THE TRUMPET CALL

    O ye brothers and sisters! Come together and bind ourselves with love and devotion to God Sivam. Let us bind ourselves by working for a common cause. Let us unite together in our efforts. Let us with one equal temper of heroic hearts, strong in will, strive, seek and find, and never yield. Let us not forget that united we stand, divided we fall. United action gives an undoubted success. Organization mitigates the labor and enlarges and enriches the fruit of that labor. Let us not forget the past. Still, let us not merely boast of the past and remain dormant with that pride. The past was rich, beautiful, and holy, and it was full and plenty, complete happiness then reigned. No want was felt then. Our Saints and sages lived and left the world and mankind better than when they came in. Do we live or merely exist? Who were those saints and sages and saviors? Now where are they? They are present even now here and everywhere. How to see them? How to know them? Hark! Here is the sadana to know them. Know thyself. Realize yourself. Therein lies the real education. Dispel your Anavamala. It is like the stain on the copper. Rub it away with self-knowledge. Anava is ignorance, darkness. How to remove this darkness? Give up all likes and dislikes. Attain Iruvinaioppu (Balanced-mind). Dedicate all our acts to God and reach Malaparipakam. Then the Lord Paramesavara (the Supreme Bliss) comes to you and then reveals Himself to you and touches you with His Grace of Siva-Sakti. Then is our salvation. Action is thy duty. Reward is not thy concern. Remember! Life is real! Life is earnest! Art is long! Time is fleeting! The Future is in your hands. Act – act in the living present! Heart within, and God overhead.

    Are you one? Yes. You have a common Religion the Saivaism which is universal in its characteristics. You have a common language the Tamil – the sweet as the word denotes. The Tamils are always well known for their loyalty, and courage in the battle-fields. They are trustworthy and self-sacrificing. Preserve those virtues. Awake, arise, and stop not till the goal is reached. Be wise as the serpent, industrious as the bee, circumspect as the ant, loving as the dove and gracious as our Lord God. Fire away famine and fever. Foster knowledge and wisdom. Improve the soil and scatter plenty. Love all beings. Elevate your brothers and sisters that are fallen low. Sink all differences of color, caste and creed. Ha! Do you hear the cry and wail of the ignorant millions? Do you alone wish to rise up? The load behind you is of Himalayan hugeness. Stretch your arms and lend your help. Take your fellowmen with you. Then your burden is lessened and your ascent is easy. Forget not yourself. Forget not your fellow creatures. Forget not your language. Forget not your religion. Forget not your country.

    God is Love. Love is Divine. Love man. You Love God. Serve man. Then you serve God. Away with hesitation. Away with lassitude. Before you fell the foe in the front, weed the treachery behind. Courage! Do not be dejected by the repulses. Be truthful. Be honest. Be sincere. Sincerity begets all other virtues.

"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,

These three alone lead life to sovereign power.

Yet not for power (power of herself

Would come uncall'd for) but to live by law,

Acting the law we live by without fear.

And because right is right, to follow right

Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence."

 

"Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait."

J. M. Nallasami Pillai, B.A., B.L.