Page:Anandamath, The Abbey of Bliss - Chatterjee.djvu/122

98 "I am afraid not — it seems all so new to me. Once I met a Christian priest at Cassimbazar; he said something like it: — God is Love, he said, and wanted us to love Jesus. It is all very much like that."

"I have only tried to make you understand what our ancestors have all along believed in. Have you ever heard that the Deity consists of three Gunas?"

"I have; Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are the three attributes of the Lord."

"All right, these three gunas have got to be propitiated by distinct modes of worship. From 'Sattva springs God's mercy and love and this is to be propitiated by Love. — That's what the followers of Chaitanya do. From Rajas springs His Power, — this has got to be propitiated by fight, by slaying the enemies of the gods. This is what we do. From Tamas the Lord takes what form he chooses and appears as the four-handed Deity and other gods. This is to be worshipped by garlands, sandal, &c. This is what the ordinary man does. Do you understand now ?"

"I do; then the Children are only a religious community?"

" Quite so, we do not want sovereignty; we only want to kill these Mussulmans, root and branch, because they have become the enemies of God."