भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

then why did the British people fill the whole world with a howl that the
Germans had ill-treated their captives and did not allow them fresh bread
and butter? What if the Germans had reminded them—Fresh bread and
butter! There was a time when captives were flayed alive and offered as
victims to Moloch and Thor and such other Gods of war!’ The thing is this
that this advanced stage in civilization attained by man is the resultant of
the efforts of all men and therefore their common inheritance and benefits
all. Speaking relatively to Barbarian times, it is true that I had a fair trial and
a just sentence and the Government is at liberty to derive whatever
satisfaction they can from the compliment that they give a fairer trial and a
juster sentence to their captives than the cannibals used to do. But it should
not be forgotten that if in olden days, the rulers flayed their rebels alive then
the rebels too when they got the upper hand flayed alive the rulers as well.
And if the British people treated me or other rebels more justly, i.e. less
barbarously then they may rest assured that they too would be as leniently
treated by the Indian rebels if ever the tables are turned?
Please do not hope much from this petition so far as our release is
concerned. We never pitched our hopes too high and if not released, we
shall not be very much disappointed. We are quite prepared to face it either
way. You have tried your best and it is mainly due to your unceasing efforts
that the release of P.P.s became such a burning question as that and though
not we two, yet hundreds of others have won back their liberty.
Hoping to find you in good health and with best and loving regards to all
our friends and relations.
I remain dear brother
Yours affectionately
TATYA
❑

Miscellaneous Statements and Writings
The Nepal Movement (1925 A.D.)
Our doubts are traitors.
And make us lose the good we oft might win.
By fearing to attempt.
—Shakespeare
It is very gratifying to note that the Nepal movement has recorded a
satisfactory progress during the last year. A couple of years ago, Hindusthan
as a whole and even the leaders of Hindu thought in general, were totally
unconscious of the far-reaching influence, which the movement is likely to
exercise, if well and ably handled, on the future of the Sanghatan movement.
The Hindu press was too busy in writing columns after columns about the
duty of Hindus owed to the Khalifa in Turkey or the famine-stricken poor
folk in Constantinople. The Hindu public was too much moved at the news
that certain mosques in Syria had fallen in a dilapidated condition and was
busy gathering funds with M. Shaukat Ali to rebuild it and the Hindu leaders
led by the ablest of them, Mahatma Gandhi, who always knows how to lead
and who never knows where to lead, were straining every fibre of their pinny
hands to prop up the Khalifa on the throne of Turkey, whom his own people
wanted to get rid of and were too much occupied in their efforts to save
Mesopotamia and Arabia and Egypt and Syria and, in fact, all the great world
but Hindusthan—to care how Nepal, that only independent Hindu Kingdom
fared.
When the independence of Afghanistan was formally recognised by the
British nation, there passed a wave of enthusiasm over the Hindu press and
the Hindu platform and thousands of Hindus took part in the anniversary
celebrations in memory of that event. But for months, the formal recognition
by the British nation of the independence of the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal
remained entirely unnoticed by the Hindu press. Even the news did not
appear in the majority of the Hindu papers. The Anglo-Indian papers knew
what the recognition meant and noticed it with few suggestive remarks. A
khadi shop opened somewhere in the village in Assam, used to receive more
prominence in the great Hindu dailies and weeklies in Bombay, Madras,
Calcutta and Lahore than the terms of this important treaty, that was signed
between Britain and Nepal, did. We are not exaggerating; matters stood
exactly like that. Nay, even today, a section of the Hindu press is groping as

hopelessly in this suicidal blindness to our own interests and what is worse,
is sticking it up as a feather into his cap. The Mohamedan will swagger to
know about his Amir and Sultan but ask a Hindu if he had ever heard of an
independent Hindu Kingdom that still flies its flag, unsullied and unbeaten,
he will give you a blank look. Even when you mention Nepal, he will at the
most, shrink his shoulders and crowl out: ‘Oh! the Gurkhas! what traitors
they are!’
Against this criminal apathy that Hindus exhibited towards Nepal and as a
reaction Nepal had been guilty of exhibiting towards the Hindus outside
Nepal, it was the Maratha press that was first to raise a powerful and
vigorous protest. It opened the eyes of the Hindu public to the far-reaching
consequences that the general awakening amongst the Hindus of Nepal and
outside was likely to have, if the forces of Hindudom as a whole were made
to work towards a wide, definite and well-outlined common goal. Sindh and
the Hindu press in Calcutta followed. The Arya Samaj papers soon caught
the flame. The Hindu Mahasabha nearly offered its presidentship to the
Maharajadhiraj of Nepal and although His majesty could not accept it for
weighty reasons, and although the question was dropped before it was
pressed to the last stage, the special session of the Mahasabha unanimously
passed a resolution at Belgaum congratulating His Majesty on the
recognition of the independence of the Hindu Kingdom by England and
France as well and expressed in significant words the hopes and aspirations
which the strength and the greatness of Nepal aroused in the hearts of Hindu
patriots all over India.
This general awakening of Hindu mind naturally called forth opposition.
Attempts to misguide and divide by raising false issues in the name of
solemn history and disinterested sophistry, which wanted to assure us that
Nepal was not, had never been a part of India nor the people there had
anything common with the Hindus outside Nepal, were not wanting. But
such disingenuous attempts to alienate the Gurkhas away from their brother
—Hindus in India—only intensified the interest of the general public on the
question and the Nepal movement began to loom even larger and larger on
the horizon of Hindu hope.
Just then, the anniversaries of birth of the Majesty, the King of Nepal and
Excellency, the Prime Minister of that kingdom furnished an occasion that
proved the movement had entered on the third stage of its existence. For the
interest that the Hindus had begun to take in the affairs of Nepal, has at last

roused the Gurkhas to the sense of their own importance and strength and let
us hope of their duty too, which as the foremost section of the Hindu people,
they owe to Hindudom as a whole. This year the citizens of Nepal, Gurkhas
and Newaries observed in Calcutta the birthdays of their King and Minister
as national festivals and several distinguished Hindus took prominent part in
the proceedings. The National banner of Nepal was raised and all Hindus
worshipped the colours of the only independent Kingdom with a fitting
devotion and ceremony. National songs were sung by the Gurkhas, which
exhorted them to organise and serve their Motherland and strive as
champions of the Hindu Dharma and the Hindu race. These are the first signs
of the awakening of a great people. That even the little interest and love that
the Hindu outside Nepal manifested and extended towards our countrymen
and the brethren in Nepal, should have within a year’s course, roused the
Gurkhas and made them respond so deeply, it all augurs well for the
Sanghatan.
The Hindu Sabha of Ratnagiri and Nasik and Bombay and Sindh and
Poona and Calcutta set the example, which was quickly followed by other
Sabhas at Delhi and several other places by organising public meetings and
conveying public congratulations to His Majesty and His Excellency on their
respective birthdays and assure them of the deep love, regard and pride that
the Hindus feel and cherish as regards the Hindu Kingdom and the confident
hope that it will, God willing, serve as the main mast of the movement of
Hindu Sanghatan.
Thus, the work of a year is not disappointing, it is even gratifying, for not
only the Hindus have grown conscious of Nepal but what is far more
important, Nepal, too, has grown conscious of herself. Let us not forget that
what is done is as nothing in respect of what is yet to be accomplished. For
all movements that are at present agitating the heart of Hindudom, none is so
pregnant with results, great and glorious, as is the movement that aims at
bringing the Hindus of Nepal in line with their co-religionists and
countrymen outside Nepal and enthusing them with one hope and inspiring
them with a great ideal, wield all Hindudom into an organic and mighty
whole. This is what Hindu Sanghatan aims at.
. ❑

Awaken Nepal (1926 A.D.)
या भूमंडळाचे ठायीं। हिंदु ऐसा उरला नाहीं।
हिंदु राष्ट्र राहिलें काहीं॥ तुम्हा कारणें॥
The 19th of July was the twenty-first birth anniversary of His Majesty the
King of Nepal, Rana Tribhuwan Veer Vikramdeo.
Hindudom heartily sends forth, to thee, oh Ranaji! its loyal greetings in
loving homage on this auspicious occasion.
Some three hundred years ago, a hermit saint of Maharashtra went round
on pilgrimage to all the four Mahadwars of Bharat Varsha from Attock to
Kanyakumari, Dwarka and Jagannath. Having thus surveyed the whole
Hindusthan, he came back to Maharashtra with a bleeding heart and
bewailed that throughout the world, there was not a place where the Hindu
banner could raise its head anew, no Hindu could champion the cause of his
fallen race! While his heart was bleeding thus with unutterable grief and
anxiety, his eyes caught the sight of a rising youth and his heroic band.
Patriotic joy swelled in his hermit bosom and the prophet pointing out that
heroic Hindu youth, with his brave band of followers, exclaimed. But there!
Even though no Hindu is left throughout the world who could lead his race to
greatness and glory, there in thee, oh Maharashtra, I discern some signs of
hope in that heroic youth and his brave band! Our nation and our faith may
yet live through them.
या भूमंडळाचे ठायीं। हिंदु ऐसा उरला नाहीं।
महाराष्ट्र धर्म राहिलें कांहीं॥ तुम्हा कारणें॥
Saying so, he handed over a gerua (भगवा) kerchief to them as a token of
his divine blessings.
The hermit saint was Ramdas, the rising youth was Shivaji and the brave
band of his followers were they, who and whose descendants raised the
kerchief as their banner and carried it to Attak till it came to represent the
strength and glory and the mission of a mighty Hindu Empire.
This was three hundred years ago.
But if the spirit of that patriotic saint troubled at the news of this second
calamity that has befallen his Hindu race, comes down to visit our Earth
today, then standing once more on the debris of crowns and coronets of
Hindu kings and kingdoms and reviewing with a bleeding heart, the whole

situation with a view to discerning if possible a point, which may yet serve
as a position of vantage to start anew the movement, with means ever
changing to suit changed circumstances but with the ideal full in view,
Ramdas is sure to lay his unerring finger on thee, oh Nepal, as he did on
Maharashtra then, and exclaim in prophetic accents anew.
या भूमंडळाचे ठायीं। हिंदु ऐसा उरला नाहीं।
हिंदु राष्ट्र उरहें काहीं।। तुम्हा कारणें।।
Amidst this general wreck of Hindu crowns and coronets of Hindu
aspirations and ambitions, I still discern enthroned and living in thee, oh,
Nepal, the seed of Hindu hope! God has not spared thee in vain. Through
thee, the Hindu race and the Hindu Nation may yet scale the Himalayan
heights of its ancient glory.
Destiny at times loves to conceal mighty meanings in ciphers that seem but
trifling. Can it be then that, if what tradition tells be true and that gerua
kerchief handed over by Ramdas to Shivaji has through strange vicissitudes
receded to the strongholds of Nepal and is being preserved and worshipped
along with the gadi of Peshwas in a temple at Khatmandu. Can it be that
emblem and insignia that once authorised the Marathas to lead the cause of
the Hindu race and religion have now been handed over to thee, Oh Nepal,
to invest thee with the same rights and responsibilities to champion the
cause of Hindudom under changed circumstances with means necessarily
changed? If the tradition is true, the Marathas are glad to find that these
relics of their past should have been spared the humiliation of being exposed
to the impudent and vulgar foreign gaze in one of the museums in the capital
of their conquerors and should have found a safe and honourable asylum in
Nepal where the standard of Hindu independence is still holding its own.
Our drooping hands hand over to thee, Oh Nepal, the standard of Hindu
cause. Hold it aloft! Awake to thy new and mighty responsibilities! Lead
the Sanghatan! We will follow thee! May the guardian Deities of our Hindu
race inspire thee with mighty aspirations and high designs, add ever
increasing strength to thy arms and may glory follow thee till Hindudom is
restored to its rightful place in the commonwealth of man and shines once
more, even as it did in the days of Shri Ram or Ashok the Priya Darshin.

Nepal in the Bombay Session of the Hindu
Conference (1926)
Another, yet more significant feature of the conference that deserves to be
specially emphasised was the presence and the thrilling speech of Shriyut
Agamgiri, a Nepali leader, who came all the way from Calcutta to Bombay
with a set purpose of representing the feelings of our Nepali Hindu brethren
towards the Sanghatan movement.
The Sanghatan movement cannot be said to be the spokesman and cannot
claim to represent the Hindus as a whole as long as it fails to enlist not only
the sympathy but the actual and active participation of the most powerful
and prominent and the only organised section of the Hindus—the Hindus of
Nepal. The moment Nepal steps in and assumes the lead of the Sanghatan,
it will be a power that could no longer be safely despised or neglected by
any one in the world. Nepal as the only organised Hindu power owes it as
much to herself as to us all. Whatever affects us Hindus as Hindus, must
affect our brothers and co-religionists in Nepal too. This pan-Hindu
consciousness must be instilled down into the heart of the humblest of the
humble of the Nepali Hindu. With this end in view, for the last two years or
so, constant attempts have been made through the press and platform to
rouse amongst the people a sense of the importance of this Nepali question.
Last year, a proposal to offer presidential chair of the Mahasabha at
Calcutta to His Majesty the King of Nepal or to His Excellency the Prime
Minister was deliberately put forward from the chair and was unanimously
adopted at the special session of the Mahasabha at Belgaum, congratulating
the King on his progressive policy and assuring him of the feelings of
deepest love and loyal pride that all Hindus cherish towards our brethren in
Nepal. This interest that the Hindus on our side began to evince in Nepal
naturally disturbed some people whose energy is ever employed in one
single mission—to keep the Hindus divided in castes and creeds and
provinces and sects and sections. Queer and mischievous theories were
cooked up insinuating that Nepal was no more a part of India than Tibet
was. Nor was she racially, communally or any way organically connected
with us, the Hindu outside Nepal. The mischief was transparent and yet
unfortunately some Nepali Hindus too did fall a victim to its spacious
reasoning and said, ‘We are not Indians; we are Nepali. The Sanghatan has
nothing to do with us.’

To defeat this ignoble attempt to alienate Nepali Hindus from Sanghatan
and open the eyes of those simple-minded Nepali Hindus who fell a victim
to it, required that some prominent Nepali Hindus should come forward,
publicly participate in the session of the Hindu Sabhas and respond to the
cause of Hindu Sanghatan in no uncertain terms. With this end in view, the
leaders of the Bombay Hindu Conference acting on a request submitting to
them through a resolution passed by the Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha, sent a
special invitation to our Nepali brothers in Calcutta, requesting them to
send some prominent gentleman who could grace the assembly by his
presence and acquaint us with feelings of our Nepali brothers to some
extent or the other as regards the Sanghatan movement. They were
fortunate in securing a man of Mr. Agamgiri’s standing, who had been one
of the moving spirits in organising the Gurkha Sanghatan Society in
Calcutta, and who wrote in the Krishna-Sandesh, a leading weekly in
Calcutta, every now and then exhorting our Nepal friends to participate in
the pan-Hindu movement. His speech in the conference was the most
effective rejoinder that could be given to those who hoped to alienate Nepal
from the Sanghatan Movement. In the very opening sentence, the Nepali
gentleman emphatically declared that the Gurkhas and the Nepalis look
upon Bharatwarsh as their fatherland and their Holy land. Nepal is and will
ever continue to be an inalienable part of Bharatwarsh, of Hindusthan.
Whatever, he said, affected the fortunes of Hindus outside Nepal must
affect her too. Socially, culturally, religiously, communally in all aspects of
life and in all questions that relate to Hindudom and Hindu Society as a
whole, it was impossible to think of Nepal apart from Bharatwarsh. As a
Nepali, he movingly assured the assembly that the deepest sympathy was
being felt with the Hindu sufferers who had been subjected to wanton
attacks and humiliation and declared that Nepal would not only remain
unaffected but would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her Hindu brothers all
over India in defence of Hindu culture, Hindu religion, the Hindu temple
and the honour of Hindu race, whenever and by whomsoever they be
attacked. The reception that was accorded to him when he rose and the way
his speech was received by the assembly must have proved to all, who have
sense to understand and honesty to acknowledge, that Nepal is sure to fall
in rank before long and boldly respond the cause of Hindu Sanghatan. On
points of civil, communal, cultural, religious and racial interests, we Hindus
all, whether Punjabis or Pahadis, Marathas or Madrasis, Nayars or Nepalis

are one, feel as one and mean to make a common stand, long before they
will come to realise this all.
Godsend Books and How should man read them?
One day, while I sat in the night reading History and comparative
sociology, I could not help being overwhelmed by the thought that of all
superstitions, which outliving their utility, continued to block human
progress, the superstition that attributed Divine origin to a set of books and
consequently held every word in them as infallible, as God’s truth, was
most responsible for perpetuating senseless animosities and ignorance,
which hampered rational advance of mankind not only in science and social
solidarity but even in religion itself and ranged man against man and creed
against creed with deathless enmity and schism. Verily there have been in
human history, more men victimised to death and disaster in the name of
God and the Gospels than in the name of the Devil and the Dollar.
Nevertheless, it cannot be gainsaid that the greatest boon that mankind
could have ever received at the hands of its creator would be a book
emanating directly from him setting forth in unmistakable accents His will
and command, which he meant us to follow, either for man’s good or God’s
glory or for both. In that case, instead of groping from error to error in the
dim and fickle light of our unaided human reason, we could have treaded on
this fair earth under the Divine Guidance with surest steps and in full
confidence that it led us to bliss here and hereafter. We know for certain that
this generous hope had actually prompted many a prophet in his search after
truth and anxiety to receive a revelation directly from the supreme source of
wisdom. Had all the prophets succeeded in receiving their commands from
the Creator of man in words and substance uniform, unequivocal and
uncircumscribed by time and place or if so mentioning clearly the
limitations that defined and determined them, our difficulties and
controversies with regard to the authenticity of the revelation would have
been very much simplified, if not altogether eliminated. But as it is,
revelation differs from revelation in the God-sent books as much as in any
man-written books and it is due to the explosion of these mines of
discrepancies and contradictions which the God-sent books carry within
themselves, that the citadel of orthodoxy is often shattered and the forces of
doubt and disbelief rush through the breach to complete its ruin.
While I was thus overwhelmed by forces of scepticism and sat sorely
afflicted in heart, I felt a strange lassitude creeping over me and sealing my

eyes with sleep. But the train of thought that occupied my mind
nevertheless continued in subconscious or superconscious state and I
fancied as if a Pandit stepped forth and accosted me thus: ‘Listen’, said he,
‘you wished you had a revelation to enable you to know the right path and
to dispense with the erring and confused guidance of human reason. Well,
there is such God-sent book as that—the most ancient and the most
infallible, emanating as it did from the all-wise and Almighty God Brahma
Himself. The only reason that makes you doubt the authenticity of a God-
sent book seems to be that it contradicts and even controverts other books
that also severely claim to be God-inspired; but it only proves that all of
them cannot be really so. It does not rule out the possibility of one of them
being a really God-inspired Gospel. Well, that real Gospel, that only true
revelation, is this ‘Veda.’ If other Gospels contradicted it, it only proves that
they are not really reliable. Their refutation of this Veda, the first and
foremost word of God, only refutes themselves.’ While our friend, the
Pandit had not even finished this exhortation rushed in the High Priest of
the Golden Temple at Jerusalem and with a solemn wave of hand brushing
aside all the reasoning of the Pandit as you would a cobweb, said, ‘Not so!
The real revelation of the Almighty Father that rules this heaven and earth
is that which He, our Lord God, stretching his mighty hand out of the
burning cloud of fire and flame that surrounded Mount Sinai delivered to
Moses on that fateful day. If Vedas were true, Jehova would have at least
mentioned them once in that Holy Book. But, on the contrary, he expressly
rules out your Molachs and Thors, your Maruts and Varuns. Jehova is a
jealous God and bears the presence of no other God before Him. So only
obey and reason not. If others contradict his our Holy Testament, they only
belie themselves.’ ‘True! True! what my friend says is even so! But,
persuasively puts in my friend, the missionary, so meek, so humble, at this
stage, ‘but the Law of Moses emanating though it did from the Lord was
nevertheless supplemented and fulfilled by a later revelation which even
He, our Father in Heaven charged. His son, the Prince of Peace to proclaim,
as was even foretold by Moses and the Prophets of old. The Code issued on
Mount Sinai was like an angry ordinance of some sullen Sultan meant only
for the troublous times, times of emergency when men went astray and
sacrificed to Molachs and worshipped the Golden Calves. But the Law of
Life, the law as such that brings Peace unto men contained in the sermon on
the Mount. The New Testament is the fulfilment of all old revelations.

Question not, reason not, nay even fear not, only believe in the Bible, in our
Lord Jesus the Christ, and thou art saved. Leave all and follow me, says the
Christ! But all of a sudden, an angry voice interrupted him here and
throwing back the crowd of many a respectable representative of scores of
other prophets and Gospels. each claiming his book as the real God-sent
book that had been waiting there to take a chance of finding a new recruit in
me to their respective faiths, an excited moulavi darted forth and simply
commanded me to believe none else but him. ‘Behold’, said he, stroking his
beard with fiery restlessness ‘behold this Holy Koran! Abraham and Musa
and Isa and other Prophets were prophets indeed but their works, these old
and new testaments are, as men now possess, full of interpolations and
absurdities. As to the Vedas, it is sacrilege even to name that mumbo-Jumbo
of idolatrous crowd along with the works of prophets that went before. It
was to end the reign of these scheming impostors that God ordered the last
and the greatest of the line of his prophets, Mohomed the Prophet—be his
name ever blest, to reveal the Holy Koran on earth. This and this alone is
God’s work, all else is the work of Satan. And the only way how man
should read it and nothing else! Trust it and reason not. If they do so well
and good: if they don’t, to eternal perdition they go!’ At this outburst of this
zealous Moulavi, those representatives of several other Gospels who were
waiting with equal earnestness to do me a good turn of saving my soul by
recommending to me their respective Gospels as the only authentic ones,
gently fell back to avoid any unpleasant development their intrusion seemed
likely to cause. But I myself rose up and approaching them requested to
oblige me by favouring me with a copy of each of their own Gospels and
assuring, said, ‘Gentlemen, I revere every one of these God-sent books as
deeply as you do though perhaps for reasons other than yours. All these
books that claim to be divine revelations are doubtless a precious treasure,
which men will do well to guard and preserve and use for their benefit.
God-sent or not they are partly Godly indeed. It cannot be for nothing that
millions of men have for generations owed allegiance to them and many a
soul might have found a solace in them as in no other wordly thing.’ Being
requested thus, they all presented me with copies of their religious books—
the stately looking Parsee who kept watching over conversation but seemed
very reluctant to show off his sacred book as the hawkers do their tinsels in
the market place, presented me a copy of the ancient and renowned
Zendavesta; the yellow-clad Bhikku of his venerated and venerable and

Tripitaka but seeming quite indifferent to claim for his Holy books, the
gilded title of a God-sent revelation! The followers of the unlucky prophets
Museilama and Al-aswad who set themselves up as rivals to Mahomed and
claimed the prerogative of Prophethood for themselves, the followers of the
Veiled Prophet’ and of the ‘Moon Maker’ and of the Prophet Karmala and
of several others offered to me copies of their Gospels. Even the Mormons
obliged me by letting me have a copy of the famous golden book the
Prophet Mormon received only very recently in America as an up-to-date
word of God. Nor did any one of them forget to recommend to me and for
reasons similar to those used by the Pandit and the Missionary and the
Moulavi, that his Gospel was the only real revelation of God and the best
way how man should read it and it alone. Thereupon, I thanked them all and
bidding goodbye, bowed low—and as I was doing so, I awoke.
But the impression that the dream had left upon my mind was so vivid that
I could hardly avoid believing it, as innumerable saints are reported to have
done under similar circumstances—to be an actual visitation and no
ephemeral illusion. I decided, therefore, to take it all seriously and
pondering deeply over what the pious men had said found to my great relief
that although each of them had denied to human reason the right of
questioning the truth of whatever be the contents of his sacred books, his
God-sent Gospel, when one has accepted it as such, yet they all seemed to
sanction or concede the use of reason in the act of making one’s choice as to
which of the several alleged revelations was the most authentic one. Nay,
strangely enough, they had to advance reasons even to prove that men
should not reason at all, indulging in the contents of a divine revelation
when once your choice is made. In fact, missions as such are but bodies that
are out only to reason and argue and persuade men to distinguish the true
Gospels from the false ones. Not only that but even the Prophets themselves
did not hesitate to argue and reason with men so that they might be able to
separate the wheat from the chaff, the imposters from the Prophets and come
to believe in the really God-sent books. Does not the Arabian Prophet, for
example, thunder from Sura, from paragraph to paragraph, that those who
refused to believe in the Holy Koran revealed to him, will be eternally lost
and consigned to perdition? And is not this pointing to a rod also a way of
reasoning? When asked by the Faithless to produce a sign to prove his
divine mission, did he not chide them by reminding them that they had tried
to test even the Prophets that went before him, and failed to extract a sign

from them too, and later on pointed out to this wide earth and the rising
mountains and the bounteous fields as mighty signs and miracles that
attested to his being the real and the only messenger of God? Nay,
sometimes, as is recorded in the second and some other chapters of the Holy
Koran, he challenged the unbelievers to produce a single line in such a
polished Arabian style as that, which marked the lines, in which the Koran
was being revealed and flourished their inability to do so as a conclusive
proof of the Koran’s being a really inspired and God-sent work. He taunted
every now and then the false Prophets who write a book with their own hand
and pass it on as God-written and God-sent. This also proves that the art of
issuing counterfeit Gospels was well known to the generation and people
amongst which the Prophet flourished. It was also for this reason that he not
only permitted but commended men to argue and compare such books with
his own in the light of human reason and logic and even diction. In the Holy
Bible too, we meet every now and then with arguments advanced by Jesus
and Christ to combat those who questioned his inspiration and Prophethood.
Those who demanded signs and miracles, were at times rebuked for want of
faith and at other times supplied with them. ‘Ye build sepulchres unto those
whom your fathers stoned to death’ he sternly reminded his persecutors and
quoted old prophesies to prove that all they had foretold came to pass in his
life and corroborated his Prophethood. In the Vedic-fold, too, lengthy and
elaborate discussions as to the authenticity of the Vedas as a God-inspired
scripture are a common feature in works, not only heterodox but even
orthodox, that aid to interpret them. Even Jaimini himself, after mentioning
that a school existed even then, which did not attribute the Vedas to any
divine and impersonal agency but boldly asserted that they were the work of
men, though highly gifted and spiritual, enters into reasoned argumentation
to prove otherwise.
All these facts enable us to conclude that on the following four points at
any rate, there reigns perfect unanimity amongst the followers of almost all
sacred books that are extant today and looked upon as God-sent by the
respective creeds. To start with, our friends, the Pandit, the Missionary, the
Moulavi, the Rabbi down to the followers of Mormon and Al-swad and the
Moonmakers and even of the Aga khan and Kadiani, each and all, not only
admit but strongly maintain that all these books that claim to be God-sent
cannot altogether be such, as the mutual contradictions and glaring
antagonisms, with which they abound, do incontrovertibly prove. The

second point that characterises each and all of them equally, is the
insistence in which they indulge in citing these very contradictions as an
undeniable proof that all the Prophets and books that differ from their own,
must be misleading and false for the simple reason that their own Gospel
being God-sent and true cannot be false, and therefore the other books,
which contradict it cannot be true. The third point that seems common to
all, is the latitude which not only their respective followers but even the
Prophets to whom these God-sent books were severally revealed, conceded
though very confusedly and reluctantly to human reason, the right of
distinguishing the false Prophets from the true one and the man-written
books, that merely pose as God-written and God-inspired from the truly-
inspired revelation in the light of logic and tradition and such other wordly
tests of comparative criticism. The fourth point that distinguishes the
sectarian propaganda of each and all of these conflicting religious schools is
the fact that each Prophet, although he does not hesitate to lay human
reason under contribution so long as it is useful to him in exposing the
falsity of all other Prophets, excepting himself, to win over recruits to his
side with a very laudable desire to save their souls, proceeds straight way to
deny the right of human criticism and argument and reasoning to those very
recruits, as soon as they get themselves definitely enlisted in the roll of
believers in his creed. They are, thenceforth, to obey whatever the Prophet
or his God-sent book commands and question naught or argue.
Taking our stand then on these points, which more or less are common to
all the Prophets and holy books of the different religious systems that
prevail today, not to mention those that flourished in the ancient
Babylonians and the people of the Pharaohs and other now extinct races and
systems, it seems quite permissible to us mortals even consistently with the
Prophetic traditions of yore, to subject these God-sent books and scriptures
to human criticism and comparative study, if we but do it for the sake of
ascertaining which one of these Gospels satisfies most our human
expectation of perfection that a really God-sent book ought to possess.
Although as we have seen already, all of them cannot be equally true, if at
least one of them comes up to our expectation at the end of this enquiry and
reveals all the attributes—which we are justified in associating with a God-
sent book, with a work that emanates from the source of wisdom and
goodness and knowledge from Providence, at once omniscient and
omnipotent—blessed indeed are we! That was the most cherished boon we

longed for; but if unfortunately our investigation proves barren in the end
and none of these revered works seems likely to establish its claim to the
right of being regarded as Divine revelation it is given out to be then we
must make ourselves bold to acknowledge and proclaim the truth and
expose the superstition that attributing Divine infallibility, to human
institutions, opinions and fancies however exalted, admirable and even
beneficial they be in themselves relatively to human knowledge and ability,
gave rise to so much bloodshed and misery in the past. If comparative
criticism led in the light of human reason brings us further on to assess the
true value of these revered scriptures, which when looked upon as man-
written instead of God-written, will perhaps command greater respect from
all reasonable men and could be read, interpreted and followed in a way
that will save these precious books from being abused by fanaticism and
render them not only quite harmless but even more useful and beneficial to
man than now in his search after the True and the Good and the Beautiful.
With this end in view, let us first address ourselves to the task of
reviewing the Vedas, the Holy Bible, and the Quran sharif in the searchlight
of human reason, before we pledge our allegiance to any one of them as an
inspired and infallible scripture, as God-sent Gospel.
Abhinava Hindu Dhwaja (Hindu National Flag)
The National Flag does not only indicate but also establish the
National Ideal.
A nation’s greatness invariably finds expression through its ideal. The
character of a nation depends upon the ideal that the nation sets upon itself.
Nations with narrow ideals never achieved lasting greatness in the past. A
sublime ideal has been the necessary requisite of a nation’s success to
greatness and glory.
Nations after nations illumined the pages of the world’s history only to
disappear after a while, most of them having their downfall even before
attaining the pinnacle of prosperity. The Hindu Nation alone traces its
unbroken train of civilised existence from beyond the dawn of history and
will continue its victorious march so long as its noblest ideal and its
imperishable widest outlook on life are not forsaken.
Speaking generally, the ideal of other past and living western nations has
been considered to be Abhyudaya (worldly prosperity) for worldly
enjoyment, which, being confined to mere material prosperity, cannot solve
the knottiest problems for the amelioration of mankind.

But the Hindu nation is the only one that has accepted the ideal of perfect
Abhyudaya as based on the foundation of complete Nihshreyas (Spiritual
bliss). Hindu philosophers maintain that worldly Abhyudaya is imperatively
necessary for mankind in order that by acquiring a happy and easy-going
worldly life it may ultimately lead to the highest Nihshreyas (bliss). They
know that the culmination of worldly Abhyudaya cannot be any other than
Nihshreyas itself. It is Abhyudaya that makes human Nihshreyas possible,
and it is Nihshreyas that purifies and controls the highest goal of
Abhyudaya. It is because the Hindu race maintained this eternal ideal of
harmony of worldly and spiritual aspirations that the Hindu Nation, in spite
of successive waves of calamities, which overtook it, came out
triumphantly again-and-again and is still a living race holding its ground.
Hindu social lawgivers laid down the foundation of social organisation on
the non-competition principle of division of functions and mutual aid in
order to realise glorious Abhyudaya on way to Nihshreyas. To enable the
smooth development of it, the Hindu society from the Sudra to the Brahmin
have been allotted their respective duties. But for the proper fulfilment of all
these duties and for the protection of the social life, there is necessity of
Kshatra Tej (power). Its symbol is the Kripana (sword). In the absence of
this Kshatra power as protector, the modus operandi of the Brahmin, the
Vaishya and the sundra, which are conducive to the welfare of society, are
almost impossible. The community that does not possess such Kshatra
Power is bound to die. If education, agriculture, cattle-production,
commerce and all arts and crafts are divorced from society, the community
may still continue its lingering existence, but the want of Kshatra Power is
likely to endanger the very existence of society. The Kshatra Power, in fact,
guides, protects and harmonises the national commonwealth.
All these considerations ought to be borne in mind when we set ourselves
to the task of determining the flag of the Hindu Nation. The earth that feeds
society, the law that gives nourishment, the book that imparts wisdom, the
spinning wheel that symbolises arts and crafts—all these and many others
can become symbols and much can be said in respect of each of them. But
the crowning representative of all these symbols—the only correct symbol
of Abhyudaya—is Kripana (sword). In this one, all other symbols are
represented. The main symbol for the Hindu National Flag, therefore,
should be the Kripana.

But the ultimate aim of the Hindu Abhyudaya is Nihshreyas and keeping
this in view, the Hindus should endeavour to reach the highest goal
humanly possible, which is the special characteristic of the Hindu Nation.
Hindus have perfected a science based on experiment, which can be
termed the highest blessing on human life. This Shastra is called the Yoga.
It is the highest means of the full development of man’s internal powers. It
is, therefore, very necessary that a clear symbol of Yoga, which indicates
the way to the highest bliss should be fixed on the flag of the Hindu Nation.
The symbol is that of the Kundalini. It is not the characteristic of any
particular Jati or Varna. It exists in all human beings. On both sides of the
Merudanda (spinal cord), there are two nadis (rivers), which are named by
the Hindu Yogashastris as the Ida and the Pingala. They are intertwined
with each other like a garland. Between these two, there is a third nadi
called the Sushumna. In them, there are centres of nerves, which are
designated as lotuses in the Yogic language. There are chiefly six lotuses,
known as the Muladhara, the Swadhisthana, the Manipura, the Anahata, the
Vishuddha and Sahasrara. In the Muladhara chakra, there is a marvellous
power, which is coiled up. By Yogic and meditative practices it gets
awakened and passing through every lotus (nerve center) and experiencing
wonderful psychic superhuman experiences, reaches the Sahasrara lotus.
Then the person practicing Yoga experiences wonderfully super-sensous
and intense joy and bliss. This stage is designated by the Yogis as that of
Kaivalyananda, by the Vajrayanis as that of Mahasuka, by the Adwaitees as
that of Brahmananda, and by the devotees as that of Premananda. To
acquire this supreme joy or bliss is the highest ideal of man, be he a Hindu
or a non-Hindu (Muslim, Christian or Jew) i.e. believer or non-believer,
citizen or forester. This Yogashastra is a science of personal experience.
Hence, there is no place for difference of opinions. Therefore, the Kundalini
that is the Muladhar Shakti or man’s highest progress and eternally blissful
state of superconsciousness, which can be personally experienced, can
alone be the symbol of the great ideal, at which the Abhyudaya of the
Hindu Nation aims.
Thus, the Kundalini represents all the ultimate aspirations, feelings, and
powers of mankind and the Kripana, which represents the all-sided
Abhyudaya aiming at and leading to the nation’s ideal prosperity.
These two alone being depicted on the national flag, will be able to
indicate and inspire the ideals of Abhyudaya and Nihshreyas.

Pointing at the flag, every Hindu will say:
This is the Kundalini—this is the Kripana—-the one represents the highest
bliss, the other worldly prosperity; they combine Shanti and Shakti, Yoga
and Bhoga, Nivritti and Pravritti, Dhyeya and Dharana; the one symbolizes
Aupanishadic Vidya (Highest spiritual attainment), the other denotes
Aupanishadic Avidya (worldly advancement); the former reminds one
Yogeshwar Krishna, the latter Dhanuradhara Partha of the Geeta. The
Kundalini means Jnana Yoga and the Kripan means Karma Yoga.
‘For the protection of the good and the destruction of the wicked.’ All this,
whatever that moves in the world, does so, because it is indwelt by the
Lord. “Enjoy thou what he has allotted to thee.” This is the Universal
message of the Hindu flag to the world. This is the national declaration.
In order that kingdom, power and glory may not become polluted by the
actions of tyranny and in order to keep the central truth of virtuous conduct
always before mankind, the background of this Hindu flag is made of
Bhagawa (red orchard) colour. This is the colour of renunciation. There is
no Tyaga without Yoga and Kshema. Therefore, the Kripana is for the Yoga
Kshema. We not only want to become free, powerful and liberated
ourselves, but we want also to make the world so. Therefore, the colour of
the flag of prosperity is Bhagawa. The deeper meaning and the philosophic
secret of the Hindu flag is, thus, denoted by this Bhagwa-zenda, which is
adorned by the kundalini with Omkar and which also holds the Kripana,
this has got a very great historical importance. This flag is the final stage in
the evolution of the traditional Hindu flag in the past. This is the
consummation and perfection. From the very ancient times, the colour of
the Hindu flag has been Bhagwa. Even today, the zenda indicating the ideas
of victorious Pravritti and Blissful Nivritti is seen always and everywhere
on the Hindu temples. When the Moslems were encroaching on the
Hindusthan, the Maharashtriya Hindu padpadashahi, which succeeded in
overthrowing them by its great forces with Herculean efforts and by
organising the Hindu power, had as its flag Bhagwa zenda and everyone
knows that the national Guru Samartha Ramdas, who bestowed it on the
national hero Shree Shivaji Maharaj, gave it as the flag of Hindu religion
for the great national purpose. For the establishment of Abhyudaya and
Nihshreyas, Shri Ramdas has defined Dharma as—
‘Activity generates power. He who is active possesses it, but it must be
based on the highest ideal of Nihshreyas, firstly as expounding the Kshatras

of great Avatars, secondly Rajakaran (politics), thirdly watchfulness
regarding everything.’
This very meaning is denoted by the Hindu flag. Along with the Royal
Bhagwa colour of the Maharashtriya Hindu power, there is also the Kripana
of the Sikhs indicative of the memory of Guru Govind Singh, another great
protector of Hindu nation. Guru Govind Singh used to keep Kripanas by his
sides and used to say: ‘The one is of Yoga and the other is of Bhoga, the
one is of Shanti (eternal peace) and the other is of Pushti-tushti
(prosperity).’ Our Hindu flag also gives the same message. This Kundalini
means Yoga and the Kripana means Bhoga.
In the same way, Onkar is the sacred name of the great One, with whom
the liberated souls become one, is the Highest state of Nihshreyas of Vaidic,
Non-Vaidic, Sanatani and modern Hindu. Be there everlasting victory and
eternal life to the Hindu flag bearing the symbol of Kundalini with Omkar
and of Kripana from this end to that of the world flying with the prowess of
millions of warriors accomplishing the highest happiness of all mankind!
Since the time when in the Shradhanada paper, Syt. Savarkar propounded
very clearly and appropriately the idea of the Hindu national flag, it is being
welcomed everywhere. At the Session of the Akhil-Bharatiya Hindu
Mahasabha at Surat, its learned and venerable president hoisted the flag. At
that time, the whole Mahasabha got up, saluting the flag hoisted
triumphantly. In the year 1928, the Morshi Taluka Hindu Parishad held its
session under the presidentship of Lokanayaka Aney. At that time, the
audience, which was more than 5000, stood under the flag and sang the
song of the ‘Hindus’ ‘We Hindus are all brothers.’
The C.P. and Berar Hindu Mahasabha met at Akola under the
presidentship of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. At the time of entering the
mandap (pandal), all the persons assembled saluted the flag.
In the Hindu Youth Conference at Akola under the presidency of Dr.
Savarkar, the Hindu National song was sung under the very flag. After the
Surat Session in all the sessions of the Hindu Mahasabha, which took place
at Bezwada under the presidency of Dr. Moonje, at Akola under Sjt. Vijaya
Raghava Achariyar’s presidentship, at Delhi under the presidentship of Sj.
N. C. Kelkar of Poona, there was a grand salutation of this Abhinava Hindu
Dhwaja; the Hindu Flag continued hoisted and flying in every one of the
sessions that was held in subsequent years including the last session of
Cawnpore under the presidentship of Rev. U. Uttama.