Part 8 (1/2)

But even my worst enemy would not accuse me of patience. And when Chandranath Babu went on to say: ”If we expect to gather fruit where we have sown no seed, then we ...” I had to interrupt him.

”Who wants fruit?” I cried. ”We go by the Author of the Gita who says that we are concerned only with the doing, not with the fruit of our deeds.”

”What is it then that you do want?” asked Chandranath Babu.

”Thorns!” I exclaimed, ”which cost nothing to plant.”

”Thorns do not obstruct others only,” he replied. ”They have a way of hurting one's own feet.”

”That is all right for a copy-book,” I retorted. ”But the real thing is that we have this burning at heart. Now we have only to cultivate thorns for other's soles; afterwards when they hurt us we shall find leisure to repent. But why be frightened even of that? When at last we have to die it will be time enough to get cold. While we are on fire let us seethe and boil.”

Chandranath Babu smiled. ”Seethe by all means,” he said, ”but do not mistake it for work, or heroism. Nations which have got on in the world have done so by action, not by ebullition. Those who have always lain in dread of work, when with a start they awake to their sorry plight, they look to short-cuts and scamping for their deliverance.”

I was girding up my loins to deliver a crus.h.i.+ng reply, when Nikhil came back. Chandranath Babu rose, and looking towards Bee, said: ”Let me go now, my little mother, I have some work to attend to.”

As he left, I showed Nikhil the book in my hand. ”I was telling Queen Bee about this book,” I said.

Ninety-nine per cent of people have to be deluded with lies, but it is easier to delude this perpetual pupil of the schoolmaster with the truth. He is best cheated openly. So, in playing with him, the simplest course was to lay my cards on the table.

Nikhil read the t.i.tle on the cover, but said nothing. ”These writers,” I continued, ”are busy with their brooms, sweeping away the dust of epithets with which men have covered up this world of ours. So, as I was saying, I wish you would read it.”

”I have read it,” said Nikhil.

”Well, what do you say?”

”It is all very well for those who really care to think, but poison for those who s.h.i.+rk thought.”

”What do you mean?”

”Those who preach 'Equal Rights of Property' should not be thieves. For, if they are, they would be preaching lies. When pa.s.sion is in the ascendant, this kind of book is not rightly understood.”

”Pa.s.sion,” I replied, ”is the street lamp which guides us. To call it untrue is as hopeless as to expect to see better by plucking out our natural eyes.”

Nikhil was visibly growing excited. ”I accept the truth of pa.s.sion,” he said, ”only when I recognize the truth of restraint.

By pressing what we want to see right into our eyes we only injure them: we do not see. So does the violence of pa.s.sion, which would leave no s.p.a.ce between the mind and its object, defeat its purpose.”

”It is simply your intellectual foppery,” I replied, ”which makes you indulge in moral delicacy, ignoring the savage side of truth.

This merely helps you to mystify things, and so you fail to do your work with any degree of strength.”

”The intrusion of strength,” said Nikhil impatiently, ”where strength is out of place, does not help you in your work ... But why are we arguing about these things? Vain arguments only brush off the fresh bloom of truth.”

I wanted Bee to join in the discussion, but she had not said a word up to now. Could I have given her too rude a shock, leaving her a.s.sailed with doubts and wanting to learn her lesson afresh from the schoolmaster? Still, a thorough shaking-up is essential. One must begin by realizing that things supposed to be unshakeable can be shaken.

”I am glad I had this talk with you,” I said to Nikhil, ”for I was on the point of lending this book to Queen Bee to read.”

”What harm?” said Nikhil. ”If I could read the book, why not Bimala too? All I want to say is, that in Europe people look at everything from the viewpoint of science. But man is neither mere physiology, nor biology, nor psychology, nor even sociology.

For G.o.d's sake don't forget that. Man is infinitely more than the natural science of himself. You laugh at me, calling me the schoolmaster's pupil, but that is what you are, not I. You want to find the truth of man from your science teachers, and not from your own inner being.”