Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7

The Heart of Bengal

BENGAL is a land of many rivers. The land of Bengal has been formed by the alluvial soil of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and their branches. The poet Bankimchandra addressed the Mother Bengal thus:

Mother, I bow to thee!

Rich with thy hurrying streams,

Bright with thy orchard gleams,

Cool with thy winds of delight,

Dark fields waving, Mother of might,

Mother free.

(translated by Sri Aurobindo)

These words are not merely a hyperbole or an emotional outburst of blind faith. The truth embodied in these words will not only be felt in the core but will be felt at every step by all those who have left Bengal .and have become familiar with other provinces and countries. Such green, fertile and graceful land can hardly be seen to the same extent elsewhere. Water springs out from the soil of Bengal at a mere scratch, as it were. The peasantry of Bengal can produce a bumper crop by the sheer touch of their plowshare. Such is the soil on which Bengal is founded.

And then, who have been born there, who have grown there, and which is the race that migrated there? In the Bengalis the blood of the Aryans and the Dravidians has perfectly blended. We do not actually know how much the

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Aryan and the Dravidian blood has influenced the Bengali race. But we definitely know that the Bengali race is not totally pure or unalloyed. It is a mixture of many races. But here in the diversity of many races we are seeing the result of extraordinary capacities.

The nervous system of the Bengalis is not very strong, but it is very sharp. Their vital energy is not solid, but it is pliant. Prompt are they in their actions, but not persevering. They have a subtle sensitivity and a quick sensibility. In addition, they are sentimental and emotional; and consequently, they are thoughtful and imaginative. They are unsteady; therefore they are ever open to the new. They do not want to see the world as it is with calm and plain eyes; they would like to see the world coloured with the collyrium of their heart. They are swayed to and fro by the impulse of their heart, like a pendulum. No others can make the impulses of the heart intense and one-pointed to such a high degree. Chandidas was a typical Bengali poet. Judging from this point of view, Vidyapati does not seem to be a Bengali poet at all. In him we find a play of intellect and reasoning, an attitude of casting side glances, and an alertness. But Chandidas was self-oblivious and beside himself with poetic imagination.

The Bengalis have the power of thinking, and in it we find flashes of genius, a deep insight and bright glimpses of experience, There the calm, placid and self-absorbed tenure of the reasoning faculty is not to be found. It is hard for the Bengalis to derive pleasure from mere intellectual pursuit, setting aside the feelings of the heart. They have hardly the patience and endurance necessary for carrying on the intellectual process for its own sake; their nerves can hardly put up with the tension of doing so. But in the thought that has once been able to touch their hearts, in the thought that has as its fount their vital emotion, there they have excelled. They have adhered to it steadily and persistently like a leech and have brought forth argument after argument, truth after truth. It would be difficult for a Shankara to see the light ofday on the soil of Bengal;

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but the birth of someone like Nimai Pundit (Chaitanya) is quite consistent, because there was a vast ocean of vital emotion behind his erudition. The Bengali logician is at his best especially when someone is able to arouse and excite him. But in the field of calm argumentation, perhaps a Bengali cannot be a match for a South Indian scholar. Also, in the field of reasoning, the Bengalis lose all sense of practicality, whereas no one else does the same. There is an ancient saying that if once the French are seized by mania (furia franca), then there is no escape from it. They lose the balance of their consciousness, and are capable of anything. Likewise, the Bengali race tends to be somewhat crazy.

The Bengali race bears a resemblance to the soil of Bengal. The mind and the vital of the Bengalis are soft and pliant. New ideas and forms can claim them for their own. Their brain is not solid and hard as in some dry mountainous regions. They are ready to receive all new impressions. On the other hand, like the sticky clay of Bengal, their mind and vital adhere to whatever they undertake. All things which appeal to the intellect and the curiosity, they can in no time convert into something that has an appeal to the heart, and once they take these things up, they will not easily leave them. Of course they do not always ding to these things with equal tenacity. The springs of their life-energy droop after a little exertion. But whenever they get time and opportunity they can overcome their depression and then they do not hesitate to tighten their grip.

In the nerves, the mind and the vital of the Bengalis, there is flexibility in a good sense or instability in a bad sense. This is why there is the possibility of a new creation in them. They are not yet able to conform their soul to a cut and dried way of life. No tradition has taken a deep root in them. There is so much want of pure blood in this race and the river-bed of this province changes so often that the immobile tower of past glory cannot weigh heavily upon it.

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Thereforethere is a vacuity, a gap through which the impulse of new creation can constantly come in. In fact, it has happened so. No other province can compete with Bengal in new and brilliant contributions to the modern age. There is a transparency in the nature of Bengal, so the influence of the spiritual world, the ideal world above, has manifested itself there more than anywhere else. We admit that for want of general strength the result has not been quite satisfactory in a good many cases, but the influence of the Light above has been responsible for the new creation.

The wealth of Bengal is the wealth of her soul from above. Bengalis are not skilful in work and their special quality is not a calm, clear and firm thinking power; but there is an urge in their action and an imaginativeness in their thoughts. Bengalis do not work and think for their own sake. They think and act unawares, as it were. A deep realisation and an unknown urge possess and overwhelm their whole being. Bengalis are a race of artists. A deep sense of delight from the soul regulates and dyes all their faculties and creations, and their life itself. They are not active in order to follow and fulfil a particular aim or purpose. Their actions, to a great extent, have no motive, but are for the mere joy of creation and the appreciation of beauty. They want independence of the Mother country, not for the sake of good food and drink. This thought does not arise in their minds at all. They want freedom in order to make their beautiful country more beautiful. This is the thing that is dearest to their hearts. They do not understand well their own conveniences and necessities. Nothing can move them save beauty and emotion. The poets of Bengal have far exceeded her politicians in greatness.

Bengalis are worshippers of, beauty. They worship more the beauty of ideas than the beauty of forms. They are attracted more by simple and natural beauty than by ornaments, decorations and pomp. We have seen the huge works of architecture of the Deccan. What a huge heap of stones

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full of artistic grandeur! The images of the deities there are covered from head to foot with jewels and ornaments. But Bengalis want to express beauty not by weight but by order, by the simple, graceful style of lines. The people of the Deccan have an attraction for gaudiness and colour in their clothes. But the Bengalis want only simplicity and decency. No other race prefers the white colour for their clothing as the Bengalis do. We find this tendency toward simplicity and purity in the pioneer poet Chandidas of Bengal.

Another touchstone of beauty is woman. Women of beauty abound more in other parts of India, but Bengal owns graceful women. Some unknown versifier, while describing the special qualities of the beauties of the different provinces of India, remarked that the beauty of teeth is the speciality of the women of Bengal. The famous poet Jayadeva also was enamoured of the lustre of the shining teeth of the Bengali women. We may not be consciously aware of it, but there is a grace and a charm on the faces of the women of Bengal. Faultless beauty in the formation of the body may be absent there, but it will remind us of the words in The Song of Solomon, “I am black but comely.” The soft, pliant, graceful and mobile ways of life and character are reflected on the faces of the Bengali women. In the structure of the Bengalis, the statuesqueness of the Greeks is not to be found, but there is gracefulness and charm. And what is this gracefulness? Bergson has given a nice explanation to the effect:

The soul imparts a portion of its winged lightness to the body it animates: the immateriality which thus passes into matter is what is called gracefulness.

Gracefulness is but a shadow of the soul on the body. The spiritual lustre in the physical is gracefulness.

The special quality of some nations is beauty; of others, vitality; of still others, the brilliancy of mind and intelligence.

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But the speciality of the Bengalis is the intuitive lore of the soul. Imbued and inspired by the inspiration of the soul, a wide and subtle vision is manifested in their thought-world, a creative power is at work in their field of actions and a gracefulness is visible in their bodies. In the person of the Bengalis, there reflects and sports a light of the luminous world of the Self.

This higher realm is the fount of Truth from which the Bengali race has transmitted and is transmitting and will continue to transmit Truth-Light, even though they may be wanting in skill to found the Truth on the basis of reasoning or to systematize it in action. If they do not do it now, tlley may do so in the future. But the real part they are to play is to experience and realise the Truth. Therefore, the Bengali race is the pioneer-guide of the new age. When we try to understand the truth by proofs and when we want to confine the Truth to some institutions, then we get an immature truth and a dogmatic truth. The Bengalis have been able to reach the origin of the Truth-Existence, so we find in them a deep, whole and natural expression of the Truth. They have not been able to take a firm stand on external things. They refrain from limiting themselves to some forms or structures. The people of the Punjab are endowed with physical strength. The Maharashtrians are adept in action. The people of the Deccan have the gift of calm reasoning. And what do the Bengalis possess? If we speak in terms of modern phraseology, we should say that they have intuition, and in terms of the earlier language, that they have the inner heart. The very first expression of the pioneer poet of Bengal is:

It has entered the core of my being.

Vidyapati, also breathing the atmosphere of Bengal, as it were, queried, "Do you ask me about my own experience?" It is the experience of the heart that has mobilized, glorified

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and widened all other faculties of the Bengalis. .

Bengal, the wet and fertile land, has the power to appreciate the essence of the supreme Delight more than any other province. The creations of Bengal are but the creations of Delight. We do not know if the Bengalis are the "sons of Immortalily" (amrtasya putrah), but they are undoubtedly the children of Delight. The inspiration of their works does not derive from a dry sense of duty or from stern discipline. There is hardly any place for austerities in the temperament of the Bengalis. They cannot accept from the bottom of their hearts the stoic ideal of Mahatma Gandhi. Rabindranath is the model of a Bengali. The Deccan has produced Shankara; Nanak and Surdas appeared in the North; but in the fertile soil of Bengal were born Sri Chaitanya, Chandidas and Ramprasad. The cult of devotion exists, no doubt, in other parts of India; but the cult of looking upon God as the Lover of the beloved devotee has blossomed only in Bengal. The worship of Kartikeya prevails in some parts; Sri Rama or Sita and Rama are worshipped in some parts. But the full significance of Radha's pining for Krishna has been appreciated only by the Bengalis. Mahadeva (Siva) has taken his abode in many places, but it is the Bengalis who have been mad over his consort, Gauri. The doctrine of Vedanta has spread all over and has absorbed all other doctrines, but the Bengali race has sought for a way of spiritual culture which transcends the injunctions of the Vedas. The worship of the Self is not enough. The worship of man, Sahaja Sadhana, has resulted from the genius of Bengal.

Bengalis as a race are worshippers of the feminine aspect of God. The religion and literature of Bengal abound in ceremonies of such worship. They do not generally worship God in his masculine aspect. They have not been able to make their own the self-poised calmness of samadhi. They have wanted manifestation of the divine sport. So Bengal is the seat of the Mother, Shakti. Bengal is the land of Delight. The immobile Brahman is not the aim

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of Bengal. The power of Delight of the Divine is inherent in the heart of Bengal. We find Rammohan, the worshipper of Shakti, at the dawn of modern Bengal. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were also the worshippers of Shakti. Howsoever Vedanta may have influenced them, the worship of Shakti was very dear to their hearts. And in a different field, what Jagadish Chandra Bose has been demonstrating as a new aspect of Nature-worship also reflects nothing but the genius of Bengal.

Bengalis have a bad reputation for being very fond of their homes. They take intense delight in their family life. They have drawn the picture of the household life prominently in their literature, verses and songs. The like of this is not to be seen elsewhere:

My love goes elsewhere

Across my courtyard.

Or another example:

I go to the kitchen and sing

Of you, O my love!

And she'd tears under the pretext

Of being hurt by smoke.

On hearing such songs, a sympathetic chord in the Bengali heart is intensely struck. Indeed, we find a complete picture of the household life of Bengal also in Kavi Kankan's works. When Krittivasa and Kashirama Das digressed from the high and noble narrations of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata to indulge in household topics, they seemed to breathe their own atmosphere. In the works of Bankimchandra and Sarat Chandra, it is this picture of household life that has fascinated the Bengali heart. Be that as it may, what is the significance of this fondness for home? This signifies the attraction of the Bengalis for the intense delight of life.

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This, too, is but an aspect of their Nature-worship. We may admit that, owing to prevailing circumstances, this attitude has created narrowness and weakness; but under other circumstances it could be a social virtue which takes delight in communion with others within the boundary of life and social gatherings. The aspiration to found the divine Life among men, in society and in the world, that is coming to the fore almost everywhere, will stir the Bengali heart to an extent which will never be excelled by others, we think. An ideal of the wholeness of life, an attempt at the supreme synthesis, has made its appearance in the Bengali race, the child of delight, the devotee of the essence of joy, the worshipper of Nature as the feminine aspect of the Divine.

The rivers and their tributaries washed down the soils of many lands and poured down their admixture into Bengal to add to the formation of her lands. Different peoples from different direction – the Dravidians, the Mongolians, the Aryans and the Non-Aryans – all came down to Bengal to produce the mixed race known as the Bengali. So we find that the heart of the Bengalis is full of diverse inspirations. They have curiosity in all areas. In their soul there is a harmonious union. In Bengal there flows the stream of love and strength. Tantra is prevalent in Bengal; but the truth of Vedanta, too, is present therein. This is why Bengalis utter, Tara Brahmamayi, "the Mother of power" who is but one with the absolute Brahman. There is emotion in Bengal, but the science of logic is not absent there. Navadwip, the centre of devotion and love, and Bhattapalli, the centre of Vedanta, are in close embrace with each other.

We have spoken about the simple and unostentatious beauty of Bengal. But again, it cannot be denied that Bengal is the worshipper of wealth and grandeur. Bengal has wanted a synthesis between the glorious and the sweet, between the simple and the beautiful. She may not like pomp, but she has never disdained prosperity. Bengal may be fond

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of life-activity, but on that account she is not prepared to forget spirituality. She might have shunned renunciation, but did not reject liberation. Bengal wants to remain within herself, but wants to keep communion with the world abroad.

The fundamental quality of the Bengali race is affectionate attachment, family closeness. Throughout Bengal flow the sportive ways of Nature's movements. The Bengalis are often called a feminine race. There is much truth in this saying. A woman's sensitivity, keenness of sensibility, softness and plasticity, unsteadiness of mood, yet at the same time her firm tenacity, her beauty and coyness and, above all, her natural power of direct understanding – these qualities we distinctly find in the character, action, literature and art of the Bengali race. As the vital world is the basis of the women-folk, as the vital tune and colour resound and tinge their entire world, likewise the Bengali race has taken its stand on the vital plane, in the current of the life-force. Bengalis do not know how to resort to bare spirituality. This is why they do not want to be spiritual ascetics in order to understand the meaning of the Illusion; yet they are not content to live in exclusive materialism. This is one of the reasons why they are so backward in trade and commerce and mere politics. They have a reputation for being not at all practical. But actually they have occupied the region between these two extreme ways of life. Owing to this attitude they have had to dangle in the air like Trishanku many times. But that through this attitude they are going to attain to a greater synthesis, .a profounder truth, can hardly be denied.

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