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·THE DAWN OVER ASIA

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·THE DAWN OVER ASIA
By PAUL RICHARD
Translated from the French by
AUROBINDO GHOSE
o
MADRAS
GANESH & CO. PUBLISHERS
1920

·THE CAMBRIDGE PRESS :: MADRAS ·NOTE THESE addresses were originally delivered in Japan, and interpreted from my French into Japanese. I am indebted, with deep gratitude, to my great Brother, Sri Aurobindo Ghose, for their present English translation. P. R. Pondicherry, October, 1920

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·CONTENTS Page 1 11 22 I. Unity of Asia II. The Future in Asia III. The Mission of Japan IV. Democracy V. The Coming Man VI. The Sons of Heaven VII. Aurobindo Ghose 33 53 65 78 Appendix: Universal League for the Equality of Races 89

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·BY THE SAME AUTHOR TO THE NATIONS By a Frenchman with true spiritual vision, lays bare the causes of war in all ages, and enunciates the doctrine that lasting peace can only be found in the free dedication by all nations of all their powers to the service of Humanity. PRICE RE. 1-8-0 OPINIONS 'When I met Monsieur Richard in Japan, I became more reassured in my mind about the higher era of civilization than when I read about the big schemes which the politicians are formulating for ushering the age of peace into the world... When gigantic forces of destruction were holding their orgies of fury, I saw this solitary young Frenchman, unknown to fame,...face beaming with the lights of the new dawn and his voice vibrating with the message of new life, and I felt sure that the great To-morrow has already come though not registered in the Calendar of the statesmen."-Rabindranath Tagore.

·This inspiring and thoughtful work must be
in the hands of every one who is interested in
the promotion of peace and good will among
the nations of the world. The Ceylon Patriot.
The book deserves to be read, and read
with reverence, by every Englishman in the
Punjab, and every blindly conservative citizen
of the British Empire.-Looker Ori.

·THE CANTICLE TO ASIA
"Now in the sixth month, the Angel of the
Nations was sent from their Lord unto a city
of the despised country,
To a Virgin betrothed to a man, the carpenter
of the New Kingdom, and the Virgin's name
was Asia.
And he came in unto her and said : Hail !
thou that art highly favoured. Blessed art
thou among the lands of the earth, for the
Lord is with thee."
1
But when she saw the Angel of the Nations
she was greatly troubled and searched in her
mind what manner of salutation this might be.
And the Angel said unto her:
Fear not,
Asia, for thou hast found favour with the
future,
And behold, thou shalt conceive, and bring
forth a New Spirit, and shalt call his name
the Saviour of the Nations.

·MAGNIFICAT
He shall be great, and shall be called the
Son of the Most High.
And the future shall be given unto him the
throne of his father, the Lord of the Nations.
And he shall reign over the House of the
Nations forever, and of his kingdom there
shall be no end."
But Asia said unto the angel: “How shall
this be, seeing I know not a man of Strength
I know not the Lord of Strength ?"
And the Angel said unto her; " The strength
of the Lord shall come upon thee, and his
Spirit shall take form in thee. Wherefore
also that which is to be born in thee shall
be called the Divine Future."
MAGNIFICAT
66
"...And Asia said:
“My soul doth magnify the Lord of the
Nations.
And my spirit hath rejoiced on the Future,
my liberator.

·MAGNIFICAT Xill For be hath looked on the low estate of his handmaiden And from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation to generation of them that fear him. He hath showed strength with his arm. He hath scattered the proud nations in the imaginations of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty nations from their thrones, and hath exalted the humble and weak one. He hath filled the hungry nation with good things, and the rich ones he hath sent empty away. He hath helped his elected country, his servant, remembering his mercy, And his promise Forever..."

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·THE DAWN OVER ASIA

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·THE DAWN OVER ASIA I THE UNITY OF ASIA* I THANK you for having welcomed me to-day in your midst--without any racial discrimination ! My presence, and the presence of foreign friends, in this assembly, is an evidence that there is something greater here than a mere national interest, something greater even than an * An address delivered at a meeting of the League for Racial Equality, on March 22nd, 1919, at Tokio.

·2
THE DAWN OVER ASIA
Asiatic interest, that there is here,
over-passing nationality and race, a
principle of human unity, an interest, a
hope of a new and nobler Humanity.
It is its dawn that is rising in the
human heavens. It is rising, like all
dawns, over the East. It is this dawn
that I proclaim to Asia-for my soul
has made alliance with the great Soul
of Asia.
How, besides, can I forget, when you
speak of equality and fraternity of the
races, that these are French words,
French ideas? Among all the peoples
of Europe, is it not my country first,
and as yet alone, that has found
unworthy of her the absurd prejudice
of colour, and held it an honour to
count in her Parliament deputies from
the dark-skinned peoples. May our

·THE UNITY OF ASIA 3 presence here bear witness that, in the present as in the past, France remains the country of the pioneers of the human Ideal ! And yet I should speak falsely if I were to say to you now that it is by addressing yourselves to Paris, to the Peace Conference of Paris, to the League of Nations at Paris, that you will obtain the realisation of your wishes: the definitive abolition of all racial discrimination and disqualification. For however powerful may be those to whom you address yourselves, what you ask of them is beyond their power. Think you that they can suppress by a solemn decision the pride and ignorance of men ? For it is that of which are made the mutual prejudices not ·4 THE DAWN OVER ASIA only of races but also of peoples, and, in each people, of class and caste, and sect and sex. Think you that they can abolish with a single word human stupidity, the mother of human injustice? Think you even that they will care to take any heed of your ideal if it is not in agreement with their own interests? For their idealism consists in idealising their own interested views, in covering their egoisms with an ideal name. If then you have cherished this hope, it will be well that you should lose it in order that you may take for yourselves a better. What is it that you expect from the old Europe ? Precisely what she does not possess, what you must yourselves give her: a new Spirit. It is not for you to turn towards her with implor- ·THE UNITY OF ASIA 5 ing hands. It is not for you to ask her to renounce her bloodstained vanity of race. It is, on the contrary, for you to deliver her from it now. Expect nothing from her but what you yourselves bring to her. Hope nothing from her but her conversionand her rebirth! Do you not see that Europe has need now to be saved-saved from her hatreds and from her chaos by a creation of love; from her darkness, by a light of the soul from her death by a resurrection ? For the Europe that was is no more. She is buried under her own crime. And the Europe that should be is not yet. She waits: she waits for Asia. Is it not always from Asia that have come, and will yet come, the great renewals of the Spirit, the spring- ·6 THE DAWN OVER ASIA tides of light and love and life? Is it not from Asia that have always come, and will yet come once again, the Saviours of the peoples ? It is therefore that I, son of Europe, come and say to you: Awaken Asia! Awaken her in two ways. For your work must be double : at once material and spiritual. Awaken Asia by organising her, by uniting her. And to that end, be not masters, but allies of her peoples. Cease you also to cherish against them prejudices of race. Treat them as brothers, not as slaves. Those who are slaves liberate that they may become your brothers. Form with them all one single family. Organise the League of Nations of Asia-the United States of Asia. But that you may be able to do this, ·THE UNITY OF ASIA 7 do more : for bodies are one only when the soul is one. Make one the Soul of Asia by awakening in her, in yourselves, her consciousness of Unity, of the One Soul in every being, of the One Being in all things. That is the sacred treasure of Asia, the only one that Europe could not take from her. It is her discovery and her heritageher very truth. It is that which has made her true power, her enduring greatness. For if the science of external things--the science of Europe-has the promise of the power that passes, leaving behind it only ruins, the science of internal things, the spiritual knowledge--which was always that of Asia-has a promise of the enduring life, the promise of a harmony that passes not away.

·8 THE DAWN OVER ASIA And therefore, while the empires of the West crumble--for which of them has ever been able to last ?-India, China, Japan, remain through the centuries. They remain on condition of renewing incessantly in themselves this profound and secret source, this only source of the true life ; of renewing themselves at that source, in that consciousness of unity. It is on this that is founded the world that is to come, Behold now all the peoples are in labour that it may be born. And each of them attempts to create it in its own image. Some, the conquerors of to-day, wish to build it upon force, on the inequalities of force. For they have inherited the very spirit that they claim to conquer. They are not its ·THE UNITY OF ASIA 9 conquerors but its conquered. And therefore, when they assemble to speak of peace, all the gods of war assemble along with them. For under the name of peace they aim at establishing a dictatorship of Powers. And see how others reply to this dictatorship from above by a dictatorship from below. To the reign of the great, to the reign of the rich, they oppose the reign of the little : they institute the kingdom of the Poor. They attempt to take the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of Equality, by violence. Why should you think yourselves obliged to imitate either ? Rather give an example to all. Teach all by finding it in yourselves, the sole possible foundation of fraternity and human harmony: the founda- ·10 THE DAWN OVER ASIA tion of love, of the divine unity of beings, peoples, races, worlds. On this basis, at this height, build ! Build the civilisation of to-morrowthat of Asia. Build the true equality -that which does not exclude nobility. Build the true justice--that which does not exclude beauty; the true democracy—that which does not exclude divine symbols; the true “Tennoism"* -that in which Earth and Heaven meet together. Build the empire of Unity ;-—thus, thus alone will you destroy the reign of racial discrimination. * Tennoism: the rule of Heaven, from Tenno: the heavenly ruler.

·II THE FUTURE IN ASIA* PARDON ME for not being mistaken a month ago when I said to you: hope nothing from those to whom you are addressing yourselves. But since you have asked me to come and speak to you once again, this time I come to say to you: Hope everything from yourselves and from the Future ! Do you not see that all things in this world, in all the peoples of this world, are about to be made new ? And woe to those who refuse to renew themselves--for they perish. Woe to those An address delivered at a meeting of the League for Racial Equality, on April 24th, 1919, at Tokio. 11

·12
THE DAWN OVER ASIA
who are not just, and upright-for they
are already condemned. Do you not see
that the past is dying, that it is
already dead, that there remains only
its appearance, its shadow, that there
will remain to-morrow nothing but
its ruins ? And it is from this past
that you expect justice? It is from
this past that you have asked for
the things of the future: equality,
fraternity, the unity of races ? You
were mistaken in turning towards
it; you were mistaken in turning
towards those who represent it. The
ideal
interests them only when
they find in it their interest. They
make themselves the servants of the
right only when they are not the
masters of force. They become just
only when they cannot do otherwise.

·THE FUTURE IN ASIA 13 Leave then the past to travel towards its night of the abyss. And look towards the future. But take heed for yourselves: the future is the reparation of the past. Do nothing to others, to those who are weaker than yourselves, that the future will have to repair. When injustice is accomplished, if there is one to be pitied, it is not he who suffers, but he who commits it. For he alienates from himself the future. He makes of the future his greatest adversary. He prepares his own retribution. If then to-day there is anyone to be pitied for the injustice that is done to you, it is not you, it is not your peoples of the Rising Sun-those in front of whom the Dawn is arising ; but it is the others, it is the peoples ·14 THE DAWN OVER ASIA of the setting sun-those who see setting now their sun, their glory, after having exulted in its zenith. Yes, if anyone should feel himself humiliated, it is not the son of the coloured races, but the son of the race which is still white only in its skin, and which has been only half converted by its ordeal, only half purified by its inferno. This race calls itself Christian; it adores a son of Asia. And yet if that son of Asia, if the Christ were now to come again upon the earth, he would be excluded from America, not being enough of a “gentleman” to possess the needed number of dollars; he would be excluded from Australia, he the son of a workingman and an Asiatic, if he could not pass an examination in a foreign tongue. And in the colonies ·THE FUTURE IN ASIA 15 of South Africa, he could not even sit in the trams side by side with the Christian Europeans. That is how Christians would treat the Christ! And they call that civilisation-a civilisation of barbarians ! For the true barbarism, for peoples and races, consists precisely in this want of mutual respect, in this reciprocal lack of understanding, in this proud and ignorant stupidity. Nothing is so stupid as pride-and nothing is so proud as ignorance. Your East was barbarous in the times when it despised the West. Our West is barbarous to-day when it despises the East. And Europe cannot call herself civilised so long as she has not learnt no more to humiliate her mother-Asia ! And yet may I recall to your minds

·16.
THE DAWN OVER ASIA
once again that the true France, the
country which proclaimed the Charter
of the Rights of Man, and whose ideal
word will, I hope, one day promulgate
the Charter of the Rights of the
Peoples—is less than any other guilty
of this heresy, of this blasphemy
against Humanity: the prejudice of
colour; that she has—when she is not
false to herself-too high a soul and too
large an intelligence to despise anyone
whomsoever. If then those who most
claim from others, from the peoples of
Asia, the “open door,” shut theirs to
you, remember that not far from them,
in the Islands of Oceania, are French
towns and ports which you can enter
without any racial discrimination. Go
to the Society Islands, to Taheiti, to
Papiete, to the Marquesas, to New

·THE FUTURE IN ASIA 17 and you Caledonia, to Noumea, to Port of France, you will be received there in the name of France, as better than allies--as friends. But this, I confess, is a consolation rather than a remedy, have not come here to console yourselves but to do something quite the opposite. What then will you do, what answer will you make to the event ? I know that many among you think that you owe it to yourselves to withdraw without delay from the League of Nations. If you took this decision, it would very much take aback those who, in Paris, rejected the Amendment proposed by your delegates. For if they had thought that you would have the courage to take such a step, they would no doubt have voted in a very different way. 2 ·18 THE DAWN OVER ASIA But to say the truth-if I may modestly express my opinion-I do not think that the question has any great importance. For, with or without you, this Society of the Nations, this League of wolves clothed in the skins of sheep, does not appear to me to have a great chance of life. It has, of its own will or otherwise, very few adherents. This democratic league has need only of a little frankness to be a league of dictators, of imperators. If it could live, it would undoubtedly be, even in a higher degree, what was the Palace, the Temple of Peace built by the Czar at the Hague: the signal of the most terrible wars that have ever ravaged our humanity. For nothing is so bad as the corruption of the best. And the finest institutions are only

·THE FUTURE IN ASIA
19
must
falsehoods so long as men's hearts have
not changed.
But to retire, even to retire from the
League of Nations, is not a sufficient
solution--for it is a solution that is
only negative. If it is truly an ideal
and not only a personal interest that
you serve, you
yourselves
realise that ideal; you must found
the true Society of Nations, of all
the nations, small or great, white,
yellow or black, and red also, which
have a name, a language, a history
among mankind. For it is that, and
that alone which ought to be and
which shall be. Prepare that then:
the Congress of Humanity, the first
plenary reunion of the great family
of the peoples-of the hundred peoples
which inhabit the earth-in order that

·20 THE DAWN OVER ASIA in the midst of them true Justice proper rôle. and true Peace may at last take their place. If you wish to be truly great prepare this great thing, this great victory of the times that are arriving And in order that you may prepare it, begin first with Asia. That is your Assemble the Congress of the free nations of Asia. For the time is coming when the nations, all the nations of Asia must be free. None will be truly free so long as others remain slaves. None will be truly respected so long as all are not respected. If then you wish to be respected yourselves, secure respect first for the others. And that all may one day be free, liberate yourselves by delivering those whom you have subjected. For

·THE FUTURE IN ASIA
21
to maintain the bonds of another is to
be oneself bound.
That is the true remedy: to save
yourselves by saving Asia. And
saving, by Asia, the world-for in her
is the heart of the world. Yes that
is the true remedy: to build a new
civilisation, that of Asia--for in her is
the hope of the world. Thus, but thus
only, shall the sorrow and humiliation
of to-day vanish in the glory that calls
you.

·III THE MISSION OF JAPAN * A GREAT soldier, a great Frenchman, whose name is "known to-day all over the world, Marshal Pétain, said on the 23rd February last (1919) to five correspondents to Japanese journals, in the presence of Colonel Kobayashi : “Japan must renounce materialism of which Germany has definitely proved the weakness, and develop her own historic idealism." That which I bring to you to-day, in answer to the invitation you have * An address delivered at Tokio, on April 26th, 1919. 22 ·THE MISSION OF JAPAN 23 made to me, is the echo of this word, the message of France. For to-day, through the mouth of Marshal Pétain, through mine, France cries to you: “It is the attraction of things below that leads peoples to the abyss. Look up on high.” And Germany too cries to you from the depths of her tomb:“The love of riches leads to ruin. The pride of force leads to death." Do you then who during four years have been witnesses of the great drama, and its result twenty peoples hurled into chaos; a civilisation, a world hurried towards the void-draw from it the great lesson. It can be summed up in a word : the ideal. Follow the ideal. For it is at once the sole way and the sole aim that are sure, practical,---real ! Let us then cherish a dream. Tet ·24 THE DAWN OVER ASIA us imagine the finest programme that Japan can realise for herself, and offer as an example, as a gift to the world. The programme of a new civilisation, that of Asia. When one speaks of a civilisation of Asia, the Asia, the people of Europe shrug their shoulders. They cannot imagine that there can ever be a more perfect, a more excellent civilisation than the one which has made of modern man a demon, and of his old world a hell. And yet another must needs replace it. For they may dance as much as they please-theirs is about to disappear! What then can Japan do to replace it ? What can she do within at home; and without-for Asia-for Humanity ? Three great questions to which the reply must be three splendid works.

·THE MISSION OF JAPAN 25 Within, it must be discovered and shown to all how an ideal people is made, a people in which are harmonised and completed the two principles that are everywhere separated, everywhere corrupted; the two powers that are consecrated by each other : the people and its sovereign, who are in opposition only when they cease, the one or the other, to be divine. For if the true sovereign is the great symbol of Heaven, the people also is an expression of the great sovereign Soul. The former represents the unity, the other the multiplicity of the One. And the true democracy is only another name of the true “Tennoism.' Realise the true Tennoism by this faith of a whole people that permits Heaven to appear in the person of ·26 THE DAWN OVER ASIA a sovereign. Realise also the true democracy by taking good care that between the people and its “ Tenno,' between these two halves of the one, nothing profane intervenes and darkens the earth, by veiling from it Heaven. You have driven away the Shogun and the rays from on high have illumined you. But the Shogun has returned under another form, another name. He calls himself now“Legion," he is named the “Narikin”i! Do you not hear all Europe cry to you: “ The end of the reign of wealth is bankruptcy and famine." And Russia also "Tenno"-in Japan the Tenno is not an emperor in the occidental sense of the word, but a divine symbol, a representative, an incarnation of Heaven. + "Narikin"-gold-made man, the new capitalist.

·THE MISSION OF JAPAN 27 cries to you: “Always,' always, the narikin precedes and prepares the Bolshevik." When you have unified in you the two "sacred treasures," the treasure on high and the treasure below, you can then turn towards China. For you will understand that its two severed segments are nothing else than the same representation of the two principles that must be united, not by a compromise between them, but by their conversion. The principle of the South: the idealism of the earth, and the principle of the North: the need of Heaven. Thus will begin your work outside. In Asia first. This work you know. To-morrow the peoples of Asia will be free. For the Lord of Liberty has ·28 THE DAWN OVER ASIA taken possession of the earth. This then is a question whether your country shall be their liberator, their hero, or only one of the masters from whom they shall be liberated. To-morrow the peoples of Asia will be one. For the Lord of Unity also comes. The question is whether Japan shall be the unifier of these peoples or only one of those without whom, against whom perhaps, they will unite. Two years ago I said to your country: Restore Ting Tao to gain. China. It has not done it. Thus it will lose the one without having gained the other. Now I say to it: Be the first to liberate a people of Asia, liberate Corea, that you may gain Asia, the confidence of Asia, the moral sovereignty of Asia. If you would win ·THE MISSION OF JAPAN 29 the crown of the future, you must pay its price. And the more you delay, the more the price increases. If you would fulfil your great rôle you must renounce little conceptions, little means. The hour has come for great things! This is the material work. There remains the noblest, the spiritual work. After you have been liberators, you will be in the domain of the spirit warriors and conquerors. For in that domain he who does not conquer is conquered. You will be the missionaries of the world, -missionaries who give the example first and preach afterwards. All the others do not do that... It has sometinies been proposed to you to make reprisals against certain peoples and to reply to those ·30 THE DAWN OVER ASIA who fear the invasion of their country by your workers, with the prohibition in yours of the immigration, the invasion of their missionaries. I give you rather the contrary advice. Leave to each religion its chance. But give to yours their chance also. And for each Christian missionary who is sent to you, send you also a Buddhist or Shinto missionary, a Confucian or Taoist. Make with the religious powers of the world-as with the others-an exchange of ambassadors. Teach, you also, to the peoples who know them not, to the ignorant who despise them, to the proud who have need of them, your beautiful religions of love and joy--the sole that are pure of bloodshed, the sole that have the right to say: “Peace upon ·THE MISSION OF JAPAN 31 earth !" Go and teach to those that have made Heaven empty to the profit of a solitary God, soon himself disappearing in the night of souls, that Heaven is peopled with Gods, ancestors of Nature and man; but that all these gods are one only; for they are the multiple forms, the multiple thoughts of the One. Go and teach to those religions that have filled the earth with hatred and terror in the name of a God of compassion, the divine unity of beings and things, and the fraternity of all men and all their cults. Go in the name of Him who sends his prophets over all the earth, and whose Spirit breathes where it chooses, and who reveals himself in all the peoples, in all the races, and who incarnates from age to age and becomes man,

·32
THE DAWN OVER ASIA
that man may become God. Go, for
this is the time in which he must
appear. Go, and announce you also
this good tidings to all the nations.
Yes, go little people into this great
world, and fear it not. Be David before
Goliath, be Momotaro before Akandoji,
the Giant, be the herald, the elect of
the Conqueror who comes !

·IV DEMOCRACY * YOU have asked me : “ How can we assimilate the democratic idea after the great war ?" I would rather you asked me: “How can we assimilate the true, and rid ourselves of the false democratic idea ?” Or, better still: “How can we avoid assimilating the false democratic idea, and, on the contrary, ourselves discover and teach the right idea of the word ?" * A reply to a question of Baron Goto's magazine, "Shinjidai," Tokio, December, 1918. 33 3 ·34 THE DAWN OVER ASIA That is the sole question worthy of you and your people. For, in fact, there are two kinds of democracy. One--the ideal and the true-that no people yet has known, that still remains to be discovered ; and the other practised under different forms by most modern States. That kind of democracy can be defined in a general way, as a parliamentary and plutocratic individualism. Is it this form of democracy that Japan is impatient to assimilate ? If it is, let her be reassured. No effort needs to be made to become very quickly the exact copy of her occidental teachers. For she has already more than half placed their mask on her visage. One cannot adopt the head- ·DEMOCRACY 35 gear of people without adopting something of their ideas; and it is not with impunity that one receives the merchandise of the foreigner; for with the productions come the customs, and with the customs the thoughts. The spirit follows the thing, and in each object is active the mentality that fashioned it. Therefore Japan is already well advanced on the parliamentary and plutocratic way. To this there are two disadvantages, one slight and the other grave. The first is that Europe-to be followed soon no doubt by America-happens precisely to be in course of changing, from top to bottom, the forms of political and social life that you are imitating. And soon no doubt they ·36 THE DAWN OVER ASIA will reject, as barbarous and retrograde, the very institutions you have made the model of your progress. Thus Japan, in being a mere imitator, runs a great risk of remaining behind and out of date. In this respect, she has already an eloquent lesson lesson under her eyes. Already, for a hundred millions of men in fact, and for many more millions in possibility, bourgeois individualism is being forced to give place to labour collectivism; and the artificial geographical forms of parliamentary representation, to the living organs of syndical representation and cooperative “soviets." A great part of Europe has reached this point-the rest will follow. It is not by a miracle that this is happening. And however revolu- ·DEMOCRACY 37 tionary the transformation, it is nevertheless only the siinple result of a natural evolution. The logic of that evolution is easy to follow, and its causes, identical everywhere, are at work in the whole of western civilisation. Here is the second, the graver disadvantage for Japan. But the road she is following leads towards formidable ends and yet she imagines she can pursue the ways of others without arriving at the same issue. That issue is as certain for Japan as for Europe and America. When in a people matter predominates over spirit, it is the most material element-first the rich, then the proletariat-that assumes the power. When the industry of labour becomes the ·38 THE DAWN OVER ASIA preeminent activity of the nation, the industrial labourer becomes also, little by little, the preeminent personage. When money becomes the master, its producer becomes the king. And all interests must yield one day before him on whom they depend. The labourer because he is a support of collective property, the servitor most indispensable to all, ends by reigning over all. For this is the secret of all true rule, and its profound legitimacy: to be of the greatest service to the greatest number. The materialism, the industrial mechanism of the refined barbarism that modern men call civilisation has, as its last, its logical, its necessary consequence, the reign of the manual worker. That, Japan should know: the ·DEMOCRACY 39 same economical facts that have produced the "narikin” will produce after him the bolsheviki. Nothing is gained by closing the eyes to this evident fact. And it is enough to open them to be convinced of it. For the signs of the times are numerous and visible. One not among the least significant is the progress that is being made in the mind of children, even of the bourgeois classes, by the most radical ideas. Here is one example among a thousand. A Japanese boy, some days ago, said of a Russian lady:"She has dangerous ideas." _“Is it because she is a revolutionary ?" asked his teacher.-"No," he replied, “but she speaks against Lenin and Trotsky and I like their ideas.” That boy is the son of a banker.

·40
THE DAWN OVER ASIA
His words announce to you the
future.
This is a prospect you do not like.
But how will you now avoid it ?
There can be no question of the
dream of certain poets to return, even
in spirit, back to the blessed and far
off times when there was neither
industrialism nor commercialism, and
the worker did not sell his soul and
his work. For then he had not to
earn his living. He received it as a
gift from Heaven, and returned to
Heaven in exchange all that his hands
produced. In this way the work was an
offering that all made to all. Those
times are no more. Man is no longer
free: he is a mercenary working for a
wage. It is no longer for the “Tenno"

·DEMOCRACY
41
that he labours-it is for someone who
enriches himself. And you want him
still to cherish in his heart the ideal
of disinterested duty ? Then persuade,
first of all, the share-holders of his
factory to practise that ideal! Then
perhaps you may prevent him feeling
a slave and wishing to become master
in his turn.
But if the return backward is not
possible, some think that it is at least
possible to prevent things by force from
going forward. As well attempt to stay
the torrent that is coursing towards
the plain. Certainly you may check its
course;
will only make it more
irresistible. You may heap dams in its
front: its flood will mount till it breaks
them--and the devastation will be
worse. None can restrain living forces :
but you

·42 THE DAWN OVER ASIA bury them and they germinate; compress them, they explode. None can stay the march of ideas: no police in the world has that power. No bureaucratic regulations can attain the free heaven in which they move and from which they descend, irresistibly, into the mind and the heart of the mass. The way of force is the way of the weak. It is the surest and shortest way towards what you wish to avoid. It is the road that Czarism followed. Do not imitate it. And even when you strive to combat by violence the spirit of which you disapprove, and when you send your armies to battle against a state of mind, beware lest they return to you, victorious perhaps without, but conquered by it within.

·DEMOCRACY 43. Is there then no way to escape ? Yes, there is one. It consists not in remaining behind, or turning back, but in hastening boldly towards the things that should be. The way is not to flee from or combat them, but to serve them. Ally yourselves with the ideal of tomorrow, if you do not wish that it should be a menace and an enemy. Construct the future, if you do not wish that the future should destroy you. Dig a bed for the torrent of the waters, that instead of devastating they may fertilise the soil. To conquer the new forces you must guide them and to guide you must aid them. Make a place for them among the rest. Organise to-day, yourselves, the interests of the workers, of the masses, that they may not, on no dis- ·-44 THE DAWN OVER ASIA tant day, organise themselves against you. Make Justice integral and whole that her claims may not become extreme. In a word serve the ideal, in order to repress covetous desires-your own and those of others. And go forth from the easy ways that lead to perdition. Do not imitate, but innovate. Be examplars and not copies. Instead of receiving the lessons of the false, give to all the lessons of the true democracy. And to discover it, rise above yourselves. The true democracy is not a system but an attitude. It does not depend on formulas, institutions and parliaments. There can be democratic empires and autocratic republics. There can be Presidents more autocratic than Empe- ·DEMOCRACY 45 rors. The Greek republics practised slavery-a worse slavery than that of Imperial Rome. All the democratic institutions of England do not prevent a small number of nobles from holding as their property-as in Russia before the revolution --all the lands of the kingdom. There is a model Parliament in London, and of all the capitals of the world, it is there that there is the greatest amount of misery. And Mr. Lloyd George could say lately that, of all the belligerents, it was in his country that there was the greatest number of the unfit and the ill-fed... The true democracy is not the democracy of official speeches. It is not the democracy an American magnate, in a recent tour in Russia, thought he could ·.46 THE DAWN OVER ASIA teach, from the balcony of the imperial palaces or from the special train of the ex-Czar, to the hungry workers and peasants of Russia. The true democracy is not the democracy of electoral parades. It does not consist in deceiving the modern slave by persuading him that he is free when he has voted for or against one of the five or six hundred masters who exploit him. The tyranny of number cannot be liberty. An anonymous autocracy, an elective plutocracy-that is not democracy. The true democracy, the real liberty, is that which frees man from his real bonds of servitude, that which makes him greater, nobler, more beautiful, more happy. “What we wish is to ·DEMOCRACY 47 found a democracy of terrestrial Gods," said Emerson. The true democracy will be that in which the small will feel great and the great small; in which the great will give an example to the small; in which the greatest will be the most disinterested, the poorest; that in which the supreme majesty will have the power to shine out in a supreme destitution. The true democracy was that of your emperor Meiji, breaking the chains of his people, and first of all, the shackles of ignorance the Prince with the Great Heart who took upon himself the burdens of all; who said : Late in the night treading the frost Men are there at toil. The evening, drawing to the glow of the fire, How can I take pleasure ?

·48 THE DAWN OVER ASIA And again : The clear overhead Or overhead the cloud, The thought never departs : My people, my multitude, How meet their need ? That is the true democracy. When the Government of the people is - not in words but in truth - matsuri goto," an office of adoration; when the people itself is, to its chiefs, the “great sacred treasure"; when the first law of the state is that of the “Go kajo no go seibun "* which demands that all affairs should be guided by public opinion--then there is the true democracy. But public opinion is not the caprice of the crowd. It is not the noise * The honorable Edict of five articles.

·DEMOCRACY 49 made by some who give it a twisted and falsified expression in order to secure their own profit. The true public opinion is in the heart and soul of the peoples. Those only who forget themselves can know and serve it. It is not represented by the professional politicians serving their party interests. ...A mutual respect of individual powers for the great collective soul and of the great collective power for individual souls, is the real democracy. It is neither individualist nor collectivist. It is both at once. It is neither monarchical nor republican. It preserves only the true republics and drives away only the false monarchs, those who make alliance with the very things that should be 4 ·50 THE DAWN OVER ASIA destroyed, who are no longer the synibol of the Divine Will. The true democracy excludes only false greatness, but it creates the real elite. It breaks only its bad masters -those who are not the servitors but the parasites of the peoples. And it is the revolted soul of the peoples that crushes them in its rising. This is the nature of the true democracy. There where it reigns all that is just and true reigns also. It harmonises and reconciles the great opposed ideas. It makes of liberty the companion of unity. It weds the radicalism of below to the idealism of above and the sovereign rights of the people to the rights of its true sovereigns. It identifies heaven and earth. But where does it exist ? Where can ·DEMOCRACY 51 we find this true democracy? As yet no-where. And it is therefore that chaos is coming on all the peoples. It is in this chaos that they are seeking, that they are wandering about to discover. It is from this chaos that in the end the true democracy will rise. You do not wish to descend into this chaos-like others ? Then understand what it is that cast them there. It is their egoistic thoughts, it is their unjust works. They have coveted the world; they have denied their own soul. Japan, do not imitate them, but find again in thyself thy soul and thy God. Recover the great thought of thy soul, the thought of thy true mission. Fulfil that mission, deliver Asia, make its peoples happy; for that is thy work...

·52 THE DAWN OVER ASIA And then thou wilt thyself also be happy. And thou wilt know the true liberty. That which thou shalt have done for others shall be accomplished for thyself. Thy internal transformations shall be the reflection of thy external works. It is their greatness and their beauty that shall come upon thee, and organise in thee all things. Japan, do what thou hast to do without-and thou shalt not be delivered up to darkness and wrath within !

·V THE COMING MAN IN this world of things that disappear, wherever there is an abode of the Eternal, something eternal abides. Wherever there is an abode of the ideal, already there arises something of the future. Every temple is a house of the Holy City which descends from Heaven upon earth. Therefore in this temple, in this house, I salute what is greater than it: the future City. *An address delivered at the annual festival of the Dô Temple, on April 20th, 1919, at Tokio. 53 ·54 THE DAWN OVER ASIA Across this assembly I salute the people of the future. And I salute too in this temple, the man of God who is its centre, its soul, its light, and who is preparing that future. For do you know what is a man of God ? It is a man in whom the divine future finds its messenger, its envoy, its herald; a man in whom and by whom it incarnates beforehand; a poor man whose soul sometimes agonises in the heart of this present made of obstacles and limits, to attain the word of the future, the word from on high, the creative word by which is accomplished and renewed upon this earth, across the ages, the mystery of the beginning, the divine miracle of men and the peoples, the renewal of ancient peoples and the birth of new

·THE COMING MAN
55
men. For wherever there is the man
of God there is in power, in promise,
in germ, the coming man.
The coming man...how to speak of
him, how even to think of him ? For
he surpasses
us. But how either
to deny him ? All the ages have
hoped for him; all the peoples have
awaited him; all the prophets have
announced him; all the centuries have
prepared him. No, the present man
is not the supreme son of earth; the
modern man, the civilised, the man of
the nations of prey, the man of the
great war is not the last, the true son
of Heaven, its supreme manifestation.
He is the super-tiger perhaps; he is
not the super-man ; this is not he for
whom the whole creation groans and

·56 THE DAWN OVER ASIA sighs, he whom she is bringing to birth in pain and travail. He is not yet, but he will be. He has not yet come, but he is coming. What more agonising cry ever mounted from the hearts of men, from the bosom of the multitudes! All the nations of this world call their Liberator. And it is He who comes. Do you not see that the earth trembles, and the very abysses are shaken; for he approaches. It is his sovereign step that shakes the world. Do you not see that all is being destroyed and renewed-for he is about to appear. And all that is not marked with his seal, all that is an obstacle to his advent, must perish. Always, always thus, when the Supreme Lord approaches, there marches ;

·THE COMING MAN 57 before him the whirlwind, the hurricane, the shaking of the tempests, and the purifying fire; it is afterwards alone that there passes the sweet and subtle breath, the breath of the spirit who is to take form in the hosom of men. Always, always thus, the destructions precede the renaissance, and the death the resurrections, and the darkness the light, and chaos, the new worlds, the new heavens, the new earths. And at each greater crisis, it is something greater and inore wonderful that descends. Is not the Eternal at once the Terrible and the Wonderful ? It is thus that to-day once again the disorder and anguish of this world hastens the coming of the divine Kingdom and of the divine King. But there are men, there are peoples and ·58 THE DAWN OVER ASIA governments who would not that it should be thus, who understand not that it is thus. They seek for safety behind, instead of seeking for it in front. They run after the setting sun in place of moving towards the dawn. Because they have no faith in the future, they have fear of that which is coming. They cling obstinately to the past; they invoke Heaven and at the same time combat it. They wish to master the hurricane by force, to impose silence on the thunderbolt, to command to the rushing of the forces immobility, and to say to the mounting Ocean: thou shalt go no farther. Therefore the ocean, going further, sweeps them away. They imagine that the earth is made for the satisfaction of their egoistic wishes. The

·THE COMING MAN
*59
earth is made for the manifestation
of the Lord ; the earth is made for the
coming man.
The coming man-this we must
accept that he should be other than
we would wish; that he should be
perhaps the opposite of what we are,
the opposite of the man of to-day. The
coming man, the divine man, he will
be as free as the man of to-day is a
slave. A slave of the desire of power
—for he is weak. A slave of the desire
of riches-for he is poor. But the
coming man, the divine man will be
strong even when disarmed, and even
when despoiled will be rich. He will
not need to appropriate anything, for
he will possess all things. He will not
need apparent power, for he will bear
within himself omnipotence.

·60 THE DAWN OVER ASIA The man of to-day believes in his science-for he is ignorant. He is a slave of the errors and limitations of the thought that vacillates. But the coming man, the divine man will be free from all ignorance; he will master error--for he will live the very truth. He will master the limitations of the intelligence-for he will live higher than the mental heaven, in the heaven of the spiritual light, the revealing intuition. Is it not that which is named by your sages “mei toku,” the clear virtue, the luminous perfection ? He will live not in the noise of vain words, but in the harmonies of the inspired silence. The man of to-day thinks himself virtuous when he submits to the laws of this world. But the coming man, ·THE COMING MAN 61 the divine man, that he may be moral will be free. Free from external constraints, from prescriptions and restrictions; free to follow a higher law than others could bear, but one which will bear him higher than himself. For what appears good to ordinary men would be to him evil. And what is evil, he will transmute into a greater good. The man of to-day calls himself religious when he has a religion. The religions are paths--there is no path on the summit. The coming man, the divine man, will have no longer any religion. Or rather he will have them all-and something yet more. For, having visited all the abodes of Heaven, he will know, he will understand all the revelations, all the adora- ·62 THE DAWN OVER ASIA tions of the earth. He will penetrate with the Vedas into the secret of the unity, of the identity of the forces of Nature and of the Soul; with Shinto into the fairy-land of the heaven of the gods and the ancestors, into the poetry of the multiplicities of the One; with Buddhism into the great peace of selfliberation and of the love without egoism for all beings, for all things; with Islam into the perfection of the confidence and submission of the faithful to his God; with the Tao into the transcendent impersonality ; with the Christ into the mystery of the incarnation, of the descent of the Transcendent. And in all these religions of earth, through them, beyond them, above them all, it is the religion of the Infi- ·THE COMING MAN 63 nite that he will live. In all the worlds-worlds of light and worlds of darkness--for all are God's, in all the gardens of space, in all the heavens, above and below, he will play freely, like a divine child. And the very abyss will cradle him on its bosom, like a mother... Master of life, master of death--for he knows Eternity ; Citizen at once of heaven and earth, he will walk among men as he walks among the gods. He will be the sovereign, he will be the servitor of this world. But why imagine him? Why describe him? Man of to-day, if thou wouldst know the man of to-morrow, become him thyself. Become what he is--for he is already. He is present although invisible--present near thee ·64 THE DAWN OVER ASIA open to him thy heart. He is a spirit that broods over all. He is a spirit that seeks across this world a body to manifest it-an individual body, but also a collective body. For no individual can incarnate alone that which is to appear. None can enclose and imprison in himself the glory of God. It needs, for the outburst of all its splendthe richness and unity of a group of brothers. It needs a family, a people of the elect. That, become ! This spirit of the times to come, this spirit of the new man, is moving today over this assembly. Open to it your gates. It is moving over this nation. Let its reign be ! our,

·VI
THE SONS OF HEAVEN *
THERE exist certain men over the
world who are not like the others. It
is true that they are not distinguished
by anything in their appearance; and
yet they differ from other men as
much as the light and joy of Heaven
differ from the shadow and the sorrow
of the earth. For there is in them the
joy of that light, and the light of that
joy. Among the sons of earth, they
are Sons of Heaven.
The most part remain ignored by all.
Tokio, June, 1917.
65
5

·66
THE DAWN OVER ASIA
They live unknown in the radiant
abodes that the others seek for, and
stumble everywhere, unseeing, against
the secret doors. They know that of
which all are ignorant; they live the
sublime truth of life. For verily, how
can one know it, except by living it ?
They possess that which all the others
covet, and which none can possess so
long as he covets: the supreme Felicity
of life. For, verily, to one who is no
longer possessed by desire, all life is a
felicity.
Oftenest they are even ignorant of
each other. They are scattered over
the earth. Sometimes two among them
meet, and immediately recognise each
other. But ordinarily they dwell
alone, lost in the heart of the human

·THE SONS OF HEAVEN 67 crowds. And yet, though separated, they are one. For their life is a consciousness of unity. And their isolation even draws them together. The world is for them a solitude. But their solitude is a world, and their retreat an assembly. They enjoy in the midst of noise the silence. But that silence is filled with fraternal voices. They are usually born or become poor. And yet they would not exchange their destiny for the riches and royalties of this world. They are the kings of all the worlds; they are the masters of all destinies; the masters of the plenitude and identity at the heart of all destinies. And that, not only beyond the events they bring, but in each of them. There is nothing ·68 THE DAWN OVER ASIA that can increase or diminish this. plenitude. There is nothing that is not to them a gift of this plenitude. No wealth can equal the riches of their poverty. Despoiled of all, they are clothed in magnificence. All the treasures of this world are theirs. They are acquainted with tribulations. Their life has storms, like so many others', and sometimes its shipwrecks. But whatever the violence of contrary winds, and the tempest without, nothing can trouble within the serenity of their skies. As the birds of the sea rest, confident, on the clamorous wave, so their soul finds its support on the might of the depths. And their heart remains at rest in the very bosom of the tempest, cradled by ·THE SONS OF HEAVEN 69 6 the rushing of the forces of the immensity. Even on the fields of battle, they enjoy peace, the 'peace that surpasses all understanding." There is no hell in which they do not see the radiance of the divine smile. This condition does not depend on the religion they profess. There are sons of Heaven in every religion. But usually they are outside every religion. The religions are the paths below, but they are on the on the summit; on the summit where all the paths join, where all the religions: are accomplished, where Heaven becomes one with the earth. For these sons of the Heaven are the true sons of the Earth. They cherish her as their mother. Who can understand Heaven if ·70 THE DAWN OVER ASIA he does not love the earth? They make Heaven live upon earth. They live on earth the life of Heaven. Verily, verily, it is not earth that separates man from Heaven, it is man who separates Heaven from earth. But since he can make at times of this earth a hell, he can make of it too a very heaven... No, it is not the earth, it is not the flesh that separates man from Heaven's joy-it is man's egoistic soul. If he cannot find the joy of Heaven on earth, he will find it nowhere. Egoism survives the flesh. If the egoistic soul suffers upon earth, it will suffer though it were in the Heaven of Heavens. What heaven can give its joy to the soul that has not conquered within itself suffering and the cause of suffer- ·THE SONS OF HEAVEN 71 ing? What soul can live in heaven if heaven does not live in the soul ? The heaven in which they live is as far from that which the creeds call by this name, as from that which is called by them Hell. For these words only project into Eternity the aggrandised image of human fears and desires. The true Heaven is in a liberation from these things. And likewise their joy is as different from that which men call happiness, as from that to which they give the name of suffering. For happiness itself is suffering-a promise of suffering-to one who does not possess the unconditioned joy. And suffering in its turn changes into ecstasy to the being who, breaking his limits of being, recovers the infinite of the joy ·72 THE DAWN OVER ASIA of being in all things. For all things are only oblivious forms of this joy of being. “Seek for That, says the Upanishad, from which all existences are born, by which being born they live, and to which they return ... All existences are born from the Bliss, and by the Bliss they live, and to the Bliss they return." They return to it as soon as they begin to untie the stifling bonds of their ego, and to breathe at ease in that which is without beginning or end, without limits, without divisions, without fault, without shadow ; the Eternal One. And while some, accomplishing the great sacrifice-for the ego is a sacrifice---renounce that in order to create by force of an ·THE SONS OF HEAVEN 73 exclusive concentration, in suffering and blindness, the individual means of manifestation of the Ore, others, having achieved this work, of selfcreation, receive its reward, and, free, participate in the divine play, in the consciousness at last recovered of the inexpressible Bliss. This is not a doctrine. Doctrines are made to take the place of a knowledge lived, as rules and principles are made to take the place of a living conscience. This is an experience, identical for all ages and under all skies. It is certain sons of Heaven who speak of these things. Each says them in his own way. For there are a thousand ways of making them understood. There are some also ·74 THE DAWN OVER ASIA who do not speak. For they know what cannot be spoken, what cannot be understood, except in one wayin silence. But whether they speak or are silent all reveal it by their example, to those who regard their life. And this teaching of their life includes and, at need, replaces all the others. It is the sole that all men on all the earth can understand and receive, the sole that they await. For that it is that makes them happy... I have traversed the earth, seeking for the sons of Heaven. The hour has come when they must form together the centre of Unity, the heart of the world that is to be born. For among these divine men, if some are simple souls, shepherds in the fields, others

·THE SONS OF HEAVEN
75
are shepherds of peoples, warriors on
the battlefield of the world. If some
have no other science than that of the
contemplation that illuminates, others
are the light of the Heaven of the
spirit. And if many have no other
power than that of the fertile repose
of their soul, there are soine who are
masters of the divine action and
creators of the future. To all Heaven
gives its joy--and to some its power.
Men scarcely believe any longer to-day
in the heroes of the old legends. Such
beings seem no longer to be of this
world. And yet once more they are
in this world. Never have they been
so conscious of themselves and of their
force. It is they, the great nameless
ones, who with a single gesture are
making to crumble
now, in all the

·76 THE DAWN OVER ASIA nations, the things of yesterday before the men of to-morrow ! I have traversed, I traverse the earth, seeking for the sons of Heaven. Among those I have met, one was a homeless wanderer who having nowhere to lay his head, went singing along the roads his glee and preaching his joy. Another, a prophet, the religious head of a million men. Another greater than all, a solitary, the Chosen of the future. And around them young men, young Gods. Women too, wives and divine mothers. But who has a right, speaking of them, to raise the veil with which are covered the daughters of Heaven... It is while seeking for these sages

·THE SONS OF HEAVEN
77
that I have come as far as here. For
all now must assemble, from the Orient
and the Occident, to form the one and
multiple body of the Lord of Humanity,
of the Lord whom, under different
names, all the peoples of humanity
await. When they shall be united,
He will appear...

·VII AUROBINDO GHOSE * My friends, it is not only my word but my heart that I bring to you. It is my heart that salutes your young and fine association. For it unites two things that I love ; one as one loves a mother--Asia, for Asia is the spiritual mother of the world ; and the other as one loves a child-youth, the dawn of the future; for in you is the future of Asia, the future of the world. And you are doing the work that should be done. Your society in creat- * An address delivered to the “ Students Asiatic Union" on May 3rd, 1919, at Waseda University in Tokio. 78 ·AUROBINDO GHOSE 79 ing the bonds of fraternity between students of different nations, is creating them also between those nations. In working to unify the thinking youth of Asia, it is working for the unity of Asia. It is unifying the Asia of tomorrow. For to-morrow Asia will be one. In this unity there lie for her the promises of the future, of a higher life, a more perfect civilisation, with a great soul in it that shall be formed of that which is best in each. All the sensibility of Japan, all the intellectuality of China, all the spirituality of India will there enter into association. In this soul of the future, all the great thoughts of Asia will take their place. They will assemble together the gods of Vedism and of Shinto, the sister

·80
THE DAWN OVER ASIA
religions of Buddhism and Taoism, the
pacified cults of Christianity and Islam.
For all are only multiple forms of a
single cult offered to the Infinite Being.
It is this soul of the future that
will be created by the man of the
future. Not the super-man of Nietzche,
the super-man of the West, all the
vanity and pride of whose force has
only succeeded in bringing down in
ruin upon him the old world. But the
diviner man, the humaner god of Asia,
creator of a new world. It is for this
creation that the whole earth is being
changed into a chaos; it is for this
renewal, for this remoulding, that all
the peoples are now in revolt against
what they were, against what they
wish no longer to be. And if men
nowhere listen any longer to those

·AUROBINDO GHOSE 81 who speak to them of human duties, it is because all, in the depths of their heart, feel awakening super-human possibilities... Therefore, I come to say to you: prepare yourselves, prepare yourselves for the magrificent to-morrow. Prepare in yourselves that magnificent day. For the hour is coming of the great things, the hour of the great events, and also of the great men, the divine men of Asia. For there are already these men, these divine menin Asia. All my life I have sought for them across the world. For all my life I have felt that they must exist somewhere in this world, that this world would die if they did not live. For they are its light, its heat, its life. It is in Asia that I have found the 6 ·82 THE DAWN OVER ASIA greatest among them, the leader, the hero of to-morrow. He is a Hindu, he is named Aurobindo Ghose. He was born at Calcutta on the 15th August 1872. He is to-day 47 years old. While yet quite young he was sent to England to commence his studies. He remained there fourteen years. He acquired there all the knowledge of the West. And to him that did not suffice. He possesses also all the profound science, all the ancient wisdom of the East. He returned to India at the age of twenty ; was chosen for works of confidence by the Maharajah of Baroda, and occupied in the State an advantageous situation which would have satisfied the ambitions of many. But his were of another kind. In him lived ·AUROBINDO GHOSE 83 the love of the Indian Motherland. Therefore he made this vow : “ There is a burden on the breast of my mother. I will take no rest till I have delivered her.” He made too this greater vow : “One day I will see God face to face." It is thus that he left one day the court of the Maharajah. As formerly the Buddha had done, he abandoned the sweets of his position, his worldly and material advantages. He departed to do his work, to accomplish his great and perilous mission. At Calcutta to which he returned, he participated in the foundation of the National College, in order to save first of all the soul of his young fellowcitizens from the alien domination. He participated also in the conduct of a free organ “Bande Mataram," around 7 ·84 THE DAWN OVER ASIA which organised itself a large group of enthusiastic young men. He wrote and he spoke. He spoke, and as his voice came from the depths of the soul, from the depths of the past and the future, Bengal hearing him awoke. It was the beginning of the great Hindu Renaissance, the beginning of the national movement which afterwards, from year to year, from province to province, gained the whole of India, preparing the irresistible impetus of to-day, and the victory of to-morrow. Then he was put in prison—the school of the great and the just. But as no crime could be proved against him, no crime other than that of being the inspired prophet of the Indian Motherland, the voice announcing her liberation, he was released at the end ·AUROBINDO GHOSE 85 of a year. But in this prison he had understood that his human strength would not suffice; that he needed the strength of the gods. And the gods came and spoke to him. Henceforth he looked only towards Heaven. Henceforth he saw Heaven everywhere and the Divine in all beings. While he was being tried before the tribunal, he had this experience that he saw no longer before him men, judges, jailers and prisoners, but in each of them, in the most honoured as in the despicable, the one image of Krishna, the individual form of the infinite Brahman. He wrote still and founded the “ Karma Yogin.” But it was to give this message to his people: “There can be no material Mukti, unless there is first a spiritual Mukti" afterwards he ·86 THE DAWN OVER ASIA retired into solitude. He came to the South of India, to Pondichery, where ten years ago, by a providential course of events, I met him for the first time. There he entered in the silence of a yoga which deepened during five years. When I met him again after these five years, he had gained the light, he had gained the power. The light owing to which nothing more henceforth, in heaven or on earth or in any world, can remain hidden from him. And the power through which everywhere his sovereign thought, without desire, without trouble, without haste, without fear, realises the will of the Eternal Truth. Five other years have passed since then. Five years in the course o which, at my request, he has exposed.

·AUROBINDO GHOSE 87 in five volumes of a monthly publication, the most masterly, the most magnificent teaching of philosophy, of human and divine wisdom that men have ever received. Now, the day is coming when, after having been in the obscurity of his silence and retreat the saviour of India, he will become in the full light of day the Guru of Asia, the teacher of the world. For it is always from Asia that have come the Saviours and the Teachers of this world. To-day for the first time I proclaim in public his name. For it is without doubt you who should hear it the first. Let this name be henceforth to you, to your association, to the youth of Asia —to Asia, a symbol, a rallying cry, a programme. For this name signifies Asia free

·88
THE DAWN OVER ASIA
and one-Asia resurgent. Asia in her
glory!

·APPENDIX LEAGUE FOR THE EQUALITY OF RACES THE ORIGIN OF THE LEAGUE THE League for the Equality of Races was born of the war-of that war in which all the races mingled their blood; the proudest calling to their help thc most humble ; in which all the cultures were confounded ----these rising, those sinking ;-in which all the peoples inflicting on each other a common ruin, all men in a mutual slaughter came to understand their strong solidarity and learnt that a durable peace and the safety of all depend on their respect for each other-on Equality : The League for the Equality of Races first took birth in Japan, At the moment 89 ·90 APPENDIX h when there met what was thougt to be the Conference of Peace at Paris, thirtyseven great Japanese associations, representing all the forces of the nation, assembled with the intention of supporting the claim made by the delegates at the Conference in the name of the oppressed races of the world. At its first meeting, the League thus formed, under the Presidency of M, Teiichi Sugita, Member and former represident of the House of Peers, addressed to the Peace Conference the following message: Tokio, February 11th 1919. The Allied Nations now assembled at the Peace Conference are endeavouring to establish a League of Nations and found the permanent peace of the world. We Japanese, whole-heartedly approve of this effort, and anxiously await its realisation. But seeing that the racial discriminatory treatment in international intercourse, which still exists, is against all principles of liberty and equality, and forms a constant root of conflict between peoples ; That so long as this remains unchanged, all ·APPENDIX 91 peace conferences, leagues and agreements will be as a house built on the sand, and that not true peace can be hoped for : We, representatives of thirty-seven large Japanese associations call upon the nations of the world to found a permanent peace on justice and humanity ; and, to this end, Declare : The Japanese Nation expects of the Peace Conference the final abolition of all racial discrimination and disqualification. The League at its second meeting, on the 23rd March 1919, informed of the turn of mind that reigned at the Conference, decided on the dispatch of the following telegram to its President: The Japanese Nation is entirely opposed to any League of the Nations founded upon the maintenance of Racial Discriminatory Treatment, It is well known what was the fate that befell, in spite of the efforts of the League, the amendment proposed by the Japanese delegates to the text of the Covenant, in regard to the question of the races. Although it secured a majority of the ·92 APPENDIX votes, it was nevertheless declared to have been rejected by the President of the sitting, Mr. Wilson, under the pretext that unanimity was necessary for the adoption of amendments of this kind. After this check, the League sent to the members of the Peace Conference at Paris its solemn protest, as expressed in the following message: We, representatives of thirty-seven Societies in Japan--political, religious, press, army and navy veterans associations, etc.--held a third meeting in Tokio, on the 24th of April 1919, concerning the question of racial discrimina" tory treatment, at which the following decla® ration was passed : THE JAPANSE NATION REFUSES TO JOIN A LEAGUE OF NATIONS FOUNDED UPON THE MAINTENANCE OF RACIAL DISCRI- MINATORY TREATMENT. But the ill-success of its efforts, far from discouraging its resolution, imparted to it a greater strength. The League decided to give permanence to its organisation and to extent it to other countries. Its isolation was the cause of its weakness.

·APPENDIX 93 The federation of the races of Asia and of the world will make its strength and assure its victory. It is at the request of its founders, with whose work I have been closel;' associated in Japan, that I have consented to undertake, with the help of my Indian friends, the organisation of the League for the Equality of the Races, here in India. GENERAL OBJECT OF THE LEAGUE To proclaim the principle of Democracy as between the races; the equality of rights, the right to equality, not only of the individual in the Nation, but of the peoples and races in Humanity. To assure respect for human dignity in every man, whatever be his race or colour .-and thereny the progress of all the races, of the more advanced as of the more backward; enlightening the pride of the former, the humility of the others ; elevating all above that real barbarism which consists in the want of mutual understanding and fraternity.

·94 APPENDIX FOR ASIA To serve the moral and material unity of Asia by offering to her peoples and her races a basis of permanent agreement and common interests. To prepare, by the development of interasiatic relations, the League and the Congress of the nations of Asia. To favour by the free growth of the races of Asia their harmonious relations with the other races of the world. FOR INDIA To offer to India a wider basis for the vindication of her rights to racial equality within the Empire, by associating her own particular problem with the larger issue of the Equality of all races in Humanity. Practically, to assure means of regular inspection, as well as of permanent assistance and protection to the Indian communities in the colonies beyond the seas. ORGANISATION The sections of the League are constitut- ·APPENDIX 95 ed by the adhesion of associations as well as of individual members. The resources of the Indian section are provided by donations, subscriptions and voluntary contributions. The administracion of the League is conducted in India by a committee of directors and of representatives of its constituent Societies. An international bureau is organised for expansion and propaganda, each section contributing to the expenses according to its means. The basis of adhesion to the different sections of the League and the principle of their action are determined by the following declaration: DECLARATION In the name of History which all times. and all races have written,-history that shows us all the families of men mounting and descending, across the Dawns and the Evenings of Time, and taking by turns the lead of human Progress;

·96 APPENDIX In the name of Science, daughter of all the civilisations of the earth, light of all, that brightens and grows in each, and teaches that the races of men are made one from the other, for never in the course of ages have they ceased to exchange their thoughts, and to mingle their blood; In the name of the Religions, to which all the races give their saints, revealers and guides, in the name of the religions which say to us : “In all living beings the Being one and changeless, in all separate beings the Being indivisible." (Bhagavad Gita, 18-20.) “This world is a Republic of all whose citizens are formed of one and the same substance." (Epictetus. Conversations, 14 –24.) “We are every one members of another." (Epistle to the Romans. 12--5.) You are all issued one from the other." (Koran). “ To love one's neighbour as oneself.” (Confucius, Lun--Yu. I. IV. 5), " To do towards others as we would that they should do towards us.” (Dhammapada. 129).

·APPENDIX 97 “Five continents-one family." (Chinese Bhuddistic inscription). In the name of Humanity, multiple and one, whose whole body feels the injury done to a single one of its inembers, in the name of Humanity rich hy the diversity, strong by the solidarity of its races; progressing in the progress of them all and in all the free development of their forms; In the name of Human Peace-for without mutual respect there is no peace; In the name of Reason-which tends towards Unity, and of the Soul-which lives by love, WE DECLARE AND PROCLAIM THE UNIVERSAL EQUALITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.

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