Sri Aurobindo
Karmayogin
Political Writings and Speeches — 1909-1910
Karmayogin: A Weekly Review
Saturday 3rd July 1909 — No.3
Opinion and Comments
Adequate Value
The Bengalee insists however that individual life is quite as sacred for its own purposes as national life for its higher purposes, that the nation must get adequate value for each sacrifice that the individuals make, and that great men must protect themselves from danger because their removal at a critical moment may mean incalculable injury.
We deny that individual life is as sacred as national life; the smaller cannot be so sacred as the greater, self cannot be so sacred as others, and to say that it is quite as sacred for its own purposes is to deify selfishness.
Our lives are useful only in proportion as they help others by example or action or tend to fulfil God in man.
It is not true that my ease is sacred, my safety is sacred, or my self-interest is sacred.
This if anything is “a fatal doctrine”.
We do not deny that sacrifice cannot be an 
end to itself; no one is so foolish as to advance any such proposition.
But when the Bengalee argues that the individual must demand adequate value for every sacrifice he makes on the national altar, it shows a complete inability to appreciate the nature of sacrifice and the laws of politics.
If we had acted in this Baniya1 spirit, we should never have got beyond the point at which we stood four years ago.
It is by unhesitating, whole-hearted and princely sacrifices that nations effect their liberty.
It has always been so in the past and the laws of nature have not altered and will not alter to suit the calculating prudence of individuals.
A great man is valuable to the nation and he should guard himself but only so far as he can do so without demoralising his followers, ceasing from the battle or abdicating his right to leadership.
He should never forget that he leads and the nation looks up to him as a fountain of steadfastness, unselfish sacrifice2 and courage.
Expediency means national expediency, not individual expediency.
Even so it must be the larger expediency which makes great sacrifices and faces great risks to secure great ends.
Statesmanship is not summed up in the words prudence and caution, it has a place for strength and courage.