The full Vande Mataram becomes the national song

The four stanzas dropped from Vande Mataram while declaring it as the national song of India during the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1950 are now officially restored. A historic error has been corrected in this 150th anniversary year of the song, but the restoration is only the first indispensable step, and making it really the song of the people ought to be the next step.

Vande Mataram has been traditionally sung in Hindustani, which is properly possible only for those trained in classical singing. Sri Aurobindo Ashram, under The Mother's direction, had a band version of the song composed as early as in the mid-1950s, making it more powerful and easier for all to sing. Since then, hundreds of Ashramites, students and guests have been singing it on important annual occasions at the Ashram playground.

When Dr Karan Singh, a former cabinet minister and veteran parliamentarian, was the chairman of the Auroville Foundation, the full Vande Mataram was sung by residents of Auroville in the presence of the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, during his visit on the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of Auroville, on 25th February 2025. That was perhaps the first time ever in Independent India that a prime minister and a stalwart opposition leader of the country joined in the singing of the full Vande Mataram.

Though private and official bands have begun to play Vande Mataram more now, they are playing it in Hindustani. It seems only the Sri Aurobindo Ashram band plays the proper band version, which they did during the Prime Minister's visit to the Ashram in 2018.

Why I was made to start Auroville: The Mother

 

[The Mother speaks]

They wanted to prepare a sort of brochure on Auroville to distribute to the press, the government, etc., on the 28th, * and before that, there is in Delhi in two or three days a conference of all nations ("all nations" is an exaggeration, but anyway they say "all nations"). Z is going there, and she wants to take with her all the papers on Auroville. They have prepared texts – always lengthy, interminable: speeches and more speeches. So then I asked, I concentrated to know what had to be said. And all of a sudden, Sri Aurobindo gave me a revelation. That was something interesting. I concentrated to know the why, the how and so on, and all of a sudden Sri Aurobindo said... (Mother reads out a note:)

"India has become...
It was the vision of the thing, and it instantly translated into French words.
"India has become the symbolic representation of all the difficulties of modern mankind.
"India will be the land of its resurrection – the resurrection to a higher and truer life."

And the clear vision: the same thing which in the history of the universe made the earth the symbolic representation of the universe so as to concentrate the work on one point, the same phenomenon is now taking place: India is the representation of all human difficulties on earth, and it is in India that the... cure will be found. And then, that is why – THAT IS WHY I was made to start Auroville.
It came and it was so clear, so tremendously powerful!

So I wrote it down. I didn’t tell them how or why, I told them, "Put this at the beginning of your paper, whatever it is; you can say whatever you like, but put this first."
                                                                                                                                              (silence)

It was very interesting. It remained the whole time, for more than an hour, such a strong and clear vision, as if suddenly everything became clear. I often used to wonder about it (not "wonder," but there was a tension to understand why things, here in India, have become such a chaos, with such sordid difficulties, and all of it piling up), and instantly, everything became clear, like that. It was really interesting. And immediately there was: "Here is why you have made Auroville." I didn’t know it, you understand, I did the thing under pressure, and it took larger and larger proportions (it’s becoming really worldwide), and I would wonder why.... For a time I thought it was the only present possibility to prevent a war, ** but it seemed to me a somewhat superficial explanation. Then it came all of a sudden: "Ah! That’s why."

- The Mother

* February 28, Auroville Inauguration
** See Agenda 8, September 21, 1966.
[Excerpt from February 3, 1968 Mother's Agenda]