Act II, Scene 6
(Indian Majlis. Aurobindo and a dozen Indian students.)AUROBINDO: The British must no longer lord it over India. Come, let us mobilise ourselves to uproot their rule from the soil of our Motherland.
FIRST MEMBER: I have crossed seven seas and thirteen rivers just to appear in the I.C.S. If I listen to you I shall soon run into difficulties with the authorities, and, worse still, my life may be ruined.
AUROBINDO: I, too, shall sit for the I.C.S. But I shan’t serve the British Government.
SECOND MEMBER: To be sure, the freedom of India can never be won by us, for we are unimaginably weak. And if not, show us the way.
AUROBINDO: At the very outset we must make the people of India feel the unavoidable necessity of being a free country.
THIRD MEMBER: You mean revolution? Be sure, I affiliate myself with no such thing! You may call me a poltroon, if you like. I am not at all prepared to risk my life. (Places his hands on his chest.) It is the only one I have.
FOURTH MEMBER: I am absolutely at one with you. Who does not know the supreme truth that Non-violence is the greatest of all virtues? Circumstances will lead our dear Mother India to freedom if so is the Will of God. We are not to sacrifice our valuable lives, and again we are not to commit the ghastly sin of putting an end to English lives.
AUROBINDO (after heaving a sigh): Mine is a road absolutely different from yours. God guides my life to another goal.
FIFTH MEMBER: Where do you get so much inspiration from?
AUROBINDO: I do not really know. Just last night I had a terrible dream. I saw a demon drinking the blood from the very breast of an old woman. We all went in hot haste to her rescue. To our joy we saved her life. But some of us were removed to the other world by that demon. I was just pondering who that woman was. Soon I heard a voice, so vivid, so pathetic! “I am your Bharatmata.” And there ends my dream. From to-day the sole aim of my life is to make India as free as a bird in the sky.
SIXTH MEMBER: There is a secret society here at Cambridge named “Lotus and Dagger.” Would you like to be a member of it?
AUROBINDO: Certainly, most gladly. With all my heart I shall serve the society.
SIXTH MEMBER: Then one day I shall take you there.
AUROBINDO: Thanks in advance, dear friend. Let that day come soon!
