Chapter 3
Today, our country needs heroes; so be heroes! We now need the heroes who will dare to die for the country instead of devoting themselves to their own happiness – the heroes whose armour is renunciation and whose sword is wisdom. We now want the spirit of the brave warrior in the battlefield of life and not of the wooing-lover who looks upon life as a pleasure garden. We must have the zeal of a fanatic, the depth of a mystic and the width of an agnostic.
Now our country needs muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of the same material of which the thunderbolt is made; strength, manhood.
Don’t for a moment quail, everything will come alright. It is the will that moves the world. We want iron wills and steel hearts that do not know how to quake.
We want gigantic wills which nothing can resist, which will accomplish their purpose in any fashion even if it means going down to the bottom of the ocean and meeting death face to face.
The true heroes with fiery energy of youth in their nerves, the flash of idealism in their eyes, steadfast and unruffled amidst all temptations and adversities and radiating inspiration all round, they march forward triumphantly from success to success till they reach the goal.
Are you sincere, unselfish unto death and loving? Then fear not, not even death – onwards! Be sincere and do your duty. Everything will come alright. Truth must triumph.
It is unswerving love and perfect unselfishness that conquers everything. I am sure that whoever wants to help his fellow beings through genuine love and unselfishness will work wonders.
Only to the selfish comes fear. He who has nothing to desire for himself, whom does he fear and what can frighten him? What fear has death for him? If you are perfectly unselfish, you are irresistible!
If you really want to do good to others, if you are sincere and really unselfish, even if the whole universe stands against you, it cannot hurt you. It must crumble before the power of the Lord Himself in you.
Truth, purity and unselfishness – possessed of these, one single individual is able to face the whole world in opposition.
One single soul with good motives, sincerity and infinite love can destroy the dark designs of millions of hypocrites and brutes. If you are pure and strong, you, one man, are equal to the whole world.
Sincerity in work and purity of motive will surely gain the day; even a small number armed with them is surely destined to prevail against all odds.
Nothing is impossible in life if you work for others with the blood of your heart, but alas! men in this world spend their days fighting and quarreling with one another, forgetting that after the evening of life they must all come home in the lap of the mother.
Be unselfish first and see how all things will follow of themselves after you. Give up that hateful malice, that dog-like bickering and barking at one another and take your stand on good purpose, right means, righteous courage and be brave.
We will throw the whole of India into convulsion and towards this end we want the support and participation of all the great and patriotic souls who are brave and noble enough to sink their petty self-interests and differences for the sake of the nation. We want to get some of the big folks to be associated with the mission; their names will be of great help in creating a stir as nothing short of that will do.
India is to be saved by Indians themselves. Can a dozen of you become almost fanatic to this cause!
Do you love your country? Then come, let us struggle for higher and better things; don’t look back, no, not even if you see your dearest and nearest ones crying. India needs the sacrifice of at least a thousand of her young men – men, mind! not brutes.
I am mad over this and want to strike others mad with this madness; for you see it could not be helped – I have to take help from His highest and best for watering the plant of future India with the best blood of the land. He whose good fortune it is, may help in His great cause. I sincerely hope that it will be your good fortune to be one of them. Glory unto him on whom falls the Lord’s choice.
I know and know for sure that great things are done only by great sacrifices and that India requires the sacrifice of her highest and best, and I sincerely hope that it will be your good fortune to be one of them. The body must go, there is no doubt about it. Why then let it go in idleness? It is better to wear out than to rust out.
When death is inevitable, is it not better to die like heroes than as stocks and stones? And what is the use of living a day or two more in this transitory world as the value of life is not measured in length but by use. It is better to die for the sake of doing the least good to others.
When death is certain, it is best to sacrifice oneself for a good cause.
Off at once to lay down your life for the good of others! What good it is, carrying along a load of bones and flesh! Go, lay down for others this body of flesh and bones like the sage Dadhichi!
Sacrifice in the past has been the law and it will be for ages to come. The earth’s bravest and best will have to sacrifice themselves for the good of many, for the welfare of all.
No great work can be done without sacrifice. Lay down your comforts, your pleasures, your name, fame or position, nay even your lives and make a bridge of human chains over which millions will cross the ocean of their life.
Earth’s best, finest and freshest flowers should be laid upon the altar. The strong, the young, with sound intellect and sound body, with courage in mind and love in heart, they must struggle for the cause.