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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
(TXT) detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Vinoba_Bhave
LOC: HV40.32.V56 K35
(HTM) source: https://archive.org/details/MovedByLove-English-VinobaBhave
tags: ebook,biography,history,non-fiction
title: Moved By Love The Memoirs of Vinoba Bhave
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