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# 2019-03-24 - Moved By Love The Memoirs of Vinoba Bhave by Kalindi | |
I enjoyed this philosophical yet plain speaking introduction to the | |
author and how he thinks. | |
I AM A MAN who belongs to another world than this, one that may seem | |
very strange. For I claim that I am moved by love, that I feel it | |
all the time. I do not deal in opinions, but only in thought, in | |
which there can be give and take. Thought is not walled in or tied | |
down, it can be shared with people of goodwill; we can take their | |
ideas and offer them ours, and in this way thought grows and spreads. | |
This has always been my experience and therefore I do not accept any | |
kind of label for myself. It is open to anyone whatever to explain | |
their ideas to me and convince me, and anyone is free to make my | |
ideas their own in the same way. | |
People like what I say because my work is rooted in compassion, love, | |
and thought. I have ideas, but no permanently settled views. In | |
fact I am so unreliable that I do not hesitate to express one view | |
today and another tomorrow. I am not the same today as I was | |
yesterday. I think differently every moment and go on changing all | |
the time. | |
I don't take any step without going deeply into the matter and | |
getting at the root of it. ... I am quite clear now about my basic | |
thought, and I am not afraid of any problem. No matter what it is, | |
no matter how big it seems to me, for I am bigger than the problem. | |
However big it may be it is after all a human problem, and it can be | |
solved by human intelligence. | |
# Chapter 1, My Village Home | |
By the time i had finished it was midnight, and I was about to go to | |
bed when I heard the sound of singing from the temple nearby. The | |
villagers had assembled there, and I went and sat quietly among them. | |
Hymns of devotion went on for about an hour. My feeling for | |
language would normally have been outraged by their crude | |
pronunciation, but before the depth of their devotion nothing else | |
mattered. I was completely carried away, sunk in bliss. ... Here, I | |
thought, are these villagers in this tiny village, miserably poor, | |
like walking skeletons, with practically nothing to cover their | |
nakedness, and yet they can lose themselves in music such as this! I | |
was delighted. Where had these people, in this village without a | |
school, where no one could read or write, obtained this knowledge! | |
# Chapter 2, My Grandfather | |
A boy living with us had helped himself to some gur. Granny caught | |
him and complained to Grandpa about him, calling him a thief. "No," | |
said Grandpa, "he is not a thief. What if he did take the gur | |
without asking us? This is his home no less than the gur, and ours | |
is also his gur. If he had asked us he would have got it. Now he | |
has got it without asking, but that should not be called a theft." | |
Then Grandpa sent for the boy and said to him: "Look here laddie, | |
when you want a bit of gur just ask, and you will certainly get it. | |
But there is another thing: when you took that gur, did you wash your | |
hands!" "No I didn't," said the boy. "Then in the future," said | |
Grandpa, "first wash your hands, then ask, then take what gur you | |
want." From that time the boy was able little by little to overcome | |
his habit of petty thieving. | |
# Chapter 3, My Mother | |
Mother listened, and then said very quietly: "Vinya, who are we to | |
judge who is worthy and who is unworthy! All we can do is regard | |
everyone who comes to the door as God, and offer what is in our | |
power. Who am I to judge him?" | |
# Chapter 4, My Father the Yogi | |
Father also urged that we should study what had been written in | |
England on these subjects about one hundred and fifty years ago, when | |
England was still using hand spun yarn. When mills were started | |
there was a transition period during which many experiments were | |
tried out. Now that India is in a similar position books of that | |
period would be of use here, he thought. | |
# Chapter 5, Beginning The Quest | |
As a boy my two hobbies were reading and roaming. | |
In school and college my only concern was how soon the class would | |
end and I be set free. But there was one occasion when the teacher | |
began to dictate notes. I wrote nothing, I just listened, and the | |
teacher noticed it. When he had finished the dictation he told me to | |
stand up and read what I had written. I stood up at once with my | |
notebook in my hand and repeated all I had heard. The teacher was | |
taken aback. "Just let me see your notebook," he said. I showed him | |
the blank pages. "You won't be able to read what I have written, | |
sir," I said. | |
# Chapter 6, The Service of the Saint | |
Then came a postcard. "Questions about non-violence," he wrote, | |
"cannot be settled by letters; the touch of life is needed. Come and | |
stay with me for a few days in the Ashram, so that we can meet now | |
and again." The idea that doubts could be set at rest by living | |
rather than by talking was something that greatly appealed to me. | |
... the things I learned from living with Bapu have stood me in good | |
stead to this day. It was like living as a child with his mother, | |
and so gaining insights which nothing else could give. | |
My other purpose was to improve my health. The first step was to | |
walk regularly ten or twelve miles a day. Next, I began to grind six | |
or eight kilos of grain every morning; and finally I performed the | |
yoga exercise called Surya-namaskar (salutation to the sun) three | |
hundred times a day. These physical activities restored my health. | |
... | |
Nevertheless the touchstone of all my constructive work was whether | |
it would contribute, however little, to self-realization. I did my | |
best to nurture in those around me a spirit of goodwill, and to turn | |
out good workers. | |
... a real revolution means a fundamental change, a change in values, | |
and that sort of change can only take place peacefully, for it takes | |
place in the realm of thought. | |
After Gandhiji's death my mind turned continually to the idea that | |
there should be a class of social workers, spread throughout the | |
country, who would work as he had done to build up a worthy form of | |
society by the power of living example. I was not at all pleased with | |
what was going on around me, but darkness can only be dispelled by | |
light, so I did not harp on my discontent but prayed for light. | |
There I announced my conclusion that the chief cause of the | |
inequality and turmoil in society today is money. Money corrupts our | |
common life, and we must therefore banish it from among us. "Here we | |
are," I said, "engaged in an experiment in self-reliance. The | |
saints, for the sake of spiritual discipline, always prohibited the | |
use of gold. Today it is necessary to prohibit it even to purify our | |
ordinary life. We here must begin to experiment in doing without | |
money. | |
I went off to that field and started to dig a well. Everyone joined | |
in. They were all strong young men, with twice the strength that I | |
had, but I found they could do only half my work. This was because I | |
did all my work by arithmetic. I would dig a little while in | |
silence, then stop for a few seconds, and so on every few minutes. | |
But these strong youths would shovel furiously until they had to stop | |
from sheer exhaustion, so that on the whole they needed more rest | |
than I did. I also used my shovel in a scientific way, and | |
discovered that our tools needed much improvement. Arithmetic plays | |
a part in all my doings, and I sometimes think that even when I die, | |
I shall die by arithmetic! | |
Digging is a healthy exercise for the body. I myself did digging | |
work for years, and it did my body a lot of good. People used to | |
tell me that in those days I had the body of a wrestler. I mention | |
this so that no one should feel afraid of it. And besides benefiting | |
the body, I also found that it benefited the mind in a remarkable | |
way. To stand upright beneath the wide sky, in the fresh air, | |
caressed by the rays of the sun, was all-round Yoga in itself. | |
I am of the view that it would be more useful in every way to take | |
physical exercise in the fields, digging, than in gymnasiums which | |
produce nothing at all. | |
Spectacles may be of very great service, but they cannot take the | |
place of eyes. In the same way, aeroplanes and other speedy means of | |
travel certainly have their uses, but it is still important to have | |
legs. Walking has advantages which aeroplanes cannot provide. | |
I had decided that during this journey I would say nothing about my | |
own ideas and opinions, but would leave things to take their natural | |
course, and would simply help to provide the opportunity. I made no | |
plans about how I would travel or what I would aim at. I simply | |
wanted to meet and talk with people in the various places I passed | |
through. If I found they had any difficulties to which I could see a | |
solution, I would suggest one. I had no plans for the future; that | |
could be decided after I reached my destination. Going on foot | |
brings one closer, both to the country and to the people, than any | |
other form of travel; that was why I did it. It is true that I saw | |
nothing which I might not have imagined, but unless I had gone on | |
foot I would not have seen it for myself. | |
... but it did not shock me, because I had made some study of how | |
human society develops. Whenever a new culture establishes itself, | |
the process has always brought friction and bloodshed. | |
The Government had sent police to keep the peace in Telangana. The | |
police however do not deal in ideas. They can hunt down tigers and | |
keep us safe from them, but in Telangana the problem was not one of | |
tigers but of human beings. The communists' methods may be wrong, | |
but their actions are based on a principle, and where principles are | |
involved the police cannot provide an answer. | |
In dealing with ideas peaceful means must be used. | |
The first thing was to meet the Telangana communists, understand | |
their point of view and have a heart-to-heart talk with them. | |
On the 18th April, the third morning of my tour, the Harijans of | |
Pochampalli village came to see me. They said that if only they | |
could get a bit of land, they could work the land and so make a | |
living. They needed eighty acres, they said. "If I can get the land | |
for you," I replied, "you must all work it together; I won't give you | |
separate individual holdings." They agreed, and promised to cultivate | |
the land together. "Then give me a statement to that effect," I said, | |
"so that I can send your petition to the State Government." At that | |
a man who was present in the meeting, Shri Ramachandra Reddy, offered | |
on the spot to give the Harijans one hundred acres of his own land. | |
There in my presence he gave them his word: "I will give you one | |
hundred acres." | |
What was this? People murder for land, go to court over land, yet | |
here it comes as a free gift. This was something so completely out | |
of the ordinary that it must surely be a sign from God! All night | |
long I pondered over what had happened. It was a revelation--people | |
may be moved by love to share even their land. | |
This problem of land is world-wide in scope... | |
I have seen it for myself, that we have here a principle which can | |
solve the problem of land, provided that we make the effort to | |
understand and apply it. This means that we must grasp and put into | |
practice the essential principles which lie behind communist | |
activities. | |
... people began to understand that this was a much more | |
revolutionary work than any Government could do, because it aimed at | |
radical changes in the whole human outlook. | |
Every human being has as much right to land as they has to air, water | |
and sunlight; so long as there are people with no land at all it is | |
wrong for an individual to keep more than they need. When they give | |
it away it should be because they want to right the wrong. | |
I had done my work in the faith that the human heart has goodness in | |
it, goodness ready to be called out; God let me see that goodness in | |
accordance with my faith. If on the other hand I had expected to | |
find human hearts full of back-biting, malice and greed, God would | |
have given me that kind of experience. | |
Mother Earth must no longer be separated from her children, she and | |
they must be brought together again. The winds of generosity, of | |
giving, must be set blowing across the whole nation. | |
What do I want? I want change: First, change of heart, then change in | |
personal life habits, followed by change in the structure of society. | |
In October 1952 I said the people of Patna: "Up to now I have been | |
asking for gifts only of land, but from now on I shall accept gifts | |
of money also. The donor will keep the money, but undertake to | |
devote one sixth of his wealth every year to public service. I will | |
simply accept a written pledge, and the donor's own conscience will | |
be witness that the pledge is fulfilled." This is a novel way of | |
doing things, but if I were to collect a fund I should have to keep | |
accounts, and all my time would go in that. | |
I began in early youth to study the Hindu religion, and I have | |
continued to do so to this day; from the Rigveda to Ramakrishna | |
Paramahamsa and Mahatma Gandhi, I have studied the whole tradition as | |
reverently as I could. I claim with all humility that I have tried | |
my best to practise the Hindu religion as I understand it. In my | |
opinion, it would have been a very unrighteous act for me to enter | |
the temple and leave the French lady outside. [She was denied access | |
due to her gender.] | |
As I said at the time, I did not feel that those who had refused us | |
entry were in any way at fault. I know that they too must have felt | |
sorry about it, but they were enslaved by ingrained ideas and were | |
unable to do the right thing. So I don't blame them much. I say | |
only this: that such an incident bodes ill for our country and for | |
our religion. Baba Nanak was also refused entry into the temple here | |
and was turned away from its doors. But that is an old story, and I | |
hope that it will not again be repeated. | |
But although the river has, as it were, dried up, the river in my | |
heart does not fail. Even though the visible Kaveri itself were to | |
dry up, the inward springs would never cease to flow. | |
Any party which begins to operate on a large scale aims at | |
strengthening its own organisation, but I aim at doing just the | |
opposite. Future students of the history of the development of ideas | |
will attach great importance to this concept. Indeed that is real | |
history--the story of the successive stages in the development of | |
human thought. Why did I get rid of all this organisation! Because, | |
though organisations may give ordinary kinds of service, and acquire | |
some power, they cannot bring about a revolution in society. | |
Revolutions are a thing of the mind, they cannot be made to order! | |
I asked for fifty million acres of land, and now that I have got only | |
four million, people say, how about that? I have made myself a | |
laughing-stock. If I had talked in terms of two or three million I | |
should have exceeded the target by this time. I decided on fifty | |
million, and those who laugh at me don't understand how one must go | |
about things in this country. As the saying goes, "Joy is in the | |
large, not in the small." I set myself a target, which looks | |
impossible, and then try to make it possible. And it is this which | |
lends wings to my feet. | |
If I do not insist on this principle of temple entry, Hinduism will | |
forfeit the goodwill of the world. I have been very cordially | |
welcomed everywhere, by Muslims in their mosques, by Christians in | |
their churches, by Sikhs in their gurudwaras. And indeed, who would | |
not welcome anyone whose heart is filled with nothing but love? | |
The mental outlook is changing all over the world, and very rapidly. | |
Little by little the dividing walls between country and country will | |
be broken down, and it will become more and more possible to create a | |
united world family. The human spirit is being enlarged. | |
I also spoke to the conference of my fundamental faith that in each | |
human heart's core there is a divine essence. The evils which appear | |
on the surface are not found in the depths. We must find a way to | |
penetrate the depth of each human heart and to draw out the goodness | |
with which it is filled. My second point was that, by the grace of | |
God, everyone in the world is a 'have', there are no 'have-nots' at | |
all. Therefore whatever one has, whether land, or strength to work, | |
or money, or intelligence, or affection, should be made available to | |
the whole village community and not confined to one's own home. | |
Otherwise some people would have only a duty to give, others only a | |
duty to receive, and that could not possibly work well, for moral | |
duty is the same for all. | |
Politics are worth no more than shoes. The politics of today, whether | |
in India or in the world, are not something to be carried proudly on | |
the head; at the very most they are for the feet, and such footgear | |
is not fit to enter either Gurudwara or Church, Temple or Mosque. | |
Don't take it in, for if you do, the house of God will become a place | |
of devils. | |
I do not think that India can be united by using a single language, | |
but I do think that a common script might do it. What is needed is | |
that all the languages of India should be written in the Nagari | |
script in addition to their own. | |
In those days I began to feel an inward call that I should now stop | |
putting so much pressure on the people to accept my ideas. The | |
people themselves, it is true, did not regard it as pressure, but it | |
is pressure nevertheless when a man gets after them over and over | |
again with the same appeals. It seemed to me that during the course | |
of that year I should decide to put an end to this. If people came | |
to me of their own accord I would give them my advice and so on, but | |
my own efforts would be directed towards a more inward form of | |
activity. | |
It is a process which has been called meditation, or the pathway of | |
devotion, of knowledge and so on, but for which I have a new name: | |
the hidden, more deeply inward path of action. | |
As a first step, I am going to put a strict limit on my | |
correspondence. | |
*In discussions of Indian philosophy it is customary to render the | |
terms sthula and sookshma as 'gross' and 'subtle' respectively. This | |
translation has been avoided here, because of other and entirely | |
unsuitable connotations of the English words. | |
But for the Education Department to become autonomous in practice, in | |
the real sense of the word, there is one necessary condition: that | |
the teacher should develop their own strength and not run after | |
power-politics. They must keep clear of that dirty game, rise above | |
narrow 'isms', and go in for the politics of a humane world order | |
based on the moral power of the people... | |
I have been a student all my life; I have never ceased to be one. One | |
who has a taste for study can never give it up; they must seek | |
knowledge of many kinds--spiritual knowledge, scientific knowledge, | |
knowledge of the principles of health, of medicine and so on. That | |
was my aim; I studied as wholeheartedly as any university student, | |
and went on studying... | |
I do not like the queer notion that unity can be had by imposing a | |
single form of prayer upon the whole country or the whole world. | |
Unity is something which must spring from within. I do not want to | |
make any particular form of words obligatory. ... It seems to me to | |
be best to use whatever the people around me can understand most | |
easily. | |
Thinking this over I came to the conclusion that for community prayer | |
silence is much the best. Silence can satisfy the needs of all kinds | |
of people, and deeper and deeper meaning may be found in it, as I can | |
testify from my own experience. | |
So, when the thoughts of one who practises prayer, meditation and | |
reflection are buried in the soil of sleep, it may happen that they | |
bring forth solutions to problems which have eluded the thinker | |
during waking hours. Thought may also develop in this way during | |
deep samadhi, but sleep may be even more fruitful. | |
I am especially interested in the power to control sleep and dreams. | |
The things we do during the day should be so done that they do not | |
affect our sleep or lead to dreams. The things we dream about are | |
the things we like or dislike; the loves and hates of our waking | |
hours are mirrored in our dreams. | |
Bapu used to say that we should use a magnifying glass to inspect | |
other people's good qualities and our own defects. I asked him once | |
how far that was consistent with truth. "It is a matter of scale," | |
he replied. "When you read a map you accept two inches as being | |
really fifty miles, not just two inches. It is the same here. A | |
person's good points may appear very small, but by magnifying them | |
you get the right scale." | |
God has given us all our share of evil and of good. The good is a | |
window, the evil is a wall. The poorest man has a door in his house | |
by which one may enter. The good is that door, which gives us | |
entrance to the human heart. If we try to enter through the wall, | |
the only result is a crack on the head! | |
Ever since I realized this I have been drawing attention to the good, | |
including the good in myself! People criticize me, say that I am | |
proud and always singing my own praises. What is to be done? How | |
can I not praise the soul, the spirit within! We should look for the | |
good always, in others and in ourselves, "singing the goodness of the | |
Lord", as Mirabai sang. Goodness alone is real. We should not waste | |
our breath on the things that will perish with the body. | |
... the intellect develops well when a good deal of physical labour | |
is carried on side by side with intellectual activity. | |
He who put hunger into the child's stomach also put milk into the | |
mother's breasts. He does not leave His work half done. | |
Picking up rubbish acts for me like a rosary--with every straw picked | |
up there is a remembrance of the Name. There is no thinking | |
involved, it is pure contemplation. One who cannot tolerate rubbish | |
around oneself will not tolerate rubbish inside oneself either, and | |
will feel a strong urge to get rid of it. That is a spiritual urge. | |
I am however engaged in one experiment, and it has two sides, on the | |
one hand to keep the world in my remembrance, on the other to send | |
out my blessings by the channels of thought. Remembrance of the | |
world implies remembrance of one self. This is the pattern of my | |
philosophy, and the basis of my experiment in abhidhyana, 'specific' | |
meditation. I ask every one of our workers to write to me once a | |
month, but I do not answer their letters in writing. I read them, I | |
reflect on them, I seek to unite the power of my own thought with | |
whatever is good in them and so to strengthen it. | |
This intensive reflection, this meditation on specific people and | |
their endeavours, bears fruit only if two conditions are fulfilled. | |
On my part there should be complete freedom from egoism. On the part | |
of my correspondent there should be, as it were, a radio receiving | |
set, an open mind. Then the results will appear. | |
Shankaradeva, the great saint of Assam, had a saying: "Politics is | |
the science of demons". Let us therefore forget politics and think | |
about the world as a whole. These days I think much about the world, | |
and I have by me a map showing the nations of the world with details | |
of their population, forms of government and so on. Let us then | |
study world politics and at the same time keep ourselves aloof, like | |
onlookers. Otherwise we too shall be divided, like the politicians. | |
author: Kalindi | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Vinoba_Bhave | |
LOC: HV40.32.V56 K35 | |
source: gopher://tilde.pink/1/~bencollver/ia/details/MovedByLove-English-Vinoba… | |
tags: ebook,biography,history,non-fiction | |
title: Moved By Love The Memoirs of Vinoba Bhave | |
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biography | |
history | |
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