. In a disunited country foreign domination is just such a unifying agency, and it is as the instrument of divine providence for this purpose that British Rule in India has been touched with glory. This process of unification will go on even if England does not like it.
History has shown that no permanent good can be gained by one set of men at the expense of another. ”